My Husband Exiled Me to the Wolves for Being Barren — Until the Alpha King Revealed His Sickening Secret
Part 1
The heavy velvet of my skirts felt like lead against my boots as I stood in the center of the Great Hall.
My husband Craig stared down at me from his elevated throne.
He wore a mask of feigned sorrow that completely fooled the gathered nobility.
I knew him well enough to see the cold calculation burning behind his eyes.
“It is with a shattered heart that I must make this decree,” his voice boomed off the ancient stone walls.
“Lady Megan has proven unable to fulfill her sacred duty to our bloodline.”
A collective murmur rippled through the courtiers as I dug my fingernails into my palms.
For five years, I had balanced his ledgers, managed his turbulent alliances, and shared his bed with unquestioning loyalty.
But my womb had remained completely empty.
I noticed the shifting eyes toward the balcony where young Heather stood radiating youth.
The palace maids whispered that she was already carrying Craig’s child.
He pulled a rolled parchment from his belt and cleared his throat loudly.
“By the ancient laws of the northern expanse, a marriage unblessed by children after five winters may be severed.”
“The barren spouse is to be stripped of all titles and exiled beyond the borderlands.”
Exile beyond the borderlands meant the freezing fells.
It was an absolute death sentence in the territory of the savage Lycan tribes.
I kept my voice steady as the terror turned my veins to ice.
“You condemn me to death, Craig.”
He offered a patronizing smile that made my stomach turn.
“I consign you to fate, Megan.”
Within the hour, guards stripped away my fine silks and handed me a thin woolen dress.
They escorted me in silent agony to the towering iron gates at the edge of our lands.
The captain refused to meet my gaze as he opened the carriage door.
“Walk into the trees and do not look back, my lady.”
I stepped down into the ankle-deep snow and felt the vicious cold immediately bite through my thin leather boots.
As the heavy iron gates slammed shut behind me, the finality of my doom settled over my shoulders.
Craig had won his political game and secured his new, fertile bride.
I was just a tragic footnote who wandered into the snow to vanish completely.
The blizzard struck just before twilight.
Jagged needles of ice sliced at my cheeks as I trudged deeper into the suffocating silence of the forest.
My legs felt like lead and my breath crystallized in the frigid air.
My foot caught over a hidden root and collapsed into a deceptive, warm-feeling snowbank.
I forced my numb fingers to grip the trunk of a pine tree.
Surrendering to the cold out here just to make Craig’s life convenient.
A low, guttural snarl vibrated through the frozen earth beneath my knees.
Glowing amber eyes emerged from the swirling whiteout.
A dozen gargantuan wolves surrounded me with teeth bared in vicious anticipation.
I pressed my back against the bark and refused to cower.
If I was going to be torn apart, I would face them with my eyes wide open.
“Get it over with,” I whispered into the howling wind.
A thunderous roar suddenly shattered the air.
The surrounding wolves instantly dropped their bellies to the snow in absolute submission.
A creature of absolute nightmares walked slowly out of the blinding storm.
His midnight black fur absorbed the little light left in the forest.
He stood a full head taller than the rest of the pack.
This was Brian, the alpha king of the fells, whose very name made southern lords lock their fortress doors.
The massive beast stopped inches away and inhaled deeply to catch my scent.
The anticipation of the lethal bite my eyes shut and braced for the lethal bite to my throat.
A sickening crunch of bone echoed over the wind instead.
I opened my eyes to see the monstrous wolf shifting into a towering, heavily scarred man.
Brian wore only dark leather breeches despite the sub-zero temperatures.
His piercing amber eyes locked onto mine with a terrifying intensity.
“You smell of the southern keep,” his deep voice vibrated in my chest.
“I was Lady Megan, cast out for being barren.”
A dark smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.
He stepped closer and effortlessly blocked the biting wind with his imposing frame.
“Your husband throws away his greatest asset to the wolves.”
My knees finally buckled as the hypothermia claimed my senses.
Brian caught me in his massive, burning hot arms.
“Barren,” he murmured while pressing my freezing face to his chest.
He inhaled my scent again with intense, terrifying focus.
“Your husband is a fool, Megan.”
“You are not the one who is broken, and he will bleed for what he has thrown away.”
The freezing hell vanished hours later engulfed in sweltering heat inside a cavernous stone room.
I was buried under layers of luxurious furs while Brian sharpened a wicked broadsword by the roaring hearth.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
I rasped, my throat raw.
He set the blade down and approached the edge of the bed with a predatory grace.
“Because my clan healer, Brenda, examined you while you recovered.”
“There is no blight upon your womb.”
I stared at him in pure, unfiltered disbelief.
“Five years you shared a bed with a sterile coward,” Brian corrected harshly.
“Craig’s bloodline is dead, and he blamed you to save his own political standing.”
The revelation struck me like a physical blow.
A vicious wave of anger ignited in my chest and burned away the last of the winter chill.
Brian leaned down and trapped me in his intense gaze.
“I am going to march on the keep and tear Craig from his throne.”
“And you are going to stand beside me when I do it.”
I stared into the amber eyes of the monster who had saved me, my blood running cold as he smiled and promised to help me tear my husband’s kingdom apart stone by stone.
