Marcus's POV
The whiskey bottle smashed against Mira's headstone, glass spraying everywhere like my broken heart.
"Another pack challenge, Alpha." Beta Tom stood behind me, his voice careful and worried. "The Silver Crest Pack says we're too weak to hold our territory."
I laughed, but it came out nasty and ugly. "Weak? They're right."
Ten years. Ten years since I buried my baby girl and ruined my family with seven stupid words. Ten years of watching my pack fall apart because their Alpha was too broken to lead properly.
"Sir, we need to discuss—"
"GET OUT!" I roared, turning around to face my Beta. My wolf pushed forward, eyes blazing with rage. "Leave me alone with my daughter!"
Tom backed away quickly, his head down in defeat. Smart man. I'd killed three pack members in fits of rage over the years. All mistakes, but dead was still dead.
When his footsteps faded away, I fell next to Mira's grave like I did every year on this day. The cold ground soaked through my pants, but I didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore.
"Hey, baby girl," I whispered, touching the carved stone. "Daddy's here again."
The tears came like they always did. Hot, angry tears that made me feel weak and sad. Alphas weren't supposed to cry. But I wasn't much of an Alpha anymore.
"I'm so sorry, Mira. So damn sorry."
My mind dragged me back to that horrible day like it always did. Kira stumbling into the pack house, soaking wet and screaming for help. Her eighteen-year-old face twisted with fear and grief.
"Papa, I couldn't save her! I tried, but the stream was too strong! She's gone, Papa, she's gone!"
I should have held my living daughter. Should have calmed her while we both grieved. Instead, I stared at her with all my pain and rage and asked the question that ruined both our lives.
"Why did she die but not you?"
The look on Kira's face still haunted my dreams. Like I'd ripped her heart out with my bare hands. Which I guess I had.
"She ran away that night," I told Mira's headstone. "Your sister ran away because her daddy was a monster."
The pack had fallen apart after that. My heir was gone, my youngest was dead, and their Alpha was drinking himself stupid every night. Other packs started testing our limits. Our friends stopped trusting us. Young wolves left to find bigger packs.
"Alpha Marcus?" A new voice made me look up.
Jake, my best tracker, stood at the edge of the graveyard. His clothes were torn and bloody, like he'd been running hard for days.
"What is it?" I growled, wiping my face.
"Sir, I found something. About Kira."
My heart stopped beating. After ten years of searching, paying investigators, following every rumor and false lead, someone finally had news about my daughter.
I was on my feet so fast it made me dizzy. "Where is she?"
Jake looked nervous, like he was afraid to tell me. "Sir, she's alive. But there's a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"She's a rogue, sir. Has been for years. Living rough, running from hunters, barely living." His voice got softer with each word. "She's in bad shape, Alpha."
The guilt hit me like a physical blow. My daughter - my strong, brave, beautiful daughter - was living like an animal because I'd driven her away.
"Where?" I asked.
"That's the problem, sir. She's in the Nightfall area. And according to my sources..." Jake swallowed hard. "She just met Alpha Zander Nightfall. Tonight."
Ice filled my blood. Everyone knew about Zander Nightfall. The smallest Alpha in history. Completely brutal. Killed rogues on sight and asked questions never.
"No," I breathed. "He'll kill her."
"Sir, there's more." Jake looked like he wanted to run away. "My friend says something happened when they met. Something big."
"TELL ME!"
"The mate bond, sir. They're mates."
The world spun around me. My rogue daughter was mated to the most dangerous Alpha living. This could be her rescue - or her death sentence.
"Get every available wolf," I ordered. "We're going to the Nightfall territory."
"Sir, that's an act of war. Zander will—"
"I don't care what Zander will do!" I grabbed Jake by the shirt and lifted him off the ground. "That's my kid! My baby girl who I failed ten years ago! I won't fail her again!"
I dropped Jake and started running toward the pack house. I had to save Kira. Had to make up for the worst mistake of my life.
But as I burst through the front door, Beta Tom was waiting with a phone in his hands and fear in his eyes.
"Alpha, you need to hear this. It's about Kira."
I snatched the phone. "Hello?" "Marcus. " The voice on the other end made my blood freeze. Elder Morgana Vex, the witch who traded in blood magic and death spells. "I hear your lost daughter has finally surfaced."
"What do you want, witch?"
Her laughing sounded like breaking glass. "The same thing I've wanted for ten years, stupid Alpha. The girl who should have died in that water."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your precious Mira didn't drown by chance, Marcus. I needed her death to power a very special spell. But the magic got confused when Kira tried to save her. Now your living daughter carries death magic in her blood."
My legs gave out. I crashed into a chair as the horrible truth hit me.
"That's right," Morgana purred. "Kira was meant to die that day, not little Mira. She's been living on borrowed time for ten years. And now that she's found her mate..."
"What about her mate?"
"Now I can finally claim what belongs to me. The death power in her blood will kill her precious Alpha mate unless she gives herself to me first. She has three days to decide - sacrifice herself to save him, or watch him die slowly and terribly."
The phone line went dead.
I stared at the phone in my shaking hands, understanding the full horror of what I'd done. By removing Kira, I hadn't just lost my daughter.
I'd given her right into the hands of the witch who'd been hunting her for ten years.
And now she was going to die anyway - unless she chose to die first.