Alpha's Regret After the Divorce by Christina novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Kira’s Perspective

I was only ten when my mother made the heartbreaking decision to walk away from us.

It was my father’s birthday, and I had spent the entire morning helping our pack’s Beta transform the living room. Silver and blue streamers—Dad’s favorite colors—hung delicately from the ceiling. My small fingers had carefully wrapped his present: a leather journal I’d painstakingly saved for over several months to buy.

“Daddy’s going to love this,” I whispered excitedly to Kim, my identical twin, as we worked side by side setting the table.

But when night fell, instead of the joyful celebration I had imagined, I found myself chasing after my mother’s retreating silhouette across the driveway. My bare feet slapped against the cold, unforgiving concrete, each step echoing my desperation.

“Mommy, please don’t leave!” I cried out, my voice cracking as my lungs burned from the effort. “I’ll be good! I promise! I’ll clean my room every single day!”

Vanessa Hoggins—once Vanessa Silverstone—paused and turned, her eyes reflecting the silvery moonlight like distant stars. She knelt down beside her sleek designer suitcase.

“Kiki,” she said softly, using the nickname she’d given me as a child, “this isn’t about you being good or bad. I just can’t breathe in this pack anymore. I’ve found something real—true happiness and love.”

“But Daddy loves you! We all love you!” I sobbed uncontrollably, tears streaming down my cheeks.

She gently stroked my hair one last time. “Your father is a good man,” she whispered, “but I was never meant to be just a Silverstone Luna.”

Over her shoulder, I spotted a black SUV waiting silently. A man I didn’t recognize stood beside it, and next to him was Kim. My sister wouldn’t meet my eyes as our mother took her hand.

“Why is Kim going? Take me too!” I pleaded, reaching out toward my sister, but my mother gently pushed me back.

“Stay with your father, Kira. He needs you.”

I stood frozen, disbelief rooting me to the spot, as my mother led Kim toward the waiting car. The strange wolf man opened the door for them, and just like that, half of my family disappeared into the night.

I ran after them until my feet bled, collapsing finally on the dirt at the edge of our property as the taillights faded around the bend.

It wasn’t until I was much older that I truly understood what had happened—that my mother had abandoned our pack and left me behind.

But she had taken Kim.

Two decades later, I found myself standing in my mother’s beautifully furnished living room, my throat parched and dry as desert sand. My feet felt heavy, as if shackled by invisible silver chains—the very metal that weakened our kind.

“Sit down, Kira,” Vanessa invited, patting the cream-colored sofa beside her. Her voice was soft and refined, a stark contrast to the screaming matches I remembered from my childhood. “I’m glad you came. I’ve thought about visiting you ever since I returned home.”

“Mom,” I said, the word catching painfully in my throat. It came out small and choked.

“I’m here because of Dad,” I continued, swallowing hard. “I need money. He’s in a coma—poisoned by wolfbane.”

“Oh, of course I can help,” she replied without hesitation. “Family is family, no matter what happened between us.”

Relief lifted the weight from my shoulders. For the first time in months, a flicker of hope sparked within me.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” she asked kindly.

Before I could answer, a familiar voice sliced through the quiet.

“How desperate are you for cash that you’re begging my mother?”

Kim stood in the doorway, her designer handbag swinging from one arm, her expression a mixture of surprise and disdain. Behind her—my heart stuttering painfully—stood Rocco, his face an unreadable mask as he took in the scene.

“Kim,” my mother greeted cheerfully, “I didn’t expect you two back so soon. How was the appointment?”

“I’m fine,” I lied automatically.

She studied me closely. “You and Rocco Blackwood… what exactly is your relationship? Kim introduced him as her mate, but you…”

I stared at her in disbelief. She didn’t know. Somehow, in this small, gossip-hungry wolf community, my mother was unaware that I’d been married to Rocco for three years.

I turned to Rocco, who stood silently in the hallway, his face unreadable. “You didn’t tell my mother about us?”

Vanessa’s eyes flicked between us. “Bond? Rocco, you already have a mate mark? But Kim…”

“Whatever was between Kira and me,” Rocco said coldly, “is in the past. We’ll be severing the ritual soon.”

Three years of marriage, reduced to “whatever was between us.” The nights we’d spent dreaming of a future together, the whispered promises in the dark—all meaningless to him.

White-hot rage surged through me, momentarily drowning out the physical pain. I reached into my purse and pulled out the small velvet box holding my wedding ring.

“Go to hell, you bastard!” I shouted, throwing the box at him with all my strength. “My biggest regret is accepting your mark! I’ll see you at the Moonbreak Center tonight.”

The box struck him squarely on the forehead, causing him to step back in surprise. A tiny red mark appeared where it hit—petty satisfaction, but satisfaction nonetheless.

I stormed past them all, deliberately stepping on the fallen box as I went. I couldn’t bear another second in that house—with my mother’s confused pity, Kim’s smug triumph, and Rocco’s cold indifference.

Outside, the sky had darkened, and rain began to fall in heavy sheets. I made it halfway down the driveway before my legs gave out. It was all too much—the betrayal by Rocco, finding my twin in his arms, the loss of my baby, my father’s coma, my own failing body… Kim’s pregnancy was the final unbearable blow.

I collapsed to my knees on the wet gravel, rain soaking through my clothes. Maybe this was better. Maybe I should just let the syndrome take me now, let my wolf fade away and my human body die here in the rain. At least then, it would be over.

The world blurred to gray, then faded into darkness.