The Senator Sacrificed His Werewolf Wife

Because my father claimed that marrying a werewolf outcast would ruin his political career, my mother lived as his secret lover for seventeen years.

But the moment he finally won the seat in the Senate, he walked in holding the hand of a beautiful socialite who was already pregnant.

The crowd sneered at us with sharp, cruel words.

"How can a savage girl from the Silver Wilderness, who plays with those creepy blood-parasites, compare to a refined lady like Clarissa Vanderbilt?"

"Did she really think a Senator would actually marry her?"

I tried to defend my mother, but my fianc shoved me to the ground with a look of pure disgust.

"If your mother hadn't hexed me with those wolf-spirits, I, a Duke of the Royal Pack, would never have looked at a girl like you."

But the Duke had been dying of a silver-frost curse, and I had placed a spirit-shard in his body only to save his life.

My heart turned to ash, and I looked at my mother.

"Mom, this city is rotten. Let's go back to the Silver Wilderness."

Later, on the day of the grand high-society wedding.

Someone screamed in a panic.

"Something happened! Sasha and her daughter were caught in a flash flood while leaving the city, and their bodies were never found!"

When I returned home, the house was deathly silent.

I rushed into the bedroom and found my mother lying on the cold floor, blood staining the corners of her mouth.

"Mom!" I cried out, falling to her side, my voice trembling.

"What's wrong? Is the blood-magic backfiring? I'll take you to the Pack Elder right now."

My mother's breath was shallow, and she gripped my hand with a look of utter despair.

"Your father promised me that once he made it big, he would give us a real home. But now he's a Senator, and he's marrying someone else."

"My heart... it hurts so much..."

Tears blurred my vision as I held her tightly.

Years ago, my father was just a starving, broke student on the streets.

That day, my mother went to a bakery to buy me a cinnamon roll and saw him being beaten by thugs.

She couldn't stand the injustice and used her wolf-spirits to drive the bullies away.

Seeing him unconscious and broken, she took him home out of pity.

As the days passed, they fell in love.

My mother was once a High Priestess of the Silver Wilderness, second only to the Matriarch. To stay with my father, she knelt before the Elders for three days and nights, sacrificing her three most precious spirit-wolves.

In our culture, those spirits are a werewolf's pride and power. Without them, she went from a respected leader to a laughingstock.

Her family disowned her for choosing a human, and we were kicked out of the pack.

Since then, she worked day and night to pay for my father's education, exhausting her body by crafting illegal wolf-remedies for sale.

My father used to hold her hand and promise that once he was successful, he would make her the most envied lady in the city.

I helped her up, choking back sobs. "Does Dad have a reason? How can he throw away seventeen years like this?"

My mother closed her eyes with a bitter smile. "He says a Senator can't have a savage werewolf wife. He says the other politicians would mock him."

I stared at her, my heart burning with rage.

If she hadn't worked herself to the bone for him, he would be nothing but a corpse in a gutter.

I took a deep breath. "Mom, let's leave this place. Let's go home."

A few months ago, I had received an invitation to the Great Wolf-Spirit Trials in the Silver Wilderness.

I hadn't planned on going because of my father and my fianc.

But now, there was nothing left for me in this city.

My mother hesitated. "But what about Prince Alaric?"

The mention of his name felt like a knife. "He's breaking our engagement to marry the Governor's daughter, Lydia Beaumont."

My mother's lips trembled, and she sighed, blaming herself for my misery.

After a long talk, she finally agreed to go back.

As she slept, I walked to the door and found Alaric standing there with his new fianc, Lydia.

Alaric sneered at me. "I've been waiting. Take that parasite out of my body right now. Stop trying to control me with your sick magic."

I looked at him coldly. "Are you sure, Alaric? If I take the spirit-shard out, your silver-frost curse will return, and you will die."

Before Alaric could speak, Lydia stepped forward with a look of pure condescension.

"Stop lying, you savage brat. There is no curse. You and your mother just used that magic to trick the Prince into an engagement!"

"Otherwise, why would he ever look at a girl like you?"

I was shaking with anger.

When Alaric collapsed at our doorstep years ago, he was dying.

My mother saw the silver-frost curse eating his soul and spent forty-nine days crafting a spirit-shard to eat the poison.

It took her six months to recover from the strain of saving his life.

"My mother nearly died for you!" I yelled. "How can you be so ungrateful?"

Alaric's face darkened as he stepped closer. "I don't care. Even if I die, I'm not marrying a lowly werewolf girl."

"Look at yourself. You're trash. Only a woman like Lydia is fit to be my Duchess."

I looked at the man who once held me and called me the most special girl in the world.

He was a stranger now.

"Fine," I said coldly. "As soon as my mother is strong enough, she'll take it out."

I turned around and started packing our bags.

Suddenly, the new Senator, my father, walked in.

He saw me packing and asked, "Where do you think you're going?"

"You're getting married to someone else," I said without looking at him. "We're making room for your new life."

Lawrence Sterling scoffed. "At least you're smarter than your mother."

He walked into her room, and I followed him, hearing his cold voice.

"My new in-laws are embarrassed by your existence. I need to handle this."

He threw a piece of paper on the bed. "Sasha, sign this confession for the newspapers."

"Tell everyone you drugged me years ago and trapped me with that child. Tell them you've been blackmailing me ever since."

"Now that I'm a Senator, I'm finally breaking free from your lies."

My mother started laughing, a wild, broken sound.

Lawrence snapped. "What's so funny?!"

"I'm laughing at how blind I was!" she spat. "I supported you for years, and now you want me to destroy my own reputation to save yours? Never."

Lawrence grabbed her collar, his eyes full of malice. "If you don't sign it, don't blame me for what happens next."

My mother didn't blink. She refused to sign his lies.

Lawrence growled and shoved her off the bed. She was so weak that she hit the floor and passed out instantly.

"Mom!" I screamed, shielding her. "She's sick! How could you?"

"She's stubborn!" he barked. "It's just a paper!"

He called for his security guards. "Beat her until she signs it."

"Don't you dare!" I stood up, my eyes flashing.

"If you touch her, Lawrence, I'll release every spirit-beast I have. I'll make sure you never see that Senate seat again."

He flinched, knowing I had power he didn't understand.

But he had more men.

"Sign it, and I'll give you some cash to go back to the woods. If not, you're never leaving this house."

He stormed out, locking the door.

I stayed by my mother's side and packed faster. We had to get out tonight.

Suddenly, Alaric and Lydia showed up again, breaking into the room.

"Take it out now!" Alaric roared. "I'm not waiting another second!"

"She's unconscious, you idiot!" I yelled back. "Have you no heart?"

My mother groaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"Mom, stay down!"

She shook her head and looked at Alaric. "You want it? Fine. I'll take it back."

"No, Mom! You're too weak!"

She squeezed my hand. "I'll be okay, Elara. The spirit has eaten enough poison. It's tired now."

Thirty minutes later, Alaric left with a smirk, and my mother held a small, black glowing stone in her hand.

"Is it over?" I asked.

She nodded weakly. "But he's still cursed. Without the shard, the silver poison will come back soon. He's a dead man walking."

"That's his problem," I said.

We tried to sneak out of the mansion, but Lawrence was waiting.

He had us bound and thrown into a damp, freezing basement.

"You're not leaving until that paper is signed!" he yelled through the bars.

It was the middle of winter. I huddled against my mother, wondering how the man who used to read me bedtime stories had become a monster.

We were stuck there for three days without food.

On the third day, the guards mentioned it was the day of the Senator's grand wedding.

I shouted through the door, "Fine! My mother will sign it! Just let us out!"

My mother looked at me in shock, but I gave her a sharp wink.

When the guard opened the door with the ink and paper, I didn't reach for a pen.

I released a swarm of stinging spirit-wasps I had hidden in my sleeve.

While the guards were screaming and slapping at their skin, I grabbed my mother and ran.

We sprinted through the rain toward the river at the edge of the city.

The guards were right behind us.

The river was bloated and violent from the storm.

I looked at the water and then at my mother. "Do you trust me?"

She gripped my hand and nodded.

We jumped into the freezing, churning waves just as the guards reached the bank.

They searched for hours, but the current was too strong.

Back at the mansion, Lawrence was celebrating his new marriage when a guard burst in, pale as a ghost.

"Sir! Sasha and her daughter... they jumped into the river. They're gone. There's no way they survived that water."

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