Chapter 486\u00a0<\/p>\n
Riley\u2019s POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
74)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had always believed Alpha Alaric only turned cruel after falling for his mistress and fathering\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlett.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That perhaps somewhere, before betrayal twisted his soul, there had been a shred of decency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the truth laid bare in those papers said otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alaric had never changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had always been a predator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The kind of wolf who stalked his prey from the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zara-my mother, the rightful Luna of the Ebonclaw Pack-had been born into power, the only daughter of a ruling bloodline. She was raised in light, wrapped in luxury, taught to command.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alaric? He crawled out of a backwater den, born to a ghost of a woman who vanished after giving birth. He clawed his way into Ebonclaw University with nothing but ambition and cold hunger in his eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when he laid eyes on Zara\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t fall in love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He found his golden ticket.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their \u201clove story\u201d was a farce. Every encounter, every glance, every whispered promise-staged. Planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He knew exactly what he was doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zara\u2019s father-my grandfather-saw through him instantly. A lifetime in leadership had sharpened his instincts. He forbade the match outright.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Zara had never known rejection. Never known wolves who lied with pretty words.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blinded by what she thought was love, she rebelled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She fell pregnant before even graduating from the Academy. With Alaric\u2019s child.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cornered, my grandfather was forced to allow the union-but not without conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/5\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:26 Fri, Jan 16 T\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 486\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alaric would marry in and take the Ebonclaw name. A true mating bond, but on Ebonclaw\u00a0<\/p>\n
terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alaric smiled, bowed his head, and agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But inside\u2026 he seethed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He saw it as humiliation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An Alpha forced to surrender his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He buried that rage deep, waiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Kael-my brother-was born, my grandfather demanded the boy take Zara\u2019s name. Not Alaric\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was the final insult.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Alaric played the long game. He whispered poison into Zara\u2019s ears, sowing distance between her and her father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He made himself the victim, the poor, rejected mate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zara believed him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She even promised that their next child would bear his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And Alaric? He pretended to be moved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But every breath he took was soaked in resentment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was when she came into the picture-Elira Blackthorn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A healer. A prophet. A manipulator cloaked in moonlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She saw in Alaric what few dared to see-ambition that bordered on madness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And he saw in her not just an accomplice\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
But someone who could help him destroy everything the Ebonclaw name stood for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their affair wasn\u2019t a slip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He orchestrated Elira\u2019s pregnancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
215\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:26 Fri, Jan 16 T\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 486\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wanted it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finisher\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wanted to look Zara in the eyes while hiding a child that would one day replace hers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Zara bore me-his second daughter-he didn\u2019t hesitate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He handed me over to the Rogues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not out of panic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But calculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was just a girl.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To him, that meant I had no value.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A son he might\u2019ve kept.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a daughter?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He discarded me like broken armor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, in the aftermath of his betrayal, Elira appeared at Zara\u2019s side-arms cradling a newborn- Scarlett.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claiming the Moon Goddess had chosen this child to ease her heartache.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zara, drowning in grief, accepted her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And Alaric watched.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watched as my mother nursed another wolf\u2019s daughter, believing her to be her own salvation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He reveled in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the lies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cruelty didn\u2019t stop there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I was born, Zara lost a kidney during labor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that wasn\u2019t a medical complication.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was an operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attending surgeon had been bought and paid for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3\/5\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:26 Fri, Jan 16 T.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 486\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under Alaric\u2019s order, my mother\u2019s kidney was carved from her body\u2026 and implanted into Elira.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zara never knew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And still, she blamed me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every word she flung at me after I returned from the Rogues cut deeper now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for you, I\u2019d still be strong. You broke me. You and your constant defiance-why can\u2019t you be more like Scarlett?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlett.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The daughter of the woman who stole her health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The daughter my father raised as Ebonclaw\u2019s heir.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the truth?\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just about Elira\u2019s illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlett had inherited her mother\u2019s condition-renal failure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And Alaric?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He needed a donor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was why he brought me back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not out of guilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not to reunite a family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But to carve out my body, piece by piece.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A match for Zara meant a match for Scarlett.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He even had me imprisoned-framed for a crime I didn\u2019t commit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because no one mourns a convict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No one asks questions when a criminal vanishes under the knife.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All those years\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had been liquidating the Ebonclaw holdings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
4\/5\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:26 Fri, Jan 16\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 486\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u3002(74)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished\u00a0<\/p>\n
Transferring assets to Elira\u2019s name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Planning to take the money and flee the continent-\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leaving Zara and Kael to drown in debt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He even tried to strike a final deal with Lucien Duskgrave-one last heist before disappearing for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But fate, as always, has claws of her own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The deal collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucien broke his legs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the wolf who thought he\u2019d outplayed everyone was left crawling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just like he\u2019d once left me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1.0K\u00a0<\/p>\n
5\/5\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:26 Fri, Jan 16 T\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph King is an editor and storyteller who ensures every chapter is clear, polished, and engaging for readers.<\/p>\n
Midnight Letters by Daniel Crowe 486 Chapter 486\u00a0 Riley\u2019s POV\u00a0 74)\u00a0 Finished\u00a0 I had always believed Alpha Alaric only turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pack-princess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}