Chapter 7

Alpha Damien lunged forward like a madman, grabbing the box with trembling hands. He touched the tiny figure on the spiritual scan with shaking fingers, and tears suddenly burst out.

The pup was gone?!

The shock of seeing his child's remains hit Alpha Damien too hard. He stood frozen in place, his whole body rigid, barely able to breathe. After a long moment, he spoke in a hoarse voice:

"This can't be possible... During the day, Seraphina was still fine..."

"Fine?!" Matriarch Isolde shouted angrily.

"When you walked away with that she-wolf, she was knocked down hard at the marketplace and bled all over the floor!"

Former Alpha Alaric slammed the table and threw his phone in front of him.

Alpha Damien opened the video with trembling hands.

At the beginning of the footage, I was standing in the central marketplace talking to Clarissa. I don't know what was said, but suddenly Clarissa deliberately bumped into me—

She twisted her own foot and used the momentum to crash into Talia who was holding her pup Fawn.

What happened next was similar to what developed during the day, but Alpha Damien hadn't realized that I didn't push Clarissa. Clarissa had fallen into someone else on her own.

He watched helplessly as Talia who was bumped into viciously pushed me to the ground.

My whole body crashed heavily to the floor, landing on my stomach. Blood flowed down my pants.

The next second, in the video, he rushed over quickly but picked up Clarissa instead and walked away without looking back.

I lay there on the ground, surrounded by people giving me emergency aid.

The blood beneath me was so horrifying.

The video ended.

Alpha Damien collapsed to the floor, his face pale, fingers clawing at the floor patterns, his eyes empty.

It was clear to see that because of this one fall, the pup was gone.

"I... I was at that time..."

He mumbled, his voice shaking. "I thought she was just making a scene. I thought falling once wouldn't matter. How could it be... how could it make the pup disappear?"

Matriarch Isolde kicked him in the shoulder. "You killed your own child with your own hands!"

Alpha Damien groaned in pain but didn't dare to argue back.

How could this happen... how could the pup be gone?

Matriarch Isolde's tears fell hard as she waved her phone in her hand.

Her hand slipped and the video started playing again, volume turned to maximum. The chaotic screams from the marketplace, his figure carrying Clarissa away, and the image of me lying alone on the ground repeatedly pierced his eardrums.

Every frame was like a silver blade, pinning him in place, unable to move.

He suddenly remembered that he seemed to have received a call from me at the healing ward.

He had hung up impatiently at the time.

"Father, Mother..." Alpha Damien's throat was hoarse. "I... I didn't mean to. I really didn't know she would..."

"You didn't know? You didn't know she was five months pregnant?" Former Alpha Alaric was furious.

"Your mother and I turned a blind eye to how you treated Seraphina and never interfered with you two. But do you know how important the male pup in Seraphina's belly was to us! How long we waited for that heir!"

"Don't you have any sense at all!"

Alpha Damien felt like someone had torn open his flesh, the pain raw and bloody.

He didn't know what he could do to make up for this huge mistake.

He never expected that after losing the pup, I would send the pup's ashes to the ancestral hall.

I must be completely heartbroken with him.

"The Pack Council is now in full crisis." Former Alpha Alaric's face was iron-gray, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion.

"The Council of Elders demands that you temporarily step down and revoke your heir status."