Alpha Richard's POV
The glass smashed against the wall, whiskey spraying everywhere like tears I could never cry. My hand was bleeding, but I didn't care. The pain in my chest hurt way worse than any cut.
"Another bottle gone," I mumbled, looking at the mess on the floor. Just like everything else in my life. Broken. Wasted. Gone.
I stumbled to the cabinet and grabbed another bottle. My hands shook as I opened it. Ten years of drinking, and they still shook every single time.
The pack house felt like a grave around me. Empty rooms, silent halls, dust covering everything Maya used to touch. I used to be the Alpha of fifty strong dogs. Now I was lucky if ten still listened to me.
But I didn't care about the pack anymore. I only cared about the ghosts that lived in these walls.
I collapsed into my chair and reached for the picture album on the table. The same album I looked at every night. The same shots that tore my heart apart over and over again.
Maya at five, missing her front teeth but smiling like sunshine. Maya at six, hugging the toy wolf I'd given her for her birthday. Maya at seven, the last picture ever taken, holding a flower hat Aria had made for her.
"My perfect little girl," I whispered, touching her face through the glass. "Daddy's perfect angel."
Maya had been everything good in this world. Sweet, kind, always smiling. She never got angry, never caused problems, never made me worry. She was the girl every father dreams of having.
And then Aria took her away from me.
I flipped to the next page and there she was - Aria at eight years old, standing next to Maya by the river. Both girls were happy, but I only saw the killer next to my angel.
"Why?" I asked the photo like I did every night. "Why did you take her from me? Why couldn't it have been you instead?"
The words felt like poison in my mouth, but I couldn't stop them. I'd been asking the same questions for ten years, and they never got easier.
I remembered that terrible day like it just happened. Coming home from a meeting with other Alphas, feeling proud and strong. Then seeing the crowd by the river. The recovery team pulling Maya's little body from the water. Aria sitting on the bank, soaking wet and crying.
"I tried to save her, Daddy!" Aria had screamed. "I tried, but I couldn't swim good enough!"
But all I could see was my beautiful daughter, cold and still. All I could think was that Aria dared her to cross those risky rocks. Aria was the older sister. Aria should have protected her.
Aria should have died instead.
I poured more whiskey and drank it fast, trying to burn away the memories. But they never went away. They just got stronger with each drink.
"You destroyed everything," I told Aria's picture. "Our family, our pack, my heart. Everything."
After Maya's funeral, I couldn't stand looking at Aria. Every time I saw her face, I remembered what I'd lost. Every time she tried to hug me, I felt sick. She looked so much like Maya, but she wasn't Maya. She was the mistake that lived while my beautiful daughter died.
I started drinking more. Working less. Pushing everyone away, especially Aria. The pack got weaker without a real boss, but I didn't care. Nothing mattered without Maya.
Then Aria ran away, and part of me felt glad. No more daily memories of what she'd done. No more guilt about how much I hated her. I could focus on my sadness without her getting in the way.
But now...
I pulled out the letter that came yesterday. Beta Marcus from the Steele Pack had written to tell me that Aria found her mate. That she was living with Alpha Damon Steele now.
"Your daughter is trying to find her place in our pack," the letter said. "She works hard and never complains, even when things are tough. She talks about you sometimes, wondering if you're okay."
She wondered if I was okay? After everything I did to her? After all the horrible things I said?
I laughed, but it sounded more like crying. "Stupid girl. Still caring about people who hurt her."
The truth was, I wasn't okay. I hadn't been okay since the day Maya died. Maybe even since the day I blamed Aria for something that might not have been her fault.
No. It was her fault. It had to be. Because if it wasn't, then I destroyed my living daughter for nothing. If it wasn't Aria's fault, then I was the real monster in this story.
I couldn't think about that. It hurt too much.
I looked at Maya's pictures again, trying to remember her laugh, her voice, the way she used to run to me when I came home. But the memories were getting fuzzy around the edges. Ten years of drinking had stolen some of them from me.
"I'm sorry, baby girl," I whispered. "Daddy's sorry he couldn't save you."
My phone rang, making me jump. Nobody called me anymore unless it was pack emergency. I almost didn't answer, but something made me pick it up.
"Alpha Richard?" The voice was shaky, scared. "This is Elder Sage from the Steele Pack."
My blood went cold. Sage only called when something terrible happened. "What's wrong?" Is Aria hurt?"
"Sir, there's something you need to know about your girls. Both of them."
"Both?" I laughed bitterly. "I only have one daughter now, and she's not mine anymore."
"That's not true," Sage said quietly. "Maya is alive, Richard. She's been living this whole time."
The phone slipped from my hand and crashed to the floor. The room spun around me like I was falling down a deep hole. Maya alive? It was impossible. I saw her body. I buried her. I mourned her for ten years.
But what if...?
I crawled on the floor, grabbing for the phone. "Hello? Hello! Are you still there?"
"I'm here," Sage said. "Richard, Maya appeared at the Steele Pack a few days ago. She's grown up now, seventeen years old. But something's wrong with her memories. She doesn't remember her family."
"She's alive," I breathed, tears running down my face for the first time in years. "My perfect girl is alive."
"There's more," Sage continued. "She's been living with dogs who practice dark magic. I think they took her that day and changed her somehow. Made her forget who she really is."
"Where is she? I need to see her!"
"Richard, wait. You need to know - she's been turned against Aria. The magic made her hate her sister. She's trying to destroy Aria's life."
My heart stopped. Maya disliking Aria? My sweet, kind daughter wanting to hurt someone?
"That's impossible," I said. "Maya never had a mean bone in her body."
"Dark magic changes people," Sage stated. "It twists their hearts, makes them want things they never wanted before. Maya isn't the same girl who fell in the water."
I sank into my chair, my head spinning. Maya was living but changed. Aria wasn't the killer I thought she was. Everything I believed for ten years was wrong.
"I have to come," I said, already moving toward the door. "I have to see my daughters." "Richard-" But I hung up and ran outside. My truck wouldn't start at first - I hadn't driven in months. When it finally roared to life, I pressed the gas pedal to the floor.
Maya was living. After ten years of sadness, ten years of hating Aria, ten years of drinking myself to death - Maya was alive.
But if she was living and changed by dark magic, what did that mean? What had they done to my beautiful little girl? And what would happen when she saw the father who had spent ten years missing her instead of looking for her?
I drove faster, my heart pounding with hope and fear. I was going to see both my children for the first time in ten years.
I just hoped I wasn't too late to save them both.