The Sinner's Return: Claimed By The Vengeful Alpha

Kira Hayes POV:

My face turned as pale as a sheet of paper. I immediately dropped my head back down.

Five years could change a person completely. It changed me, and it changed Dorian Blackwood.

He was even more imposing than before. Dressed in a tailored black suit, his sharp, handsome features exuded a cold, untouchable nobility. He was the Alpha King, born with a halo, the man who had cast me into hell.

And I? I was just a convicted criminal. A piece of trash.

I was terrified. The moment I was thrown into The Pit, an uncrossable chasm opened between us. Especially after those rogue prisoners beat me, mocking my pathetic love for him, I knew I had no right to ever crave his love again.

Panic seized me. I scrambled to get up from the bloody floor.

But the more desperate I was to flee, the clumsier I became. I slipped on the scattered fruit and fell again, looking exactly like a filthy rat scurrying in the gutters.

Dorian had stopped walking.

However, his gaze didn't even land on me. Just as I thought, the gap between our statuses was so vast that a dirty rogue didn't warrant a second glance from the Alpha.

My scent had been so ravaged by the silver shackles that it was practically non-existent. To him, I was just a wolfless beggar blocking his way.

His Beta, Mr. Foster, stepped forward with a look of utter disgust. "Where did this filthy beggar come from? Get lost! Stop blocking the Alpha's path!"

Hearing those words, a bitter sorrow twisted my heart. I bowed deeply, my body trembling.

He doesn't even recognize me anymore, I thought.

"I'm... I'm sorry," I rasped, my voice barely a whisper. I kept my head down, ready to scurry away.

But at that moment, Eleanor rushed out of the room, pointing a trembling finger at my back.

"Kira Hayes! Don't you dare run!" she screamed hysterically. "You pay for my daughter's life!"

The crowd outside gasped in shock. Everyone knew about the scandalous tragedy from five years ago.

Whispers erupted like a swarm of angry bees.

"That's Kira Hayes? No wonder Eleanor is so furious. She's the murderer!"

"The Hayes Pack is completely gone, yet she still has the nerve to show her face here? She should be sliced into a thousand pieces!"

My body went rigid. Hearing my name spat out with such venom, being reminded of my family's ruin... the shame and pain were suffocating.

Under the burning stares of the crowd, I slowly, mechanically moved my feet, desperate to escape.

"Kira Hayes?"

A low, powerful voice suddenly cut through the noise, freezing the air in the corridor.

My steps halted.

Dorian turned his head slowly, his ice-blue eyes locking onto my fragile back. If they hadn't screamed my name, he truly wouldn't have recognized the skeletal ghost I had become.

His handsome face darkened into a terrifying mask of fury. His gaze was a physical weight. "How did you get out?"

I slowly turned my head and met his cold, murderous eyes. My heart stopped beating.

The terror was absolute. Without a second thought, I turned and ran for my life.

"Seize her!" Dorian growled, his Alpha command echoing down the hall.