Chapter 2

The moment the call connected, Richard's face turned completely grim.

Without another word, he violently dragged me and threw me into the car.

"The thugs you hired ruptured Mike's kidney! You're going to go over there right now and give him one of yours to atone for it!"

When we arrived at the pack's private hospital, the instant Richard saw Monica, his focus shifted entirely to her.

"Richard, Mike's right kidney is gone! He can never be a powerful Alpha again. What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry. I'll find the best kidney to transplant for him. He'll make a full recovery."

As the words left his lips, his gaze slid to my right side—right where my kidney was.

"I've already found you a more powerful replacement."

Before I could even process what was happening, I was thrown into an operating room.

"I'm begging you. I'm a designer, I need to be healthy, my kidney is..."

I clung desperately to Richard's hand, casting aside every last shred of my dignity.

"Richard Blackwood, don't make me hate you even more."

But Richard remained utterly unmoved, his expression blank as he pried my fingers off, one by one. "It's just one kidney. You still have another one."

"I will protect you for the rest of your life."

"Don't worry, the surgery will be quick. You won't feel any pain."

I was bound hand and foot, with absolutely no chance of escape.

The surgery truly was quick.

With no standard sterile environment and not nearly enough anesthesia, the healers loyal to the Alpha sliced open my living body. It took only ten minutes.

The moment I fainted from the pain, I heard Richard's gentle words from outside the operating room.

"Just as I thought. It had to be your kidney in his body to make him stronger."

When I woke again, it was three days later. Not a single person had come to visit me.

My heart was bleeding profusely, but I had no more tears to cry.

Finally, someone came to see me. Someone came to care.

When I saw my mom, Amelia, I suddenly felt like a pup again, and I finally broke down and cried once more.

But in the next second, her cold words plunged me into an icy abyss.

"Cut the crocodile tears. I haven't even dealt with you for lying to me about Nina being dead."

"Monica already told me Nina is having the time of her life at Disneyland," she snapped. "And so what if she dies? She's just a female pup."

Back when you were pregnant, I told you not to get that genetic screening, but you insisted. And that's why you ended up with a pup with asthma.

For a full hour, her venomous words washed over me, until I finally lost all my strength.