The Alpha had been unable to sire an heir for years.
In his desperation, he summoned every she-wolf rumored to carry strong fertility across the territories and brought them into the pack compound.
After I was chosen by him and marked,I became pregnant with the only Alpha heir this bloodline had seen in generations.
The Alpha was overjoyed.
He immediately named me the Luna, declaring that both I and the child in my womb were the pack’s most precious treasure.
When the pack healer examined me, his claws accidentally brushed my stomach.
That small mistake cost him and his entire bloodline their lives.
To protect the heir,the Alpha ordered that I be secluded deep inside the inner den, away from all others.
Eight months into my pregnancy,a newly arrived ranked she-wolf, Lyra, began relying on the Alpha’s favor to act however she pleased.
Under the excuse of “restoring discipline,” she purged anyone she disliked.
And somehow,she labeled me — who had long been hidden inside the inner den — as a temptress who had seduced a pack guard.
“You’re just a discarded, forgotten she-wolf hiding in this den —how dare you sleep with a guard and carry a bastard pup?”
“Today, I’ll teach you what real pack law looks like!”
On her orders, the female servants shaved all my hair, stripped me naked,and dragged me across the stone yard to the punishment grounds,where she commanded a group of criminal wolves to whip me and violate me.
She even took a blade and cut open my swollen belly herself.
Then, holding the blood-soaked, lifeless pup,she walked into the Alpha’s chamber.
“Alpha,” she said coldly,“I have uncovered a she-wolf who defiled the laws of the pack.This is the cursed whelp she carried.I leave her punishment in your hands.”
——
Eight months into my pregnancy, my body had grown unbearably heavy.
Every breath felt like it carried a weight it couldn’t release,and exhaustion clung to my bones like winter frost.
I had just lain down to rest when a loud commotion erupted outside the den.
“Outrageous!A ranked she-wolf of the inner territory dares to sleep with a pack guard — and even carry his bastard pup?She must have a death wish!”
“Everyone knows it’s Lady Lyra here who truly holds authority over the pack now!
For that filthy mutt to pull such a disgusting stunt right under your watch — is that not a direct insult to your power?”
“Exactly!Such audacity cannot go unpunished.Lady Lyra must make an example of her — or the whole territory will lose all discipline!”
The inner den had always been silent.
A place the Alpha once said was“where no harm could ever find me.”*
Now the noise pierced through the stone walls,gnawing at my skull.
A dull ache throbbed behind my temples.
I forced myself upright and looked at my attendant, Willow.
“What’s happening outside?” I asked.
“Why all this chaos?”
She knelt, her voice trembling.
“Luna… word spread that a she-wolf in the pack slept with a guard and is now with child.
Lady Lyra has gathered the ranked females and servants…
They say she’s going to punish the one who defiled the bloodline.”
My brows knit faintly.
There were hundreds of she-wolves in the territory.
Every single one of them dreamed of standing at the Alpha’s side.
Scheming, betrayal, silent wars —they had always existed.
But I had never involved myself.
Since the day he marked me,since the day his hand rested on my stomach and he whispered,
“This pup… will be our future.”
…I had devoted everything to guarding this child.
Yet now…
Sleeping with a guard and becoming pregnant —such filth, such an insult to the bloodline,would drag the entire pack into disgrace if it spread.
I could not ignore it.
Not when I carried the only heir.
Not when he had once told me —
“Until this child is born, nothing matters more.”
I rose quickly,led Willow toward the den entrance.
But the moment I opened the door—Lyra and the others crashed straight into my sight.
Her eyes lit up the second she saw me.
Before I could even speak,her palm flew.
The sharp crack of skin against skin echoed through the stone corridor.
My cheek burned.
I tasted iron.
“You filthy mutt banished to the inner den,how dare you sleep with a pack guard and carry a bastard whelp?!”
My fingers slowly curled against my swollen stomach.
This was the belly he once knelt before,pressing his forehead to my skin, murmuring my name like a prayer.
The same belly he protected with soldiers,with blood,with an entire bloodline’s wrath.
Yet now—“Today,” she stepped closer, her lips curving with cruel triumph,“I’ll make sure you remember what pack law truly means.”
