My name was Eris Lavender. I had been married to Silas Cross, Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack, for ten years.
We seemed like a strong pair, and everyone envied me because of it. He treated me well in public, spoke softly to me in private, and made sure my needs were always met.
Silas Cross was the perfect Alpha mate anyone would have wished to have.
That's what everyone thought. That’s what I also thought. But things were actually different from the truth.
That morning, I only went to his pack office because I had forgotten my phone charger on his table. The guards let me through as they smiled at me, greeting me with the respect of a Luna.
As I went closer, I noticed that Silas’s office door was slightly open, just enough for voices to slip through.
"Eris doesn’t know about any of it," Silas said. "And she doesn’t need to."
I paused. I wasn’t even trying to listen. I was just close enough to hear.
Cody, his Beta, sounded tense.
"Silas… you used her mother’s heart to save Elara Stone’s sister. You didn’t tell Eris the truth about how her mother died. You let her believe it was natural."
My mother…?
My hand stilled on the doorknob as the name hit me.
Elara Stone.
Elara, Silas’s first love. Elara, the woman my ex-fiancé left me for. Elara, the one Silas always managed to slip into conversations when he thought I wouldn’t notice.
My chest tightened. I leaned in carefully, letting the shadows hide me.
"Her mother was dying already. The doctor said there was no chance for her to live," Silas said. "And Elara needed me. Her family needed me. I did what I had to do."
"So you chose Elara over your own mate," Cody shot back.
Silas didn’t hesitate.
"I will always choose Elara," he said. "Elara and her family helped me when I was at my lowest, and this was the only way I could repay her. Besides, I paid that debt of life by marrying Eris. I’ve done enough."
My stomach twisted. I felt like I might throw up.
Cody’s voice dropped. "And if she finds out?"
Silas didn’t even sound worried. "Then I’ll just end everything for us. I’ve spent ten years pretending, enduring, and tolerating Eris. She can’t even give me a child, maybe we’re not meant to be together."
I just stood there, feeling everything inside me go very, very quiet.
Ten years. Ten years of believing I was loved, protected, and finally chosen.
But it seemed that in all those years, I had just been a placeholder.
I stepped back from the door, careful not to make a sound. There were no tears, no collapse, no confrontation. I simply turned away, walked out of the pack house with steady steps, got into my car, and drove.
It wasn’t until I reached the woods that my hands began to shake. I stepped out of the car, bent forward slightly, and released a single sharp breath. Not a sob. Not even a gasp. Just a release of everything sitting heavy in my chest.
Then the pain struck. Deep and sudden in my abdomen.
That was when I remembered the test from that morning. I had been planning to surprise Silas about being pregnant during dinner that night. We had been trying for so long, and I imagined how happy he would be after knowing this.
But it seemed that I had been expecting too much.
I placed my hand over my stomach, and for a brief moment, a small warmth flickered in my chest. A new life. My child. Something pure that belonged to me alone.
But the warmth faded just as quickly when the truth followed.
Silas would never want this child.
The realization was heavy, like something pressing straight through my ribs. My vision blurred. I tried to step back toward the car, but my legs felt weak.
The ground tilted, rushing up to meet me. I reached out for something, anything, but there was nothing to hold onto.
Everything slipped into darkness.
****
I woke to bright hospital lights and the sharp, sterile smell of disinfectant. My head hammered with a dull pain, and a nurse was bending over my arm, adjusting the IV line.
I tried to lift myself, but a strong hand closed around mine before I could move.
Silas sat at the foot of the bed. He looked drained, his face pale and his eyes rimmed red as if he had not slept. He leaned forward, and his voice came out tight.
"Eris, why were you alone in the woods? You scared me."
There was a tremor in it, like fear, but not the kind that comes from losing someone. It was the kind that comes from losing control.
He brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them, then my knuckles, and then my forehead.
"Don’t ever do that again," he whispered. "I can’t lose you."
The performance was perfect. Every movement, every soft word, fit the image of a man desperate and devoted.
I let him have the scene. I let him think his show had convinced me. I forced a small, tired smile that read as confusion rather than accusation and said, "I won’t."
Relief washed over his face, and he tightened his grip on my hand as if that would anchor him.
But the truth sat under my ribs like a stone, and I held it there.
He had taken my mother from me.
He had married me because it suited him.
He would discard me the moment I became inconvenient.
All of that was clear as daylight now, and the grief for what I had lost mixed with a cold clarity that felt like new bone setting inside me.
