"The trauma team did everything possible, Alpha," Dr. Mercer said. He stood rigidly by the stainless steel counter, his surgical scrubs stained with fresh crimson. "We lost the pup."
Fluorescent bulbs buzzed overhead. They flickered briefly, casting harsh, gray shadows over the clinic walls.
"No," Chase whispered, his broad shoulders dropping.
"There was too much internal hemorrhaging," the doctor continued, keeping his head bowed. "The impact from the fall was too severe to stop the bleeding."
A low, mournful howl ripped out of Chase's chest. The raw agony in the sound rattled the glass vials on the medical trays. He spun around and drove his fist straight into the clinic wall.
The concrete cracked with a deafening crunch. Drywall dust rained over his knuckles, and a jagged fissure spiderwebbed toward the ceiling.
I stood by the doorway, my fingers gripping the cool metal handle. My heart hammered against my ribs, but I forced my voice to stay steady.
"Chase, you have to listen to me," I said, stepping into the room. "She threw herself down those stairs."
He didn't turn around. He just kept his forehead pressed against the fractured wall, his breathing ragged.
"She was destroying the embezzled financial records," I pressed on. "She fed the winter ledgers right into the shredder. It was a setup to hide her theft."
A pathetic sob echoed from the hospital bed.
Lily shifted, weakly propping herself up on her elbows. Her hospital gown hung loosely off one pale shoulder, and her skin looked drained of color.
"I know you always hated me, Evelyn," Lily wept. Her voice trembled, fragile and broken. "I knew you wanted me out of the pack house."
"Shut up," I snapped. "Tell him the truth. Tell him about the diamond necklace you bought yesterday with the pack's emergency funds."
Lily ignored me, turning her tear-streaked face toward Chase's back. "But I never thought you would be so cruel to an innocent pup."
"I didn't touch you!" I yelled, taking another step forward. "You threw your weight backward. You planned this the second you heard his footsteps in the hall."
"Why would I kill my own baby?" Lily cried out, burying her face into her hands. Her shoulders shook. "It was all I had left of my mate! I had the nursery painted. I bought the crib!"
Chase pulled his bleeding fist from the wall. He stalked to the side of the bed and wrapped his large, shaking hand around Lily's arm.
"You pushed her," Chase snarled at me, his golden eyes burning with unspent grief. "You murdered my brother's child because you were jealous of the attention she received."
"I am your mate!" I shouted, the injustice of it burning my throat. "Why would I be jealous of a thief? Check the cameras in the study. Check the shredder basket!"
"The study cameras were disabled this morning," Chase said, his voice dropping to a deadly calm. "By your order."
I froze. I hadn't ordered anything of the sort.
"She told the guards I needed privacy to mourn," Lily lied, her voice muffled against Chase's shirt. "She planned everything."
"That is a lie!" I pointed a finger at her. "I never spoke to the guards today."
Lily sniffled, reaching into the pocket of her discarded bloody cardigan resting on the bedside chair. She pulled out her black smartphone.
"I didn't want to show you this, Alpha," she whispered, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I wanted to keep the peace for the sake of the pack. But she cornered me yesterday."
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
"She told me I didn't belong here," Lily sobbed.
Her thumb tapped the screen.
My own voice echoed from the tiny speaker, sharp and distorted by the recording.
“Sometimes I wish that baby had never existed.”
The audio cut off with a sharp click.
The silence in the clinic became absolute. Even the doctor stopped breathing.
My stomach plummeted. She had recorded me yesterday in the kitchen. I had told her I wished the baby didn't exist so she couldn't use it to manipulate the pack's resources anymore. She had sliced the sentence in half.
"That is heavily edited," I said, my voice rising in panic. "Play the rest of the clip, Lily! Play the part where you demanded the vault codes and threatened to frame me!"
She just sobbed harder, burying her face into Chase's torso. "She told me she would make sure my pup never saw its first full moon."
"Liar!" I screamed, lunging toward the bed to snatch the phone.
Chase turned his head.
The raw grief on his face vanished, replaced by something cold and fixed. Grief hardened into hatred in his eyes.
He moved faster than I could track.
He slammed into me, driving me backward until my spine hit the metal doorframe. The impact knocked the wind from my lungs.
"Alpha," Dr. Mercer warned, taking a step forward. "Please, not in the clinic."
"Get out," Chase roared over his shoulder, not breaking eye contact with me.
The doctor fled the room, the heavy door swinging shut behind him.
"Chase," I gasped, my hands flying up to his chest.
He grabbed me by the throat. His thick fingers clamped around my neck, tight enough to bruise, tight enough to cut off my air, but perfectly calculated not to break my windpipe.
He hoisted me upward. The tips of my shoes scraped against the linoleum floor as he lifted me onto my toes.
"You sick, twisted murderer," he hissed, his face inches from mine. His fangs grazed his lower lip.
"Look at her phone, Chase!" I choked out, kicking my legs slightly to find purchase on the floor. "Check the file data! It was modified!"
"I don't need to check anything," he sneered. "I have all the proof I need right here."
"Don't hurt her, Chase," Lily cried weakly from the bed. "I don't want any more violence. I just want the truth to stop hurting us."
Chase released my throat so suddenly my knees almost gave out. I caught the doorframe and dragged air into my lungs.
"You are not coming near her again," he said. "Not at the funeral. Not at the pack house. After we bury my brother's child, I will decide whether you still have a place in this territory."
I touched the bruises already forming beneath my jaw. "You have already decided. You just have not admitted it."
His expression hardened. "Get out."
I left the clinic without looking back.
Behind me, Lily began to cry again.
Two days later, Chase ordered me to attend the burial anyway - not as family, but as the accused woman he intended to punish in public.
