Alpha Kale didn’t return that night, and the tears refused to stop falling from my eyes. I twisted and writhed on the enormous hospital bed, the pain of losing my child and the savage healing from the forced surgery warring inside me like claws beneath the skin.
There were moments I genuinely wished the Moon Goddess would take me. Death seemed easier than living with the image of my pup's lifeless body, ripped from me before he’d even had a name. But I knew better. If I died, my son’s death would go unanswered. His soul would never know justice.
No. I would stay alive for vengeance.
By dawn, my sobs had quieted, not because the pain was gone, but because something inside me had turned to ice. My heart no longer throbbed with grief. It had numbed itself to survive. I lay there, unmoving, staring blankly at the stone ceiling as the clan physician entered the room to check my vitals.
“How are you feeling, Luna Alina?” the old Pack doctor asked gently, clipboard in hand.
“I want to go home,” I said flatly.
He blinked in surprise, clearly expecting a different answer. “I- o-of course. I’ll prepare your release.”
I didn’t wait for Alpha Kale or anyone from the pack to arrive. Instead, I called a human lawyer I found through an outdated search directory. The werewolf courts were all tied to the Alpha, and I needed someone neutral.
“I’d like to file for divorce,” I told him without preamble.
“I’ll send over the documentation right away. Once signed, the process will take three days,” came the response.
The moment I ended the call, the doctor returned with the clan’s black-uniformed driver waiting by the door.
“Alpha Kale asked for you to be escorted home. He’s preparing your favorites,” the doctor informed me with a kind smile.
I wanted to bare my fangs and ask why he’d removed my womb without my consent, whether it was by threat or bribe, but I knew he was likely as trapped in Alpha Kale’s grip as I had been.
I gave a polite nod instead. “Thank you.”
The ride back to the packhouse, the sprawling Hallowfang manor tucked deep in the woods, was agonizingly quiet. The driver said nothing. I said even less. But nothing could’ve prepared me for what greeted me inside.
Talia Greymore.
She was curled gracefully on the living room chaise, draped in a luxurious crimson gown that clung to her curves and revealed her small, unmistakable baby bump. And beside her, fussing like a doting wolf-mother, was Alpha Kale’s own mother.
I felt something snap in my chest the moment I saw them.
Talia’s gaze caught mine instantly, and her voice rang out with delicate sweetness. “Thank you for the kind offer, Elder Luna Sasha, but I really can’t stay here. I don’t want to make Alpha Kale’s wife uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable?” Kale’s mother barked in disgust. “That orphaned bitch has no say in this family! I’ve never understood why my son didn’t cast her out the moment he ascended. What good is a Luna who can’t even carry a pup?”
Her words were cruel, acidic, but after what I’d overheard last night, they hit like cold water rather than fire. I didn’t speak. I simply walked past them, toward the stairs. But halfway up, something yanked my hair with violent force.
“Ah!” I cried, whirling around as sharp pain tore through my scalp.
“You ungrateful girl!” Kale’s mother, Elder Luna Sasha, snarled before slapping me so hard I tasted blood.
“What the hell do you want from me?” I hissed, rage bubbling beneath my skin, my eyes flashing with suppressed wolf light.
“No greeting? No respect? No shame?” she spat, her face twisted in disdain. “No wonder you were taken. No wonder you watched your pup die!”
My eyes burned, but I refused to shed another tear. “Ask your son. He knows exactly what happened. He was there.”
Her arm shot up again, but this time Alpha Kale’s voice cut through the tension.
“That’s enough, Mother,” he said sharply, stepping out of the kitchen wearing an apron, clearly trying to play the role of the gentle Alpha.
His eyes met mine. “How are you feeling, Alina?” he asked, as if nothing had happened, leaning in to kiss me.
I pulled away, disgusted. Once upon a time, I would have melted into his embrace. Now, the thought made my skin crawl.
His mother had hated me from the start. I wasn’t born into a powerful bloodline. I had no empire, no lineage worth parading. To her, I was a barren vessel, a disgrace to the Hallowfang name. But what no one would know, what no one would dare whisper, was that her perfect son had made me this way.
“Alina,” Kale said tightly, “apologize to my mother. And to Talia. Why didn’t you greet them when you came in?”
I scoffed. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Why are they even here?”
“She talks to you like that?” his mother shrieked in disbelief.
“I should go,” Talia whispered in her gentle, manipulative voice. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”
Suddenly, a small voice piped up from the kitchen. “Daddy, why is that lady yelling?”
I turned toward the voice and froze.
A small boy, barely two years old, stood at the doorway, clinging to a stuffed wolf toy. His face was unmistakable. A perfect, miniature version of Alpha Kale.
“Who is that child?” I asked, my voice hollow.
Jack didn’t flinch. He looked me dead in the eye and said, “He’s my brother’s son. Talia’s a widow. She and the boy will be staying here while she’s pregnant.”
My breath hitched. “Then why is he calling you Daddy?”
Kale shrugged. “He likes it. It makes him happy. I’m not going to tell him to stop.”
I was still reeling when he returned to the kitchen and emerged with a steaming bowl of seafood.
“I made your favorite,” he said with a warm smile.
I stared at it. After two years with me, he still didn’t know I was deathly allergic to seafood.
The moment the scent hit me, my stomach rebelled. I turned and vomited onto the floor, my body shaking.
Cara gasped dramatically. “Luna Alina! You should’ve just asked me to leave. Why would you throw up over me and my child?”
“You’re across the room,” I said coldly, wiping my mouth. “Your pity act doesn’t reach that far.”
But Alpha Kale snapped.
He grabbed my arm with bruising force and forced me to my knees in front of them both.
“Apologize. Now. Or I swear to the Goddess, I’ll make you eat your vomit.”
