For days I was a prisoner inside the Alpha’s den.
No locks—just silence and walls that felt like stone around a caged wolf.
Three times a day,a servant knocked.Her voice grew smaller each time.
“Luna…”she whispered once through the door,trembling,“I know you did nothing wrong.Please eat something—your hands are turning blue.”
But the head housekeeper snapped behind her,fangs half-bared.
“You are not to defy Alpha Alexander’s orders!No meals until she apologizes.”
I never replied.
A few bruised apples found their way under my door,smuggled in secret.
I ate them without complaint—for the sake of the tiny heartbeat inside me.
I sat by the window,wrapped in the same wool cloak I had worn since that night,counting backward.
Three days gone.Four to go.
When the Council seal approved the bond-severance decree,I would leave—burn every trace of this life behind.
My communicator never stopped buzzing.
Stephanie.
Her messages dripped like venom wrapped in perfume.
[Stephanie:You never won our mothers,and you’ll never win Alex.One word from me,and he forgets you exist.]
She was right.
Alexander never returned.
Not that night.Not the next.
But she made sure I saw him.
Every hour—new vision-crystals.
Him helping her into my favorite fur robe.
Him tying her hair by the hearth in his farmhouse lodge.
Him kissing her shoulder in bed.
Others were quieter—and crueller.
Her wearing his shirt,mouthing“I love you”at the lens before flipping it off with a wink.
Or his off-screen murmur:
“Steph,if we have a daughter,we’ll name her Hope.If a son—Xavier.”
Once,I would have curled into the blankets and sobbed.
Now I only stared at my reflection in the frosted glass,calm and pale,rubbing my belly while another wave of sickness passed.
Then my communicator chimed.
[PACK ATTORNEY:Congratulations,Miss Lavina.The Council has approved your severance.Alpha Alexander Hamilton is stripped of all paternal rights.He has no claim over the pup in your womb.]
I wanted to smile—but tears came instead.
Three years of bond and blood,dissolved into dust.
Cold wind bit through my sleeves as I stepped onto the balcony.
Each breath fogged in the night air.
My body ached from hunger;my legs shook;the world tilted.
Still,I needed air—anything but the suffocating stillness of that house.
Then—
A sudden crack split the sky.
Fireworks—loud,violent—burst right above the estate.
I flinched,stumbled;my heel caught on uneven stone.
Pain tore through my abdomen.
A scream escaped my throat.
Warm liquid spread fast between my thighs.
Guards rushed forward,faces shifting from indifference to alarm.
“Get the healer—now!”
One grabbed his crystal communicator.
“Alpha!It’s the Luna—she fell from the balcony!She’s bleeding badly—please—”
Alexander’s voice cut through,cold and sharp.
“I know her tricks.She’s faking again to escape punishment.Lavina is not to leave the manor until she learns her place.”
The line went dead.
The guard stared at the device,pale with shame.
I looked up at the surveillance rune carved into the balcony pillar,tears blurring my vision.
“I apologize,”I rasped,clutching my belly.“I’m sorry—for meeting you,for loving a heartless man like you,Alpha Hamilton.”
Another firework exploded—pink,then gold,then white.
Thousands of drones shaped words across the heavens:
[HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE]
A single tear slid down my cheek.
So today…the day I was switched at birth…was also my own birthday.
“My baby…just save my baby,”I whispered—the only gift I begged for before darkness claimed me.
“Luna!Luna?!”
“Her body’s going cold!”another voice cried.
“We didn’t know—while everyone starved her,she was already pregnant!”
