The brief trace of guilt on the Alpha’s face vanished in an instant, replaced by an icy rage that sent a chill through the room. He stepped forward without hesitation, placing Lilith firmly behind him as if shielding her from harm. His eyes hardened as they locked onto me.
“Have you lost your mind?” he snapped. “That’s your own sister!”
I didn’t rise to his anger. My attention never left Lilith. My gaze sharpened, unyielding.
“Choose your words carefully,” I said coldly. “Blood ties don’t give you the right to insult my child.”
Lilith’s eyes shimmered as she turned to Ronan, her voice quivering as though she were the injured party.
“Alpha, please,” she whispered, clutching his arm. “I never meant to cause trouble between the two of you. If my sister refuses to accept that Tavian was only pretending to be ill, then I won’t press the issue.”
My chest tightened painfully as I faced Ronan, my voice low but steady, carried by every ounce of resolve I had left.
“So you believe that too?” I asked. “You truly think our son was faking his suffering?”
He didn’t answer.
The silence that followed was louder than any accusation. Ronan’s eyes drifted around the room, scanning the empty spaces, as if expecting Tavian to step out at any moment, healthy and smiling.
When he finally spoke, his tone was strained, irritation barely concealed beneath forced calm.
“Where is Tavian?” he demanded. “I can’t sense him anywhere.”
The doubt in his words cut deeper than a blade. He didn’t even trust that our child had been sick all this time. If I had possessed his authority or power, I would have summoned every renowned healer across the lands. But as Luna, my hands were tied—confined by pack rules and by an Alpha who refused to acknowledge me or my pleas.
Had he come home even once, he would have seen the truth for himself: the table cluttered with herbs and remedies, the stench of medicine lingering in the air, and Tavian lying pale and exhausted, fighting a battle his small body was losing. But Ronan never came. Not once.
My thoughts drifted back to the day Tavian had looked at me with eyes far too old for his age and told me he didn’t think he had much time left. His voice had been weak, trembling, yet disturbingly certain. I had clung desperately to hope, but deep down, I knew he was right. His health had declined too quickly, too severely. And still, his final wish hadn’t been about healing or miracles—he only wanted us to celebrate his birthday together, as a family.
That desperation had driven me to Ronan’s feet.
I remembered kneeling before him, pride utterly stripped away. My hands had clutched the fabric of his pants as I begged, my voice breaking with every word. I promised him that this would be the last time I ever asked anything of him. I told him I would let him go, that I would step aside and free him if only he would give Tavian this one night.
When he looked down at me then, his expression had shifted—surprise flickering across his face, mixed with something I couldn’t quite understand.
“Are you serious?” he asked, his voice wavering between disbelief and something dangerously close to relief.
“Yes,” I whispered, tears sliding down my cheeks as my eyes closed. “I mean it.”
I had loved Ronan fiercely from the very first moment I saw him. It hadn’t taken time or reason—it had been instant. Everyone around us could see it. Even before I learned we were destined mates, my heart had already chosen him. I followed him everywhere, sought his attention, did everything I could to earn even a fragment of his affection.
Instead of softening him, my devotion only deepened his resentment.
That resentment reached its breaking point during his coming-of-age ceremony, when fate revealed that I—not Lilith—was his true mate. The revelation filled him with bitterness. He had wanted her. He had always wanted her.
Why hadn’t I stepped aside then? Why hadn’t I let him go and allowed them to be together? I had been foolish enough to believe that time and loyalty might change his heart. Because of my stubborn hope, he had watched Lilith leave for another pack after discovering her own fated mate.
My parents had been firm. Fate was not something to be rejected, they said. Walking away from a destined bond was unthinkable. And so, Ronan was forced into a mating with me, and I became his Luna in name alone.
There had been no joy in our mating ceremony. No celebration. Ronan had dismissed the idea entirely, claiming that I wasn’t worthy of anything grand.
Years later, when Lilith returned and claimed her mate had died, I finally understood how pointless it was to compete with her. I had lost before the battle ever began.
Looking back now, I realized that my final plea—my promise to leave him alone after all those years—had been what finally convinced him to agree. He wanted me gone. Desperately.
But why hadn’t he spent even one last moment with Tavian?
Why had he broken that promise?
It was one thing for him not to love me. I had long accepted that truth. But Tavian was his son. Flesh of his flesh. How could he be so cruel… so utterly heartless toward his own child?
