Virginia’s POV
The customer’s face twisted in rage as she jabbed a finger toward my nose.
“Vice President?You’re a VP?You’re her superior in the Pack hierarchy and you bullied her like this?Then blamed her for it?!What kind of leader does that?Your Pack actually promotes wolves like you?”
“I didn’t—”
My chest was tight;I couldn’t breathe.I tried to explain,but Slade came rushing over,his Beta aura flaring.
He took one look at Millicent on the ground and the screaming child,and his expression immediately turned ugly.
“What happened?!”
Millicent spoke first,saying I pushed her by accident,and that it caused her to knock into the woman with a child.
Millicent clutched her ankle and whimpered,“It might be sprained.But it’s okay.Please just explain to the customer—the VP didn’t mean it…”
“Virginia!What the hell is wrong with you?!”Slade rounded on me,his eyes blazing with Pack authority.“You couldn’t even handle something this simple?Why would you push her?”
“I didn’t—”
“I don’t care!Apologize to the customer.Now!”
I stood frozen,my breath shallow.
He believes her.Just like always.
But this time,I stayed my ground.
“I’m not apologizing for something I didn’t do.”
My hand cradled my belly—my pup—my voice trembling but firm.
After all,I was leaving.I was done groveling.
His eyes widened,stunned that I’d actually stood up to him.
Before he could reprimand me again,the customer shoved me hard.
“You bitch!With a temper like that,no wonder your pup’ll grow up the same!You won’t even say sorry?Get the hell out!”
As soon as I crashed to the floor,pain stabbed violently through my belly.My ears rang.I couldn’t hear anything but static.
Slade stepped toward me—his hand twitching like he wanted to help—but in the next second,he turned away and swept his manipulative Omega into his arms instead,rushing her out.
“Think about what you’ve done,Virginia!”
I lay on the cold floor tiles,clutching my stomach,pain rolling through me in sickening waves.
In the crowd,people were pointing and whispering.Some screamed,some backed away,and some raised their phones to record me.
That’s all I heard.A sea of murmurs.And that roaring in my ears.
It felt like something inside me had been ripped apart,the pain surging like waves through my lower body.
Later,someone finally realized something was wrong and called for an ambulance.
At the hospital,the doctors were shouting while wheeling me toward the OR.
“Where’s the family?!Her vitals are unstable—do we save the pup or not?!”
A nurse grabbed my phone.“Ma’am,what’s the father’s number?”
I bit my lip and recited Slade’s.
He picked up.
Not with worry.
Not with panic.
But fury.
“Virginia,have you completely lost your mind?!What the hell did you do to Millicent?!Her ankle’s swollen—the doctor thinks it’s fractured.All because you pushed her!”
I was shivering as I corrected him.“I didn’t…She fell…on her own.”
“Oh,don’t give me that jealous crap!You’re just mad because she called herself my wife?You really believed that?It was a joke,for Moon’s sake!”
A joke?Just a joke?
I clutched the sheets,my tears finally spilling.
“Slade…the baby—”
Suddenly,I heard a click;he hung up.
I looked at the doctor,forcing out a wincing smile.
“Forget the pup.Please…just save me.”
“We’ll do our best.”
When I woke up,my belly was flat.
The nurse handed me a small box.Inside was the tiny,unformed body of my pup.
I cried so hard I couldn’t stop shaking.
Nothing hurt more than this—not even the wounds in my body—because this pain lived in my wolf.
In the middle of crying,the door burst open.
A guy rushed in—tall,breathless,familiar.
My brother…
Not by blood,but in every way that mattered to my wolf.
He ran to me and pulled me into his arms,his voice hoarse with regret.
“I’m sorry.I should’ve been here sooner…”
I buried my face in his chest,unable to speak.
That afternoon,he moved me to a private hospital under his name.
Before I left the city,I mailed that box—my pup’s remains—to the Forsyth household,the same Pack line so desperate for an heir.
And then I texted Slade one last time.
“We’re done.”
Then I blocked and deleted his contacts—without a second thought.
From that day on,he was nothing to me.
And never would be again.
Chapter 5
Slade’s POV
I received Virginia’s text while I was still at the Pack hospital,the fluorescent lights harsh and white above me as I stood in the hallway holding Milly’s test results.The doctor had just assured me there was nothing serious—only mild soft-tissue bruising,something that would heal in a matter of days,barely enough to count as an injury by wolf standards.I felt the tension in my shoulders loosen the slightest bit,and with my mind finally clear enough to think,I decided it was time to call Virginia and talk some sense into her.I wanted to calm her down,to tell her she was overreacting again,letting her emotions spiral,interpreting everything Milly did as an attack.If she would simply listen,I could explain it all.
But each time I tried to call,she refused to pick up.
At first,I thought it was just another one of her sulking spells,the familiar pattern of her needing space before inevitably returning to me,sometimes teary,sometimes defiant,but always coming back.Yet the longer the calls went unanswered,the more irritation clawed at the back of my neck,my wolf pacing restlessly beneath my skin.
I was already annoyed when her message came through.
[We’re done.]
Just two words—but they cut deeper than anything I’d expected,slipping effortlessly past every layer of rationality and planting themselves like a jagged blade behind my ribs.For a moment,I simply stared at the screen,my fingers numb,my throat tightening around something unfamiliar and unwelcome.
We’re done?
She’s the one ending this?She thinks she can just walk away from me?For years she never had the nerve to challenge me like this—so since when did she start using words like this as weapons to get her way?
Grinding my teeth,I dialed again.
“Sorry,the number you dialed is currently in Do Not Disturb mode—”
The automated voice sounded like mockery.I refused to believe it.Switching to WhatsApp,I fired off message after message,each one heavier,sharper,more frantic than the last.
[Virginia,what is this about?]
[Haven’t you made enough of a scene?]
[I don’t have time for your tantrums.Pick up the phone.]
[If you keep ignoring me,I’m going to be seriously pissed.]
But one by one,every message turned into a red exclamation mark.
She had blocked me.
For a moment,my mind went blank,a cold shock roaring like static in my bloodstream.My wolf’s instincts surged in violent protest.
In all the time we had been together,she had never blocked me.Not once.Not even when she cried.Not even when she begged.
How dare she cut me off like this?
“What’s wrong?”
Milly had pushed herself up on the hospital bed,her voice cautious even as her expression softened with concern.“Did you and Virginia…get into a fight?”
My brows furrowed,my jaw tight.The glow of my phone screen shone against her bandaged ankle—an injury she had exaggerated into a drama that now spiraled far beyond what she likely intended.
“She’s never blocked me before,”I muttered,struggling to keep my voice even.“This is the first time.”
“Maybe she’s just trying to get your attention?”Milly offered gently,her tone soothing,her eyes shimmering with sympathy she knew how to wield well.“A lot of she-wolves do that when they want their mates—or fiancés—to behave.”
I snapped without thinking.“Isn’t that ridiculous?She’s the one who caused today’s mess,and she still thinks she has the upper hand?”
I stood abruptly and paced toward the window,running a hand through my hair hard enough to sting my scalp,my wolf restless,irritated,unstable.
That was when,for the first time,I realized Virginia had been different lately—colder,quieter,her temper no longer flaring,her tears no longer falling.She stopped arguing.She stopped clinging.She stopped trying to fight me into seeing her.
And when a she-wolf stops fighting…she’s already halfway gone.
This time she didn’t yell,didn’t cry,didn’t demand I come home.
She simply disappeared behind a wall of silence.
And something inside my chest twisted sharply,hollow and terrifyingly empty.
“She’s really pushing it now,”I muttered,but the moment the words left my lips,a surge of panic flooded me so suddenly I had to grip the edge of the windowsill to steady myself.
Milly was still talking,but her voice became distant.
Because my wolf had already decided.
I needed to go home.
And I needed to go now.
