My life was complicated. I needed to see Maya and ask questions. Maya didn’t open her door when I knocked.
She knew it was me. I could hear her pacing inside, the soft creak of aged floorboards under her paws.
“You’re putting yourself in danger,” she said through the wood.
“So are you, if you wait too long,” I answered.
Silence stretched between us like a pulled thread. Then, the door eased open.
She looked older than I remembered. Or maybe I was just seeing clearly now. Tired eyes, cautious shoulders. She motioned me inside.
“You need to rest,” she murmured, already reaching for the poultice jar.
“I need to know,” I said. “Why does he hate me?”
Maya stopped.
The question hung in the air. It wasn’t sudden. It had lived in me for moons. Beneath every silence, every snapped command, every time he looked at me like I was something he had to tolerate.
She didn’t meet my eyes. “Because he never wanted you.”
“That much I figured.”
“No,” she said, quietly, “you don’t understand. He was ordered to marry you. By the former Alpha.”
I sat slowly. The stone beneath me was cold. “My father.”
Maya flinched. “The one who adopted you, yes. You were a gift to the pack. Found after a rogue attack, barely alive. No memory. He raised you like his own.”
She sat across from me. “When he died, you were barely of age. Rodriguez was chosen to lead, but the Council feared backlash from old loyalties. The Alpha’s daughter—his adopted daughter—had to remain close to the line. So Rodriguez married you.”
“A political bond,” I whispered.
“An obligation. He resented it from the beginning.”
I thought of the cold glances. The dismissive touch. The way he only softened when Elisa’s name was spoken.
Maya’s voice dropped. “He never forgave you for being forced into his life. You weren’t the mate he chose. You were the symbol he had to uphold.”
“And now that Elisa is back…”
“He’s trying to rewrite the past.”
A slow breath left my lungs. The air tasted metallic. I felt nothing for a moment. No heartbreak. Just understanding. A horrible, perfect understanding.
“Why are you telling me this now?” I asked.
“Because,” she said, “you deserve to leave with your sanity intact.”
Later that night, Rodriguez found me.
I was outside, under the pines, my body numb with ache and instinct.
“You’ve been busy,” he said behind me.
I didn’t turn. “So have you.”
His steps crunched closer. “Maya speaks too freely.”
“Not freely enough.”
He circled me. There was no pretense now. No gentleness. Just calculation. Cold eyes and clenched jaw.
“You want the truth?” he asked. “Fine. You were a burden. You still are.”
I stared at him.
“You think I wanted to waste years beside a girl who couldn’t even remember where she came from? The Council wanted to preserve your father’s legacy. So I played the role.”
“And Elisa?” I asked.
“Elisa is mine. She always was. She was supposed to be Luna. She was taken from me—and then they gave me you to patch the hole.”
Each word landed like a stone. But I didn’t flinch. Not this time.
He leaned in. “This was never about love. It was about keeping you quiet, obedient. Useful.”
“And now you want to give my children to your sick ex-mate like a parting gift?”
He didn’t deny it.
“You’ll lose the pack,” I said.
He laughed. “You think they care? Half of them already follow Elisa’s scent like she’s some wounded saint.”
“You’re afraid of me now,” I said, stepping closer.
His eyes narrowed.
“I’m not the girl they forced into your bed. I’m not your burden. I’m a mother. And I’ll die before I let you touch them.”.
The feeding came before dawn.
Always before dawn—when the world was quiet, and screams could be swallowed by the fog.
I was dragged from sleep by the sharp tug of my arm, IV already set. Maya didn’t speak this time. Her eyes were tired, her hands trembling.
“Don’t,” I whispered.
She didn’t meet my gaze.
The hallway outside Elisa’s chamber smelled of bitter roots and old blood. The guards stationed at the door didn’t bother to hide their contempt. I was no longer the Luna. I was a vessel, a donor, a thing.
Inside, the room was lit with low firelight. Elisa lay reclined on furs, her thin form shrouded in soft blankets. Her eyes gleamed as I entered, hollow and sharp like a predator who hadn’t had to chase her prey in weeks.
"Anna," she said, all sweet warmth, like syrup on poisoned meat. "You look tired."
I didn’t answer. I was too focused on staying upright. The twins stirred beneath my ribs, uneasy.
Rodriguez stood by the hearth, arms crossed. He didn’t look at me. Not even once.
Maya motioned me to kneel. I obeyed, only because I had no strength to fight.
Elisa’s fingers brushed my hair. “You’ve been such a blessing,” she murmured. “So… giving.”
I wanted to rip her throat out.
But I stayed still as Maya opened the vein beneath my skin and held the chalice beneath it.
The room tilted. Elisa’s breath quickened. Her lips parted in hunger. She drank slowly—almost lovingly—from the warm bowl, her throat working in silence.
I watched the blood disappear from my body and into hers.
And in that moment, I saw it.
The lie behind her eyes.
She didn’t just need me weak. She wanted me gone.
Later, as I lay on the cold cot in the infirmary, barely conscious, I heard them whispering.
Elisa and Maya. Or at least I thought it was Maya—until the second voice laughed, soft and low.
“She’s breaking,” Elisa said. “Soon, she’ll slip. Her mind is already fraying.”
“Not fast enough,” the voice responded. I didn’t recognize it—one of the lesser healers, maybe. One of Elisa’s silent shadows.
“She’s carrying his heirs. Do you think I’ll let her survive that?”
“What if they come out strong?”
“Then I’ll nurse them. Raise them. And when they’re old enough to understand, I’ll teach them how their real mother begged me to spare her.”
They both laughed.
The sound made my bones vibrate.
That night, I didn’t sleep.
I couldn’t.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Elisa with blood on her lips and my children in her arms.
The plan was clear now. Rodriguez would let me bleed until there was nothing left. And Elisa would step into the light, reborn as the mother of wolves.
My death wasn’t a side effect.
It was the point.
