Eight months later
The maternity ward buzzed with warmth and celebration. Families crowded around the other beds, laughing softly while admiring the newborns in their mothers' arms. Some were already talking about the babies' futures as if those tiny lives had always belonged in the world.
I watched everything quietly from my corner of the room.
No one stood beside my bed.
Nobody came to see my child. Nobody asked whether I was alright after the delivery. The little boy sleeping against my chest meant nothing to anyone except me.
In the end, it was only the two of us against everyone else.
The realization hurt more than I wanted to admit, but I kept forcing myself to stay strong. I had no other choice now.
I lowered my eyes to my son and gently adjusted the blanket wrapped around him. How could anyone look at something so small and innocent and call him a mistake?
How could parents throw away their own daughter simply because she carried a child?
The delivery itself had nearly broken me.
More than thirty-four hours of agony had torn through my body without stopping. Every contraction felt endless. Nobody comforted me. Nobody held my hand through the pain. The midwives barely hid their annoyance whenever I cried out for help. More than once, they coldly told me to stay quiet.
I had never felt so humiliated in my entire life.
Across from me, another woman lay surrounded by love. Her mate held her hand the entire time while whispering comforting words into her ear. Even after hours of labor, he never left her side.
Watching them hurt worse than the contractions themselves.
Being a werewolf had never been easy, especially while carrying the burden of the Alpha's bloodline on my shoulders. Ever since childhood, my life had revolved around responsibility. Strength, leadership, discipline, loyalty to the pack. Those expectations followed me everywhere.
But the pregnancy had destroyed all of it.
One single night had erased my future. They took away my position, my title, and the life I had spent years preparing for. Everything changed after that night. It felt as though my entire existence had been cut into two separate parts. The person I used to be no longer existed.
The sound of approaching footsteps pulled me out of my thoughts.
A nurse walked into the room and grabbed the chart hanging at the foot of my bed. She read through it silently before lifting her eyes toward me over the edge of her glasses. Her expression stayed cold and professional, but the judgment behind it was impossible to miss. Every person in this place looked at me the same way. A young woman with a child and no official mate beside her. The fathers of the other babies stood proudly near the beds, smiling down at their children and supporting their partners.
Meanwhile, the father of my son was nowhere to be found.
"Do you seriously not know who the father is?" she asked while clicking her tongue disapprovingly.
My fingers tightened slightly around the blanket wrapped around my baby. I knew exactly who the father was.
Better than anyone.
But if Valentin ever learned the truth, he would come after me. I'd already seen his anger once when I told him about the pregnancy.
And the cruelest part of all? He didn't even remember me.
An Alpha from an enemy pack.
Keeping my mouth shut and pretending I didn't know who he was remained the safest option. I'd already humiliated my family enough. If Dad ever discovered I had slept with an Alpha carrying rival blood, he wouldn't forgive me for it.
The nurse tossed her red hair over her shoulder before glancing down at my baby again.
"Your son's adorable," she admitted casually. Then her expression twisted with mockery. "Too bad his mother makes terrible decisions," she sneered, and the tips of her fangs showed as she spoke.
I slowly turned my face away from her.
"Can I at least get some paracetamol?" I asked quietly, acting as though her insult hadn't affected me.
Since arriving at the hospital, people hadn't stopped throwing comments like that at me. Every look and every whisper carried judgment. Meanwhile, the pounding in my head kept getting worse.
"No. It isn't written on your chart."
"It's only a painkiller," I murmured tiredly. "I'm not asking for anything serious..."
"The chart is what matters," she interrupted sharply while setting it beside me. "You'll deal with the pain without it."
I lowered my eyes to my baby again and stayed silent. Most she-wolves recovered quickly after childbirth because their healing abilities activated almost immediately. But I had never completed my first transformation. Without my wolf fully awakened, my body healed painfully slowly compared to theirs.
"Could I at least get something to eat?"
My stomach cramped painfully from hunger. Breastfeeding drained what little strength I still had left.
The nurse barely looked at me. "You were admitted after dinner hours. Breakfast starts at seven."
My eyes shifted toward the clock on the wall. Only eight in the evening. An entire night still stood between me and the next meal.
I gave a small nod and stopped asking. There was no point wasting my breath. Nobody in this place cared enough to help me anyway.
Lately, the same thought kept returning to me over and over again. Sometimes, I wanted to take my son and disappear somewhere far from Mountainview City. Somewhere nobody knew my name or my shame. Somewhere we could begin again without the pack watching us like we were filth.
The nurse started walking away but paused beside the curtain before leaving.
"Have you ever thought about the woman officially tied to him?" she asked coldly. "Imagine discovering your mate got another woman pregnant behind your back."
Pain tightened inside my chest. I had thought about that every single day since discovering the pregnancy.
But Valentin had made choices too. This wasn't something I had done alone.
I pressed my lips together hard to stop myself from crying again. Then I lowered my gaze toward the baby resting quietly in my arms.
His eyes stared back at me. Amber. There was no doubt where they came from.
Mine had always been a pale shade between blue and gray.
After feeding my son, I carefully settled him against my chest until he finally drifted back to sleep. His tiny breathing slowly calmed, and for a moment, I simply held him there while exhaustion weighed down every part of my body. Then I noticed the head nurse walking past my room.
I quickly raised my hand to stop her.
Unlike the others, she looked young. Her long, smooth hair fell neatly over her shoulders, and she couldn't have been much older than me. For one foolish second, I hoped she might show at least a little kindness.
She walked over and picked up my chart.
"Could I please have some water? Or maybe tea?" I asked quietly.
The warmth vanished from her face almost instantly.
Her eyes turned cold as she pressed the call button beside my bed.
My son shifted restlessly inside the crib beside me, and I instinctively leaned over to lift him into my arms again. The movement sent a sharp cramp through my abdomen, stealing the air from my lungs.
A second nurse hurried into the room. The head nurse didn't even lower her voice.
"Why is she still here?" she asked sharply, as though I wasn't supposed to exist in that room at all.
The other nurse looked uncomfortable. "Move her to the ward for single mothers," the head nurse ordered. "She shouldn't be staying here."
My entire body went still.
On the other side of the curtain, I heard another patient whisper softly to her mate.
"I knew there had to be something wrong. Nobody ever came to visit her. Now it makes sense."
The words followed me like poison. Every woman in that ward had someone standing beside her. Mates, parents, friends. They were surrounded by love and attention while I sat alone like something people preferred not to look at.
A nurse unlocked the wheels beneath my bed and pushed me out of the room.
I tightened my grip around the rail while they rolled me through the long hospital corridors. The entire thing felt less like being transferred and more like being cast out.
Eventually, the nurse stopped in front of another curtained area. Without saying a single word, she turned and started walking away.
"Wait..." My throat felt painfully dry. "Could I at least have some water?"
She didn't even acknowledge me.
"Don't bother asking," a female voice said nearby. "None of them care."
The curtain slowly pulled back.
Two young women stood on the other side watching me.
One of them was blonde with striking green eyes and looked a few years older than me. The second girl looked much younger, almost still a teenager. Her black hair barely reached her jaw.
The blonde offered me a small smile. "I'm Mary," she said gently.
"Emely," I answered quietly.
Mary gave a small nod before gesturing toward the younger girl beside her. "And that's Zhoé," she said. Then her smile faded into something more bitter. "Welcome to the ward for outcasts."
The words landed heavily inside my chest. Mary leaned against the side of the bed and lowered her voice slightly. "Trust me, the only people you can rely on here are us. If you can leave this place quickly, do it."
A frown pulled at my face. "But taking care of us is literally their job..."
Mary let out a dry laugh without humor. "I've been stuck here for two days already. My baby's having complications, and they barely check on him. As for the food..." She rolled her eyes. "You can forget about that."
She reached into her bag and pulled out a cereal bar before placing it into my hand.
"You look exhausted. You should eat something."
"Is this your first baby?" I asked while holding my son carefully against my chest.
Mary nodded.
"My mother raised me by herself too," she admitted softly. "Looks like the curse runs in the family."
I stayed quiet for a moment while finishing the cereal bar, grateful for the kindness.
Then I looked toward the younger girl. "Did you have a boy or a girl?" I asked Zhoé.
"A girl," Zhoé answered softly. "What about you?"
"A boy."
"Thank you," I said to Mary.
"Eat as much as you want. I packed enough food for days." Then she studied me more carefully. "What pack are you from? Your aura's intense."
I hesitated before answering, "Alpha blood."
Mary's eyes widened slightly. Then she slowly nodded in understanding.
"Yeah... I understand why you don't want to say anything else," she murmured. "Everyone in this room has their own story. We're basically the pack's unwanted rebels."
"Do you have anywhere to stay after you leave here?" I asked. "Maybe a shelter or refuge?"
"I do," Zhoé answered first. "But the place is already overcrowded."
Mary shrugged lightly. "I'm staying with my mother and little brother."
Then Zhoé looked directly at me. "And you?"
A heavy silence settled in my chest. I slowly shook my head.
"I'll manage somehow." I forced the words out calmly even though they barely felt true.
For the last eight months, I'd been surviving inside an old car I bought for five hundred dollars. It barely ran properly, and most nights were miserable. But I couldn't bring myself to admit that out loud. Not to them.
Life had already crushed us enough. The pack treated women like us as though we no longer belonged among them. People looked at us with disgust the second they learned we had children without official mates. But despite all that cruelty, Mary and Zhoé became the only people who showed me any kindness after I was moved into that ward.
The next morning, Mary shared her food with me again without hesitation.
And they had been telling the truth. Nobody else came.
No meals arrived unless we begged repeatedly for them. Most of the nurses ignored us completely. They barely checked on our babies, and they certainly didn't care about us mothers.
It was like we had become invisible the moment we gave birth.
