After three years of marriage without conceiving, Alpha Ethan Carter and I sought the blessings of the Moon Goddess through the sacred Moonstone Rite. For an entire year, we endured countless rituals beneath the full moon, prayers offered at the Moon Temple, and the guidance of the pack healers before I was finally blessed with life growing in my womb.
The pregnancy was far more difficult than anyone had expected.
Carrying four pups at once drained me day by day. I spent months unable to keep food down, waking before dawn to sickness that left me trembling. My stomach grew heavy and round far too quickly, stretching until it felt as though my skin could no longer contain the lives within.
The healers urged us to consider a reduction ritual.
"Alpha," they had said gravely, "Luna Sophia's body may not withstand carrying all four pups to term."
Ethan refused without hesitation.
"Sophia, these are all our children," he told me as he cradled my face. "I will not sacrifice any of them. I cannot bear such a loss."
Pale and exhausted, I rested my hand over my swollen stomach and nodded.
Neither could I.
By the sixth moon of my pregnancy, Ethan's Beta brothers had started placing wagers on the genders of the pups.
When the healer finally revealed the answer through a divination ceremony, the result was three males and one female.
Ethan won the wager and collected a fortune in moonstones.
Later that evening, while searching for him inside the packhouse, I heard familiar voices drifting from the council chamber.
"Alpha Ethan, your plan was brilliant," one of the warriors laughed. "You made Sophia carry pups for four different females."
Ethan's voice was calm and unhurried.
"Since I cannot give them the title of Luna, this is the least I can do. Sophia occupies that position. It is only natural that she bears this responsibility."
A cold shiver swept through me.
My breath caught in my throat.
The four pups inside me...
They were not mine.
"Alpha, you truly solved all four problems at once," Ryan Walker said admiringly. "Four females, four pups. No one loses."
"Olivia Hayes was the saddest case," another added with a sigh. "The most beautiful she-wolf of our generation, taken by moon sickness before her time. Fortunately, Alpha Ethan left her a bloodline. Once Sophia gives birth, Olivia's pup will live on."
"And Chloe Morgan has loved Alpha Ethan for nearly twenty years," someone else said. "She never asked to become Luna. She only wanted a pup from the male she loved."
A third voice joined in.
"Everyone knows Alpha Ethan's heart belongs only to Sisi. That's why he came up with this arrangement. The females get the pups they wanted, and he remains loyal to his true mate."
The room erupted in low laughter.
"Have you ever wondered what Sophia will do when she finds out?" one warrior asked. "When she learns the pups in her womb belong to other females, she'll probably lose her mind."
Ethan sounded utterly indifferent.
"So what if she finds out? She only has herself to blame for taking a place that was never meant for her."
More laughter followed.
"Exactly. Even if she learns the truth, she'll still give birth obediently. She's endured everything just to become Luna of this pack. No matter how many times Alpha Ethan pushes her away, she always comes running back."
Their mockery filled the chamber.
I stood frozen outside the door.
The cold spread from my feet to every part of my body.
Instinctively, I lowered my gaze to my swollen stomach.
My fingers curled against my palm until my nails bit into my skin.
What did this mean?
The pups I had carried for six agonizing moons...
weren't mine?
Every day I had endured sickness so severe I could barely stand. My ankles were swollen, my body weak, and my hair came away in handfuls whenever I brushed it.
Before that had come a year of Moonstone Rites, fertility ceremonies, healing tonics, and endless prayers to the Moon Goddess.
I had suffered through all of it believing these pups belonged to Ethan and me.
Yet now I was learning that each pup had been conceived for another female.
The voices inside the chamber continued speaking, but I could no longer hear their words.
I knew Olivia Hayes.
We had belonged to neighboring packs when we were young. I remembered hearing that she had succumbed to moon sickness not long ago, and I had mourned her passing from afar.
Never, even in my darkest thoughts, had I imagined that after her death I would be carrying her pup inside my womb.
Or that the Alpha I had loved for years had turned me into nothing more than a vessel for the females he truly cared about.
