The scent of bloodroot and burning sage clung to the air when I opened my eyes, the sting of pain dulled only by the throbbing emptiness in my chest. I was in the healer’s den—dim, quiet, and far too sterile for the storm clawing inside me.
Will sat by my side, head bowed against the cot, his hand wrapped around mine as though I were the one who had betrayed him.
“Sharon,” he whispered, voice trembling. “I thought I lost you.”
His other hand brushed my cheek with deceptive tenderness. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t move.
“You shouldn’t have gone into the woods alone,” he said, eyes glistening with concern that no longer fooled me. “The healer said… it was close. Too close.”
My throat was dry. I forced a smile, brittle and faint. “I slipped. The rain… I didn’t see the root.”
He exhaled, relief flooding his features. “You’re everything to me. You know that, right?”
I nodded, because the truth would’ve torn the walls down.
Just hours earlier, I had stood beneath a crimson-smeared moon, the forest alive with whispers and shadows. My boots crushed the damp undergrowth as I clutched a wooden box—small, carved with runes older than memory. Inside was the pendant of the Blood Oath, a sacred symbol blessed by the elders. It was meant to be a gift. A vow. A promise of forever between mates.
But I didn’t only carry that.
Tucked inside my coat was something far more delicate—a parchment that had confirmed what I dared to hope. I was carrying Will’s child. The next Alpha of the Midnight Moon Pack.
I’d spent the entire walk rehearsing how to tell him. Would I offer the pendant first, then the news? Or would the joy burst from me before I could contain it?
The Alpha’s hall loomed ahead, towering spires silhouetted against the bleeding sky. I reached for the door, but voices made me pause—faint, clipped, laced with tension.
“You think Sharon needs to know?” Will’s voice, low and cold.
“It’s done. There’s no going back,” Roman replied. His Beta. His friend.
Something in me tightened.
“You drained her mother’s life force to save Minnie,” Roman snarled. “If Sharon finds out—”
My breath caught.
“She was already fading,” Will’s voice was devoid of remorse. “The full moon would’ve killed her. I just… quickened the inevitable.”
Minnie. The she-wolf he once vowed to protect. The same one my former mate abandoned me for—before rogues ended his life.
“She was a means to an end,” Will went on. “Sharon’s bloodline secured my rank. That’s all she ever was.”
My hand slipped. The parchment fluttered to the ground. I didn’t even notice the pendant fall, its soft clink echoing louder than thunder.
“She worships you,” Roman said, voice low. “And you’ve lied for three years.”
“I mated her. That should be enough.”
A crack split through me.
I stumbled back, bile rising, vision blurring. The forest swallowed me whole as I fled, branches slashing my skin, the past three years unraveling with every step. My mother. The woman I had buried with honor. He had stolen her life—for her. For Minnie.
I didn’t see the root until it caught my foot. I crashed hard, pain flaring in my side. And then—blood. The scent hit me like a blade. I touched my stomach, horror flooding in.
No, no, no—
The last thing I saw before the world darkened was the parchment, blood-soaked and torn.
You are with child.
And now, here I was—fragile, healing, and broken beyond repair—listening to lies dressed as love.
He pulled me into his arms. “I’ll protect you. Always.”
The word thudded in my chest like poison.
Liar.
I let him hold me. Let him believe I was still his.
But beneath my stillness, I made a vow.
He stole my mother, my truth, my joy—and nearly my child.
Now it was my turn to take everything.
