Alliana’s POV
My head felt like it was splitting open.
The first thing I saw when I woke up was the empty bottle on the bedside table. I groaned and pressed my palm against my forehead. My mouth tasted bitter, and every part of my body felt heavy. I never drank. Not even during banquets. But last night… last night I needed something, anything, to numb the pain of hearing Alpha Benedict’s true thoughts.
I squeezed my eyes shut. It hurt to even breathe. A soft whimper broke through my pounding headache.
My eyes flew open.
“Dione?” I whispered, forcing myself to sit up.
He was curled beside me, tiny body shaking in his sleep. His brows were furrowed, his lips trembling as if he was trapped in a nightmare. Tears were stuck on his lashes.
My heart tightened instantly. “Baby…”
I reached out and touched his hand, it was burning. Not warm. Not feverish. Burning.
“Dione!” I gasped.
His little fingers twitched weakly. He wasn’t fully waking up. He only shook his head, crying in his sleep.
Panic shot through my chest like lightning.
No. No, no, no. This wasn’t normal. He had gotten sick before, but never like this. Never this hot.
I pulled him into my arms, my body trembling. “It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s here. Mommy will get medicine. Just hold on, okay?”
But his head fell against my shoulder, limp.
I swallowed the scream forming in my throat.
I placed him gently down, wrapped him in a blanket, and ran out of the room. My feet stumbled on the steps because of my hangover, but I forced myself forward. The clinic was just three buildings away.
I needed to get him medicine. I needed to get him help. Nothing else mattered.
But then—she appeared. Hannah.
She stepped into my path with a fake, gentle smile on her lips. A smile I once thought was harmless. A smile I now knew hid poison.
“Move,” I snapped, trying to walk past her. “Dione is sick. I need to get to the clinic.”
She blocked me again. “Oh? Sick?” She looked at her maids. She didn’t know I can already hear.
“Please. Move. I don’t have time,” I said as I tried to walk towards the direction of the clinic again.
Instead of moving, she smirked. Then she lifted her phone and typed something.
She turned the screen to me. [Jump off the pond first]
I froze.
My stomach twisted. “What…?”
She tilted her head, still smiling like she was talking to a child. [Did you read it?] She typed.
I let out a shaky laugh. “This isn’t funny. My son is sick.”
She didn’t laugh. She typed again, slowly, and showed me. [Jump now]
My throat went dry. Her eyes glittered with amusement.
Behind her, I saw her men, two pack guards, step forward, blocking the clinic entrance.
“Hannah,” I whispered, breath shaking. “Please. I’m begging you. Let me get my son medicine. He’s burning up. He needs it.”
She shrugged as if it was nothing. [Then jump.] I saw those words on her phone.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear her hair out. I wanted to drag her to the ground and make her feel the fear I felt.
But Dione… Dione needed me. Dione needed medicine. My child’s life was more important than my pride.
I clenched my jaw, my eyes burning with hate. “Fine.”
A satisfied smile stretched across her lips.
I turned and walked toward the pond near the clinic. Snowdust covered the stone path. Winter had only started a few days ago, and the water below the small bridge was freezing.
The wind was cruel. The world was cold.
And Hannah laughed behind me.
I stepped onto the bridge, gripping the railing once, just once, before I forced myself to jump.
The cold hit me like a wall.
The shock tore the breath from my lungs. My body froze instantly. It felt like needles stabbed through every inch of my skin. I kicked upward, gasping, my teeth chattering uncontrollably as I climbed out onto the concrete.
Water dripped from my dress. My hair stuck to my face. My bones shook.
Hannah’s laughter echoed. The maids around her giggled, covering their mouths.
“Look at her,” one whispered. “The stupid Luna.”
“She’s so gullible,” another said.
“No wonder Alpha hates her.”
I stared at them for one long, painful second.
Then I walked past them without a word.
I was drenched and freezing, but I pushed open the clinic door, grabbed the needed medicine with trembling hands, and ran back to my son.
When I held Dione again, he whimpered and buried his face in my chest. “Mommy…”
My heart shattered. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”
I fed him the medicine, wiped his sweat, and wrapped him in two blankets. His breathing steadied slowly, but mine didn’t.
This pack wasn’t safe. Not for me. Not for my son.
I finally understood how deep the danger was. I needed to get out. I needed to leave. I needed to save my child.
By evening, I finally changed out of my wet clothes. My body was cold, my throat sore. I felt dizzy and nauseous, but I didn’t have time to rest.
A maid knocked on my door. “Luna Alliana, Alpha Benedict requests your presence for dinner.”
I kissed Dione’s forehead one more time before heading to the dining hall.
The moment I entered, the warm smell of roasted meat filled the air. But all I felt was disgust.
Hannah was already seated beside Benedict. She always was. She poured soup into his bowl, smiled at him softly, brushed invisible lint off his shoulder.
And Benedict let her. As if she were the Luna. As if I didn’t exist.
I sat in my usual spot, three seats away from them, far enough that they thought I couldn’t hear. For five years, they talked freely in front of me, thinking I was deaf.
Tonight, I heard everything.
“So,” Hannah said casually, taking a sip of her wine, “how will you explain to the elders that your marriage to her was fake?”
My hands froze around my spoon. My head snapped in her direction before I could stop myself.
Her eyes narrowed.
Shit.
I immediately grabbed a dish near her side of the table, pretending that was the reason I turned my head so fast. I forced a small, polite smile.
She didn’t say anything else. She didn’t suspect. I exhaled slowly.
Benedict leaned back in his chair, voice calm. “I’m the Alpha. Everything goes my way. And deceiving Alliana with a fake marriage was a minor thing. Her pack wanted repayment. I let her stay here as my Luna for five years. Isn’t that enough gratitude?”
My vision blurred. My marriage… Fake?
Five years… fake?
Now I understood why no real ceremony happened. Why no elder official ever came. Why the mark he gave me was weak, almost incomplete.
I thought it was because I was deaf. I thought it was because he didn’t want to pressure me.
But it was all fake. A performance. A show.
And I was the fool who played my role too well.
I gripped the edge of the table to keep myself steady. I couldn’t break down here. Not in front of them.
I finished dinner in silence, ignoring the chatter between Benedict and Hannah. I didn’t taste any of the food. It felt like dust in my mouth.
When it was finally over, I ran to my room.
But when I opened the door— Empty.
Dione wasn’t there.
My heart stopped. My lungs froze.
“Dione?!” I shouted, running to the bathroom, then the balcony, then under the blankets. “Dione? Baby?! Dione!”
He wasn’t anywhere. Panic seized my chest. I ran down the hall, grabbing the nearest maid. “Where is my son?! Did you see Dione?!”
She shook her head quickly, frightened.
Then Hannah appeared at the end of the hallway, holding a notepad as if she had been waiting for me.
She walked toward me slowly, her smile calm, almost bored. She flipped the notepad around.
[Your child was very sick. I sent him to the hospital.]
My blood ran cold.
“You… what?” My voice cracked.
She flipped another page.
[You weren’t here. Someone had to take responsibility.]
I didn’t believe her. I didn’t trust her. I didn’t trust anything in this place anymore.
But Dione was sick. And if there was even 1% chance he really was taken to the hospital, I had to go.
I didn’t waste another second. I ran.
Out of the pack house. Down the frozen path.
Past the guards who didn’t even look at me.
My lungs burned. My legs shook. My heart pounded.
“Please,” I whispered to myself, tears stinging my eyes. “Please be okay. Please be there.”
Because if they touched him— If they harmed him— I would burn this entire pack to the ground.
