Alliana’s POV
I searched everywhere. The hospital hallways. Every corner. Every room. Every possible path leading away from the building.
“Please, please! Did you see a little boy?” I asked every nurse I passed, my voice hoarse. “He’s three. Curly hair. Warm scent. His name is Dione. Please, anything—”
Everyone shook their heads.
“He was just here… he was… he was in this bed…” I whispered to myself, gripping the metal rails until my knuckles turned white. “Where are you… baby… where did they take you…”
I pushed open emergency exits. Checked supply rooms. Looked behind curtains. My legs trembled with exhaustion and fear.
Nothing.
My brother’s warriors arrived shortly after, their presence thick and strong in the air. One of them approached gently.
“Lady Alliana,” he said, voice soft. “We will help you. We’ll search everywhere.”
I nodded, wiping tears I couldn’t control. “Please find him. Please… I can’t… I can’t lose him…”
“We’ll find your son,” the warrior repeated. “Alpha Cain ordered us to protect you.”
We entered the woods behind the hospital. The rain hadn’t started yet, but the sky was dark, heavy, waiting to break.
“Spread out,” one warrior ordered. “Dione might be somewhere near.”
I walked with them, but I could barely see the ground through my tears.
“Dione!” I shouted, voice cracking. “Baby, answer Mommy! Please! Just let me hear you once—”
Nothing answered. No tiny voice. No cry. No footsteps. Only my own fear.
“Lady Alliana,” a warrior said gently. “You need to breathe. We’ll find him—”
“No,” I whispered. “I can’t stop. I can’t rest. He’s out here. Alone. Sick. Terrified. I have to keep going.”
My legs felt like they would collapse, but I forced them forward.
Then, a rustle. A growl. Before I could react, wolves burst from between the trees and lunged at us.
“AMBUSH!” someone shouted.
Everything happened fast. My brother’s warriors shifted instantly, bodies cracking into their wolf forms. Massive forms collided in flashes of claws and teeth.
I froze for a heartbeat, watching wolves slam into each other, snarling and biting. The sound of bones hitting earth. The smell of blood. A flash of fangs near my shoulder.
“Stay behind us, Lady Alliana!” a warrior roared.
One enemy wolf leaped toward me, jaws open wide. But a Crownfest wolf tackled him, sending them both rolling across the forest floor.
I stumbled back, breathing hard, heart hammering.
That’s when I saw her. Standing behind the attackers. Hannah. Her smile was small. Cold. So this was her doing. The kidnapping. The disappearance. Sending wolves to kill me.
All of it.
My nails dug into my palms until they bled. But I didn’t go after her. As much as I wanted to tear her apart, my son came first. Dione mattered more.
After a brutal fight, my brother’s warriors subdued the attackers and tied them up. Hannah had already disappeared into the trees, like a coward hiding her own smell.
“We have to keep moving,” one warrior said. “We won’t find him if the storm starts.”
I nodded, even if my legs were barely holding me up.
We searched again. And again.
But the rain finally broke. Thunder crashed overhead. Rain poured down in sheets. Mist rose from the ground like smoke, hiding everything from sight.
“We’re losing visibility,” a warrior warned. “We’ll lose tracks—”
“I DON’T CARE!” I shouted. “I’m not stopping! He’s out here! I can feel it!”
My voice cracked and broke. I would rather die than stop looking for him.
But then, a familiar scent. Alpha Benedict.
I stiffened. He appeared through the mist with several Snowstorm warriors behind him. And next to him was Hannah. Clinging to his arm like a wounded deer, blanket over her shoulders, fake tears on her face.
“Alpha… I was so scared…” she cried into his chest. “They took me… the kidnappers were terrifying…”
Benedict held her protectively. “You’re safe now. I’m here.”
Then Hannah gasped loudly. “Alpha… I… I saw Dione…”
I froze. My breath caught.
“What?” Benedict asked.
“T-The kidnappers… were threatening us…” Hannah sobbed. “I was so scared…”
Hannah looked at me, eyes trembling in fake guilt.
“They told me that only one of us can live… I have to choose who will remain… but…” She cried harder. “But I accidentally pushed Dione off the cliff!”
My heart snapped. “What…?” I whispered to myself. “No…”
“I couldn’t catch him…” Hannah cried. “It all happened so fast…” She buried herself deeper into Alpha Benedict’s arm.
“A gentle soul like you,” Benedict whispered, stroking her hair. “You’re not at fault. Alliana wouldn’t understand anyway. Just tell her he fell on his own. She can’t hear.”
My breath stopped. He didn’t know I could hear. And he wanted her to lie. To cover her crime. Even if it meant saying our son died by accident.
Hannah nodded obediently. Then she stepped toward me and lifted her hands.
[I’m sorry, Alliana. Dione fell off the cliff himself. He was so scared.]
I stared at her. At those hands. At those orchestrated lies.
But Hannah wasn’t done. She walked closer and hugged me. Tight.
My body froze. Then her whisper hit my ear like a knife. “I pushed your son down the cliff.”
Something inside me exploded. I screamed and lunged at her, rage blinding me. “You—YOU KILLED MY SON!” I roared, reaching for her throat.
But Benedict shoved me hard. I fell to the ground. Mud splashed around me.
“Don’t touch her,” he snarled. “Hannah is the victim here.”
He wrapped his arm around Hannah again, shielding her like she was precious.
And me? He left me kneeling in the mud. In the rain. In the dark.
“Just let her be,” Benedict muttered as he walked away with Hannah in his arms. “It serves her right for trying to hurt you. She’s just a fake Luna anyway, and I don’t need that child. I don’t consider him as my heir.”
---
Alpha Benedict’s POV
I was pissed. Completely pissed. It had been days since Dione’s funeral, and I was preparing everything for the attack on Crownfest Pack. The plan was almost perfect. All I needed was Alliana.
She was the bait. But for days, she hadn’t shown herself.
I marched into the omega quarters and spotted the nanny— Abby. I knew she was the closest omega maid to that woman.
“Where’s that deaf woman?” I snapped. “Where the hell is Alliana?”
Abby stiffened. “S-She’s still mourning at the cliff, Alpha. But…”
“Still mourning? She’s being dramatic again.” I narrowed my eyes. “But what? Spit it out. I don’t have time for this.”
She lowered her head. “I… I’m just confused, Alpha.”
“About what?” My patience was thinning.
“Why you’re still calling Luna Alliana deaf…” Abby whispered.
I stared at her. “The fuck do you mean why? She is deaf. What’s your point?”
Abby swallowed hard. “B-But… Luna Alliana can hear. She regained her hearing a week ago.”
The world seemed to stop. “What the hell did you just say?” I barked.
“She can hear now, Alpha,” Abby repeated, voice trembling. “For a whole week already.”
My chest tightened. Images and words flashed in my head— every conversation I had with Hannah, every cruel thing I said, every plan I revealed, every insult, every moment I spoke freely in front of Alliana… thinking she couldn’t hear a thing.
She heard it all. All of it.
“Fuck…” I muttered under my breath, running a hand through my hair. “Fucking hell…”
