Aleida POV:
I sat in my car in the underground parking lot, the engine off, the darkness wrapping around me like a shroud.
I hadn't left the building yet. I couldn't. My body was frozen, caught between the instinct to flee and the instinct to fight.
I cracked the window open just an inch. My hearing strained upward, focusing back on that office on the top floor.
"She's going to be an Omega when this is done," Edison's voice drifted down, faint but clear to my focused senses. "No, lower. She'll be Rogue trash. We'll strip her of the pack name."
"She deserves worse," Derek said. The hatred in his voice was a physical blow. "Do you remember when Elsa left? Crying her eyes out?"
I remembered.
Elsa, Derek's adopted sister. The pack darling. Two years ago, she had come to me, weeping, saying the pressure of the pack was too much, that she wanted to study art in Paris but had no money.
I had given her my savings. I had helped her pack. I had driven her to the airport.
"Aleida forced her out," Derek continued, rewriting history with every word. "She threatened Elsa. She paid her to leave so she could have me all to herself. She broke our family apart."
My jaw tightened. Elsa had lied. She had taken my money and spun a story of victimization to keep Derek's sympathy.
"And now," Derek said, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl, "Elsa is coming home. Just in time to see the usurper fall."
"The timing is perfect," Edison said. "The Gathering is in two days. Elsa's return ceremony."
"We'll make it a double feature," Derek said. "Welcome Elsa, and unveil Aleida's infidelity. I want everyone to see the DNA test when that bastard is born. I want the rejection to be public."
"Let's raise the stakes," Edison suggested, his tone dripping with slime. "Double the pot. We bet on when she breaks. I give her ten minutes into the party before she starts crying."
"Five," Derek said.
"You know," Edison added, and I could hear the leer in his voice, "It's a shame you got snipped, Alpha. But I have to admit... before she got so big, I sampled the goods a few times while you were away on business. She wasn't bad."
I gagged. Bile rose in my throat, burning and acidic.
A lie. A filthy, disgusting lie. I had never touched another man. I had been faithful to Derek with every fiber of my being, with every instinct of my wolf.
"Did you?" Derek sounded indifferent. "Well, she's community property now. Or she will be soon."
My wolf howled. It was a sound of pure agony, echoing inside my skull.
He doesn't claim us. He shares us.
The bond-the sacred tie that the Moon Goddess weaves between mates-was being dragged through the mud. Derek wasn't just rejecting me; he was dehumanizing me. He was stripping away my dignity as a Luna, as a woman, as a mother.
I gripped the steering wheel until the leather creaked.
I wiped the tears from my face. They were useless. Tears wouldn't save my baby. Tears wouldn't clear my name.
I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror. My eyes, usually a soft hazel, were flashing gold. My wolf was surfacing, fueled by a rage that burned hotter than the sorrow.
"No," I whispered to the empty car.
I wouldn't just run away. I wouldn't just disappear into a clinic and erase the evidence.
They wanted a show? They wanted to gamble on my life?
I would give them a show.
I canceled the call to the underground doctor.
"Hold on, little one," I murmured, rubbing my belly. "Mommy has a plan."
I would go to that party. I would face Elsa. I would stand before the entire Obsidian Pack.
And I would use their own laws, their own arrogance, to bring this skyscraper crashing down on their heads.
I started the engine. The roar of the motor sounded like a war cry.
