At the same time, my daughters' voices echoed through my mind.
"Mother, we love Father so much. He's the strongest Alpha in the whole pack."
"Mother, we miss Father. Will he come home to see us tonight?"
"We love Mother most in the world... and Father second."
Then came the final words they had ever spoken to me.
"Mother, please don't argue with Father because of us."
"We weren't good pups. This is our fault."
They had whispered those words as they lay dying in my arms after I reached the Iron Fang Den.
I drew a slow breath.
Without sparing Jordon a glance, I walked past him and sat quietly on the edge of the bed.
My silence only seemed to anger him.
He strode over, grabbed my shoulders, and threw me back onto the bed.
One hand pinned both of my wrists above my head.
"What is this now?" he demanded. "Didn't you have your sister summon me back?"
Before I could react, he lowered his head, trying to claim my lips.
Disgust surged through me.
Unable to break free, I bit down hard.
Jordon cursed and jerked away, touching his bleeding lip.
"Diana, have you lost your mind?"
"I can't stand the sight of you."
"You fool Grandfather with that innocent face, then drag me back here only to pretend you don't want me."
"Pathetic."
He laughed bitterly.
"Your daughters turned out exactly like you."
"Soft. Weak. Manipulative."
I bit my own lip until I tasted blood.
Then I interrupted him quietly.
"Our daughters are dead."
His expression stiffened.
For the briefest moment, disbelief crossed his face.
Then he scoffed.
"So you've learned Annette is carrying my pup, and now you've decided to invent something this outrageous?"
"Diana, you've become completely unreasonable."
He turned and walked toward the door.
Before leaving, he glanced back coldly.
"Since you're the one refusing me, don't run to Grandfather later and complain that I ignore you."
"It'll only make me despise you even more."
The chamber fell silent after he left.
I stumbled into the washroom.
Again and again, I scrubbed my mouth until my lips bled, desperate to erase the lingering taste of my mate.
There had once been a time when we truly loved each other.
On the night of my Coming of Age Ceremony, eighteen-year-old Jordon had stood beneath the Moon Goddess's sacred tree, his ears flushed with embarrassment.
"Diana," he had whispered.
"I don't want to be only your childhood companion anymore."
"I want to become your mate."
His voice had trembled, but the determination in his golden eyes had melted my heart.
For years afterward, he cherished me with a devotion that seemed endless.
I loved him just as deeply.
When we were both twenty-two, Alpha Howell called us into the ancestral hall.
"You've both reached the age to choose your mates," he said gently.
"Diana's grandfather once saved my life."
"I cannot bear to see her leave this pack."
He looked at us with a warm smile.
"What would you think of becoming true mates?"
Everything changed after that.
Almost overnight, Jordon became distant.
The tenderness in his eyes vanished as though it had never existed.
No matter how many times I asked what had happened, he refused to answer.
A year after our mating ceremony, I conceived our twin daughters.
From that day on, Jordon rarely returned to the packhouse.
He spent his nights outside, openly accompanying his former lover without caring who saw them.
I questioned him once.
He only looked at me as though I were beneath contempt.
"You got everything you wanted."
"You became the Luna of the Howell Pack."
"You gave the pack heirs."
"So why are you still making a scene?"
"Stop pretending you're the victim."
"It makes me sick."
After that day, I never asked him for an explanation again.
I poured every remaining piece of my heart into raising our daughters.
I truly believed...
As long as they were with me, it was enough.
