Genevieve POV
I survived the night. But only just.
The Shift didn't happen. I fought it back, battling the transformation inch by agonizing inch, forcing my bones to stay set and shoving the fur back beneath my skin. If I Shifted now, if I let the wolf loose, the white fur would give everything away. Not like this. Not when I was weak.
I dragged myself back to the apartment as the sun bled over the horizon. My body felt hollowed out, scraped clean of energy, but my mind was strangely clear.
I was pregnant.
My hand drifted to my lower abdomen. A tiny spark of hope ignited in the ashes of my heart. A pup. Our pup. Surely, this would change things. Ignatz was obsessed with legacy, with bloodlines. Even if he hated me, he would love his child. He had to.
I washed the dirt off my face and walked into the living room. The air in the room was thick, choking and poisonous.
Evelyn was draped across the sofa, sobbing into a handkerchief with practiced theatricality. Ignatz was pacing, his fists clenched at his sides. Meredith stood by the window, looking like a vulture waiting to pick the bones clean.
"There she is!" Evelyn shrieked, pointing a manicured finger at me. "The thief!"
I blinked, leaning against the doorframe to keep my legs from buckling. "What?"
"My grandmother’s necklace," Evelyn wailed. "The diamond choker. It’s gone! I saw her lurking near my jewelry box yesterday!"
"I didn't touch your things," I said, my voice steady despite my exhaustion. "I was cleaning the slaughter shed all day. Ask your mother."
Meredith turned, her eyes gleaming with malice. "I saw you sneak back into the house, Genevieve. Don't lie."
Ignatz marched over to me, his Alpha aura flaring hot and angry. It hit me like a physical wave, sucking the oxygen from the room. "You steal from my future Luna? You ungrateful wretch."
"I didn't..."
"Shut up!"
His hand connected with my face.
The impact sent me sprawling to the floor. I tasted copper. My hand instinctively went to my stomach to protect it.
"Ignatz, please," I gasped, looking up at him. "I have something to tell you. It's important."
"I don't want to hear your lies," he growled.
Suddenly, Evelyn gasped. A sickly sweet, artificial scent flooded the room. It cloyed at the back of my throat, smelling of rotting roses and heavy, synthetic musk.
"Oh, Ignatz," she moaned, arching her back. "It's... it's my Heat. It's starting."
It was a lie. A Heat didn't come on like a light switch. It built up over days. But Ignatz, blinded by lust and stupidity, didn't care. His pupils dilated until his eyes were almost black.
"Get out," he snarled at me. "Get out of my sight before I kill you."
"Ignatz, I'm pregnant!" I screamed the words.
Silence crashed into the room.
Evelyn stopped moaning.
Meredith froze.
Ignatz blinked, the lust clearing for a second, replaced by pure shock. Then, disgust.
"Pregnant?" He looked at me as if I were a cockroach. "With whose bastard? You’re a No-Wolf. You can’t carry an Alpha’s child."
"It's yours," I cried. "From that night... three months ago."
"I was drunk," he said coldly. "That was a mistake. A disgusting mistake."
"It's a life! Your heir!"
"I will not have a weak, wolfless bastard tainting my bloodline!" Ignatz roared. "Get rid of it."
My blood ran cold. "What?"
"You heard me. Go to the Pack Doctor. Get rid of it. Or I will throw you out into the Rogue lands right now."
"No," I whispered, backing away. "I won't."
Evelyn stood up, her eyes narrowing. She walked over to me, a cruel smile playing on her lips.
"She pushed me!" she suddenly screamed, throwing herself backward onto the floor.
It was so obviously staged, a child could have seen through it. But Ignatz didn't want to see.
"You dare touch her?" Ignatz lunged.
He didn't just hit me this time. He used the Alpha Command.
"KNEEL!"
The word was a hammer against my soul. My body betrayed me instantly. My knees slammed into the hardwood floor with a sickening crack. I couldn't move. I was paralyzed by his voice, bound by the ancient law of our kind.
"You are a danger to this pack," Ignatz spat, looming over me. "You attacked my chosen mate. You lie about carrying my child to trap me."
"Mother," he turned to Meredith. "What is the punishment for harming a high-ranking wolf?"
"Imprisonment," Meredith said, her voice dripping with satisfaction. "Until she learns her place."
"Take her to the warehouse," Ignatz ordered the warriors who had just rushed in. "The cold one."
"Ignatz, please!" I begged as two burly warriors grabbed my arms. "The baby... the cold will kill it!"
"Good," he said, turning his back on me to help Evelyn up. "Problem solved."
They dragged me out.
I was thrown into the metal storage warehouse on the edge of the territory. It was winter, and the building had no heating. The floor was concrete ice.
The heavy iron door slammed shut, plunging me into darkness.
I curled up in the corner, trying to share my body heat with the tiny life inside me.
*Hold on,* I whispered to the baby. *Please, hold on. Grandpa is coming. He has to know.*
I tried to Mind-Link my father, but the distance was too great, and the cold was sapping my energy with terrifying speed.
Hours passed. The cold seeped into my marrow.
Then, the pain started. Not the cramp of hunger, but a sharp, tearing sensation deep in my womb.
"Ignatz!" I screamed, reaching for our link.
*Ignatz, help me! The baby!*
The link was dead. He had blocked me completely.
I felt a warm wetness spread between my legs, stark against the freezing concrete. The smell of iron filled the small space.
"No," I sobbed, clutching my stomach. "No, no, no..."
I was the daughter of the most powerful wolf in existence. I had royal blood. And I was bleeding out on a dirty floor, while my mate laughed in a warm house a mile away.
As the darkness took me, I felt something snap inside my chest.
Not a bone.
Not a muscle.
It was my heart.
