Kaela POV:
Time ceased to exist in the suffocating dark.
It was measured only by the waves of pain that clenched my stomach. Each cramp was a terrifying reminder of what I stood to lose. I lay curled on the damp earth, my arms wrapped tightly around myself, whispering pleas into the void.
Please be okay. Please, please be okay.
I didn't know how long I'd been there. Hours? A day?
Then, a sound. A metallic scrape.
A small square of light appeared high up on the iron door. The viewing slot.
I lifted my head, my neck stiff and sore. My eyes, unaccustomed to the light, watered. A face appeared in the opening, silhouetted against the brightness.
A handsome face. A face that had once been my entire world.
Preston.
A choked sob of relief escaped my throat. Hope, fragile and desperate, flared in my chest. He had come. He would save me.
I scrambled forward on my hands and knees, my voice a raw, broken croak. "Preston! Help me. They're lying. It's all lies!"
He just looked at me. His eyes, the warm blue eyes I had loved, were glacial. They held no warmth, no affection. Only a cold, clinical disgust.
He didn't open the door.
He spoke through the small opening, his voice flat and hard. "Whose bastard is it?"
The word—bastard—was a physical blow. It felt like he had reached through the door and slapped me. I stared at him, my mind struggling to connect this cold stranger with the man who had sworn to love me forever.
Tears streamed down my dirty cheeks. "No," I whispered, shaking my head. "It's not... Preston, I didn't betray you. I swear. I was drugged. I don't know what happened..."
A short, ugly laugh cut me off. "Drugged? Do you really expect me to believe an excuse that pathetic? What man would be stupid enough to touch a wolfless, anyway?"
His words weren't a knife. They were a shard of ice, sliding into the deepest, most vulnerable part of my soul. He paused, and I saw him searching for something—the memory of a weakness I had given him freely, back when I trusted him with everything I was.
"You told me once you were afraid you'd never shift," he said, his voice dropping to something almost conversational. "That you felt broken. Incomplete." He let the silence stretch, let the memory curdle between us. "You were right. You've always been broken, Kaela. I just made the mistake of thinking I could fix you."
That was worse than the insult. A hundred times worse. He had taken the most vulnerable confession I had ever made—whispered against his chest in the dark, when I thought I was safe—and turned it into a weapon.
The last flicker of hope inside me died. The cold from the floor seemed to seep into my bones, into my very heart.
"So you don't believe me," I said. It wasn't a question.
His gaze shifted away, as if looking at me was too much to bear. "We're over, Kaela. My mate, the future Luna of my pack, cannot be a disgraced woman carrying another man's child."
His words echoed Isabell's. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks.
"It was Isabell, wasn't it?" I demanded, my voice gaining a raw edge of fury. "What did she tell you?"
A flicker of something—guilt? discomfort?—crossed his face before it was buried under a fresh layer of cold indifference. "Isabell simply helped me see the reality of the situation. She is the one who is most suitable to stand by my side."
The formal declaration of his betrayal. He hadn't chosen to believe a lie; he had chosen a more convenient truth. He had chosen power over me.
All the strength drained out of my body. I slid down the cold iron door, my back scraping against the rough metal, until I was sitting in a heap on the floor. I couldn't even find the energy to cry.
He wasn't finished.
"By the way," he added, his tone casual, as if discussing the weather. "My father, Lord Montgomery, has already spoken with Alpha Jeffry. My engagement ceremony to Isabell will be held on the night of the next full moon."
The final, fatal blow.
He wasn't just leaving me. He was replacing me. With her.
A guttural sound, something between a sob and a roar, tore from my throat. I pushed myself up, my eyes burning, bloodshot. "You and her," I snarled, "you will both pay for this!"
His expression twisted into a sneer of contempt. "Pay? A wolfless cripple, threatening me? What are you going to do, Kaela? Bore me to death with your whining?"
He paused, his voice softening into a tone of condescending pity that was worse than his anger. "A piece of advice, for old times' sake. Cooperate with the Alpha's decision. Maybe you'll get to keep your pathetic life."
He didn't wait for a reply. He turned, his footsteps echoing down the stone corridor, taking the last shred of my world with him.
Clang.
The viewing slot slammed shut.
Darkness returned, absolute and final.
The emotional agony was so intense it became physical. A violent, tearing pain exploded in my abdomen, far worse than the cramps before. It felt like my insides were being ripped apart.
A sudden, gushing warmth spread between my legs.
I looked down, though I could see nothing in the pitch black. The thick, metallic scent of blood filled the small space. It was heavy. Too heavy.
Hemorrhage.
My baby.
A primal terror, sharper and more potent than any heartbreak, seized me.
"No!" I screamed, the sound swallowed by the stone walls.
I threw myself at the door, pounding on the unyielding iron with my fists. My voice was shredded, my throat raw, but I didn't care.
"Help! Somebody, help me! My baby! Please, save my baby! A doctor!"
My desperate cries were the only sound in the cold, silent dark.
