Isla POV:
The Pack Net was on fire.
I scrolled through the internal social media feed on my tablet. A photo was trending. It was a receipt. A receipt for a three-thousand-dollar root of Blood Ginseng.
Blood Ginseng was the most potent prenatal herb in existence. It was used to ensure the birth of powerful Alpha offspring.
*Alpha Damien spares no expense for the Savior of the Pack!* the caption read.
The comments were nauseating.
*User WolfGirl99: So romantic! He takes such good care of her.*
*User LunaWannabe: I heard she's carrying a warrior. Finally, a strong heir for Moon Shadow.*
*User TruthSeeker: What about Isla? Isn't she the mate?*
*User AlphaFan: Isla is just a doctor. She's boring. Seraphina has fire.*
I turned off the screen. I was sitting in "The Hidden Den," a small coffee shop on the outskirts of the city, far from the pack house.
"He bought her Blood Ginseng?" Chloe hissed. She slammed her latte down on the table. "Is he insane? That's practically a marriage proposal in herb form!"
Chloe was my only friend. She was a Beta, a warrior with a sharp tongue and a fiercer loyalty.
"He thinks he's saving the pack's future," I said calmly, stirring my tea.
"And the pack is eating it up," Chloe growled. "They've forgotten everything you did. The epidemics you stopped. The warriors you stitched back together. Now you're just... invisible."
"I prefer invisible," I said. I slid a folder across the table to her. "Look at this."
Chloe opened it. It was the copy of Seraphina's ultrasound scan I had printed from the server.
"Six weeks?" Chloe's eyes widened. "But... the timeline..."
"Exactly," I said.
"That bastard," Chloe whispered. "He was cheating on you. Before the 'life debt' excuse. Before everything."
"I'm leaving, Chloe," I said.
She looked up, tears forming in her eyes. "Leaving the apartment?"
"Leaving the country," I said. "I'm going to Europe. The Healers Guild."
Chloe reached across the table and grabbed my hand. "Take me with you. I'll be your bodyguard. I'll bite anyone who comes near you."
I smiled, a genuine smile for the first time in days. "You have a mate here, Chloe. You have a life. I need you to stay. I need someone to tell the truth when I'm gone. But you can't say a word until my plane is in the air."
"I promise," she said. "I swear on my wolf."
That night, I returned to the apartment late. I had attended a seminar on herbal remedies to keep up appearances. The air outside was freezing, a bitter wind howling through the city streets.
The elevator doors opened. Damien was standing in the hallway.
He looked furious. His eyes were glowing a deep, menacing red-his wolf was near the surface.
He marched toward me, grabbing my arm and pulling me close. He buried his nose in my neck, inhaling deeply.
"Where have you been?" he growled.
"Working," I said, trying to pull away.
"You smell like him," Damien snarled. "A male. Unfamiliar. European pine and old books."
I realized he was smelling the French doctor I had sat next to at the seminar.
"He was a colleague, Damien. Let me go."
"You are mine!" he roared. The walls shook. "You do not carry the scent of other males! Go wash it off! Now!"
"I am yours?" I laughed bitterly. "Like you are mine? You smell like her every single day, Damien. You smell like her shampoo, her skin, her lust. And you dare to lecture me about scent?"
"It is different!" he shouted. "I am the Alpha! I do what I must!"
He grabbed my face with both hands, forcing me to look into his glowing red eyes.
*Open your mind to me, Isla.*
He forced the Mind-Link open. Usually, it required consent, but an Alpha could batter down the mental walls of a pack member.
He flooded my mind with his emotions. He wanted me to feel his dominance, his possessiveness.
But along with that came something else.
Joy. Pure, unadulterated excitement.
Images flashed in my mind-images from his perspective. He was imagining a little boy with dark hair and grey eyes. A strong son. An Alpha heir.
He was projecting his love for Seraphina's unborn child directly into my brain.
It was agonizing. It was like he was forcing me to watch a movie of him loving another family.
"Get out of my head!" I screamed.
I summoned every ounce of my will. I couldn't push him out with strength, so I used pain. I focused on the heartbreak, the betrayal, the sharp agony of the broken bond. I weaponized my sorrow and blasted it back at him through the link.
Damien gasped and stumbled back, clutching his head. The connection snapped.
He looked at me, blinking, confusion replacing the anger.
"Isla...?"
"Don't ever do that again," I whispered, shaking.
I turned to the bedroom door.
"Wait," Damien said. His voice was cold again, the moment of confusion gone. "There is a change to the schedule."
I stopped, my hand on the doorknob.
"The Moon Pool Ritual," he said. "We need to move it."
I didn't turn around. "Okay."
"No, Isla. You don't understand. Seraphina... the doctor says the baby needs spiritual energy. The Moon Pool has the purest concentrated essence."
My blood ran cold. The Moon Pool Ritual was the sacred ceremony where the Luna bathed in the pack's holy waters to bless her reign. It was my birthright. It was the highest honor a female wolf could receive.
"You want to give her my ritual," I said.
"She needs it for the child," Damien said defensively. "It's just water, Isla. You can do it next year. The pack needs a healthy heir."
He was stripping me of everything. My dignity. My home. My title. Now, my faith.
"Fine," I said.
"Fine?" He sounded surprised. He expected a fight.
"Give it to her," I said. "Give her everything."
I opened the door and stepped inside, locking it behind me.
I didn't cry. I was done crying.
I looked at the calendar.
Ten days.
