Kacie POV:

The gala was suffocating. I hid in the shadows near the catering tables, trying to make myself as small as possible. Watching Cedric dance with Jayden was like having my chest cavity scooped out with a spoon.

"Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in."

I looked up. A man stood before me. He smelled of rot and old whiskey. His eyes were bloodshot, and his clothes were expensive but unkempt. A Rogue who had managed to sneak in, or perhaps a guest who had fallen from grace.

"Excuse me," I said, trying to step around him.

He blocked my path. He inhaled deeply, a disgusting, wet sound. "You smell... interesting. Like rot, but underneath that... milk. And new blood."

My hand flew to my stomach. The nausea from this morning. The tightness. No. It couldn't be.

"Let me pass," I said, channeling what little authority I had left.

"Your shoes are dirty," the Rogue sneered. He pointed at his muddy boots. "Clean them. Maybe if you show you're good at serving, the Alpha will keep you as a maid."

"No," I said.

The Rogue grabbed my hair. Pain shot through my scalp. "I said, clean them!"

He forced me down. My knees hit the hard marble floor. The humiliation was a hot brand on my skin. People were watching. Whispering. No one stepped in. To them, an unmarked female without her Alpha's protection was fair game.

I reached for a napkin, my hands shaking. I wiped the mud from his boot. I had no pride left. I just wanted to survive the night.

Thud!

The Rogue went flying across the room, crashing into a table of champagne flutes.

Cedric stood over me, his chest heaving, his fists clenched. His eyes were glowing gold.

"Get up," he hissed at me, grabbing my arm and hauling me to my feet.

He didn't ask if I was okay. He dragged me toward the exit, his grip bruising.

We got into the elevator. The doors closed, sealing us in.

"You are a disgrace," Cedric spat. "Kneeling for a Rogue? Have you no pride? You are wearing the Moon Pack name!"

"I have no pride because you took it all!" I screamed back, the dam finally breaking. "You gave my dress to your mistress! You gave my protection stone to her! You leave me defenseless and then blame me when I get attacked?"

"She is not my mistress! She is family!"

"She is a snake, Cedric! And you are blind!"

Suddenly, the elevator lurched to a halt. The lights flickered and died. An emergency alarm blared.

Mind-Link: Cedric! Help! They have me! The roof!

It was Jayden's voice, screaming in my head because the connection to the Alpha was open.

Cedric pried the elevator doors open with his bare hands. We were on the top floor. He sprinted toward the roof access, and I ran after him, my heart pounding.

On the windy rooftop, chaos reigned.

The Rogue from the ballroom-the one Cedric had hit-was there. But he wasn't alone. Three other men surrounded Jayden, holding her near the edge of the building.

"Back off, Alpha!" the leader shouted. He held a silver knife to Jayden's throat.

"Let her go," Cedric growled, his voice vibrating with the Alpha Command.

"Not a chance. We know about the Bloodstone," the Rogue laughed. "We can't hurt her easily with that rock around her neck. It repels the blade. But we need a hostage to get out of the city."

The Rogue looked at me. Then he looked at Cedric.

"A trade," the Rogue grinned. "The girl with the magic stone is too much trouble. Give us the wife. She's pregnant, isn't she? I can smell the pup on her. Double the prize."

The world stopped.

I froze. Pregnant?

I looked down at my flat stomach. The morning sickness. The scent changes I thought were just Jayden's perfume. A tiny, flickering spark of life, nestled deep within my womb. A pup. A miracle given my weak condition.

Cedric froze too. He looked at me, his eyes widening. He inhaled deeply, testing the air. He smelled it too. The subtle change in my scent.

"No," Cedric whispered.

"Choose, Alpha!" the Rogue shouted, pushing Jayden closer to the ledge. "The protected one, or the breeder? We take one, you get the other."

Jayden let out a sob. "Cedric! He's going to drop me! My heart... I can't breathe!"

Cedric looked at Jayden, panic flaring in his eyes. He looked at the Bloodstone around her neck. It offered protection, yes, but not from a fall.

Then he looked at me. At his pregnant wife.

"Kacie has the White Wolf blood," he muttered to himself, a frantic rationalization. "She heals faster. She's strong. Jayden is dying."

He made his choice.

"Take Kacie," Cedric said. His voice was cracked, broken, but clear.

"Cedric!" I screamed, stepping back. "I am carrying your child!"

"I will come for you," he said, avoiding my eyes. "I promise. Just... go with them. I have to save Jayden."

He grabbed my shoulder and shoved me toward the Rogues.

I stumbled forward. The Rogue grabbed me, his rough hands bruising my arms. He shoved Jayden toward Cedric.

Cedric caught Jayden, wrapping his arms around her, burying his face in her neck to comfort her.

The Rogue laughed. "Pleasure doing business."

Then, a gunshot rang out. A police sniper from the adjacent building.

The Rogue jerked. In his death spasm, he didn't hold onto me. He shoved me.

Hard.

I flew backward. Over the edge of the parapet.

"Cedric!" I screamed.

I saw him turn. I saw his hand reach out. But he didn't let go of Jayden to catch me.

The wind roared in my ears. The city lights blurred into streaks of neon. I fell into the darkness, my hands cradling my stomach, apologizing to the life that had barely begun.

Kacie POV:

Pain was a color. It was blinding white, then throbbing red, then absolute black.

I woke up to the smell of antiseptic and the beep of machines. I wasn't dead. I had landed on a firefighter's rescue cushion that had been partially deployed. It had saved my life, but the impact...

I moved my hand to my stomach.

It was flat. Empty. The tiny spark I had felt on the roof was gone.

"No," I croaked. My throat felt like it was filled with glass.

A doctor walked in. He was a Beta from our pack. He looked at me with pity.

"Luna," he said softly. "You suffered severe internal trauma. We... we couldn't save the pup."

A howl built up in my chest, a sound so raw and primal it scared me. But I didn't have the strength to let it out. I just stared at the ceiling, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.

The door opened. Cedric walked in. He looked exhausted, his shirt torn.

"Kacie," he breathed, rushing to the bedside. "Thank the Goddess. You're alive."

I turned my head slowly to look at him. "My baby."

Cedric flinched. "I know. The doctor told me. It... it's a tragedy."

"You pushed me," I whispered. "You traded your child for her."

"It was a calculated risk!" Cedric insisted, pacing the room. "Jayden wouldn't have survived the stress of being a hostage. You are stronger. I knew you would survive. We can have other children."

"Other children?" I laughed, a dry, cracking sound. "You killed this one."

Mind-Link: Cedric... help me... the nightmares...

It was Jayden again. Calling him. Always calling him.

Cedric froze. He looked at the door. "I have to go check on her. She's in shock."

"Get out," I said. "And don't come back."

He left. He actually left.

The next morning, I forced myself out of bed. I couldn't stay in this place. I walked into the hallway, holding the wall for support.

I ran into Carol, Cedric's mother.

Slap!

Her hand connected with my cheek, snapping my head to the side.

"You useless girl!" she screeched. "You lost the Moon heir!"

"I..." I touched my stinging cheek. "Your son traded me to Rogues."

"Lies!" Carol hissed. "Jayden told us everything. She showed us the photo."

She shoved a phone in my face. It was a picture of me, standing in an alleyway, handing an envelope to the Rogue who had attacked us on the roof.

"I never did that!" I gasped. "That's Photoshop! Look at the lighting!"

"It's dated three days ago," Carol sneered. "You hired those Rogues to stage a kidnapping so you could play the hero. But it went wrong, didn't it? And your own scheme killed my grandchild."

"That is insane," I said, backing away.

"Cedric!" Carol shouted.

Cedric appeared from Jayden's room. He took the phone from his mother. He looked at the photo, then at me.

His eyes were cold. Dead.

"Is this true?" he asked. "Did you stage this? To get attention? To make me choose you?"

"You think I would risk my baby for attention?" I asked, my voice trembling with rage.

"You didn't know you were pregnant until the roof," Cedric reasoned, his logic twisted by grief and manipulation. "You thought you would just get 'rescued'. You are sick, Kacie."

"I didn't do it," I said.

"Jayden saw you meeting him," Cedric said. "She was too afraid to tell me until now."

Of course she was.

"I hate you," I said. "I hate you all."

14 Days.

Kacie POV:

"Arrest her."

The words hung in the sterile hospital air. Two pack Enforcers, large wolves with stone faces, stepped forward.

"Cedric, you can't be serious," I said, backing up until my hospital gown brushed the cold wall. "I need to heal. I just lost a child."

"You are a danger to the pack," Cedric said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "You conspired with Rogues. That is treason. The punishment is death, Kacie. Be grateful I am only imprisoning you."

He nodded to the Enforcers. One of them pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

They weren't steel. They glinted with a dull, white sheen.

Silver.

"No," I gasped. "Cedric, please. Silver will burn me. It stops the healing. I'm already bleeding internally!"

"Maybe the pain will help you reflect on your sins," he said.

The Enforcer clamped the cuffs onto my wrists.

Sizzle.

Smoke rose from my skin. The smell of burning flesh filled the corridor. I screamed, my knees buckling. It felt like acid was being injected directly into my veins. The silver suppressed my wolf, locking Serenity away in a cage of agony.

They dragged me through the hospital. Pack members watched, whispering, pointing. I was the traitor. The child-killer.

They didn't take me to the police station. They took me to the Moon Estate's dungeon. It was a damp, lightless basement carved into the bedrock beneath the house.

They threw me into a cell and slammed the iron bars shut.

"Enjoy your stay," the Enforcer grunted, leaving me in the dark.

I crawled to the corner, cradling my burning wrists. The pain was constant, a high-pitched scream in my nervous system.

I lay there for hours, shivering on the dirty straw.

Eventually, the elevator hummed. Footsteps approached.

It was Carol. She stood outside the bars, looking down at me like I was a cockroach.

"You should know," she said, smoothing her skirt. "Since you have proven yourself unfit and traitorous, the Elders have annulled your marriage rights. Cedric will marry Jayden as soon as her health permits. To restore the pack's luck."

"Good," I rasped, my voice barely audible. "Let her have him."

"You will rot here until you die," Carol smiled.

She left.

I closed my eyes. The rune on my chest was burning hotter than the silver. I pulled down the collar of my gown to look at it in the dim light.

3 Days.

I had three days left. I wasn't going to rot here. I was going to leave. Not just the pack, but this world.

"Just hold on, Serenity," I whispered to the silence. "We're almost free."