Meanwhile, Esther didn’t say much, instead, she let Sarah do the talking.

“That’s foolish of me, I am really sorry.”

Xaden said nothing, so didn’t Zuri. She didn’t make them stand up either, nor did she say that she forgave them. She would deal with them later.

However, aside from the burns on her shoulder and chest, the healer had something else to announce to them.

“I will give you an ointment for the burns on your shoulders and chest, Luna,” Sera, the healer, said. She looked so young, probably only two to three years younger than Zuri. “But…”

“But?” Zuri narrowed her eyes. “Is there something wrong?” She knew that no wounds could leave scars on a shifter’s body, so her own body wouldn’t have any scars either. If the opposite was the case, her skin would be littered with them by now.

“Let me check more thoroughly this time,” Sera said. She looked more serious, her brows squinted and her eyes narrowed.

She checked on Zuri for less than five minutes before her eyes lit up and she looked at Zuri, beaming.

“Heavens!” She exclaimed, excited. “Congratulations, Alpha! Congratulations Luna!”

Zuri’s heart skipped a beat when she realized what the healer was going to say and she was right about that.

“Luna! You are pregnant!” Sera announced it excitedly, as she smiled ear to ear.

“What did you say?!” Faye screamed when she heard the news that Sarah just told her. “How… how could she be pregnant?! Didn’t you take care of it? Didn’t you give her that drink to prevent that?!” She was screaming right now.

Faye was the woman that was supposed to be the alpha’s mate, but because of her low status, she couldn’t be with the alpha. Not only that, she had been rejected by the alpha as well.

However, they still met here and there and she believed that she could win him over again. After all, they were destined mates for a reason.

“I have given the drink to her, but I don’t know why she is still pregnant,” Sarah said. She was also equally mortified when she learned about this.

For now, the alpha and the luna wanted to keep this pregnancy a secret, until they were ready to announce it, but of course, Sarah and Esther immediately went straight to Faye to inform her about this.

“No way… there is no way this would happen…” Faye was in denial.

“There is a possibility that she can still be pregnant after she drinks the potion, but…” Esther’s words hung in the air and this made Faye become impatient.

“But, what?” She narrowed her eyes on her.

“But, there is another possibility too…”

“What is it?”

“Probably, she got pregnant after she drank the tea that could prevent the pregnancy.”

“There is no way that could happen, the Alpha went to hunt the monsters the very next day of the ceremony.”

“In that case…” Esther didn’t continue her words and this let their imaginations run wild.

“No way. That woman had tricked the Alpha.” Faye immediately stood up and wanted to meet with Xaden right away, but Sarah and Esther stopped her, because they would be in great trouble if the alpha learned Faye knew about Zuri’s pregnancy.

“We need to know who the man is first…” Esther suggested instead.

“What now?” Zuri asked, she stared at the floor, her head was spinning.

They only did it once, but she didn’t think she would get pregnant right away like this, therefore, she didn’t know what to do, not to mention the relationship between her and Xaden was not good at all.

“Keep the baby, that’s not even a question. The baby will be my firstborn. There is no question in there.” Xaden changed his clothes, he came here because he had to go somewhere else and he needed to change his attire.

“That’s it? That’s the only thing that you will say to me?” Zuri lifted her head to look at Xaden, she bit her lip.

“What else should I say?” Xaden turned around and looked at her. “I have made it clear before. You can do whatever you want as long as you will not tarnish our pack name, I don’t mind it at all.”

Zuri bit back her words, she knew there was no point in talking to this man right now, but her heart hurt so bad in the face of his ignorance, not to mention how callous he was.

“Where are you going? Will you meet with that omega again?” Zuri asked sharply. She couldn’t hold back her anger.

“That’s none of your business.”

After saying that, Xaden walked out of the room, leaving her alone there, but he glanced at her neck and saw his mark there. The skin around her shoulders, neck and chest were still red, but it would heal in a few days based on what Sera said. There was nothing to be worried about.

With that being concluded, Xaden left the room.

Later that night, Sarah and Esther came again to bring dinner for Zuri, where they apologized to her again and acted very remorseful.

“It’s okay,” Zuri replied, because she was tired, while they kept pestering her to forgive them when she didn’t feel like it.

However, they assumed Zuri’s curt answer was a sign that she forgave them, thus they dropped their sad expressions and started to pester Zuri to take a walk in the garden.

“It will help with your indigestion. It will help with the baby too,” Esther persuaded her.

Zuri was too tired to argue with them, more so she felt like she needed some fresh air, as she felt stifled to be inside her bedroom all day long.

She felt sad for her baby because of the unstable relationship between her and her mate. More so, the thought of Xaden being with another woman and thinking about his destined mate only suffocated her.

“Here, you need to wear this cloak, the wind outside must be pretty cold.” Esther was being thoughtful. She draped the cloak on Zuri’s shoulders, even though she knew that she was just injured there.

However, the pain was more bearable now and Zuri was in dire need to be away from this room that felt like a jail to her right now.

After that, they walked aimlessly in the garden, they watched the beautiful moon in the night sky, enjoyed the flowers and the sweet scent that the wind carried.

Sarah and Esther would talk to her from time to time, but it was easy for Zuri to tune them out, because most of the time, they just talked to one another.

Zuri was quite enjoying this walk, she would do it more often, but when she thought it was enough, she decided to go back to the bedroom.

Esther suggested they take a different route.

“You have not yet seen the magnolia flowers over there, Luna, let’s go there.” Esther tugged her hand, so did Sarah.

They finally walked in a different direction and found the beautiful magnolia flowers in full bloom, but it was not only the flowers that were blooming brilliantly right now, because an affair was blooming all the same.

Right before her eyes, Zuri watched in disbelief when she saw a woman talking to Xaden. She was being emotional and suddenly, she hugged and kissed him.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have seen this, Luna,” Sarah said. She was surprised, but she did not attempt to prevent Zuri from seeing the scene before her eyes in any way.

It was very obvious what they were trying to do here, but Zuri couldn’t care less about that right now, because all she wanted to do was to separate that adulterous couple.

Her beast roared angrily because of this betrayal. She was seeing red when she marched toward the two of them, while Faye was still kissing Xaden. With her arms wrapped around his neck, the girl forced him to bend his body, so he could accommodate her height.

Zuri must be crazy, because she watched how that woman opened her eyes and was fully aware of her presence, yet she continued what she was doing anyway.

“What are you doing here?” Zuri asked darkly, her eyes were ablaze with anger, and the two of them finally separated. She glared at the woman, who just kissed Xaden and had the audacity to pretend to be afraid, as she hid behind the alpha’s body.

“I- I am sorry, Luna…” she stuttered. She looked like she was about to cry, as she knelt down in front of Zuri. “I am really sorry, Luna. Please forgive me.”

Zuri wanted to laugh. There were so many people, who kept apologizing to her today and she wondered why they kept doing wrong to her.

“Zuri,” Xaden called her name, he looked calm and this made Zuri mad. How could he be so calm after what happened? After what she just witnessed?!

“Is this what you wanted to tell me about ‘mind our own business’?!” Zuri was livid. This was a humiliation for her and she couldn’t accept it.

“Zuri, go back to your room,” Xaden said. He didn’t look remorseful at all, only a little bit annoyed.

“Go back to my room?” Zuri narrowed her eyes. “Do you think I am a child?!” He did not only humiliate her, but also insulted her by saying something like that in front of the servants. “Is this your omega mate?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Zuri was fed up when she heard the same sentence come out of his lips again, she raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face.

Her pride didn’t allow her to be trampled upon like this. This man didn’t have any shame to say those words to her face after what he had done.

There was no apology, nor was there any remorse, not even an explanation.

“I, Zuri Arandelle, reject you as my mate. May our bond be severed for good,” she said, her voice was calm and collected, but the moment they could feel the mate bond between them snap off, Zuri groaned and fell to her knees with an audible thud. She could feel this burning sensation on her neck when her mark disappeared because of the rejection that she made.

She was not the only one, who felt this pain, but Xaden as well, he groaned dangerously and then snarled at Zuri.

“What do you think you are doing?!”

However, no matter how he wanted to protest, there was no saving it. He couldn’t prevent Zuri from saying the words.

The burning sensation that he felt inside his heart was enough to bring him to his knees.

Yet, Zuri felt something else was wrong, because along with the pain of the severed mate bond, she felt another pain, this sharp pain that came from her stomach. She felt like her insides were being twisted and stabbed.

“Ah!” Zuri bent her body, as she held her stomach.

“What happened, Luna? What happened?!” Sarah immediately approached Zuri, as did Esther, while Xaden was too angry about what Zuri had done to care about her.

“My stomach…” Zuri said between her tears. This was even more painful than when Xaden marked her, or when Sarah poured the hot water on her shoulders. This was more painful than any of that.

“Call the healer!” Xaden hollered when he realized what happened. Despite the pain, he approached Zuri and carried her in his arms.

If she felt pain in her stomach, it must be because something was wrong with the baby. Xaden wouldn’t bet on the safety of his baby.

Therefore, despite the pain, he carried Zuri back to their bedroom.

“I- I will call for the healer,” Esther said. Yet, when the alpha had disappeared from their sight, she didn’t immediately do that.

“Did you put that thing in her food?” Faye asked, her facial expression changed. She was livid that Xaden had chosen to take care of Zuri instead of staying behind with herself, but she could understand.

“Yes. I put it in excess to make sure it will be more effective.”

Faye nodded in agreement. She smiled. “Take your time to call Sera. She must be resting now.”

The pain was there, but then the pain was gone and when Zuri opened her eyes, she felt exhausted, as if she had not just woken up from her deep slumber, but was run over by horses.

She looked around her and found a few familiar faces that she recognized.

It was her mother and father. The two of them were bickering with each other, but the moment they realized their daughter had woken up, they stopped.

Alpha Roland approached his daughter, while Zuri pushed herself from the bed into a sitting position.

However, the first thing that Alpha Roland did when he was close enough to Zuri was to slap across her face so hard, she felt her ears ringing painfully.

“Stop this! Don’t do this here!” Karina, the Luna of the River Creek pack tried to stop her mate.

“How dare you reject him?!” Alpha Roland was livid. “How dare you ruin this important union!?”

Zuri shook her head lightly and then faced her father. “He cheated on me. I saw with my own eyes how they kissed each other.”

“So what?! That’s not enough reason for you to reject him!”

Zuri pressed her lips tightly. She just told her father that her mate, the very man he had chosen for her, had cheated on her. He kissed another woman right before her eyes, but her father wouldn’t even give a shit about it?

Roland was not a good father and Zuri knew that, so there was no surprise here.

However, it still shocked her the same and her brain must not be working properly, because Zuri started cackling, which made Roland look even angrier.

“You didn’t drink your medicine,” he stated darkly. He was about to approach her, but Karina held his arm to stop him, which he brushed off and the woman stood there with a blank expression because she knew what was going to happen next.

This was not the first time and even though Zuri had been mated to alpha Xaden, it didn’t mean this would be the last. Women would always be in the clutches of men and at their mercy in this world.

“Why are you so angry father?” Zuri was still cackling. She thought her life was a tragedy, but as it turned out, it was a complete joke. “You always believed that I was crazy. There is nothing new here.”

A harsh slap landed on Zuri’s face again, but instead of stopping, she laughed even harder, until her whole body was shaking. She looked crazy. Zuri felt crazy.

When the world tortured you too much and you were done trying to survive, all you could do was; laugh it off.

“You took a side, father.” Zuri finally calmed down enough to talk coherently, while her father was standing there as if he was going to throttle her neck. His face was so dark, his pupils turned charcoal black and his gray hair made him look so old.

At fifty-five, he had long passed his prime, and now, Zuri had the strength and skill to challenge him. She could at least slap him, but there was something about him that stopped her from even trying, or even thinking about it.

She realized that when you were raised and trained to fear something, the fear would never fully dissipate. It would cling to you, persistent and familiar, regardless of the changing circumstances.

“Why did you take his side instead of your own daughter?” Zuri felt stupid when she asked this question, but then she already felt crazy, so turning stupid wouldn’t hurt her much. “You talk about not tarnishing our family’s name, but don’t you think what he has done would drag our family’s name through the mud?”

Zuri got off the bed and faced her father. She was a head shorter than him, but she squared her shoulders and straightened her back.

Her mother trained her to be a perfect luna and that was how she would act right now.

“Even if you don’t care about me, you should care about the pack’s image. What would people say if they hear the daughter of the Alpha of the Silver Creek pack has been cheated on by an omega?” Zuri lifted her chin. “If you couldn’t care less about my feelings, at the very least you should consider how people will perceive the news when they hear it.”

Zuri balled her fists, the mate bond had been severed, and the pain from it and her miscarriage was close to unbearable, but she endured it, because that was her only way to survive this.

“The other woman is an omega, can’t you see how bad it is?” Zuri counted on this fact. The look in her eyes when she kissed Xaden, as if she was mocking her, taunting her with her victory because she could get her mate. That sight would forever be engraved in the back of her mind.

However, Zuri wouldn’t allow her to walk all over her. She was an omega and she was the luna, she was way above her and she would show her that much.

“An alpha has an affair with an omega, the lowest rank shifter.” Zuri looked her father straight in his eyes. “That’s very cheap. The man you chose for me has cheap taste.” Zuri leaned over and lowered her voice. “Just like you.”

Zuri would be foolish if she were not aware of her father’s affair with every woman that he could stick his dick into, but she was not sure whether or not her mother knew all of this.

Her mother… she had always been the perfect luna. She ruled alongside her father and took her role seriously. The image of the pack was everything. She adopted the same beliefs as her mate.

“That must be the reason why you sided with him, because you’re both the same,” Zuri said. She knew her father well enough to know that what she said would get on his nerves. His hand was shaking. “You can slap me again, but both of us know it won’t change anything. Especially the truth.”

A slap landed on her face again, this time the harsh blow knocked her to the floor, since she was standing and her back hit the table.

The pain brought tears to her eyes, as she gritted her teeth not to make even a peep.

For a while, Alpha Roland just stood like that, he didn’t move, nor did he say anything, but his whole body was trembling now. Zuri knew how much he tried not to lose control over his emotions and she kept pushing him to his limit.

If only her face was not hurting so much, she would have laughed in his face again. But, the last blow was very harsh, she couldn’t even speak, it seemed her father had dislocated her jaw with that slap.

“Karina,” Alpha Roland called for his mate in a cold voice. “Give her medicine.”

Karina immediately fished out something out of her pocket, she always kept it with her. It was a bottle of white pills. She put two pills in Roland’s open palm and watched him shove them down Zuri’s throat.

Zuri coughed and curled her body inward, but her father forced the pills down her throat anyway.

Zuri hated this. No. She hated everything. She bit down on her father’s hand. As she swallowed the pills, she could also taste fresh blood in her mouth. Good. She wanted him to endure the same pain.

“How dare you bite me!” Alpha Roland backhanded her face once again and this time, it was Zuri, who bled, but still she laughed. “Crazy!” He then turned around to face Karina, who had this impassive expression. “How could you give birth to a crazy daughter?!”

“Probably I got it from you.” Zuri laughed between each bitter word. Still sitting on the floor, she lazily wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. “If you were willing to look closely, my brother is crazy as well. He only looks normal in your eyes because of the little thing hanging between his legs.”

This would be the first time Karina showed any emotions from the moment Roland started harassing her this time around. Her eyes widened, as she glared at Zuri in warning, as if telling her to stop provoking her already angry father, because the final result of it wouldn’t be something she liked.

Zuri was talking about her first brother, the firstborn of Roland. He was indeed insane to say the least. You could say he had a peculiar taste and he was the one that gave Roland a constant headache ever since he learned the importance of his status as a firstborn.

However, Zuri didn’t even look at her mother. There was no point in looking at her when she couldn’t even help her, nor could she give her some comfort.

She didn’t even pretend trying to assuage Alpha Roland’s anger.

“You really think you are the Luna of the pack, huh? Just because you are mated to Alpha Xaden, you think you hold an important status?” Alpha Roland walked toward Zuri, just like a predator that stalked toward its prey.

The alpha took out something from his pocket and that little thing glinted under the light. Zuri knew what that was even before she could see it. Her heart leapt to her throat.

But, she was too stubborn to let her fear be known.

“It seems, you have been away from home so long, you’ve forgotten your manners about how to talk to your parents.” Alpha Roland dropped to his knees and now his face was right in front of Zuri. He grabbed her arm and they stared into each other’s eyes. “You need to be taught a lesson.”

After saying that, he stabbed the needle into her upper arm, which made Zuri bite her tongue to prevent herself from crying out loud.

Alpha Roland pulled out the needle and then stabbed her again. He did that over and over again.

Why did he choose needles to torture Zuri? The answer was simple. A wound from a needle would heal very fast, since it would only leave a prick, but the pain of being stabbed by it over and over again could drive one insane.

More so, it wouldn’t often draw so much blood, so it would be less messy than when you used a knife.

Roland didn’t want to kill his daughter. He only wanted to teach her a lesson. She was still valuable to him.

“Zuri, you should know that I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve forced my hand.”

He hurt his daughter, but he blamed her for that.

Roland covered her mouth with his palm to muffle her cries. He didn’t want anyone to know about this. “You need to be a good girl. This is what you should do as the daughter of the Alpha. You need to think of your pack. I will talk to Xaden about this and make sure you will not see it again.”

That was what Roland said, but he had never mentioned making Xaden stop seeing the omega and despite the pain, Zuri noticed the missing reassurance that she wanted to hear.

“You need to understand the situation and proceed with caution. I have taught you that countless times. You are a girl, but you are the smartest among your siblings and I trust you.” Roland kept saying the right thing, but his needle reminded Zuri of the monster he was. “If only you were a boy, I would have gladly handed over the pack to you.” Roland clicked his tongue.

Zuri’s claws elongated, but she couldn’t bring herself to stab her father. To claw him. She had the opportunity, but her fear for him triumphed over her chance to retaliate.

Right at that moment, someone entered the room and Roland stopped stabbing his daughter. He glanced over his shoulder and glared at his mate for not giving any heads up.

Zuri couldn’t see who had come and made Roland stop, but she could smell his scent in the air and a second later, she heard his voice echo inside the room.

“What are you two doing here? What happened to her?” Xaden frowned at Karina and Roland. He saw Zuri was sitting on the floor, but her body was covered by Roland’s, thus he didn’t get a clear view of what was going on.

Swiftly, Roland retrieved the needle and hid it. He pressed Zuri’s head against his chest and kissed the top of her head.

“She was having a breakdown when she learned about the miscarriage. She is very sad right now.” Roland put his hand under Zuri’s legs and carried her to the bed. “Why don’t you leave her alone for a while, we will talk to her.”

Roland tucked her in. There was no trace of the needle pricks on her hand, but the pain remained. As a shifter, you could heal very fast and a needle wouldn’t do any damage to you even if you were pricked for a whole day.

Meanwhile, Xaden walked across the room and glanced at Zuri’s pale face, it was obvious that she had been crying.