The plastic stick felt like a burning coal in my hand, yet my fingers refused to let go. When the office door creaked open, I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. The air suddenly grew heavy, charged with the ozone scent of Alpha power.

“Jax,” I said, my voice trembling not with fear, but with a rage so cold it burned. I turned slowly, holding the pregnancy test up to the light. “Explain this.”

Jax stopped in the center of the room. He didn’t look guilty. He didn’t look ashamed. He looked… relieved. He walked to his desk, bypassing me entirely as if I were a piece of furniture.

“It is exactly what it looks like, Camille,” he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “It is the future of the Silverclaw Pack. Something you failed to provide for seven years.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “Failed? You haven’t touched me in seven years! You told me it was agony. You told me your wolf would kill me if you tried!”

“And it would have,” he snapped, finally meeting my eyes. His gaze was hard, devoid of the affection he used to fake so well. “But with Ezra… it is different. She is my cure. The Moon Goddess sent her to me. She is my True Fated Mate.”

“So I was just a placeholder?” I stepped forward, my voice rising. “I protected your secret. I let the pack call me barren. I let your mother spit on my name to keep you safe! And you—”

“Enough!”

The command slammed into me like a physical blow. He used the Alpha Tone. My wolf whimpered in submission, forcing my knees to buckle. I caught myself on the edge of the desk, gasping for air as the supernatural weight of his order crushed my vocal cords shut.

Jax leaned in close, his face inches from mine. “You are the Luna by law, Camille. But Ezra? She is the Luna by blood. She carries my heir. You will not ruin this. You will play your part.”

The humiliation was a bitter pill, but I swallowed it. I had no choice.

Two days later, the preparation for the Annual Alpha Summit was a blur of silk and hairspray. I stood in front of the full-length mirror in the master suite—a room I was rarely invited into. I reached for the velvet box on the vanity, my fingers brushing the cool latch. Inside were the Silverclaw Ceremonial Emeralds, a heavy necklace worn by every Luna for five generations.

“Not those,” Jax’s voice cut through the silence.

I froze. “These are the Luna’s jewels, Jax. Tradition dictates—”

“Tradition dictates that the mother of the future Alpha wears the protection of the pack.” He snatched the box from my hand and turned to the chaise lounge where Ezra sat, looking small and wide-eyed in a gown of shimmering gold.

“Ezra needs to test the weight,” Jax said, walking over to her. He looked back at me, his eyes cold. “Help her with the clasp, Camille. Your fingers are nimble.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. He wanted me to dress his mistress in my jewels.

“Of course, Alpha,” I whispered, the taste of ash in my mouth.

I walked over to Ezra. She smelled of vanilla and artificial sweetness. As I fastened the heavy emeralds around her neck, she looked up at me in the mirror. Her lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“It’s so heavy, Luna Camille,” she cooed, touching the gems. “I don’t know how you bore it for so long.”

“You get used to the weight,” I said stiffly, pulling my hands away as if burned. “Just don’t trip.”

The Summit was held in a sprawling ballroom in the neutral territory of the capital. Chandeliers dripped crystals from the ceiling, and the air buzzed with the power of fifty gathered Alphas. I walked a step behind Jax, my neck bare, while Ezra walked on his arm, the emeralds glittering at her throat.

We sat at the front table. I could feel the eyes of the other packs on us. Whispers traveled like wildfire. *Why is the Luna unadorned? Who is the girl?*

Then came the auction. It was a charity event, a display of wealth and power. The auctioneer unveiled the final item: a rare Moonstone necklace, said to bless the wearer with fertility and safe childbirth.

“Bidding starts at five hundred thousand,” the auctioneer announced.

“One million,” Jax’s voice rang out instantly.

I grabbed his arm under the table. “Jax,” I hissed. “Eugene said the border patrol budget was tight. We cannot afford—”

“Two million,” a rival Alpha called out.

Jax shook off my hand. “Five million.”

The room gasped. Five million dollars. That was half our liquid assets. Money we needed for winter supplies, for the infirmary, for the pack.

“Sold! To Alpha Marshall of the Silverclaw Pack!”

Jax stood up, striding to the stage to collect the box. He didn’t return to his seat immediately. Instead, he took the microphone. The room fell silent.

“This pack has waited a long time for a future,” Jax announced, his voice booming with pride. He turned and beckoned Ezra to the stage. She floated up the stairs, feigning shyness.

Jax opened the box, revealing the glowing moonstone. In front of the entire council, in front of Alpha Makenna Davis of the Blood Moon Pack who watched with narrowed, pitying eyes, Jax clasped the necklace around Ezra’s neck, right above my emeralds.

“To Ezra,” Jax declared, raising a glass of champagne. “To the true mate of my soul, and the mother of the future Alpha.”

The applause was polite, confused, scattered. But the ringing in my ears was deafening. He hadn’t just bought a necklace. He had publicly declared me obsolete. I sat frozen in my chair, the Iron Luna rusting into dust, while the man I had protected for seven years sold our pack’s safety to adorn the woman who was stealing my life.

The limousine was silent, a luxurious coffin speeding down the wet highway. Outside, the rain blurred the world into streaks of gray, but inside, the air was thick enough to choke on. I sat pressed against the cold window, trying to ignore the way Ezra toyed with the five-million-dollar Moonstone necklace draped over her throat. My throat.

Jax sat between us, but his body was angled entirely toward her. His hand rested protectively on her stomach, his thumb tracing circles over the silk of her dress.

“Are you warm enough?” he murmured, his voice softer than I had heard it in years.

“I’m fine, Alpha,” Ezra cooed, shooting a glance at me. “Though the heater seems a bit… weak.”

I gritted my teeth. “The climate control is set to seventy-two, Ezra. Perhaps it’s the weight of the jewelry dragging you down.”

Jax’s head snapped toward me, a growl rumbling in his chest, but before he could speak, the driver shouted.

“Rogue!”

A massive, mangy wolf leaped from the embankment, landing directly in our headlights. The driver swerved hard to the left. The tires screeched, losing traction on the slick asphalt.

The world flipped.

Metal screamed against pavement. Glass shattered in an explosion of diamonds. My body was thrown like a ragdoll, slamming against the roof, then the door, then the roof again as the car rolled down the steep embankment.

When we finally came to a halt, the silence was more terrifying than the noise.

I was upside down. The seatbelt cut into my chest, and warm, sticky blood trickled into my eye from a gash on my forehead. My ribs screamed in protest with every shallow breath. I tried to move, but my legs were pinned beneath the crushed metal of the front seat.

“Jax?” I croaked, the taste of copper filling my mouth. “Jax, are you okay?”

I heard a grunt, then the sound of metal tearing. Jax, his Alpha strength surging despite the crash, kicked his door open. He crawled out, stumbling into the muddy grass.

“Jax! I’m trapped!” I screamed, panic rising as I smelled the acrid scent of leaking fuel. Smoke began to curl through the vents. “Jax, help me!”

He looked through the shattered window. Our eyes met. For a second, I thought he was reaching for me.

Then, a whimper came from the other side of the car.

“My baby… Jax, the baby…” Ezra sobbed.

Without a word, Jax turned his back on me. He scrambled over the chassis to the other side. I watched, paralyzed with horror, as he ripped the rear door off its hinges with a roar of effort. He reached in, unbuckling Ezra with frantic, trembling hands. She didn’t look hurt—scared, yes, but whole.

“I’ve got you,” he panted, pulling her into his arms. “I’ve got you, Ezra.”

“Jax!” I screamed again, the smoke thickening, stinging my eyes. “The fuel tank! Jax, please!”

He didn’t look back. He sprinted away from the wreckage, shielding Ezra’s body with his own, leaving me pinned in the dark.

A spark ignited.

Orange flames licked up the side of the car. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the fire to consume me, realizing with absolute clarity that my mate had left me to burn.

*Hiss.*

White foam exploded from the ceiling vents. The emergency fire suppression system kicked in, coating me in freezing chemical slush. It choked the flames just inches from my face, leaving me shivering, broken, and utterly alone in the wreckage.

***

The hospital room was blindingly white. The steady beep of the monitor was the only thing grounding me to reality. My chest was wrapped tightly in bandages, and my skin felt raw and tender from the chemical burns.

The door banged open.

My heart leaped, thinking it was a doctor, but it was Jax. He looked wild, his hair disheveled, soot still smearing his cheek. He marched to the side of my bed, not asking how I was, not looking at the burns on my arms.

“You need to get up,” he demanded.

I stared at him, disbelief numbing the physical pain. “I have three broken ribs, Jax. I have chemical burns because you left me in a burning car.”

“Ezra is in distress,” he snapped, his eyes flashing with Wolf gold. “The crash… the stress… the doctor says there’s a risk to the heir. She’s cramping.”

“That’s unfortunate,” I rasped, my voice cold. “But I am not a doctor.”

“No, but you are a battery,” he growled.

He grabbed my wrist. A jolt of pain shot up my arm, but he didn’t let go.

“I know what you can do, Camille. I’ve seen you do it with the wounded sentries, even if you try to hide it. You have a reserve of vitality. A strange… healing hum.”

I tried to pull away. It was true—I had a dormant ability, a warmth in my blood that could soothe minor wounds, though I didn’t understand where it came from. But using it drained me, left me exhausted for days. In my current state, it could kill me.

“I can’t,” I whispered. “Jax, look at me. I’m barely holding on. If I give her energy now, my heart—”

“I don’t care about your heart!” he roared, the sound vibrating through my bones. “I care about my son! You failed to give me one, so you will save the one she carries!”

The air in the room grew heavy, crushing. The Alpha aura descended like a lead blanket.

“I command you,” he boomed, his voice layering with the supernatural weight of the Alpha Tone. “**Heal her.**”

My wolf whined in submission, betraying me. My body moved without my permission. I tried to scream, to fight the order, but my limbs felt like they belonged to a puppet master.

Jax dragged me out of the bed. I stumbled, gasping as my broken ribs ground together. He marched me down the hall, my bare feet slapping against the cold tile, trailing IV lines that ripped from my skin.

We entered Ezra’s suite. She was lying on a plush bed, scrolling on her phone, looking perfectly fine. When we entered, she quickly dropped the phone and clutched her stomach, putting on a face of agony.

“Jax, it hurts,” she whimpered.

Jax shoved me toward her. “Do it, Camille. Now.”

My hands shook as I hovered them over her stomach. I could feel the command squeezing my throat, forcing me to push. I reached deep inside, finding that small, flickering flame of life that kept me going.

And I gave it away.

I felt the energy leave me in a rush, a golden warmth flowing from my palms into Ezra. Her skin flushed with health, her eyes brightening, while I felt coldness seep into my marrow. My vision blurred. The edges of the room went black.

Ezra sighed in contentment, the *supposed* cramps vanishing instantly.

My knees hit the floor. The last thing I heard before the darkness swallowed me whole was Jax’s voice, soft and tender.

“Is the baby safe, my love?”

He didn’t even hear the sound of my body hitting the linoleum.

Waking up felt less like rising from sleep and more like clawing my way out of a grave. My limbs were heavy, my veins feeling hollowed out, scraped clean of the vitality Jax had forced me to pour into Ezra. I was back in the guest suite—my suite—staring at the ceiling where a water stain shaped like a wolf’s head mocked me.

The door didn’t open; it slammed against the wall.

Elder Yasmin marched in, her heels clicking against the hardwood like gunshots. She didn’t ask if I was okay. She didn’t ask if I had recovered from draining my own life force to save her son’s mistress. She just looked at me with a sneer that curled her lip, revealing the aging gums of a wolf who had forgotten honor.

“Still in bed?” she barked, throwing the curtains open. The midday sun blinded me, sending a spike of headache through my skull. “The pack is in chaos, rumors are flying about the accident, and the Luna is lounging like a sloth.”

I pushed myself up, my arms trembling under my own weight. “I was drained, Yasmin. Jax used the Alpha Tone to force me to heal Ezra. I nearly died.”

“And whose fault was that?” she snapped, turning on me. “You were in the car. You distracted the driver with your jealousy. You nearly killed the future of this pack because you couldn’t handle seeing my son happy.”

The injustice of it stole the air from my lungs. “I was trapped in the wreckage! He left me to burn!”

Yasmin waved a hand dismissively. “Details. The point is, you are unstable. And because of your… condition, and your inability to prioritize the pack’s heir, the Council of Elders has made a decision.”

She held out her hand. “The administrative keys. Now.”

My blood ran cold. The keys were the symbol of the Luna’s authority. They controlled the treasury, the armory, the archives. “You can’t be serious. I have managed this pack’s logistics for seven years.”

“And you have run it into the ground,” she lied smoothly. “Give them to me. Ezra will be taking over your duties. She needs to learn, and unlike you, she actually cares about the pack’s future.”

I wanted to fight. I wanted to scream. But I was so weak I could barely sit up. Slowly, with shaking fingers, I reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out the heavy brass ring. I dropped it into Yasmin’s palm.

“She will destroy you all,” I whispered.

Yasmin just laughed, pocketing the keys. “She is giving us a grandson. You gave us nothing but bills.”

She left as abruptly as she came, leaving me in the silence of my stripped authority.

I couldn't stay in bed. If I stayed, I would rot. I needed to get my personal files from the main office before Ezra changed the locks. I dressed in simple leggings and a sweater, my movements slow and pained, and crept out into the hallway.

The pack house was quiet; most wolves were out on patrol or training. I reached the corridor leading to the Alpha’s office, but stopped dead when I heard hushed voices drifting from the alcove near the server room—a blind spot in the security cameras.

“...too risky, Eugene. She’s going to notice the discrepancy.” That was Ezra. Her voice wasn’t the breathy, innocent coo she used with Jax. it was sharp, calculating.

“She won’t notice anything from the grave,” Beta Eugene rumbled. “Just keep the Alpha distracted. Here.”

I pressed myself against the wall, peering around the corner just enough to see. Ezra was handing Eugene a thick, manila envelope. It was bulging. I recognized the bank stamp on the corner—it was the emergency cash reserve we kept in the floor safe for natural disasters.

Eugene thumbed through the bills, a greedy grin splitting his face. “Pleasure doing business with you, future Luna.”

“Don’t spend it all on whiskey,” Ezra smirked, patting his cheek. “We have a long game to play.”

My stomach churned. This wasn't just a love affair. It was a heist. They were dismantling the pack from the inside out, and Jax was too blinded by his desperate need for a cure to see the wolves at his throat.

I retreated silently, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I had no proof. My word against the pregnant 'fated mate'? Jax would kill me for suggesting it.

That evening, a knock came at my door. It was a Delta warrior.

“Alpha demands your presence at dinner,” he grunted, not meeting my eyes.

“I’m not hungry,” I said.

“It wasn’t a request, Luna.”

I was marched to the dining hall like a prisoner. The long table was set for three. Jax sat at the head, looking exhausted but content. Ezra sat at his right hand, wearing my administrative keys on a chain around her neck like a trophy.

“Sit,” Jax commanded, pointing to the chair opposite Ezra.

I sat. The table was laden with food, but the centerpiece was a steaming tureen of stew that smelled rich and earthy.

“I wanted to make amends,” Ezra said softly, her eyes wide and shimmering with unshed tears. “I know things have been… difficult, Camille. But we are a pack. We should break bread together.”

She stood up and ladled a generous portion of the stew into a bowl, placing it in front of me with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

“It’s a traditional recipe from my grandmother,” she said. “Venison and rosemary. Please. For the sake of the pup? I can’t eat if there is tension at the table.”

Jax looked at me, his expression hard. “Eat, Camille. She cooked all afternoon. Don’t be petty.”

I looked at the stew. I looked at Jax, the man I had loved for seven years, who was now looking at me like I was a stranger. If I refused, he would use the Alpha Tone again. I was too weak to resist.

“Fine,” I said, my voice brittle.

I picked up the spoon. The steam wafting up smelled savory, masking anything else. I took a large bite, swallowing quickly to get it over with.

The reaction was instantaneous.

It didn't taste like rosemary. It tasted like sucking on a battery.

A searing heat exploded in my mouth, racing down my throat like liquid magma. My fork clattered onto the china plate. I grabbed my throat, gasping as my airway seized shut.

“Camille?” Jax frowned, putting down his drink. “What is this drama now?”

I tried to speak, but only a strangled wheeze came out. My skin felt like it was being flayed. Hives erupted along my arms in seconds, angry red welts rising on my flesh.

*Silver.*

Not just a trace. She had laced it. Pure silver dust. Fatal to any wolf, but agonizing torture for a Luna with a weakened system.

I fell out of my chair, crashing to the floor, clawing at the carpet. My vision swam, black spots dancing in front of my eyes. Through the haze, I saw Ezra covering her mouth in mock horror.

“Oh no!” she cried, her voice pitch-perfect in its distress. “Is she allergic to mushrooms? I didn’t know! Jax, do something!”

Jax stood up, confusion warring with annoyance on his face, but he didn't move toward me. He didn't smell the metallic tang of the poison. He only saw his inconvenient wife making a scene.

As darkness encroached on the edges of my vision, I looked up at Ezra. She lowered her hand from her mouth, and for a split second, she let the mask slip. She winked.

My heart stuttered. The burning consumed me. And then, there was nothing.