Genevieve POV:

I woke up to the smell of mildew and stale water. I wasn't in the guest room. I was in the basement.

My head throbbed where I'd hit the pavement. I tried to sit up, but my body felt like lead.

The heavy steel door groaned open. Ignatz stood there, silhouetted by the light from the hallway.

"You ran," he said, his voice dangerously calm. "I give you a chance to confess with dignity, and you run like a coward."

"I was running for my life," I rasped, clutching my stomach. "You tried to kill our child."

"I tried to save my pack from embarrassment," he countered, stepping into the damp room. He looked at me with cold detachment. "Since you have so much energy, you can stay down here. The Omega quarters are too good for a fugitive."

"You can't keep me here," I said, struggling to my feet. "My father..."

"Your father is a nobody," Ignatz scoffed. "And even if he wasn't, no one enters Turner land without my permission. You are property, Genevieve. Broken property."

Everleigh appeared behind him, peering over his shoulder. She was wearing one of my silk robes.

"Is she still whining?" She wrinkled her nose at the damp smell. "Ignatz, baby, I need you upstairs. The baby is kicking."

"It's been three weeks, Everleigh," I said, leaning against the cold wall for support. "A pup doesn't kick at three weeks."

"Mine does," she smirked. "He's powerful. Unlike that thing inside you."

Ignatz turned to go, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Wait," I called out. "My mother's locket. It was in the bedroom. Please."

Ignatz paused. "Everleigh liked it. She said the silver matches her eyes. It's hers now."

"That's all I have left of her!"

"You have nothing!" Ignatz roared, the Alpha command slamming me back against the cinderblocks. "You exist because I allow it. Do not test my patience again."

He slammed the door, plunging me back into darkness.

I slid down the wall, curling into a ball to protect my stomach. I was trapped. But the crack in the seal was widening. My wolf wasn't just pacing anymore. She was clawing at the door of my mind, waiting for the moment to tear this house down brick by brick.

Genevieve POV:

The annual Full Moon Gala. The night of alliances and power plays.

Ignatz had his guards drag me out of the basement, hose me down with freezing water, and shove me into a plain black dress. I was to be a prop. A warning to anyone who defied him.

"Carry the train," Everleigh had ordered, tossing the heavy fabric of her white gown at me.

So here I was, walking five paces behind the happy couple, head bowed, clutching the velvet of the woman who stole my life. The ballroom glittered with crystal and malice.

Whispers followed us like smoke.

"Is that the ex?"

"God, she looks like a corpse."

"I heard she tried to poison the new Luna."

I kept my eyes on the floor. I just needed to survive the night. My father had to be close. He knew where I was.

We reached the raised dais. Ignatz took his throne, pulling Everleigh onto his lap.

"Genevieve," Ignatz announced, his voice amplified by the microphone. "Present the Moonstone."

I stepped forward, my hands trembling as I held out the velvet box containing the Turner heirloom.

Everleigh snatched it. "Finally. It'll look much better on a mother than a barren mule."

The crowd laughed. A cruel, sycophantic sound.

"You may go," Ignatz dismissed me. "Back to your cage."

"No," I said.

The room went dead silent.

I reached into my sash and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper I'd managed to hide.

"Divorce papers," I said, my voice shaking but audible. "And the dissolution of the mating contract."

Ignatz stared at me, jaw tight. "You're making a scene."

"Sign it," I said. "You want her? Take her. Just let me go."

Ignatz stood up, towering over me. He snatched the pen from a nearby table and scribbled his name furiously. "Fine. You are nothing to me."

He grabbed the microphone, his ego bruised.

"Since we are airing dirty laundry," he boomed. "I, Ignatz Turner, Alpha of the Turner Pack..."

The air pressure in the room dropped. He was going to do it.

"...reject you, Genevieve, as my mate and Luna."

The words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. The Bond shrieked as it tore. I gasped, clutching my heart, expecting the usual crushing grief.

But instead... I felt relief.

Everleigh laughed. "Look at her. Pathetic."

As I stumbled back, one of Everleigh's minions stuck a foot out.

I tripped.

My head cracked against the marble step of the dais.

Warm blood blinded my left eye. I lay sprawled in front of hundreds of the elite, listening to their laughter.

Ignatz didn't move. He just watched, cold and indifferent.

"Get her out of here," he told the guards. "She's ruining the vibe."

As the darkness crept in again, I heard my wolf howl. It wasn't a sound of mourning. It was a war cry.

Genevieve POV:

I woke up screaming.

Pain. Everywhere.

I wasn't in the Pack House. I was on cold, jagged rock. The air smelled of sulfur and old death.

A silver mine.

Meredith, Ignatz's mother, stood outside the iron bars of the cage I'd been thrown into. She held a handkerchief over her nose.

"Finally," she said. "Ignatz is too soft. Divorce isn't enough. You're a stain, Genevieve. And stains need to be scrubbed out."

"Where..." I coughed, tasting dust.

"The abandoned sector. No one comes here. The silver content in the rock is high enough to keep you weak, and the cold will do the rest."

She turned to leave. "Goodbye, dear. Do try to die quietly."

She left me in the dark.

Hours passed. The cold seeped into my marrow. But the silver... the silver was poison. It burned my skin, sapping my strength.

Then the cramps started.

"No," I whimpered, curling around my belly. "No, please. Stay with me."

It was a tearing agony. I felt warmth between my legs, and I knew. I knew it was over.

My pup was gone.

A scream tore from my throat-a sound so broken it shattered the silence of the mine. The grief was a physical blow, snapping the last thread of my control.

The seal didn't just crack. It detonated.

ENOUGH!

My wolf exploded into the driver's seat. White light flooded the cavern. My bones snapped and reformed, healing instantly. The silver burns vanished under a wave of regenerative power.

I stood up, but the iron door was heavy.

Kaleb POV:

I was mid-sentence in a Council meeting three hundred miles away when it hit me.

It felt like a shotgun blast to the chest. I doubled over, my chair clattering to the floor.

Mate.

Pain. Loss. Grief so deep it felt like drowning.

"Alpha Kaleb?" an Elder asked.

I looked up. My eyes were glowing a violent, radioactive violet.

"She's dying," I snarled.

I didn't wait for the jet. I shifted right there in the Council chambers-a massive, shadow-black wolf the size of a horse-and crashed through the window, sprinting north.

Hang on, I roared through the bond I had never dared to use. I am coming.