Seraphina POV

The bathroom door clicked open, spilling a sliver of pale light across the dark bedroom before plunging us back into shadows. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, my breathing shallow and measured, pretending to be asleep.

The mattress dipped heavily behind me. Kain’s massive frame settled onto the bed, radiating a blistering heat that I usually craved. Tonight, however, that heat felt like a threat.

A heavy, calloused hand slid over my hip, his long fingers splaying across my waist. Even through the silk of my nightgown, his touch sent a violent jolt of electricity straight to my core. His inner wolf, Rage, was restless. I could feel the subtle tremor in Kain's hand, a silent plea for comfort. My own scent—*Night-blooming Cereus*—was naturally drawing his wolf in, trying to soothe the frayed edges of his drunken exhaustion.

But as he leaned closer, his face burying into the crook of my neck, the suffocating stench of tuberose hit me again. It was woven into his skin, masking his natural pine scent.

My stomach violently heaved. The mate-bond flared with a sickening, agonizing sting. He was touching me with hands that had just been on *her*.

Instinct took over. A fierce, protective urge for the tiny life growing inside my womb surged through my veins. I couldn't let this toxic energy near my baby. I couldn't let him touch me while reeking of another she-wolf's claim.

I violently shoved his hand away, jerking my body forward and curling into a tight, defensive ball at the very edge of the mattress.

Kain froze. The silence in the room became absolute, heavy with unspoken words. For a agonizing second, I waited for him to ask what was wrong, to explain the scent, to fight for us.

Instead, a low, guttural growl vibrated in his chest—a sound caught somewhere between deep frustration and wounded pride. He didn't try to touch me again. The mattress shifted as he rolled over, turning his broad back to me.

The fragile thread connecting us snapped in the dark. I pressed a trembling hand over my mouth to muffle my sobs, mourning the secret I had planned to share.

*

The next morning, the sprawling living room felt more like a sterile corporate lobby than a home. The monochromatic gray and white decor offered no comfort.

Kain was already sitting on the massive white leather sofa when I came downstairs. He was dressed in a crisp, tailored suit, his jaw clenched, his eyes devoid of the vulnerability from the night before. He looked every inch the ruthless Alpha of the Blackwood Pack.

I paused at the bottom of the stairs, my hand subconsciously resting over my flat stomach. *This is it,* I told myself. *The baby will change everything. He just needs to know he's going to be a father.*

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to him.

"Kain, I have something wonderful to tell you," I said, my voice trembling slightly with a desperate, fragile hope.

He didn't even blink. His icy gaze met mine, shutting me down instantly. "I have something to say first."

He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thick stack of papers, sliding them across the glass coffee table toward me. The bold, black letters at the top of the page made my blood run cold.

*Dissolution of Union Agreement.*

"What is this?" I whispered, the air leaving my lungs.

"It's over, Sera," Kain said, his voice entirely stripped of emotion. "I'm initiating the Rejection. My pack lawyers have already drafted the terms. You will be well compensated."

The room started to spin. The words echoed in my head, tearing at the mate-bond until I felt physically sick. He was throwing me away. He was throwing *us* away.

"But... we are mates..." I choked out, tears finally spilling over my lashes. I desperately wanted to scream that I was carrying his heir, that we were a family.

Before the secret could leave my lips, Kain delivered the final, fatal blow.

"Galilea's returned."

The name struck me like a silver bullet to the chest. My jaw snapped shut. The baby secret died instantly on my tongue, turning to ash.

It wasn't about our arranged mating. It wasn't about my lack of a wolf. It was about *her*. She was the tuberose scent. She was the reason he was willing to defy the Moon Goddess and tear our souls apart.

My wonderful news suddenly felt like a cruel, twisted joke. Numbness washed over me, freezing the tears on my cheeks. With a hollow chest and a shattered soul, I slowly reached out and picked up the cold, heavy document.

Seraphina POV

The heavy, cold parchment of the *Dissolution of Union Agreement* felt like lead in my trembling hands. The silence in the sprawling, monochromatic living room was deafening, broken only by the chaotic, agonizing hum of the frayed mate-bond.

Kain shifted on the white leather sofa. I could feel the restless pacing of his inner wolf, Rage, bleeding through our connection. Rage was furious, confused by the sudden severing of our ties, and Kain was clearly struggling to suppress him.

"Sera," Kain's voice broke the quiet, softer this time, laced with a sickening attempt at pity. "I know this is hard. But even with the union dissolved, I will always make sure you are taken care of. You will always be family to me. I'll look after you... like a sister."

*Like a sister.*

The words were a physical blow, striking harder than the rejection itself. The Moon Goddess had woven our souls together, designed us to be two halves of a whole, and he was reducing that sacred bond to a sterile, platonic obligation just to soothe his own guilt. It was the ultimate insult.

A cold, hollow laugh escaped my lips, twisting into a mocking smile that felt entirely foreign on my face. "A sister," I repeated, my voice devoid of any warmth. "Right. We can discuss the logistics of that later."

Kain frowned, a flicker of unease crossing his stoic features. He clearly hadn't expected this icy detachment. "You said you had something to tell me earlier," he pressed, his brow furrowing. "What was it?"

My hand instinctively hovered over my flat stomach. *A pup destined to be rejected by its own father.* I looked at the man sitting across from me—a man willing to defy the heavens for another woman. I would never use my child as a bargaining chip to keep a mate who didn't want me.

I swallowed the bitter ash in my throat and met his gaze with dead eyes. "It was just about the new MQ Clothing design proposals. But it doesn't matter now."

Kain stared at me for a long moment before checking his Rolex, seemingly eager to escape the heavy atmosphere he had created. "I need to change," he said, standing up and smoothing his tailored suit. "We can ride to the Blakely Group building together."

I stared at him, appalled by his ability to compartmentalize our destruction. He was tearing my soul apart, yet he expected us to commute like nothing had happened.

"No," I said, my voice turning to ice as I stood up. "Since we are dissolving the union, it's best the pack doesn't see us arriving together anymore."

Without waiting for his response, I turned on my heel. I grabbed my purse from the foyer table and walked out the heavy ebony doors, leaving him standing in the sterile hallway.

The underground garage was a cavern of polished concrete and gleaming supercars. I practically threw myself into the driver's seat of my modest sedan, slamming the door to shut out the suffocating scent of his territory.

In the cramped, quiet sanctuary of my car, my hands began to shake violently. I needed proof. I needed to kill the last, pathetic sliver of hope in my chest that maybe, just maybe, this was all a misunderstanding.

I pulled out my phone and opened Facebook. It didn't take long. Eddie Dawson, Kain's closest aristocratic friend and a notorious social climber, had just posted a new update.

It was a photo taken at the high-end pack club they frequented. Kain was in the center, looking relaxed and powerful, holding a crystal glass. And there, pressed intimately against his side, was Galilea. She looked radiant, her smile triumphant as she clung to his arm.

The caption below the photo felt like a silver blade twisting in my gut:

*Welcome back, Galilea! Our true Luna has returned! A wedding's on the way! *

*Our true Luna.*

The pack had never accepted me, a wolfless weakling, but seeing it written out so blatantly confirmed my worst fears. Kain hadn't just spent the last month on "pack business." He had been with her. They had already planned their future while I was sitting at home, waiting to tell him he was going to be a father.

The words on the screen blurred as a single, scalding tear slipped free, landing directly on Galilea's smiling face.

Seraphina POV

The single tear sat heavily on the glowing screen, magnifying Galilea’s triumphant smile. *Our true Luna.* The words from Eddie’s post echoed in the cramped confines of my car, a vicious chant that sent fresh, agonizing tremors through our frayed mate-bond.

I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. If I had a wolf, I would have shattered Kain’s mind with a deafening, furious roar through the mind-link. But I was wolfless. I was trapped in a deafening silence, unable to project my agony, forced to swallow the betrayal whole.

A soft tap on the driver’s side window made me flinch.

I hastily wiped my face and lowered the glass an inch. Mark, the elderly Omega who had driven for the Blakely family for decades, stood in the dim garage light. His shoulders were hunched, and his eyes were swimming with a gentle, devastating pity.

"Luna," Mark asked, his voice trembling slightly. "Are you alright?"

That single word—*Luna*—felt like a slap. The pity in his eyes confirmed what I already knew: the pack staff knew. They all knew Kain had brought his true love back, while I was left in the dark.

"I'm fine, Mark," I choked out, the lie tasting like ash. I rolled the window up, threw the car into drive, and sped out of the suffocating underground cavern. I needed to work. I needed the sterile, emotionless sanctuary of the Blakely Group.

Hours later, the towering glass walls of my office offered no comfort. I stared blankly at the MQ Clothing proposals on my monitor, forcing my trembling fingers to forward the urgent files to Kain’s executive system.

My phone buzzed on the desk.

It wasn't a mind-link. It was a text message. The cold, human method of communication felt like a deliberate wall built between us.

*Kain: I have urgent Pack business with the Silvermoon delegation tonight. Don't wait up.*

My chest tightened, the frayed bond giving a pathetic, sharp tug. *Silvermoon delegation.* Galilea’s pack. He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore. He was spending the evening with her.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard. I wanted to scream, to demand the truth, to tell him about the tiny life growing inside me. Instead, I typed a single word.

*Sera: Ok.*

Less than a minute later, the screen lit up again.

*Kain: The gift I brought back for you is in my luggage. Get it yourself when you get home.*

Bile rose in my throat. A gift. A pathetic, obligatory trinket to pacify the woman he was discarding. He was sleeping with his ex, dissolving our union, and he thought a souvenir would ease his conscience? I could feel a strange, restless agitation bleeding through the bond—Kain’s wolf, Rage, pacing uncomfortably—but I shut it out.

*Sera: Fine.*

I threw the phone into my purse. I couldn't breathe in this building anymore.

By the time I reached the executive underground parking lot, the space was practically deserted, echoing with the hum of ventilation fans. I just wanted to get to my car, drive to my old private apartment, and pretend this day had never happened.

I was halfway to my sedan when the VIP elevator chimed. The polished steel doors slid open.

I froze behind a concrete pillar, my breath catching in my throat.

Kain stepped out. He was wearing the crisp white suit I had laid out for him this morning. But it wasn't the suit that made my blood run cold. It was the tie. The deep crimson silk tie I had bought him just yesterday—a secret, hopeful celebration of the pup I was carrying.

Clinging to his arm, practically molded to his side, was Galilea.

Even from a distance, the heavy, cloying scent of tuberose hit my nose, suffocating and territorial. She laughed at something he said, playfully tugging at his arm.

I waited for Kain to pull away, to maintain his usual stoic, untouchable Alpha demeanor. But he didn't. Instead, he looked down at her, and a soft, indulgent smile touched his lips—a smile I had spent years trying to earn, a smile I thought he was incapable of giving.

He was wearing the symbol of our unborn child while escorting the woman who was replacing me.

I stood paralyzed in the shadows, the cold concrete seeping into my bones as the last, fragile pieces of my world quietly turned to dust.