Arla POV:

The city lights smeared across the windshield, a chaotic blur of neon that mirrored the storm in my mind. I drove back to the Holden estate on autopilot, the woman's soft voice echoing in my ears. Young. Sweet. Everything I wasn't.

I told myself it was probably just a friend, but I knew full well that Bryce had never had any close female friends in all the years I'd known him. And I was still dwelling on his lie. He deserved a chance to explain. I needed him to explain.

I parked the car in front of the sprawling, silent mansion and took a deep breath, trying to steady the tremor in my hands.

Maria, the head housekeeper, met me in the grand, empty foyer. Her expression was carefully neutral. "Luna. Alpha Holden has returned. He is waiting for you in the study."

My heart sank. Not our bedroom. The study. The place where he signed deals and made decisions, the room stripped of all emotion.

I climbed the sweeping staircase, my steps silent on the thick runner. The heavy oak door to the study was closed, a formidable barrier. I hesitated for only a second before pushing it open.

Bryce stood with his back to me, a tall silhouette against the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the darkened estate. Even from behind, he radiated an aura of untouchable authority.

He turned at the sound of the door. His eyes, held none of the warmth I had foolishly hoped for. There was only a vast, chilling indifference.

"You're back," I said. My voice was hoarse. I tried to smile, but my lips felt stiff.

He didn't return the greeting. He walked to his massive mahogany desk, picked up a file, and held it out to me.

Confused, I took it. The cover was blank. I opened it.

The words at the top of the page were stark and brutal. DIVORCE AGREEMENT. The cold, printed letters seemed to burn into my retinas.

My head snapped up. The blood drained from my face. "What... what is this?"

His expression didn't flicker. His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, as if he were discussing a quarterly report. "It's exactly what it says, Arla. We're getting a divorce. Sign it. The terms are generous. You'll be well compensated for your time."

The world tilted on its axis. I stumbled back, my hand finding the edge of a bookshelf, saving me from collapsing. I looked at the man I had loved for three years, and for the first time, I saw a complete and utter stranger.

"Why?" The word was a shattered whisper. "I don't understand. I thought... I thought we were okay."

I thought of the baby. I thought of the joy I had carried all day, now curdled into a sickening lump of despair. The sheer absurdity of it all was suffocating.

A flicker of something—impatience, maybe—crossed his face. "We were never 'okay,' Arla. This was a union based on mutual family interests. Those interests have been served. It's time for it to end."

His voice then dropped, becoming cold and formal, a pronouncement that echoed with the weight of pack law.

"I, Bryce Holden, Alpha of Blackwood Pack, reject you, Arla Osborn, as my mate and Luna."

His words were a scalpel, expertly slicing through three years of my self-deception.

"Did you never love me, Bryce?" I gripped the edge of the table to keep myself from fainting.

"There has never been genuine love between us, Arla," he said, a faint frown creasing his brow. "... When your father died, you were taken into our household. I have always seen you as a younger sister."

How ridiculous.

"Sister." One simple word, and it put an end to three years of our marriage. The days we spent together, the nights we shared a bed, even this child growing inside me—all of it meant nothing, erased by his single word: "sister."

My vision blurred as my gaze fell on the calendar on his desk. The date was circled in red ink. I had been so thrilled about the pregnancy that I had completely forgotten this. Today was also our third wedding anniversary.

And he had chosen today. He even picked our anniversary to give me the divorce papers.

A wave of grief and humiliation so profound it stole my breath washed over me. Tears welled, hot and stinging. I spun around, needing to escape, to breathe.

I choked down the nausea as I reeled backward, almost losing my footing. His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist just in time to stop me from falling. His grip was like iron, his skin radiating a familiar, searing heat. A jolt, like an electric current, shot up my arm. The undeniable, infuriating pull of the mate bond.

"You're really pale. Are you feeling okay?"

Arla POV:

"I'm okay. You don't have to bother."

"Fine." His eyes turned distant again. "You don't have to be so defensive."

I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand, forcing myself to meet his gaze. "Defensive? You're the one who asked for the divorce first. "

"That's not the same thing," he said. "Now that you're okay, sign the agreements."

"Our marriage was arranged by the family elders. You wouldn't defy your grandfather so easily. Tell me the real reason, Bryce. Is it because of her? The woman on the phone?" I said, my voice raw but steady.

I wouldn't let him dismiss three years of my life with a cold, corporate write-off.

He watched me, his expression unreadable, as if weighing the cost of telling me the truth. The silence stretched, thin and sharp, chilling me to the bone.

Finally, he spoke. Two words, delivered with no inflection, no emotion. "Kyla's back."

Kyla. Kyla Landry. The name struck me like a physical blow.

It all came rushing back. No wonder that voice on the phone had seemed familiar. She was Bryce's first love. I'd talked to her a couple of times while I was living with the Holdens. She was the daughter of one of their strategic allies. She was the only one who survived that so-called Rogue attack, and Bryce sent her overseas to recover. Everyone said he felt a profound and unshakeable responsibility toward her.

"So she's back, and you're divorcing me?" I struggled to keep my voice steady. "Your 'responsibility' to her is more important than our marriage?"

His jaw tightened, a muscle flexing in his cheek. "This is not your concern, Arla. It's my decision as Alpha."

His decision as Alpha. He was using his title, his power, to shut me down. To remind me of my place. An Omega, forever beneath him.

And in that moment, I understood. It wasn't responsibility. It was never just responsibility. He loved her. He had always loved her.

I was just the placeholder. The convenient, well-behaved substitute who filled the space while she was gone.

I could not bring myself to believe that all we had once been was hollow, a lie without purpose. My heart was still trembling with a faint, desperate hope. I wanted to tell him about the pregnancy, hoping it might make him stay.

But I quickly realized it wouldn't work. He saw me as a sister. How could he ever want a child from a woman he didn't love?

I couldn't gamble Bryce's feelings on my unborn child. I couldn't. I couldn't tell him. I had to keep my child hidden.

I reached for the pen on his desk. My hand was shaking so badly I could barely hold it. I didn't bother reading the generous terms he'd offered. I flipped to the last page and scrawled my name.

Bryce seemed taken aback by my swift compliance. A flicker of something unreadable crossed his face before the mask of indifference slammed back down.

I pushed the signed agreement across the desk toward him. Without another word, I turned and walked out of the study, each step an agony.

Back in our-my-bedroom, I collapsed onto the bed, burying my face in the pillows to muffle the sobs that tore from my throat.

I didn't know how long I had been lying there when my phone vibrated on the nightstand. It was a text from my best friend, Cori.

"Arla, you need to see this."

She had sent an image. A screenshot of a social media post.

"Have you seen what Cade Sterling posted? Who's that woman with Bryce? She looks familiar."

Cade Sterling was one of Bryce's inner circle. My fingers trembled as I tapped the image to enlarge it.

The photo was taken at an upscale restaurant. Bryce was turned slightly to the side, his handsome features half hidden in shadow. A woman with long dark hair leaned into him, her head almost resting against his shoulder. She was smiling, her face glowing with triumphant satisfaction.

It was Kyla Landry.

I checked the timestamp. It had been posted thirty minutes ago.

It was clear now. When Bryce got back, he went to her. He only came home to give me the divorce papers. While I had signed the agreement, and while I had cried alone in our bed, he had been out celebrating with her.

I couldn't help but zoom in on the picture and study the possessive way Kyla looked at him. It was the look of a woman who believed she had claimed him.

A cold hand seemed to clamp down on my heart, stealing the air from my lungs.

Another message from Cori arrived: Arla, are you okay?

I was too drained to reply. The phone slipped from my numb fingers and landed with a soft thud on the plush carpet.

I curled into a ball, a sharp, twisting pain starting in my lower abdomen. The stress, the heartbreak-it was reaching the baby. I wrapped my arms tighter around myself, as if I could shield us both from the wreckage of my life.

But that couldn't stop the lies, couldn't stop the coldness in Bryce's eyes. I realized I couldn't just stay curled up like this. I couldn't let my child learn to surrender before it was even born. That wasn't protection.

I had to climb out of the wreckage. For the baby. For myself.