Seven years of being bonded, and I had stopped counting the she-wolves my mate, Kael Blackwood, had taken to his bed.

The reason I had looked away all this time?

He always showered me with territory gifts afterward.

A heat-entanglement with some low-ranking Omega from a neighboring pack? A private den in the heart of our central territory.

A moonlit gathering with young unmated females? A hunting lodge along the eastern ridge, deeded to my name alone.

He bought off my rage, my questions, my grief—all with his wealth and land offerings.

Until I was eight moons heavy with his pup, and my baby died inside me. A stillborn. The healers had to force my body to release him.

I leaned on the denkeeper's arm, barely able to stand, as I shuffled out of my recovery chamber in the healer's den.

That was when I caught his scent—in the birthing room next door. Kael, hovering over another Omega who had just whelped, handling her like she was something precious and fragile.

Our eyes met. A flash of panic crossed his features before the familiar coldness settled back into place.

He walked over and held out a territory deed, blank where the boundaries should be marked.

"Name whatever land you want."

I tore it to shreds.

I looked at him and smiled.

"Kael, I do not want territory this time."

My trembling hand rose, pointing past him toward the thin, reedy cry coming from that birthing chamber.

"I want that pup."

1.

"Selene, have you lost your mind?!"

Disbelief was carved into every line of Kael's face.

I said it again. "I want that pup."

The aftermath of the forced birth had left me so weak that every word felt like it was draining the life force from my body.

"What game are you playing?" He kept his voice low, a growl barely contained. "That is not your pup!"

"Your pup is gone!"

Yes. My pup was gone. Dead.

"Your pup," I said softly, "is that not also my pup?"

"Or would you rather the Blackwood Pack's firstborn heir enter this world branded as a rogue-born bastard?"

Kael's jaw clenched shut.

He and I had grown up together. Our packs went back generations—ancient bloodlines intertwined with ancient bloodlines. The Blackwood Pack and the Nightshade Pack were both old-blood houses that lived and died by lineage and honor.

He could stray. He could have his heat entanglements. But a stain on the pack's bloodline? That was the one thing that would never be tolerated.

On the birthing bed, Vesper Ashfen finally understood what was happening.

She struggled to sit up, her voice shrill: "Kael! You cannot give her my pup! This is my only—"

Her only weapon for clawing her way into the pack.

A rogue-born Omega of her unremarkable blood, dreaming of rising through motherhood? Delusional.

I watched Kael's face twist with conflict, and suddenly, the whole scene struck me as grotesquely absurd.

I gathered the last of my strength, shoved him aside, and walked into the room, one agonizing step at a time.

Vesper flinched, clutching the swaddled pup tighter against her chest, her scent spiking with fear.

"Hello, Third Mistress," I said. "I am Selene Nightshade. Kael's bonded mate."

I forced my lips into a rigid smile and delivered the truth, syllable by syllable.

"Starting today, I am this pup's mother."

I paused, savoring the way her face drained of color, then twisted the knife deeper.

"And you? Your pup was stillborn. Forced birth. Do you understand?"

Those two words—forced birth—I barely whispered them.

But they cut so deep I could hardly breathe.

"NO!"

Vesper's scream shattered the air. She grabbed the fur pelt from behind her and hurled it at me.

"You are lying! This is MY pup! MINE!"

Kael followed me in, his expression pained.

"Kael, you cannot let her take our pup!" Vesper sobbed, reaching for him desperately, her Omega scent thick with distress.

Kael looked at me, caught between two impossible choices.

"Selene..."

I leaned in close and murmured in his ear:

"The Westside Hunting Grounds Accord... the Pack Elder cares about it a great deal. And it just so happens to be in my brother's hands."

Kael went rigid.

The Westside Hunting Grounds Accord represented the Blackwood Pack's most vital territorial expansion for the coming decade—and Kael's sole opportunity to prove his worth to the Elder Alpha.

He spun toward me, his wolf surging close to the surface. Fury blazed in his amber eyes. Resentment twisted his features. And beneath it all, I caught the acrid scent of wariness bleeding through his carefully constructed mask.

He drew a sharp breath, nostrils flaring, then turned to Vesper. "Think clearly about this. The pup... let Selene raise him. It's the only path to legitimacy within pack law."

I shifted my attention to Eira Hearthwell, my denkeeper who had served the Nightshade household since before my birth.

"Go. Bring that pup to my chamber."

I stepped beyond the healer's ward and reached for my connection to my pack liaison.

"Aria Stormvale, secure the healer's den. This remains sealed between us—no whisper reaches another ear. On the pup-ledger entry, only one name appears under 'Dam.' Mine."

Moments later, the adjacent chamber erupted—snarling, something shattering against stone walls, and Vesper's raw, gut-wrenching howls tearing through the silence.

I gazed down at the infant in the woven basket.

He slumbered peacefully, his tiny lips parting and closing with each soft breath.

A cold smile pulled at the corner of my mouth.

Kael came to my chamber every day. Lingered for a time. But his body occupied this space while his wolf remained tethered next door.

His communication crystal never stopped pulsing with light. Message after message from Vesper flooded through.

"Kael, I ache for our pup so desperately. Can't you compel her to return him to me?"

"I desire nothing else. I only want my offspring."

"Kael, I'm losing so much blood. The healers say my body isn't recovering from the birth. Will I survive this?"

Vesper understood precisely how to manipulate him.

She never struck at me directly. She simply circled back endlessly to her suffering, her yearning for the pup.

Painting me as heartless by comparison. Cruel and unfeeling.

Each time he absorbed her messages, the furrow between his brows carved deeper. Then he would mutter some flimsy excuse and rush from the room.

Early one morning, Kael had vanished. The healer attendants and Eira had taken the pup for his wellness examination.

Vesper materialized at my bedside like a wraith. Her eyes glittered with venom, her scent sharp with malice.

"Don't believe you've claimed victory, Selene."

"That ill-fated pup of yours? I'm the one who convinced Kael to eliminate it."

"That night, he'd been drinking moon-wine. Kept reaching out to me through our bond, again and again."

"I simply... played the wounded Omega. Whispered that the pup growing in your belly would become an obstacle to my place in his life."

"Begged him to spend more time with me. To stop orbiting around you and your swelling stomach."

"I never expected him to sever our connection and actually return to you. What unfolded after that..."

"Your pup? You simply weren't strong enough to protect it. Don't lay blame elsewhere."

"You're nothing but a surrogate nursing my offspring. Don't celebrate your position too soon."

She turned and glided out, her footsteps silent on the stone floor.

Every word seared into my flesh like a red-hot brand pressed against bare skin.

So that's how it happened.

I lay there, eyes sealed shut, my hands trembling violently beneath the woven blanket. Blood crept backward through the healer's needle, staining a section of the clear tube deep crimson.

I bit down on my lip until the taste of iron flooded my mouth, mixing with the salt of unshed tears.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I simply reached over and withdrew the needle from my hand.

A bead of blood rolled down the back of my wrist, dripping onto the pale linens—a single, brutal plum blossom blooming against the white.

The door swung open with a groan.

Kael strode in.

He froze when the copper scent of my blood hit his senses, then crossed the distance in three swift strides and seized my wrist.

"Why did you remove the healer's needle? Have you lost all reason?"

He snatched a cloth from the bedside table and pressed it firmly against the wound, his brow furrowed with what almost resembled concern. For a heartbeat, he nearly appeared as though he cared.

My entire body shook. I wanted to scream. To demand answers. To shift and tear into him with claws and fangs.

But no strength remained in my limbs.

"Just go. Go be with Vesper."

"Eira will return shortly. I don't require your presence here."

From the neighboring chamber came another burst of pitiful wailing. Vesper, performing her role once more.

Kael bolted toward the door without a second's hesitation.

I summoned my pack liaison through the mind-link and commanded her to arrange my early release from the healer's den immediately.

"Back to the estate."

Time to claim what was mine.

When I appeared at the warded threshold of the Blackwood territory with that pup cradled in my arms, the entire pack erupted.

Elders from both bloodlines, council members, pack aunts and uncles—everyone swarmed around me, their wolves rising to the surface in excitement.

"Oh, my precious great-grandpup!"

The Elder Matriarch took the pup from my arms with trembling care, her weathered face splitting into a smile so wide it seemed it might never close. Her wolf's presence softened, radiating warmth I could feel against my skin.

The Alpha Patriarch was even more overcome. His hands shook as he looked at me, ancient eyes brimming with approval, his dominant scent mellowing into something almost gentle.

"Selene, well done! You are the greatest contributor to our bloodline!"

I became the pack's hero.

Because I had given the four-generation Blackwood bloodline its first male heir of the fifth generation.

No one knew that my heart had already died in that cold healer's chamber, alongside the pup I would never hold.

My bond-father watched the denkeeper's carriage pull directly into the inner courtyard and frowned, his nostrils flaring. "Where is Kael?"

"Occupied elsewhere, I suppose. I did not catch his scent at the healer's den either."

The elders' rewards were staggering.

The Alpha Patriarch granted me a coastal den overlooking Blackwood Harbor. He placed the territory tokens on my nightstand himself, the ancient metal warm from his palm.

The Elder Matriarch brought out her most treasured moonstone jewelry—set after set, so luminous they seemed to hold captured starlight.

My bond-father transferred five percent of the Blackwood territory rights into my name, making me the youngest member of the pack council overnight.

My bond-mother was the most thoughtful. She gifted me a private island sanctuary in the southern waters, saying I could retreat there to recuperate once my body had healed from the birthing.

I smiled and accepted everything.

I deserved all of it.

I had paid for it with my pup's life.

No one knew that in the deepest corner of my den's inner chamber, I had carved out a small space.

There were no fine furs there. No ceremonial gowns.

Only a small memorial tablet, carved from sacred sandalwood.

It bore no name.

Before it lay a pair of tiny knitted booties I had made with my own hands—booties I would never give to anyone now. And a few heartbreakingly small pup wrappings.

Every night, when the pack fell silent and the moon hung heavy overhead, I would lock myself in that chamber.

I would hold that little tablet, running my fingers over its smooth surface again and again.

Little one, Mama is here.

Little one, your grandparents brought so many things today. If you were here, you would have them too.

Little one, do you blame Mama? Mama was useless. Mama could not protect you...

I never howled my grief aloud. I just let the tears slide down in silence, soaking into the wood I clutched against my chest.

There was a hole where my heart used to be—a wound that would never heal. Cold wind howled through it endlessly, and the pain made it impossible to breathe.

That was the secret that belonged only to me and my lost pup.

Kael returned to the estate too, but he did not dare come near me.

In front of the entire pack, the Alpha Patriarch struck his ceremonial staff against the stone floor and called him a disgrace. I had just "given birth," he thundered, and not only had Kael failed to stay by my side—he had upset me during my most vulnerable time.

He was made to kneel in the ancestral shrine all night, surrounded by the watching eyes of every Blackwood who had come before.

He probably could not understand it. The Selene who had once loved him to the point of obsession, the omega he had believed he held completely under his sway—how had she suddenly become this?

Occasionally, he would come to the bedchamber to keep me company. But more often, he went to see the pup.

He would hold the child clumsily, offer him the feeding bottle. And in his eyes, there was something unfamiliar—something that might have been called fatherly devotion.

One evening, he stood behind me for a long time. I could feel his presence, sense his wolf pacing restlessly beneath his skin. Then, finally, he spoke.

"Selene, about that night... I was wrong. I had drunk too much moonwine."

A pause.

"Vesper... she just depends on me too much. Do not hold it against her."