"Ten minutes, Lena," Carter said, stepping away from the edge of my hospital bed.

A sharp cramp ripped through my abdomen. I doubled over, gripping the thin cotton blanket. The Moon Blood transfer had barely started, but the supernatural drain was already tearing my insides apart.

"You promised to stay on my side of the glass," I reminded him, my voice strained through clenched teeth.

"I have to sign the confirmation documents for her surgery," he argued, pointing toward the hallway. "The hospital needs a signature from the future Alpha family representative. I will be right back."

"Carter, it hurts."

"Naomi is monitoring the IV," he replied, already backing out of the room. "Ten minutes. I swear."

He did not wait for my response. The heavy door swung shut.

Ten minutes stretched into a full hour. The cramping intensified into a relentless, burning ache that radiated down my thighs.

"Where is my husband?" I asked the nurse checking my monitors.

"Alpha Carter is in the surgical recovery wing," she answered, adjusting the fluid drip. "Miss Sienna is out of surgery."

I grabbed my phone from the metal tray. My thumbs flew across the screen.

I am bleeding. Please come back.

The message marked as delivered. Three gray dots danced on the screen.

Naomi is with you. I am coming.

I stared at the display. The backlight faded to dim, then turned completely black. He never opened the door.

A chime broke the sterile silence. The Pack group chat lit up my notifications.

Carter had uploaded a photo. Sienna lay against propped pillows, a bright smile on her pale face, giving a thumbs-up to the camera. Carter's caption sat beneath the image.

Surgery successful. Our star is back.

Dozens of congratulatory messages flooded the chat.

"The bleeding is too severe," Naomi announced, marching into the room with an ultrasound cart. "We stopped the transfer early, but the wolf reaction triggered a hemorrhage."

She applied the gel and pressed the wand to my stomach. The monitor displayed a static, gray void.

"The embryo's heartbeat is gone," Naomi stated flatly. She lowered the wand. "We need to clear the tissue immediately to stabilize your vitals."

I stared straight up at the fluorescent ceiling lights. One single tear escaped the corner of my eye and slid into my hairline. I did not sob. I did not scream.

"Do you have family available to sign the emergency consent forms?" a surgical nurse asked, holding a clipboard over my chest.

"No," I replied, my tone entirely hollow.

I picked up my phone and dialed Carter's number.

The first call rang twice before clicking directly to voicemail. He declined it.

I dialed again. The second call rang until it timed out.

I dialed a third time. The automated greeting played instantly.

I dropped the device onto the mattress. "Naomi, print my medical records. The transfer log, the ultrasound results, and the notes where I explicitly requested the backup synthetic protocol for Sienna."

Naomi stopped wiping the gel off my stomach. "You want the physical files right now?"

"Yes. Print everything." I refused to let anyone else define what happened in this room.

Three hours later, the anesthesia wore off. My phone buzzed on the metal tray. Carter's name flashed across the screen.

I swiped to answer.

"Why did you leave the observation wing?" Carter demanded.

Loud cheering and the clinking of glasses echoed in the background. Someone yelled Sienna's name in celebration.

"I went back to check on you and the bed was empty," he continued, raising his voice over the noise. "Sienna had a panic attack when she woke up. I couldn't just walk away from her."

"The baby is gone," I said.

The background noise vanished. A door clicked shut on his end.

"What baby?" he asked.

My grip on the plastic phone case tightened until my knuckles ached. He forgot the pregnancy test. He forgot the entire reason I hesitated to sign the waiver in the first place.

"Our baby," I told him, enunciating every syllable. "The one you said we could have later."

A sharp intake of breath hissed through the speaker.

"Lena," Carter stammered. The commanding Alpha tone dissolved completely. "I am coming to your room right now."

"Do not come here," I ordered.

I ended the call. I opened his contact profile and switched his ringtone to silent.

I took a taxi back to the Pack estate. The front door unlocked with a quiet click.

The house felt entirely foreign. The master bedroom door stood wide open, revealing a hospital-grade recovery bed and an oxygen machine next to Carter's nightstand. Down the hall, the nursery floor was covered in thick blue rehabilitation mats. The wooden crib was nowhere in sight.

On the dining room table sat a massive arrangement of yellow roses. A card leaned against the vase. To Sienna, Welcome Home.

I walked past the flowers. I entered the guest room and grabbed my laptop, my identification documents, and the folder containing my college acceptance letters. Finally, I reached into the cardboard box by the stairs and pulled out the silver wolf moon mobile.

I walked over to the entryway console. Carter always dropped his car keys on the polished wood.

I slid my diamond wedding band off my finger. The metal clinked sharply against the table. Next to the ring, I placed the hospital discharge papers detailing the miscarriage.

On top of the medical records, I set down the formal mate separation application.

Thirty minutes later, I stood at the Pack registry desk. I slid the separation forms across the counter. The clerk stamped them and handed me the yellow carbon copy.

I checked into a cheap, extended-stay motel on the absolute edge of the territory, miles away from the training facility.

I sat on the edge of the lumpy mattress. My phone screen lit up the dark room. Fourteen missed calls from Carter.

On the fifteenth ring, I answered.

"Where are you?" Carter practically shouted. His breathing sounded ragged, erratic. "I am at the house. Lena, the papers on the table—"

"I lost my baby," I interrupted, my tone frigid. "And I lost the home you gave me."

"Please," he begged. Panic laced his words. "Tell me where you are."

"You do not have the right to ask where I am anymore."

"Lena, wait—"

A sharp, frantic gasp tore through the speaker.

I pressed the red button before he could shout my name.

I tossed the phone onto the bedspread and pulled the yellow carbon copy of the mate separation form from my bag, tracing the black ink of the official thirty-day countdown stamp.