Aleida POV:

I was sitting on the couch in the living room of the Alpha's mansion when Derek came home.

I had practiced my expression in the mirror for an hour. Soft. Tired. Oblivious.

"Aleida," Derek said. He walked in, smelling of brandy and Edison's cheap cologne. He held a mug in his hand. "I brought you some warm milk. For the baby. It helps with the calcium."

He smiled. It was the smile of a predator watching a trapped rabbit.

"I'm not thirsty, Derek," I said, keeping my voice steady.

His eyes narrowed slightly. The air in the room grew heavy. A low, vibrating pressure pressed against my skull.

Alpha's Command.

"Drink it, Aleida," he said softly. "It's good for you."

My hand moved on its own. My body betrayed me, obeying the biological imperative to submit to the Alpha. I took the mug. My wolf snarled in protest, but the Command was like iron chains around my limbs.

I took a sip. It tasted sweet, masking a bitter, metallic aftertaste.

Sedatives.

"Good girl," he said, patting my head as if I were a dog. "Rest now."

I feigned drowsiness almost immediately. I let my eyelids flutter and slumped back against the cushions.

Derek watched me for a moment, then pulled out his phone. "She's out. Come in."

I kept my breathing slow and rhythmic, peering through the slit of my eyelashes.

The back door opened. Edison walked in, followed by a woman I hadn't seen in two years.

Elsa.

She was more beautiful than I remembered, but her scent had changed. It was cloying, like rotting flowers.

"Is she asleep?" Elsa asked, looking at me with undisguised loathing.

"Like a log," Edison laughed.

Elsa reached into her designer bag and pulled out a small vial. inside, a liquid glowed with an eerie, phosphorescent blue light.

"Wolfsbane Submission Serum," she announced proudly. "I had it brewed by a witch in New Orleans."

My blood ran cold.

Submission Serum was illegal. It forced a she-wolf's inner wolf into a coma while leaving the human mind awake but paralyzed. It was used by traffickers. It was used for torture.

"Will it work on a pregnant bitch?" Edison asked.

"It's better," Elsa smirked. "It heightens the nerve endings. She won't be able to move a muscle, but she'll feel everything. Every touch. Every pain. Ten times the intensity."

Derek nodded, looking at the vial with approval. "Perfect for the party. I want her frozen when I announce the rejection. I want her to scream inside while she can't make a sound."

"And the inspection?" a new voice asked.

I almost flinched. A fourth person had entered. A man I didn't know. He smelled of dirt and old blood. A Rogue.

"Go ahead," Derek said, waving his hand toward me. "Check the merchandise. If you like what you see, you can bid on her after the ceremony."

The Rogue stepped closer. I felt his rough, calloused hand grab my chin. He turned my face side to side. His other hand moved down, groping my breast roughly.

It took every ounce of my willpower not to Shift. My wolf was screaming, clawing at the walls of my mind, desperate to rip his throat out.

Wait, I told her. Wait.

"She's ripe," the Rogue grunted. "I'll pay top dollar for the first hour."

"Get in line," Edison chuckled.

Elsa stepped forward. "Open her mouth."

Edison forced my jaw open. Elsa used a swab to collect saliva from my tongue.

"I need to test the dosage against her DNA," she said. "We don't want to kill her. Not yet. We need the 'Pot of Gold' to come out first."

She pointed a manicured nail at my stomach.

Pot of Gold. That was what they called my baby. A bargaining chip.

Derek checked his watch. "Get out. She'll wake up in an hour. We need to be ready."

They left, filing out the back door like rats scuttling into the dark.

As soon as the door clicked shut, I opened my eyes.

I stumbled to the bathroom and stuck my finger down my throat, retching up the milk before the sedative could fully digest.

Then, I went to Derek's study.

I didn't need to guess. Weeks ago, when I first suspected Derek was hiding assets, I'd installed a simple keylogger on his desktop. I pulled up the logs.

I logged into his computer. I found the hidden camera feeds. He had installed them to spy on me, but tonight, they had recorded his conspiracy.

I downloaded the footage.

Then, I saw a flashing icon on his taskbar. An encrypted chat app. He hadn't even bothered to log out.

I clicked it open. The group name made my blood freeze.

"The Luna Auction."

Aleida POV:

The chat log scrolled endlessly on the screen, a waterfall of depravity.

Derek (Alpha): Current bid for the first night with the ex-Luna starts at 50k.

RogueOne: Does that include the pregnancy hormones? I like them soft.

Edison (Beta): She's all yours, mate. Just don't damage the face. We want her pretty for the photos.

I read the words, and a part of me died. The part that still remembered Derek proposing to me under the moonlight. The part that believed in the sanctity of the Mate Bond.

He wasn't just rejecting me. He was selling me. He was trafficking his own wife to the highest bidder among the pack's enemies and lowlifes.

I scrolled up.

Elsa: Attached: Ultrasound image.

Elsa: Target: The Pot of Gold. Once the brat is born, we use it to extort her family for the land rights in the North. Then we dispose of it.

Dispose of it.

My hand hovered over the keyboard. I was shaking, not with fear anymore, but with a cold, calculating fury.

I selected everything. The video of them plotting in the living room. The chat logs. The audio of the bet in the office.

I hit Send.

The progress bar crawled across the screen. 50%... 80%... 100%.

Upload Complete.

I sent the files to a secure cloud server, one I had set up years ago for my photography hobby. Then, I set a timer.

48 hours.

Exactly when the party would be at its peak.

I heard the front door open. Derek was back.

I quickly closed the windows, wiped the browser history, and ran back to the couch. I arranged myself exactly as I had been, slowing my breathing.

"Aleida?" Derek's voice came from the hallway.

I stirred, faking a groggy awakening. "Derek? I fell asleep."

He walked in, looking at me with that mask of concern. "The milk must have helped. How is the baby?"

"Moving," I said, placing a hand on my stomach. "He's strong."

Derek's eye twitched. "Good. You need your strength. The Gathering is in two days."

"Do I have to go?" I asked, making my voice sound small and pathetic. "I feel so heavy."

His face hardened. "You are the Luna. You have duties. You will be there, Aleida. And you will look perfect. I don't want anyone saying I don't take care of my mate."

"Yes, Alpha," I whispered.

"Wear the red dress," he commanded. "The one with the open back."

I knew why. The red dress was easy to tear.

"I will," I promised.

He turned to leave, but stopped at the door. "Oh, and Aleida? Don't embarrass me. If you act out, if you cause a scene... the pack laws regarding disobedient Lunas are very severe."

He was threatening me with physical punishment.

"I understand," I said.

He left me alone in the dark room.

I looked down at my belly.

"They think this is a hunt," I whispered to my unborn son. "They think I am the prey."

I stood up, feeling the weight of my body, the ache in my back, and the fire in my soul.

"But they forgot one thing, little wolf. A mother protecting her young is the most dangerous creature on earth."

I went to the closet and pulled out the red dress.

It would be the color of their ruin.

Aleida POV:

The Oak Hall was suffocating.

Hundreds of wolves from the Obsidian Pack filled the grand ballroom. The air was thick with the scent of roasted meat, expensive wine, and the underlying musk of aggression.

I stood by the buffet table, wearing the red dress. It clung to my pregnant form, making me feel exposed.

Everywhere I looked, I saw eyes.

Male wolves leered at me, their gazes lingering on my chest and hips. I recognized some of them from the chat logs. They were the bidders. They were looking at me like I was a piece of meat on a hook.

"Attention!" Edison's voice boomed over the microphone.

The room went silent.

"Tonight, we celebrate the return of a beloved daughter," Edison announced. "Please welcome... Elsa Ortega!"

The doors swung open. Elsa walked in. She was wearing a gown of shimmering silver, looking like a moon goddess herself.

The pack cheered.

She walked straight to the dais where Derek stood. He took her hand and kissed it. The spark between them was fake-there was no Mate Bond there-but the pack didn't know that.

Elsa took the microphone. "Thank you. It's good to be home. I missed my family." Her eyes locked onto me across the room. "Even those who didn't want me here."

A ripple of murmurs went through the crowd.

"Aleida," Derek called out. His voice was amplified, booming through the hall. "Come here."

The crowd parted. I walked the gauntlet. I could smell their disdain. Fat. Useless. Cheater. The whispers followed me.

I reached the dais.

"Elsa has graciously prepared a toast," Derek said. "To bury the hatchet. Apologize to her, Aleida. For sending her away."

He used the Alpha Tone. It hit me like a physical slap, forcing my knees to bend slightly.

"I..." My throat constricted. "I welcome you back, Elsa."

Elsa smiled, a serpent's grin. She picked up two glasses of champagne. One was clear. The other had a faint, swirling blue tint.

She handed me the blue one.

"To sisterhood," she said.

I knew what it was. The Submission Serum.

If I refused, Derek would force it down my throat in front of everyone. It would be a scene. I needed them to think they had won. I needed them to drop their guard.

I took the glass.

"To the truth," I said.

I drank it.

The effect was instantaneous. A cold fire raced down my throat. My limbs felt heavy, like lead weights were attached to my bones. My wolf, who had been pacing anxiously, suddenly collapsed in my mind, silenced by the dark magic of the potion.

"She drank it!" someone shouted.

Laughter erupted.

My legs gave out. I fell, but Edison was there, catching me. His hands were hot and greasy on my bare back.

"Gotcha," he whispered in my ear.

He dragged me to a chair in the center of the room. I couldn't move. I couldn't blink. I could only see and feel.

"The drug works fast," Elsa laughed, tapping my paralyzed cheek. "Look at her eyes. She's terrified."

"Let the games begin!" Derek shouted. "The betting pool closes in ten minutes! Who is the father?"

Wolves surged forward, shouting names of Rogues, throwing cash into a bucket Edison held.

Then, the pain started.

It wasn't the drug. It was lower.

A sharp, tearing sensation in my womb.

Elsa had messed up the dosage. Or maybe she hadn't.

My uterus contracted violently. It felt like a knife twisting inside me.

No, I screamed in my head. No, no, no!

I tried to clutch my stomach, but my arms hung limp at my sides. I was a statue trapped in a burning building.

Warmth gushed between my legs. It soaked the red dress, turning it a darker, sinister shade.

"Hey," a wolf in the front row pointed. "She's leaking!"

"Is that... blood?"

The smell hit the room. The metallic, sweet scent of amniotic fluid and blood.

Derek stopped laughing. He sniffed the air.

The pain was blinding now. I felt life slipping away from me. My baby. My son.

Derek! I screamed through the Mind-Link, putting every ounce of my dying soul into the mental shout. Help us! It's our son!

Derek flinched. He heard me.

For a second, I saw fear in his eyes.

But then he looked at Elsa. He looked at the pack. He looked at his pride.

Don't lie to me, cheater, his voice came back, cold and final. Let the bastard die.

And then, he cut the link.

A massive, invisible blade severed the connection between us.

At that moment, inside my womb, the frantic heartbeat I had felt for eight months stopped.

My inner wolf let out one last, ear-splitting howl of grief that only I could hear, and then she vanished into the darkness.

I sat there, paralyzed, bleeding out onto the hardwood floor, surrounded by monsters in expensive suits.

The Pot of Gold was gone.

And with him, the last trace of Aleida the Luna died, too.

What remained in that chair was something else entirely. Something hollow. Something cold.

Something that would burn this world to ash.