Seven years of a mating bond, and my mate Selene Ashbourne had shared her bed with more wolves than I could count on both hands and feet.

The reason I kept one eye open and the other closed all this time?

She always threw resources at me to buy my silence.

When she took a young wolf as her secret plaything, she gifted me a rare territory along the eastern ridge.

When she brought pretty rogues onto her yacht for moonlit gatherings, she signed over a matching vessel to my name.

She used wealth and pack assets to purchase my silence, to bury my rage and my grief.

Until she conceived our pup.

I thought she would settle down for the sake of our child. That she would finally return to our den, to our bond.

I had prepared the nursery chamber myself, my heart swelling with anticipation for the pup's arrival. Then I received word from the Healers' Den.

Selene had gone behind my back and terminated the pregnancy.

I rushed to the healers like a wolf gone feral. But just as I reached the door of her recovery chamber, I heard a young voice from inside.

"Mama, I hate the little brother in your belly! I won't let you have any other pups!"

I froze in place. Through the gap in the door, I saw a male pup, perhaps three years old, nuzzling into Selene's arms.

And beside them stood a young, handsome wolf, tenderly tucking the blankets around her shoulders.

In that moment, my entire world collapsed.

Selene noticed me too. Our eyes met across the room.

She gestured for the male wolf and the pup to leave, then pulled out a blank resource voucher and held it out to me.

"Name your price. Fill it in yourself."

I tore the voucher to shreds.

I looked at her, and I smiled.

"Selene, this time I don't want your resources."

I raised my trembling hand and pointed toward the direction where that little pup had disappeared.

"I want that child."

——

"Kael Stormclaw, have you lost your mind?!"

Disbelief was written all over Selene's face, as though she had just heard the most absurd joke in existence.

I repeated myself. "I want that pup."

The bone-deep betrayal and heartache made every word feel like it was draining my life force.

"What nonsense are you spouting!"

She lowered her voice, a thread of warning woven through her tone.

"That pup isn't yours!"

"Your pup—I already had it terminated!"

Yes. My pup was gone. Killed by her own choice.

"Your pup... isn't that the same as my pup?"

I asked softly, but my eyes were frozen pools of ice.

"Or would you rather the Ashbourne Pack's firstborn grandpup carry the mark of a bastard from the moment of his birth?"

Selene choked on her words.

She and I had grown up together, two orphaned wolves raised under the same roof. Both of us had lost our parents young, taken in and raised by Elder Alpha Alaric Ashbourne.

She was the treasured heiress of the Ashbourne Pack. I was the stray pup fostered in their den.

The Ashbourne Pack was an ancient bloodline that valued honor above all else. They lived by strict pack law and guarded their reputation with fangs and claws.

She could play. She could indulge her appetites. But never—never—would they allow any stain that threatened the pack's foundation.

That wolf. That pup. They were her greatest stain.

The male wolf called Darian Ashenwolf finally understood what was happening. He burst into the room, his voice sharp and desperate:

"Selene! You can't give our pup to him! He's my only—"

His only weapon for climbing higher.

A wolf with an unremarkable bloodline, dreaming of using a pup to claw his way into the Ashbourne Pack's inner circle? Nothing but a fool's delusion.

I watched Selene struggle and writhe with indecision, and suddenly I found it all bitterly ironic.

I gathered the last of my strength and pushed past her, walking step by step until I stood directly in front of Darian.

He instinctively stepped back, his eyes filled with wariness and hostility.

"Hello. I'm Selene's mate. Kael Stormclaw."

I forced a rigid smile onto my face and told him a cruel truth, one word at a time.

"From this day forward, I am that pup's father."

I paused, savoring the way his face drained of color in an instant, then delivered the final blow:

"Remember this—your pup was lost in a miscarriage... Do you understand?"

Those words, "lost in a miscarriage," I spoke so softly, yet the pain of them nearly stole my breath.

"No!"

Darian grabbed the clay vessel from the bedside and hurled it at me.

"You're lying! This is my pup! Mine!"

Selene followed him in, her expression troubled.

"Selene, you can't let him take our pup away!"

Darian turned to Selene for help. That word "our" cut into my ears like a blade.

Selene looked at me, her face full of conflict.

"Kael..."

I leaned close and whispered in her ear:

"The eastern territory... Elder Alaric values it greatly. It happens to be in the hands of my close ally."

Selene's body went rigid.

That eastern territory was the Ashbourne Pack's most important strategic expansion for the next decade. It was also the key to proving her worth to Elder Alaric.

She whipped her head around to look at me. There was anger, unwillingness, and a trace of fear in her eyes.

She drew a deep breath and said to Darian: "The pup... let Kael raise him. It will be proper and legitimate."

I turned to my pack liaison and gave the order:

"Go. Bring that pup to my transport."

I walked out of the healers' chamber and made another call.

"Handle all the arrangements."

"I need healer records showing my mate Selene lost a pup due to an accident. And prepare new birth-mark registry documents for this pup. The mother's name will be Selene Ashbourne. The father's name can only be Kael Stormclaw."

Soon, louder arguing erupted from the chamber—the sound of things being thrown, and Darian's anguished howls tearing through the air.

I looked down at the young boy who had been forcibly brought to my carriage.

He stared at me with eyes so like Selene's, filled with fear and hatred.

A cold smile curved my lips.

Selene left the healers' den quickly, but though her body returned to our estate, her heart remained with Darian.

Her message crystal was always glowing with communications from that male.

Selene, I miss Rowan so much. Can you make him give our pup back to me?

I don't want anything else anymore. I just want our pup.

Selene, I can't go on living. That day his wolves pushed me down and I hit my head. The healers say I have damage to my skull. Am I going to die?

This pretty-faced rogue knew exactly how to manipulate Selene.

He never attacked me directly. He only kept emphasizing his suffering and his longing for the pup.

All to make me look "cruel" and "heartless."

Every time she read his messages, her brow furrowed deeper, and then she would find some excuse to rush away.

One early morning, Selene was gone. The pup was locked in his room by my order.

Darian appeared at my den's entrance like a ghost, his eyes full of venom.

"Kael Stormclaw, don't think you've won."

"Your unlucky pup—I'm the one who told Selene to get rid of it."

"That night, Selene had too much moonwine. She kept sending me messages through the bond-link."

"I simply told her that your pup would become an obstacle for me someday..."

"I asked her to spend more time with me."

"I never expected that after she ended our connection, she would actually go arrange the termination. What happened after that..."

"Your pup was lost because you weren't strong enough to protect it. You can't blame anyone else."

"You're just raising my pup for me. Don't celebrate too soon!"

He finished his gloating words and turned to leave.

Every word was like a red-hot brand, searing into my heart.

So that was how it happened...

I closed my eyes. My hands, hanging at my sides, trembled violently. My claws dug deep into my palms until the thick taste of blood spread through my mouth.

Blood beads slid down my palm, dripping onto the pure white fur rug, blooming like a mournful crimson flower.

At that moment, Selene returned.

She saw the blood on my hand and froze for a heartbeat before striding forward to grab my wrist.

"What happened to you? Have you lost your mind again!"

She pulled out the healer's kit, intending to bandage my wound, her brow furrowed with what seemed like genuine concern.

My entire body trembled. I wanted to howl, to demand answers, to lunge at her and tear her apart with my claws.

But I had no strength left.

"Just go. Go be with Darian."

"I don't need you here."

Her communication crystal chimed—Darian playing the wounded wolf again.

Selene answered without hesitation, then hurried away.

I reached out through the pack link to my liaison, ordering her to prepare transport.

"To the ancestral den!"

Time to reclaim what was mine.

When I arrived at the Stormclaw ancestral estate with the pup cradled in my arms, the entire pack erupted into chaos.

My grandfather and grandmother, the elder aunts and uncles, the pack elders—everyone gathered around us.

"Oh, my precious great-grandpup!"

Grandmother Aurora carefully took the child from my arms, her weathered face breaking into the widest smile I had seen in years.

"This pup was born during your time beyond the borders? That year you traveled to the distant territories?"

Grandfather Fenris was so moved his hands shook. He looked at me with eyes full of approval and pride.

"You actually kept a pup hidden from us! For three whole years!"

I explained that the pup had been sickly since birth, requiring care from healers in neutral territories far from pack lands. That was why we had kept him secret.

Now that he was healthy and strong, I had finally brought him home.

No one questioned this story.

No one knew that my heart had already died in that cold healers' den, alongside my unborn pup who never drew breath.

Grandfather scanned the empty entrance of the den, confusion crossing his features. "Where is Selene?"

"Busy, I suppose. I haven't seen much of her lately." My voice was carefully flat.

The rewards the elders bestowed upon me were staggering in their generosity.

Grandmother Aurora brought out her most treasured possessions—moon-silver rings passed down through generations, ancient territory maps inked on preserved hide, ceremonial daggers worth more than entire lesser packs' holdings. One ancestral relic after another, each beyond measure in value.

Grandfather Fenris transferred five percent of Stormclaw Holdings directly into my name, making me the youngest member of the Pack Council with a single declaration.

I smiled and accepted everything.

All of this was what I deserved.

It was what I had purchased with my pup's life.

No one knew that in the deepest corner of my private chambers, I had carved out a hidden space.

There were no expensive ceremonial robes or Alpha regalia stored there.

Only a small memorial tablet, carved from sacred blackwood.

No name was etched upon its surface.

Before the tablet lay a small rattle I had bought with my own hands but could never give, along with a few pitifully tiny garments meant for a newborn pup.

Every night, when the pack fell silent and the moons rose high, I would lock myself in that hidden corner.

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

"Little one, your father is here."

"Little one, today your great-grandparents brought so many toys. If you were here, you would have them too."

"Little one, do you blame your father? Your father was useless, couldn't protect you..."

I never howled my grief aloud. I only let the tears fall silently, soaking into the wood I clutched against my chest.

The place where my heart should be felt like a wound that would never heal—cold wind rushing through the emptiness, the pain so sharp I could barely breathe.

That was the secret shared only between me and my lost pup.

Selene eventually returned to the ancestral den, but she did not dare approach me.

Grandfather Fenris, before the entire gathered pack, pointed his walking staff at her and snarled that she was a disgrace. Her mate and pup had returned home, yet she was nowhere to be found.

She was made to kneel in the ancestral shrine through the entire night, a punishment witnessed by all.

She probably could not understand how the Kael who once loved her desperately, who let her control him completely, had suddenly become this cold stranger.