Ava POV

Gasps tore through my throat as the darkness finally receded.

The death serum Ben had administered was wearing off, leaving my blood feeling like glacial sludge moving through my veins.

"Ava? Can you hear me?" Ben’s voice was a frantic whisper.

I blinked, my vision swimming in and out of focus. We were still in the holding cell, but the heavy steel door was open.

"I'm... alive," I rasped, my voice sounding like grinding stones.

"Barely," Ben said, hooking his arm under mine to help me sit up. "The guards bought the act. They took your 'body' to the morgue. I intercepted the cart halfway there. We have to go. Now."

My head pounded, but a strange, icy clarity washed over me.

The pain in my shattered knees was duller now, masked by the adrenaline and the awakening power of my White Wolf blood.

*Ava.*

Ethan’s voice slammed into my mind like a physical blow.

It wasn't the usual imperious command. It was panicked.

*Where are you? The bond... it feels cold. Answer me!*

I closed my eyes.

For ten years, that voice had been my sun and my moon. Now, it sounded like a stranger shouting from the bottom of a deep, dry well.

*I am gone, Alpha,*

I thought the words, not directing them to him, but letting the wall of silence slam down between us.

*Ava! I command you to answer!*

The Alpha's Command hit my mental shields.

Usually, it would force my body to obey. To kneel. To speak.

But this time? Nothing.

It felt like a gentle breeze breaking against a granite cliff. My Inner Wolf didn't cower. She sneered.

"He's trying to Command me," I whispered to Ben, awe coloring my tone. "It's not working."

Ben’s eyes widened. "The White Wolf... it breaks the hierarchy."

"We need to move," I said.

I leaned heavily on Ben, my legs trembling under my weight. We navigated the back corridors of the Pack hospital, heading toward the exit.

Suddenly, a scream echoed from the adjacent lab—Chloe’s private medical suite.

It was a man’s scream. Raw, guttural, and filled with agony.

"That sounded like..." Ben froze, his face draining of color. "That sounded like my assistant, Josh."

"We keep moving," Ben said, pulling me forward.

"No," I said, stopping dead.

My nose twitched. Under the sharp sting of antiseptic, I smelled blood. Fresh, arterial blood. And magic.

"She's butchering someone in there."

I didn't wait for Ben. I limped toward the door and pushed it open.

The scene before me was a waking nightmare.

Chloe stood over an operating table. Her pristine white gown was splattered with crimson.

Josh, the young Beta intern, was strapped down, unconscious but groaning through a gag.

Chloe held a scalpel poised over an incision. Her eyes were manic, dilated and black.

"It's not compatible!" she shrieked at a terrified nurse cowering in the corner. "His kidney isn't compatible! I need a replacement! My body is failing!"

"Chloe!" I shouted.

She spun around.

When she saw me—bloodied, dirty, and supposed to be dead—she didn't look scared. She looked annoyed.

"You," she hissed. "You just won't die, will you?"

"You're harvesting organs?" I stared at her, horror replacing my anger. "To fix yourself?"

"To keep the lie alive!" Chloe screamed, gesturing wildly with the bloody blade. "My body is rejecting the synthetic hormones I take to fake the pregnancy scent! My organs are shutting down! I need fresh ones!"

She lunged at me with the scalpel.

I was weak, but I was angry. I sidestepped, grabbing her wrist mid-swing.

"You are sick," I growled.

"And you are in my way!"

She kicked my broken knee.

White-hot pain exploded up my leg. I collapsed, gasping.

"Ben!" I yelled.

Ben rushed in, tackling Chloe. But Chloe was fueled by madness and desperation. She scratched his face, drawing deep lines of blood.

"Guards!" Chloe screamed, her voice piercing. "The traitor is alive! She's attacking me!"

Heavy footsteps thundered down the hall.

My heart sank.

Ethan.

His scent—storm clouds and ozone—flooded the room before he even appeared.

He burst through the door, his eyes glowing Alpha red.

He saw me on the floor. He saw Chloe disheveled and screaming, blood on her hands that he assumed was her own.

"Ethan!" Chloe wailed, throwing herself into his arms. "She tried to kill me! She tried to cut the baby out of me!"

Lies. Always lies.

Ethan looked down at me.

There was no love in his eyes. Only cold, hard judgment.

"I thought you were dead," he said, his voice devoid of humanity. "I should have made sure."

Ava POV

I lay on the cold tiles of the lab, my breath coming in ragged, shallow rasps.

"She's harvesting organs, Ethan," I said, my voice steady despite the agony radiating through my chest. "Look at Josh. Look at the scalpel."

Ethan didn't look. He refused to. To look would be to admit he was a fool, and his pride wouldn't allow it.

"Silence!" he roared. "You conspire with Rogues. You fake your death. And now you attack your Luna?"

"She is not my Luna," I spat, blood coating my teeth. "And she is playing you like a fiddle."

"I said SILENCE!"

Ethan grabbed me by the throat. He lifted me off the ground with terrifying ease. My toes scrabbled uselessly against the air. My airway closed.

"You are toxic, Ava," he sneered, bringing his face close to mine. "I kept you around because you were useful. Because your mind made this Pack rich. But now? You are a liability."

He squeezed. Black spots danced like mocking fireflies in my vision.

"I'm going to lock you in the Silver Cage," he whispered. "And I'm going to let you rot until you beg Chloe for forgiveness."

The Silver Cage. A torture device reserved for the worst traitors. It didn't just contain you; it burned the skin and poisoned the blood.

My Inner Wolf woke up fully then. She didn't howl in sadness. She roared in ancient rage.

*Enough,* she commanded.

I clawed at Ethan’s hand. I didn't try to loosen his grip. I dug my nails into his flesh until I drew blood.

He hissed in surprise and dropped me.

I fell to my knees, coughing violently as oxygen rushed back into my lungs. I looked up at him.

"I'm done begging, Ethan," I said. The air around me began to drop in temperature. Hoarfrost crept across the floor tiles, cracking as it expanded.

Ethan took a step back, confusion flickering in his eyes. "What are you doing?"

I stood up. My broken knees screamed, but the power of the White Wolf held me upright like a marionette made of steel.

"Ethan Reed," I said, my voice echoing with a power that shook the glass beakers on the shelves until they rattled.

"Don't," he warned, his Alpha instinct sensing the shift in the atmosphere. "I command you to stop!"

"I, Ava Miller," I continued, the words burning like cold fire in my throat, "reject you as my Mate."

The silence that followed was deafening, heavier than the air itself.

Then, the pain hit.

It wasn't physical. It was the sound of a soul snapping in two.

Ethan doubled over, clutching his chest. He roared in agony. The bond was tearing, shredding the connection that the Moon Goddess had forged.

"You... you rejected me?" he gasped, looking at me with wide, shocked eyes. "You can't! I am an Alpha!"

"I just did," I said coldly.

I turned to leave.

A klaxon wailed through the facility, cutting through the tension like a knife.

The Pack alarm. Red lights flashed in the hallway, bathing us in blood-colored strobes.

"Rogue attack!" A warrior shouted from the corridor. "Breach at the Northern Wall! They're swarming!"

Ethan looked at me, then at the door. He was torn. His mate bond was bleeding out, but his Alpha duty was calling.

Chloe grabbed his arm, her nails digging into his bicep. "Ethan! The baby! The stress! You have to protect us!"

Ethan looked at me one last time. I stood there, bleeding, broken, but unbowed.

"Guard her," Ethan barked to a subordinate. "Don't let her leave. I will deal with her after I kill the Rogues."

He turned and ran. He chose his fake heir and his pride over me. Again.

As he left, the bond snapped completely.

I fell to the floor. The backlash of the Rejection hit me like a physical blow, knocking the wind from me.

Then, the cramps started.

Violent. Sharp. Unforgiving.

I looked down. Blood was soaking through my dress. Not from my head. From between my legs.

"No," I whispered, my voice trembling. "No, no, no."

My baby.

The stress. The Alpha Command. The Rejection. It was too much.

I curled into a ball on the cold floor, clutching my stomach as my world went dark.

*Survive,* my Wolf whispered in the encroaching blackness. *We must survive to kill them all.*

Ava POV:

Pain.

That was the first sensation to register.

It wasn’t the sharp, clarifying sting of a fracture, but the hollow, throbbing ache of absence.

I forced my eyes open.

I wasn't in the pristine white of the Pack hospital. This room was dark, heavy with the stale scent of dust and rotting wood.

"She's awake," a voice whispered.

Ben.

I turned my head slowly, fighting the stiffness in my neck. Ben was sitting in a chair, his face buried in his hands. He looked shattered, as if he hadn't slept in days.

"Ben?"

He looked up. His eyes were red and swollen.

"Ava," he choked out. "Oh, Goddess. Ava."

"Where are we?" I tried to sit up, but a sharp, searing fire ripped through my side, forcing a gasp from my lips.

I reached down, my fingers brushing against thick gauze. There was a bandage wrapped tightly around my waist.

My hand hovered over the spot. The wrong spot.

"My kidney?" I asked, my mind reeling in confusion.

Ben burst into tears.

"They took it," he sobbed, his voice cracking. "After you passed out... Chloe... she ordered the surgery. She said she needed it to sustain the pregnancy. Ethan... he authorized it before he left for the battle."

I stared at the ceiling. A crack ran through the plaster, looking like a lightning bolt frozen in time.

"And the baby?" I asked. My voice sounded like dead leaves scraping together.

Ben didn't answer. He just shook his head.

I didn't cry. I couldn't. The grief was a stone in my chest, too heavy to lift.

Ethan had authorized them to cut me open. To steal my organ for his mistress. And in doing so, he had killed his own child.

"I am going to kill him," I said. It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.

"We have bigger problems," Ben said, frantically wiping his face. "We aren't safe. This is an abandoned safe house on the border, but..."

CRASH.

The front door downstairs splintered with a deafening sound.

"Found her!" a rough voice shouted.

Rogues.

"Hide!" Ben hissed, trying to push me under the bed.

"No," I said. Adrenaline spiked through my veins, momentarily dulling the agony. I grabbed a scalpel from Ben’s medical bag on the nightstand.

Three men burst into the room. They were filthy, their eyes yellow with madness. Rogues.

"Well, well," the leader sneered. He was a massive wolf, missing an ear, his grin revealing rotting teeth. "The Alpha's reject."

"Ethan sent you?" I asked, tightening my grip on the small blade.

"Ethan?" The leader laughed, a harsh, barking sound. "Ethan is busy chasing his tail. No, sweetheart. We're just here to clean up the mess. Chloe pays better than the Alpha."

He lunged.

I slashed with the scalpel, aiming for his eyes, but I was too weak. He backhanded me, sending me flying into the wall.

Impact. Agony exploded in my side as my stitches strained.

The pain was blinding. The leader grabbed me by the throat and pinned me to the wall. He raised a silver knife.

"Say hello to the Moon Goddess for me," he grinned.

I looked at the silver blade. I didn't close my eyes. I wanted to see my death coming.

*Ethan,* I thought. *I hope you rot.*

The knife came down.

ROAR.

A blur of silver fur crashed through the window, shattering the glass into a thousand diamonds.

It was massive. Bigger than any wolf I had ever seen.

The silver wolf slammed into the Rogue leader, tearing his throat out in one savage bite. Hot blood sprayed across the room.

The other two Rogues froze.

The silver wolf shifted. Bones cracked and reformed with a sickening crunch until a man stood in the beast's place.

He was tall, with shoulders broad enough to carry the world. His hair was dark, but his eyes... his eyes were the color of molten silver.

Noah Hayes. The Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack. The strongest Alpha in the region.

He looked at the Rogues.

"You touched her," Noah growled. His voice was low, vibrating with a power that made the floorboards shake.

"Alpha Hayes," one Rogue stammered, taking a step back. "This is Moonstone business—"

"She is mine," Noah roared.

He moved faster than sight. In two heartbeats, the remaining Rogues were dead on the floor.

Noah turned to me.

I slid down the wall, the scalpel falling from my numb hand.

He rushed over, catching me before I hit the floor. His skin was hot, his scent overwhelming—like cedar and deep, cool water.

My Inner Wolf, who had been dying, suddenly lifted her head.

*Safe,* she whispered. *Safe.*

"I've got you," Noah whispered, lifting me into his arms as if I weighed nothing. "I've got you, Ava. I won't let them hurt you again."

I looked up at him, my vision blurring. "Why?"

"Because," he said, looking down at me with an intensity that burned. "I have been looking for you for a very long time, White Wolf."