Seraphina POV

The iron grip of the Pack Warriors bruised my arms as they dragged me out of the Astoria Hotel. Every step was a fresh wave of agony. The severed mate-bond was a bleeding, gaping crater in my chest, making it impossible to draw a full breath.

By the time we reached the Pack House courtyard, the entire Blackwood Pack had gathered. The night air was thick with their hostility. As I was hauled across the cobblestones, the whispers grew into a deafening roar.

"Traitor."

"Rogue's whore."

The words struck me like physical blows. I searched the crowd and found Kael standing at the top of the stone steps. His cyan eyes, once my safe haven, were now glacial and empty. He watched me with the detached coldness of an executioner. Beside him, Genevieve wore a mask of false pity, though her eyes gleamed with triumphant malice. I sent one last, desperate plea to Kael through my tears, but he simply turned his back.

They threw me into the deepest cell of the Pack's dungeon. The heavy iron door slammed shut, plunging me into absolute darkness.

For three days, I rotted in that damp, freezing stone box. As a wolfless Omega, I had no inner wolf to help heal the physical bruises, and no access to the mind-link to beg for mercy. I was entirely alone with the phantom agony of Kael's rejection. It felt as though my soul was being continuously sawed in half.

No one came. Not even him.

On the second night, a violent wave of nausea hit me. I dry-heaved onto the cold stone floor, shivering uncontrollably. As I curled into a ball, pressing my hands against my stomach to soothe the cramps, I felt it. A faint, almost imperceptible flutter.

My breath hitched. The missed periods, the sudden aversions to certain smells before all this madness began... The truth slammed into me, terrifying and undeniable.

I was pregnant. Almost five weeks along.

In the suffocating darkness of the dungeon, I wrapped my arms protectively around my abdomen. This tiny, fragile life was my only remaining tether to the world. It was my secret, and my only reason to survive.

On the evening of the third day, the iron door finally groaned open. Pack Elder Elias Vance stood in the dim torchlight, his face carved from stone.

"Alpha Kael has decided to spare your life, Seraphina," Elias said, his voice echoing in the damp corridor.

A pathetic, foolish spark of hope ignited in my chest. Had he investigated? Did he realize the treaty was forged?

I was pulled to my feet and escorted up to the Alpha's Office. The heavy mahogany doors closed behind me. Kael stood with his back to me, staring out the massive floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the territory. The room was suffocatingly thick with his Alpha aura—cedar and winter wind—but it offered no warmth. He didn't even turn around.

Elias stepped forward, unrolling a heavy parchment.

"By the authority of the Alpha," Elias read, his tone entirely bureaucratic, "you, Seraphina Harmon, are found guilty of treason. You are hereby stripped of your rank and permanently banished from the Blackwood Pack. You are now a Rogue. Should you ever cross our borders again, you will be killed on sight."

He held out the Decree of Banishment. At the bottom, Kael's signature slashed across the page in blood-red ink. I noticed there was no place for my signature—this was a unilateral declaration, not a contract.

My heart stopped. The foolish spark of hope turned to ash. This wasn't mercy. This was a fate worse than death—to be branded a traitor and cast out into the wild as a defenseless, wolfless Rogue.

Without a single glance in my direction, Kael walked past me toward the door, his broad shoulder brushing mine with icy indifference as he left the office.

Seraphina POV

Kael's broad shoulder brushed mine, leaving a trail of freezing cedar scent as the heavy mahogany door clicked shut behind him. I was left staring at the empty space he had just occupied, the phantom pain of our severed mate-bond throbbing in my chest.

Elder Elias Vance cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to the cold reality of the office. He unrolled a second, heavier parchment.

"The Writ of Exile and Bond Severance," Elias stated, his voice devoid of any pity. "Sign it, Seraphina. Relinquish the Blackwood name and formally accept the Alpha's rejection. This is the legal document that will be filed with the Council."

I stared at the paper. The rejection had already shattered our bond, but this writ would make my exile official in the eyes of every Pack in the region. It was a public branding.

"No," I whispered, my voice trembling but gaining strength. "He's being manipulated. I need to hear him say it to my face—again, with witnesses who aren't his mother's puppets."

I slapped the parchment out of Elias's hand. It clattered to the floor as I spun around and bolted out the door.

I sprinted down the familiar corridors, my bare feet slapping against the hardwood. As I neared the main foyer, two massive Pack Warriors stepped into my path, their faces like carved stone.

"Move!" I demanded, my chest heaving. "I am your Luna!"

"You are a Rogue," one of them growled, not yielding an inch. "Lady Genevieve ordered you barred from the main house."

Genevieve. The name tasted like ash on my tongue. Adrenaline surged through my wolfless veins. Driven by pure, reckless desperation, I ducked under the warrior's outstretched arm, ignoring his angry shout, and sprinted toward the clamor echoing from the Great Hall.

I burst through the heavy double doors. The room instantly fell silent, then erupted into a chorus of venom.

"Rogue's whore!" Tyler spat, stepping forward with his fists clenched.

"A stain on our bloodline," Susan sneered from the leather sofa.

Standing by the massive stone fireplace was Genevieve Blackwood. She wore a mask of aristocratic elegance, but her eyes danced with triumphant malice. "You have some nerve showing your face here, traitor," she purred.

"It was you!" I screamed, pointing a shaking finger at her. "You sent me to that hotel to meet that Rogue! You set me up!"

Genevieve merely chuckled, a delicate, dismissive sound. "Guards, drag this filth out."

"Stop."

The deep, commanding voice sent a shiver down my spine. Kael descended the grand staircase. I threw myself toward him, grabbing his forearm like a drowning woman clinging to a lifeline.

"Kael, please! It's a lie! You have to feel it, our mate-bond—"

His cyan eyes were devoid of the man who once loved me. His inner wolf, Fenrir, must have been howling in agony, but Kael used his sheer Alpha will to crush it into submission.

"It is done," he said, his voice a glacial void. He ripped his arm from my grasp as if my touch burned his skin. "You lack even the dignity to confess your crimes."

Desperation clawed at my throat. Then, I saw her. Isabelle Pruitt, my best friend, standing near the back of the hall.

"Isabelle!" I sobbed, lunging toward her. "Tell him! I texted you before I went to the hotel! I told you I was scared, that Genevieve sent me! Check your phone! "

Isabelle flinched, pulling her hands away from mine. She looked at Kael, tears spilling down her cheeks in a flawless display of heartbreak.

"Alpha... I truly wished she was telling the truth," Isabelle wept, her voice trembling. "But I never received a text from her. She must have deleted it herself to fabricate proof. I... I am so tired of defending her lies. You shouldn't be deceived by her anymore."

The betrayal hit me harder than a physical blow. The room spun. My anchor, my only witness, had just cut my throat.

"You're a liar, a traitor, and a Rogue's whore," Kael snarled, his disgust absolute.

Genevieve's eyes gleamed with final victory. "Throw her beyond the borders!"

Two Warriors seized my bruised arms, hauling me backward toward the heavy oak doors. I thrashed wildly, my boots scraping against the stone floor. I had nothing left. No mate, no pack, no friend. But I had one last, desperate truth.

"Wait!" I shrieked, tearing my throat raw. "I'm pregnant!"

The Warriors froze in their tracks. The entire Great Hall plunged into a deafening, suffocating silence.

Seraphina POV

The deafening silence stretched, heavy and suffocating. For a fraction of a second, the glacial mask on Kael's face cracked. His cyan eyes widened, and I could almost feel his inner wolf, Fenrir, thrashing against his iron control, howling in sudden, desperate joy at the mention of a pup.

Then, a cold, delicate laugh shattered the quiet.

Genevieve stepped forward, her eyes glittering with malicious amusement. "A phantom child to secure your crown? You truly have no shame, Seraphina. A desperate, pathetic lie from a desperate, pathetic Rogue."

"It's not a lie!" I cried, my hands instinctively moving to shield my flat stomach. I turned wildly to the only person left. "Isabelle, tell him! You're my best friend—you know I wouldn't lie about something like this! "

Isabelle let out a broken sob, burying her face in her hands. When she looked up at Kael, her eyes were swimming in perfectly timed tears. "Alpha... I am so sorry. She told me weeks ago that if you continued to grow distant, she would fake a pregnancy to trap you. I didn't want to believe she would actually stoop this low."

The air punched out of my lungs. The betrayal was so absolute, so flawlessly executed, that I couldn't even form words.

Kael's brief flicker of hope died instantly, replaced by a disgust so profound it radiated from him like heat. His jaw clenched, and when he spoke, his voice carried the crushing, undeniable weight of the Alpha's Command.

"You are a stain on my bloodline," Kael snarled. The power in his words washed over me, and though my wolfless body didn't physically buckle under the Command the way a wolf's would, the sheer force of his hatred—combined with the exhaustion, the rejection, and the loss—made my legs give way. I sank to my knees, not by magic, but by despair. "The thought of you carrying anything of mine makes my very soul sick."

He snatched the Writ of Exile from Elder Elias's frozen grip and threw it at my feet. The heavy parchment hit the stone floor with a dull thud.

My tears stopped. The agonizing throb of my severed mate-bond was suddenly eclipsed by a cold, hollow numbness. I picked up the pen Elias had dropped. My hand shook violently, but I pressed the nib to the paper and signed away my life, my pack, and any claim I had to the Blackwood name.

I stood up, my knees trembling, and shoved the parchment hard against Kael's chest. He didn't even look at me. He turned his back and walked up the grand staircase, taking my heart with him.

"Throw her out," Tyler sneered, gesturing to the Warriors.

"Don't touch me," I hissed, yanking my arms away. "I can walk."

As I moved toward the heavy oak doors, Genevieve stepped into my path. Her manicured fingers clamped onto my arm, her sharp nails biting deep into my flesh. She leaned in, her expensive perfume masking the rot in her soul.

"That little mongrel in your belly will never draw breath on Blackwood land," she whispered, her voice a venomous hiss meant only for my ears. "The Moon Goddess doesn't bless the wombs of traitors."

Before I could react, the Warriors shoved me out into the freezing night.

They dragged me to the very edge of the Blackwood territory, tossing me into the dirt where the manicured lawns met the wild, dark woods. The moment their footsteps faded, the shadows between the trees shifted.

A massive figure stepped out. He wore a dark mask, and the sour, feral stench of a Rogue hit my nose. Panic spiked in my chest. I scrambled backward, but he was too fast. He grabbed me by the hair, dragging me deeper into the suffocating darkness of the trees.

"Please!" I screamed, thrashing wildly against his iron grip. "I'm pregnant! Please don't!"

The Rogue threw me to the ground. He stood over me, his eyes dead and merciless. "That's the point."

His heavy boot slammed into my abdomen.

A scream tore from my throat, raw and bloody. I curled into a ball, desperately trying to cover my stomach, but his knee crashed into my side, then his foot found my stomach again. Agony exploded through my body, blinding and absolute.

"A message from those who value a pure bloodline," the Rogue spat, kicking dirt onto my face. "Your kind has no place here."

He vanished into the night, leaving me broken in the mud.

A warm, terrifying wetness began to pool between my thighs. No. No, please.

Gasping through the blinding pain, I dragged my shattered body over the dead leaves and sharp rocks, crawling toward the distant hum of the asphalt road. My fingernails tore as I pulled myself onto the freezing pavement.

Headlights pierced the darkness. A car was coming. I raised a trembling, blood-soaked hand, praying to a Goddess who had abandoned me.

The human driver saw me—a battered, bloody nightmare crawling from the woods. The tires shrieked as the car violently swerved, speeding away into the night.

The taillights faded into red blurs. The agonizing cramps tore through my womb, and as the darkness finally pulled me under, I felt the tiny, fragile spark of my baby's life slip away into the cold.