Gloria POV:

The nausea woke me up before the sun did.

It wasn't morning sickness. It was the physical rejection of my mate's scent.

At 4:00 AM, the door to the guest room creaked open. I feigned sleep, my breathing steady, but my ears were swiveled toward the intruder.

Darwin.

He crawled into the bed behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist. His skin was hot.

"Gloria," he whispered, nuzzling my neck. "I missed you."

He wanted sex. Not intimacy-release.

I inhaled sharply. He hadn't showered since yesterday. The smell of Elyssa's vanilla perfume had soured, mixing with his sweat and the lingering metallic tang of the wolfsbane he had handled.

My stomach lurched violently.

I threw off the covers, scrambled to the bathroom, and emptied my stomach into the toilet.

"Gloria?" Darwin stood in the doorway, looking annoyed rather than concerned. "Are you serious right now?"

"I told you I was sick," I rasped, flushing the toilet. "It must be the flu."

"Wolves don't get the flu, Gloria," he scoffed. "You're just being frigid. Again."

Before I could answer, a ping echoed in the silence. Not a phone notification, but a mental one. His eyes glazed over for a second-he was receiving a Mind-Link.

His expression shifted from annoyance to something softer, then quickly to guilt. He blocked his end of the link, shutting me out.

"I have to go prepare for the Gala," he muttered, turning on his heel. "Try to make yourself presentable tonight. The whole Pack will be watching."

The Annual Luna's Gala. Politics dressed up in silk and champagne.

I stood in front of the mirror, smoothing down my dress. I had chosen a modest, elegant silver gown. It matched the hidden color of my wolf.

I walked down the grand staircase into the ballroom. The air was thick with the scent of hundreds of wolves-champagne, roasted meat, and adrenaline.

Darwin was at the center of the room, holding court. He looked magnificent in his tuxedo. As I approached, the crowd parted respectfully.

"Alpha Darwin, Luna Gloria," the Beta greeted us, bowing his head. "You look stunning tonight."

"Thank you," I said, forcing a smile.

Suddenly, the heavy oak doors swung open.

A hush fell over the room.

Elyssa walked in.

She wasn't wearing the modest dress of an Omega secretary. She was wearing a floor-length, blood-red gown.

In wolf culture, red is the color of power. The Alpha's female. The Luna.

By wearing that dress, she wasn't just making a fashion statement. She was declaring war.

She sauntered through the crowd, her hips swaying. She walked right up to us.

"Happy Anniversary, Alpha," she purred, ignoring me completely. She placed a hand on Darwin's arm.

Darwin didn't shake her off. He looked at her with hungry eyes.

"Elyssa," I said, my voice calm but carrying across the silent room. "You seem to be confused about your station. That color is reserved for the Luna."

Elyssa turned to me, a smirk playing on her lips. She leaned in close, using her wolf speed to whisper so only I could hear.

"A dress doesn't make a Luna, Gloria. An heir does. And we all know you're just a barren she-wolf who can't give him what he needs. The Elders agree with me."

Rage, pure and white-hot, exploded in my chest.

"You are nothing but a mattress for him to relieve himself on," I replied coldly.

Elyssa's eyes flashed yellow. She lost control. With a snarl, she raised her hand and swiped her claws at my face.

It was a violation of the highest order-an Omega attacking a Luna.

My body moved before my brain could process it. Years of Shadow Council training kicked in. I didn't just dodge; I caught her wrist in mid-air.

I twisted.

Crack.

Elyssa screamed as her bone snapped. I didn't stop. I used her momentum, spun her around, and slammed my palm into her chest.

She flew ten feet across the ballroom, crashing into the buffet table. Champagne glasses shattered.

The room gasped.

Elyssa lay amidst the broken glass, clutching her wrist, wailing. "He hurt me! Alpha, she tried to kill me!"

Darwin roared.

"ENOUGH!"

The sound was like a physical blow. It was the Alpha's Command.

The power of the Command slammed into me, forcing the air from my lungs. My knees buckled. Every wolf in the room dropped to their knees in submission-except me. I stood, trembling, fighting the crushing weight of his voice with my White Wolf lineage.

Darwin rushed to Elyssa, scooping her up in his arms. He looked at me, his eyes glowing red with fury.

"She attacked me first," I managed to choke out, fighting the pressure on my windpipe.

"Silence!" Darwin bellowed, using the Command again. "You have disgraced this Pack. You have disgraced me."

He looked down at Elyssa, who was sobbing fake tears into his chest, exposing her neck in a display of total submission.

"Take the Luna to her room," Darwin ordered his guards, his voice cold as ice. "And get Elyssa a medic. The Luna is clearly unwell and hysterical."

Two guards grabbed my arms. I didn't fight them. I looked at Darwin, seeing the fear in his eyes.

He wasn't just angry. He was scared. He had seen how fast I moved. He had seen me resist his Command for a split second.

He realized he didn't know the woman he married.

Gloria POV:

The guards threw me into my room and locked the door from the outside.

I didn't bang on the door. I didn't cry. I stood in the center of the room, breathing deeply, centering my qi.

I walked to the balcony. We were on the third floor, but for a wolf of my caliber, this was nothing. I vaulted over the railing, landing silently on the grass below.

I caught a scent on the wind.

It was distinct. Darwin's pine mixed with Elyssa's vanilla and the copper tang of her blood from the "injury" I gave her.

They weren't at the Pack hospital. The scent trail led into the woods, toward the private vacation cabin near the lake.

I followed the trail. I moved like a ghost, blending into the shadows of the trees.

Within ten minutes, I was crouching in the bushes outside the cabin. The lights were dim, but the floor-to-ceiling glass windows offered a front-row seat to my nightmare.

Darwin was standing by the fireplace. He was stripping off his tuxedo. His body began to shudder and crack.

The Shift.

Bones rearranged, snapping and lengthening. Fur sprouted from his skin. Within seconds, a massive grey wolf stood where my husband had been.

Elyssa was on the sofa. Her wrist was miraculously healed-she must have used a healing potion, or the break was theater. She was naked.

The grey wolf approached her. He didn't approach her with the reverence of a mate. He approached her with animalistic lust.

I watched as he mounted her.

It wasn't lovemaking. It was breeding. It was primal, violent, and loud.

Through the glass, my wolf hearing picked up every sound.

"Yes, Alpha," Elyssa moaned. "Make me your Luna."

Darwin shifted back into human form mid-act, his skin glistening with sweat. He gripped her hips, driving into her.

"You feel so much better than her," Darwin grunted. "She's so cold. So stiff. You... you are fire."

"She's weak, Darwin," Elyssa panted. "She can't even give you a pup. I will. I'll give you a strong son."

"I know," Darwin whispered against her neck. "I know. The bond... it pulls me to her, but I hate it. I hate being tied to a weakling."

Crack.

A sound echoed in my chest, louder than a gunshot.

It was the Mate Bond.

Until this moment, the bond had been stretched, bruised, ignored. But hearing him reject the very essence of our connection-hearing him choose lust over the sacred gift of the Moon Goddess-shattered it.

I fell to my knees in the dirt.

Pain, blinding and absolute, ripped through me. It felt like someone had reached into my chest and torn my heart in half. I gasped for air, clutching the grass, trying not to scream.

If I screamed, they would hear me.

Let it go, my inner wolf howled in agony. He is poison. Cut him out!

Inside the cabin, Darwin paused. He flinched, rubbing his chest as if he felt a phantom pain.

"What is it?" Elyssa asked.

"Nothing," Darwin muttered, shaking his head. "Just... indigestion."

He ignored the pain of the bond breaking. He ignored the soul-sickness. He went back to kissing his mistress.

I slowly stood up. The pain was still there, a dull, throbbing void where his love used to be. But the sharp, crippling agony was gone.

I looked at my reflection in the darkened glass of the window.

My eyes.

Usually, they were a warm hazel. But now, in the moonlight, they were glowing. Not the yellow of a normal wolf, nor the red of an Alpha.

They were glowing a brilliant, liquid silver.

The White Wolf was waking up.

"Enjoy it while it lasts, Darwin," I whispered, my voice carrying the weight of a curse. "Because when I am done with you, you will wish you had died tonight."

I turned my back on the cabin and vanished into the night.

Gloria POV:

The next morning, Darwin came home smelling like morning dew and betrayal.

"Where were you?" he asked, finding me in the kitchen drinking herbal tea. He looked refreshed, while I felt like a hollow shell.

"I slept in the guest room," I lied smoothly. "The door was locked, remember?"

He frowned, checking his pockets for the key, realizing he must have forgotten to unlock it. "Right. Well. I was patrolling the northern border."

"Of course," I said.

Suddenly, a warm wetness gushed from my nose.

I brought a hand to my face. My fingers came away coated in bright red blood.

"Gloria?" Darwin took a step back, looking disgusted rather than worried. "You're bleeding on the counter."

"It's just the dry air," I muttered, grabbing a paper towel.

But I knew what it was. My body was fighting a war. The White Wolf bloodline was incredibly potent. If I was stressed, or if my body was rejecting the environment, it reacted violently.

Suddenly, Darwin's eyes glazed over. Mind-Link.

"I have to go," he said urgently. "Rogue attack at the eastern perimeter."

"Go," I said.

He didn't hesitate. He ran out the door.

I waited two minutes, then grabbed my keys. There was no rogue attack. I had access to the Pack's security grid through my old Council codes. The perimeter was silent.

I drove to the Pack Hospital.

I needed to know why my body was failing me. The nosebleed, the nausea, the fatigue. It wasn't just the heartbreak.

Dr. Aris, an old wolf healer who owed me a favor, ushered me into a private room.

"Run a full scan, Aris," I ordered. "And keep the results off the digital record."

Ten minutes later, Aris came back. His hands were shaking. He was holding the ultrasound printout.

"Luna..." he whispered. "You aren't sick."

He turned the screen toward me.

There, in the grainy black and white image, was a tiny, pulsing sac.

"You are six weeks pregnant."

The world stopped spinning.

"Pregnant?" I choked out. "But... we tried for two years. Nothing happened."

"It's the energy signature," Aris said, pointing to a halo of light around the fetus on the screen. "This isn't a normal pup, Gloria. The energy reading is off the charts. It's... it's stronger than an Alpha."

A White Wolf pup.

A child of legend. If the Elders found out I carried this bloodline, they wouldn't just kill me-they'd harvest the child.

Suddenly, a sound cut through the air.

Awoooooooo!

It was a howl of pure, unadulterated joy. It was Darwin.

The sound was coming from down the hall.

I slid off the exam table and walked to the door, cracking it open.

Darwin was standing in the middle of the hallway, holding Elyssa in his arms. She was beaming, rubbing her flat stomach. A crowd of nurses and Betas surrounded them, clapping.

"A miracle!" Darwin shouted, his voice booming. "The Moon Goddess has blessed us! Elyssa is with child!"

I felt the blood drain from my face.

"He's celebrating?" Dr. Aris whispered behind me, confused. "But... you are his Mate."

"He doesn't know about mine," I said, my hand instinctively covering my lower abdomen.

I watched as Darwin kissed Elyssa's forehead. "My heir," he said reverently. "Finally, a strong heir."

I listened with my enhanced hearing. I focused on Elyssa's womb. I could hear the heartbeat of her child. It was faint. Normal. Average.

He was celebrating a mutt while his true mate carried a king.

The irony was so bitter I could taste it like bile.

"Delete the records, Aris," I said, turning back to the doctor. My eyes were dry. I was done crying.

"Luna?"

"There is no baby," I said, my voice steel. "If Darwin finds out, he will take this child and give it to her to raise. Or worse."

I looked at the screen one last time, memorizing the shape of my little miracle.

"This child will not be born into the Dark Moon Pack," I vowed. "This child will be born free."