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."

Gloria POV:

I walked out of the clinic, pulling my coat tight around me to hide a stomach that wasn't even showing yet.

Fate, it seemed, had a cruel sense of humor.

The elevator doors pinged open in the parking garage. As I stepped out, I came face-to-face with them.

Darwin froze. His hand was resting protectively on the small of Elyssa's back. When he saw me, he stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body.

The gesture was a slap in the face. He was protecting his mistress from his wife. He looked at me like I was the Rogue, the monster.

"Gloria," he said, his voice guarded. "What are you doing here?"

"I had a nosebleed," I said flatly. "Just getting it checked."

Elyssa peeked out from behind him. She smiled, a nasty, triumphant curling of her lips.

Suddenly, the air filled with a sweet, milky scent.

Pregnancy hormones.

Wolves can smell pregnancy almost immediately. Elyssa was pushing the scent out, projecting it, forcing me to smell her fertility. It was a biological taunt. I have what you don't.

"Did you hear the good news, Luna?" Elyssa asked, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "We're expecting."

"I heard," I said. "The whole hospital heard."

"Get in the car, Gloria," Darwin ordered, steering Elyssa toward his black SUV. "We're going home."

I climbed into the back seat. Darwin and Elyssa sat in the front. It felt like I was the child, and they were the parents.

The drive was suffocating. Elyssa kept her hand on Darwin's thigh.

"Darwin," I spoke up, breaking the silence. "Do you remember the story of Alpha Kael?"

Darwin glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "What?"

"Alpha Kael," I repeated. "The Rogue who rejected his mate for a younger she-wolf. He thought he could cheat the Moon Goddess."

Darwin's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "I don't have time for fairy tales."

"It's history," I corrected. "His mate died of a broken heart. And the moment she died, Kael went mad. The bond snapped back and shattered his mind. He ate his own young."

Elyssa gasped. "Stop it! You're trying to scare me!"

"I'm just stating facts," I said, looking out the window. "The bond is not just a feeling, Darwin. It's a tether. If you sever it, there is a price."

"I am loyal to the Pack!" Darwin snapped. "I am doing what is necessary for our lineage!"

"Loyal?" I laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "You swore an oath to me before the Goddess. You broke it."

"I needed an heir!" he roared, slamming his hand on the dashboard. "And you couldn't give me one!"

The car went silent.

My hand hovered over my stomach. I gave you the greatest heir you could ever dream of, I thought. And you threw us away.

Suddenly, a notification popped up on the car's dashboard screen. Darwin's phone was connected via Bluetooth.

Message from Elyssa: Don't listen to the barren bitch, Alpha. Our pup is kicking. He knows his daddy is strong.

It was a lie. At six weeks, a pup doesn't kick. But Darwin didn't care about biology. He cared about his ego.

He smiled at the text, his anger vanishing. He reached over and squeezed Elyssa's hand.

I felt my inner wolf curl into a tight ball in the darkest corner of my mind. She stopped growling. She stopped fighting. She just began to weep.

She was preparing to die.

But I wasn't.

Let them have their fantasy, I thought, watching the passing trees. Because tonight, I'm taking everything away from them.

"Darwin," I said softly. "Drop me off at the lake house. I want to collect some of my things before... before we discuss the future."

"Fine," Darwin said, relieved that I seemed to be accepting defeat. "I'll meet you there later. We need to talk about the separation agreement."

"Yes," I whispered. "We do."

I wasn't going to the lake house to talk. I was going there to end this. One way or another.