"Carys! How could you not tell me!"

Two days later, Chloe's voice cracked like a whip across the café. Her silver eyes flashed with her wolf's fury.

"You wait until now to tell me something this huge!"

I sat across from her, a small warmth spreading through my chest as I watched my best friend lose her mind on my behalf.

"That bastard Ryker!" Her voice rose. "I always said he was going crazy for his so-called 'strong bloodline'!"

Other customers started to stare.

"Chloe, keep your voice down."

"Quiet? Screw quiet!" She slammed her hand on the table. "It's not enough that he let that bitch move into your home? Now he's humiliating you in public!"

She shot to her feet, her wolf's presence growing stronger.

"I'm going to rip him apart right now!"

"It's okay." I quickly grabbed her hand, a weary smile on my face. "I don't care anymore."

Chloe froze, her eyes instantly turning red.

"How could you not care!" Her voice trembled. "You were mated for ten years! I saw how much pain you went through for him!"

She was right.

Every time Ryker was with another woman, the mate bond sent waves of soul-crushing agony through me. I would curl up on the bathroom floor, biting a towel to keep from screaming.

"You think I didn't see you on all those painful nights?" Chloe's tears started to fall. "Every time I wanted to kill him, you told me to wait, to just hold on a little longer."

Seeing the look on my face, she quickly wiped her tears.

"Fine, let's not talk about it."

Watching my friend fight for me, my nose began to sting. For ten years, she was the only one who stood by my side.

"Chloe." I said softly, placing her hand on my lower stomach. "I'm going to be a mother."

Chloe's eyes widened, and her face went pale.

"You're keeping Ryker's cub?" she practically screamed. "Carys, are you insane!"

Everyone in the café turned to look at us.

"It's not his," I clarified quickly.

Chloe's expression shifted from shock to confusion.

"Not his? Then who—"

Just as I was about to say Kian's name, the door to the restaurant's VIP room swung open.

Ryker walked out with his arm around Lorelei.

The woman was dressed in an expensive white dress, her stomach showing a slight swell. She was leaning against him, cooing.

"Ryker, the cub is kicking again. He must be so excited to feel his Alpha father."

Her voice was so sickeningly sweet it made me want to gag.

Chloe saw them, and pure rage ignited in her eyes.

She stood up abruptly and grabbed her glass of red wine.

"Chloe, no—"

But before I could finish, she was moving.

Splash.

The red wine hit her white dress like a spray of blood.

"Who the hell do you think you are, carrying an Alpha's child!"

Lorelei shrieked and immediately hid behind Ryker.

"Ryker, she's crazy!"

Ryker's face darkened as he shielded Lorelei.

"Chloe, what are you doing!"

"What am I doing?" Chloe sneered. "I'm teaching a shameless little bitch a lesson!"

Lorelei started to cry, looking pitiful. "I know this must be hard for you," she purred. "After all, being unable to give your Alpha an heir... to feel the joy of a cub connected to his bloodline in your womb... it's the greatest failure for a Luna. Ryker was only doing what was best for the pack. He had no choice but to... set you aside."

Her words were a knife straight to my heart.

Chloe was completely enraged. Lorelei wasn't just flaunting her pregnancy; she was using the "joy of motherhood" to define my "failure."

"Listen here, you little bitch!" she snarled, pointing a finger at Lorelei's face. "He has a Luna! What you're doing is called homewrecking! It's shameless!"

Lorelei clutched her stomach and burrowed deeper into Ryker's arms.

Ryker, finally snapping back to reality, shoved Chloe away.

His eyes were filled with a biting cold. "Chloe, watch your place! Carys is my Luna, and Lorelei is carrying my heir. You, an outsider, have no right to interfere."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over me before he added coldly, "And you have no right to disrespect the mother of my child."

Chloe's face went white at his words.

My own face hardened, and I stood to stop him.

But then I heard Lorelei’s tearful voice add the final blow. "Besides," she added, her voice dripping with fake sympathy, "if Ryker hadn't taken pity on you, how could a... defect... like you ever be Luna?"

Ryker. He told her my secret. He told her about my dormant wolf.

My vision blurred as my eyes turned red.

Ryker frowned, looking at me. A flicker of hesitation crossed his eyes.

But it was gone in an instant.

He pulled the woman in his arms closer, his voice as cold as ice.

"Was she wrong? Is your wolf not dormant? Are you not barren? I'm already showing you mercy by letting you stay in this pack. I never even planned on taking away your title as Luna!"

Each word was like a blade to my heart. I could barely stand.

Lorelei smirked from the safety of his arms, her face filled with triumph.

I suddenly started laughing, my eyes turning bloodshot as I stared him down. "You're disgusting, Ryker."

With that, I turned and walked away.

I couldn't bear to look at him for another second.

"Carys!" Chloe called, trying to follow me.

Just then, a foot suddenly shot out in front of me.

I lost my balance and crashed into a nearby table.

Silver cutlery clattered, and a knife sliced across my arm. Blood welled up instantly.

The sharp pain made me grunt, my vision swimming.

"Ah!"

Lorelei screamed from behind me.

I turned just in time to see her recoil dramatically, stumbling back into Ryker's arms as if I'd attacked her.

"Ryker, I'm so scared..." she said weakly. "My stomach hurts... The baby... Did the fall scare the baby?"

Ryker's eyes flickered to my bleeding arm, then to the "agonized" Lorelei in his arms.

The last trace of hesitation vanished, replaced by cold resolve.

He scooped Lorelei up, not even giving me a second glance. He left me with one final, chilling threat. "If anything happens to her or my pup, Carys, you will regret the day you were born."

"Bastard!" Chloe cried, rushing to help me up. "Carys, are you okay?"

I looked at the cut on my arm. It was still bleeding.

But my heart was strangely calm.

"Take me to the pack hospital."

Chloe's hands trembled as she dialed the pack hospital's emergency line. My consciousness began to fade as they loaded me into the ambulance, and then everything went black.

...

The hospital room was quiet.

The pack doctor finished examining my wound and spoke gently. "You were out for a full day. But the cut isn't deep. It will heal quickly."

"The baby?" I asked, my voice tight with anxiety.

"The pups are strong," he reassured me with a smile. "No harm done. But you need to get more rest."

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"Doctor, is Alpha Kian still at the hospital?"

The nurse's face lit up with envy when she heard the name.

"Alpha Kian left yesterday," she said excitedly. "I heard he's preparing for his mate's blessing ceremony. His mate is finally pregnant, and he's over the moon. The entire Healers' Alliance is celebrating with them."

My heart began to race.

A blessing ceremony...

That meant tonight was the full moon. The night Kian and I would be formally mated.

I remembered that night a month ago, after Ryker signed the rejection papers. The pain from my mate bond was worse than ever. I was trying to get to the Healers' Alliance when I collapsed.

It was Kian, who had been watching over me for ten years, who found me.

He poured his incredibly pure energy into my body, his eyes filled with sorrow.

"Why don't you tell him the truth?" he’d asked. "Tell him your wolf went dormant because it absorbed the blow of a curse meant for him. Your body is ravaged by that curse. It needs an equally pure lunar energy to be reawakened."

In the depths of my pain and despair, I broke down in front of him for the first time.

He held me, soothing me like a wounded cub.

Under the full moon, his power resonated with the sleeping wolf inside me. A warmth I’d never felt before, a current of life, surged through my body.

The attraction was primal, immediate. It went beyond reason.

It didn't just seem to awaken my wolf. It healed her.

That night, I conceived with Kian. The pups Ryker and I could never have... I conceived them in a single night with another man.

Maybe everything had been wrong from the start. Maybe it was always meant to end.

"I need to be discharged," I said, getting up and looking at the nurse.

"Now?" she asked, surprised. "Your wound still needs observation..."

"I'm fine."

I had more important things to do.

I had to get the last thing my mother left me—the precious moonflower seeds.

They were kept in the exclusive greenhouse at the Alpha's estate.

They were the only thing in that home I still cared about.

And then, I was going to see the real father of my child.

I rang the bell at the estate's main gate.

The butler, Marcus, came out. He looked stunned to see me.

"Luna? Why are you here?"

"I need to get something from the greenhouse."

Marcus looked conflicted.

"Luna, about that..." he hesitated. "The Alpha gave Miss Lorelei permission to enter the greenhouse half an hour ago."

My blood ran cold.

"What?"

"The Alpha said she wanted to... redesign the space. To prepare a 'better environment' for the future heir."

Redesign.

My mother's last gift. The moonflower garden I had cultivated for ten years.

He let that woman destroy it...

I pushed past Marcus and ran toward the greenhouse, a dark premonition seizing my heart.

Please... don't let it be true...

The greenhouse door was ajar.

The moment I pushed it open, the world went silent.

Devastation. That was the only word for it.

My moonflower garden, the product of ten years of loving care, was gone. Leveled.

The rare flowers that glowed softly in the night had been ripped out by the roots and trampled into the mud.

The acrid smell of weed killer hung in the air.

The carved seed box my mother had left me was tossed in a corner, its lid open, its contents gone.

My legs gave out, and I nearly collapsed.

"Oh, you're here."

Lorelei's voice echoed from the back of the greenhouse.

She was wiping mud off a designer handbag with a silk scarf, a triumphant smile on her face.

"Ryker said this garden was a monument to your failure and infertility," she said, her voice slow and sweet as poison. "He told me to get rid of it."

"After all, the future Alpha heir needs a place full of life."

Redesign.

The word was a poisoned dart to my heart.

I trembled, staring at the devastation.

Ten years.

Ten years of my life's work.

My mother, on her deathbed, holding my hand. "Carys, these moonflower seeds are our family's legacy. They glow their brightest on the full moon, just like you."

Now they were all gone. Destroyed by this woman.

"You..." My voice was a raw, trembling whisper. "How could you..."

"How could I not?" Lorelei tossed her hair. "Ryker said it himself. It was time to clear out these pathetic flowers."

I grabbed a heavy trophy from a nearby shelf, my eyes blood-red, and hurled it at her. "Lorelei! I'll kill you!"

Before it could hit her, a large hand shot out and caught it.

"Carys, have you made enough of a scene?"

Ryker's voice was like ice.

I looked at him, my hand, still holding the trophy, shaking.

"Ryker, you let her destroy my mother's legacy? Are you even a wolf? Do you have a heart? How could you do this to her memory?"

Ryker’s eyes swept over the wreckage. A flicker of regret crossed his face, but it was quickly masked by a cold hardness.

"They're just flowers, Carys," he said, his jaw tight. "I can buy you a thousand more."

They're just flowers.

I started to laugh.

Tears streamed down my face as I laughed.

Ten years of marriage, of patience, of waiting... meant nothing to him.

I bent down and began to dig through the ruins.

My fingernails clawed at the dirt, my hands quickly becoming bloody and raw.

Finally, in a corner, I found a tiny handful of surviving seeds.

I wrapped the few surviving seeds in my handkerchief. I clutched them to my chest as a raw sob tore from my throat.

"Carys, what are you doing?" Ryker frowned.

I stood up and looked at him. At this man I once loved with all my heart.

"Ryker, I'm taking the last thing my mother left me. We are done."

I turned and walked toward the door, each step heavy.

"Carys!" he shouted from behind me.

I didn't look back.

"You can't leave!" His voice was laced with panic. "We have a mate bond! You can't survive without me!"

I stopped but didn't turn around.

"You still haven't read the papers on your desk, have you?" My voice was terrifyingly calm. "I forgot to mention. They're rejection papers."

A loud crash echoed from behind me, like something shattering.

"What?"

"In a few hours, when the moon is full, our bond will be gone. For good."

With that, I placed a hand on my stomach and walked out the door without looking back. I was never coming back.