Chapter 2

At 3 a.m., my phone buzzed.

A message from my source flashed on the screen: "St. Mary's Private Hospital, VIP ward, pregnant woman, 24/7 protection."

The attached photo made my blood freeze. Seraphina was lying in a luxury hospital bed with a fetal heart monitor on her stomach. And Kaelen was sitting right beside her.

He had lied.

I slammed my foot on the gas, the Ferrari's engine screaming through the night.

Twenty minutes later, I stormed into the VIP wing of St. Mary's. The guards tried to stop me, but one look at the fury in my eyes and they instinctively backed away.

The elevator took me straight to the twelfth floor. Four large bodyguards stood in the hallway, tensing up the moment they saw me.

"Move."

They didn't budge.

"Are you defying a direct order from your Luna?" I asked, my voice deadly calm.

Kaelen and I have run this pack together for years. I’m known for being swift and decisive, and I’ve built a reputation for it. Even rival packs know not to mess with Elara. My word now carries as much weight as Kaelen's.

After a moment's hesitation, they stepped aside.

I threw open the door to see Kaelen peeling an apple for Seraphina. The cozy domestic scene made me sick.

"You are a gifted liar," I said, slapping the dissolution papers down on the bedside table. "Sign them. Now."

Kaelen put down the apple and stood up to face me. "I won't sign."

"You swore an oath!" My voice trembled, not with anger, but with the pain of thirteen years of trust shattering.

"I swore to protect you, not to be tortured by you!" Kaelen roared back. "Look at yourself! Are you even a woman anymore? You're cold, controlling, and cruel—you're killing me!"

He pointed to his chest. "Every day I'm with you, I feel like I'm slowly dying! Sera makes me feel alive again!"

It was the cruelest joke I'd ever heard. The man who swore to die for me now claimed that being with me was a fate worse than death.

"Then I'll find a way to free you myself. If you won't reject me, I will petition the Elders to forcefully sever our bond on grounds of infidelity and a broken bond!"

I turned and stormed out of the room before the guards could react. I ran to the parking garage and fired up the Ferrari.

Just as I floored it, Kaelen burst through the hospital doors.

I was already doing 70 mph when he ran straight into the path of the car, arms outstretched, trying to block my escape.

I couldn't brake in time.

The impact sent him flying. He hit the asphalt hard, blood pouring from his mouth.

But he was still moving. A werewolf's damn healing ability.

I got out of the car and walked toward him. Kaelen struggled to his feet, staggering toward the rejection papers that had scattered across the ground.

Some of the pages were already stained with his blood.

He picked them up, one by one, and then—he started shoving them into his mouth.

"I…" he choked out, blood dribbling from his lips, "…will… never… reject… you!"

His golden eyes were still blazing with determination, even as his face was covered in blood, even after being hit by a car. He was still refusing me.

A few guards rushed out, grabbing Kaelen and hauling him back into the hospital.

I stood there, staring at the bloodstains and torn scraps of paper on the ground.

"What a show."

I turned to see Seraphina in a wheelchair at the hospital entrance. Her stomach was bandaged, but her face wore a victorious smile.

"Do you know what he told me just now?" She pulled a small crystal out of a bag on her wheelchair.

The crystal glowed, projecting an image into the air.

I saw myself thirteen years ago—in rags, covered in wounds, taken and broken by three rival Alphas. I was crawling on the ground, weeping, begging for mercy.

"Shut up!" I snarled.

"He said," Seraphina continued, letting the humiliating images play, "that he only saved you back then out of pity. But now, he's found the woman he was truly meant to love."

The image in the crystal shifted to the scene in the hospital room just moments ago. Kaelen was stroking her belly, saying, "When the baby is born, I will give you a proper Luna ceremony. In front of the entire pack."

My vision began to blur, not with tears, but with pure rage.

I pulled the pin from my hair—a gift from Kaelen on my eighteenth birthday.

"What did you say?" I asked, walking slowly toward her.

"I said, you won't be Luna for much longer," Seraphina was still smiling. "Kaelen was sick of you a long time ago. He just couldn't break the blood oath until—"

I didn't let her finish.

The pin plunged deep into her left hand.

Blood sprayed across my face. Seraphina’s scream echoed through the parking garage.

"My hand! My hand!" she shrieked, clutching her gushing wound. "You psycho bitch!"

I pulled the pin out, its dark tip dripping with her blood.

"I'll tell Kaelen!" she screamed. "I'll have him rip your heart out! I'll have him execute you in front of the whole pack!"

I wiped the blood from the pin and fixed it back in my hair.

"Do your worst."