Chapter 3

The car tore through the night. I held my sobbing daughter in a death grip.

"Ethan, where are you taking us?" I asked.

He didn't answer, just gripped the steering wheel, his eyes dark.

Ten minutes later, the car skidded to a halt at the sacrificial grounds.

Ice flooded my veins.

"Get out," he ordered coldly.

"No!" I refused. "We're not getting out!"

"GET OUT!" His roar shook the entire car.

His Alpha command left me no choice. I stumbled out, clutching Lydia.

The crumbling ruin of the Moon Goddess Altar loomed at the edge of the cliff, a skeleton under the moonlight.

"Ethan, please, don't do this..." I begged.

But he had already pulled Lydia from my arms.

"No! Daddy, no!" she struggled, her little fists beating against his chest.

"Quiet!" He walked up the stone steps, his face a mask of stone.

I scrambled after him. "Ethan! She's your daughter!"

"My daughter?" He stopped and looked back at me, his eyes dripping with sarcasm. "Are you sure?"

He set her down on the broken edge of the platform, right where the runes had died.

"Daddy..." Lydia reached for him, trembling. "I'm scared..."

He paused, then shoved a file into my chest.

"Open your eyes, Sera," he sneered. "Stop lying for Julian's pup."

He set Lydia down on the cliff's edge.

He calmly adjusted his cuffs. "Now, answer me. Did you attack Lilith? Was it jealousy? Or were you protecting his bastard?"

"I didn't attack Lilith!" I screamed. "I swear I didn't!"

"Liar." He kicked one of the altar's support beams.

The entire platform shook violently. Lydia screamed as she slid closer to the edge.

"No!" I tried to run forward, but his guards grabbed me.

"I'll ask you one more time," Ethan’s voice was pure ice. "Did you hurt her?"

"No! I really didn't!" I sobbed. "Ethan, we're fated mates! How can you not believe me?"

"Fated mates?" he sneered. "Does a fated mate betray me? Sleep with another man? Give birth to another man's bastard?"

He kicked the beam again, harder this time.

"Ten seconds," he began to count down. "Ten... nine... eight..."

"STOP!" I shrieked, dropping to my knees. "I'll talk! It was me! I did it!"

I lied. I lied to save my daughter's life.

"I knew it." He smiled, satisfied, but the countdown didn't stop. "Seven... six... Seven..."

"I already admitted it!" I shrieked. "Let her go!"

"Admitting it changes nothing," he said, his smile a cruel slash in the darkness. "Now, tell me why."

"Because... because I was jealous..." I choked out the humiliating words.

"Jealous of what?"

"Jealous that you love her..."

"Four... three... two..."

"Please!" I crawled towards him, grabbing his pant leg. "I'll take it back! I'll undo it right now!"

"Too late," he kicked me away. "Besides, there's something else I want to know now."

His gaze turned lethal.

"Are you trying so hard to save her because she's really my daughter?"

I froze.

"Or..." he leaned in, his voice a venomous whisper, "...are you this desperate to save Julian's little bastard?"

"She IS your daughter!" I screamed hysterically. "Ethan! She's yours!"

"Mine?" He laughed, a harsh, broken sound that echoed in the night. He pointed a shaking finger at Lydia. "Then explain her eyes! Explain this!" He waved the paternity test in my face. "It says she doesn't carry a single drop of my Alpha blood!"

"That's because..." I tried to explain, but the words wouldn't come.

Because I didn't know why. But I knew, I swore on my soul, I had never betrayed him.

"See?" Ethan sneered. "You can't even come up with a decent lie. That proves it. She's Julian's spawn!"

"No!" I cried. "She's your daughter!"

"One!" he finished the countdown.

Then he kicked the altar with all his might.

"NO!" I shrieked in despair.

Ethan raised a hand, signaling the guards to restrain me.

"Drag her back," he ordered, his voice utterly devoid of emotion. "She cares so much for Julian's whelp. Let's give her a front-row seat."

The guards grabbed my arms. I fought like a wild animal.

"Ethan! She's your daughter!" I wailed. "Even if you don't love me anymore, she's innocent!"

"No, Sera. You're my fated mate. Of course I love you." He glanced back, his expression almost tender. But his eyes were chips of ice. "But a traitor's pup is never innocent."

I threw my pride, my dignity as a Luna, into the dirt at his feet. It wasn't enough. He wouldn't even look at me.

"Ethan, please... believe me," I choked out, the words drowned by sobs. "I never... I never betrayed you."

But he had already turned his back on me.