Chapter 1

I had just walked out of the Pack Healer's cabin, clutching the crumpled paper of my official pregnancy report, when I refreshed my social media feed.

An anonymous post on the local pack forum caught my eye.

"I've been sleeping with the Alpha for a while now, and I just found out I'm pregnant. But his Luna is knocked up too, and she's months ahead of me. I hate the idea of him having a pup with someone else. I want to carry his firstborn. How can I make him force his mate to get rid of it?"

The comments section was flooded with curses and insults calling the poster a home-wrecker. But the original poster had liked one particularly vicious comment.

"That's easy. Tell the Alpha that his Luna is too weak and that she is carrying an abomination corrupted by wolfsbane. Tell him it will be a stillborn anyway."

I usually just lurked in these threads, but my wolf, Selene, growled within me.

My fingers flew across the screen as I replied.

"Aren't you afraid of the Moon Goddess's wrath for defying Her will like this?"

The moment I hit send, my mate Kael, the Alpha of the Starlight Pack, walked up to me.

He was holding a forged diagnosis report from the Healer, his face a mask of pained hesitation.

"Seraphina," he said, his voice trembling. "

The Healer says our pup's soul is fragmented. It has been judged as a stillborn. For your safety, we have to terminate the pregnancy immediately."

He took a breath, looking deep into my eyes.

"I have already made the arrangements. Tomorrow, before the Moon Goddess's altar, I will supervise the surgery personally to ensure your absolute safety."

...

Watching the grief plastered across Kael's face, my hand trembled violently.

It had to be a coincidence, right?

I met Kael five years ago at the Mating Ball. For these five years, as the Alpha of the pack, he had spoiled me rotten. He had even rejected she-wolves of higher bloodlines just to be with me.

But during a Rogue invasion, Kael had taken a silver-coated blade to the abdomen to protect me. The Healer managed to save his life, but the silver toxicity damaged his reproductive system. He was almost completely sterile.

The pack elders had a meltdown.

The bloodline of the strongest Alpha in the Starlight Pack could not end with him.

Kael aged years overnight, the light in his eyes dimming. Since then, we had embarked on a long, painful journey to conceive.

To get an heir, he put aside his Alpha pride and sought out every remedy.

He drank bitter herbal concoctions daily, and his back was covered in needle marks from the Healer's acupuncture treatments.

Every time we failed to sense a wolf soul during the full moon, he would hold me with red eyes, apologizing over and over again.

His mother, the former Luna, even knelt before the Moon Goddess's temple for three days and nights, begging for a blessing.

The night we finally conceived through an ancient ritual, the usually stern and stoic Kael held me and cried like a helpless child.

"Seraphina, thank you for giving me hope,"

he had sobbed. "I promise to guard you and our pup with my life."

He kept his word. He loved me and the pup in my belly to the bone.

Once, a pup bumped into me while playing, and Kael was so furious he almost demoted the pup's father on the spot.

If the steak sent by the kitchen was slightly too tough, he would cut it into tiny pieces himself and feed it to me bite by bite.

The nursery was filled with the finest furs and toys, each one hand-picked by him at the market.

An Alpha who valued his bloodline more than his life.

A mate who treated our unborn pup like a treasure.

He wouldn't be keeping a mistress behind my back and planning to kill our hard-won child for her, would he?

I took a deep breath, suppressing the rising bile and heartache, and asked tentatively.

"Kael, could the Healer be wrong? The life force of our pup felt so strong the last few times we checked."

Kael sighed heavily, his eyes rimmed with red.

"Some curses only reveal themselves as the pup grows."

He handed me the diagnosis, pointing at the twisted black veins on the parchment.

"Look here. The pup's wolf soul fluctuates wildly. There are signs of silver toxicity backlash. In this condition, even if the pup is born, it will die from the pain of its first shift."

His voice choked, and the hand holding the paper shook. He looked like he was in agony.

But I was staring at the fresh scar on the webbing of his right hand, my entire body turning ice cold.

That scar was identical to the one on the hand holding the woman's waist in the profile picture of the anonymous poster I had just seen.

If I remembered correctly, that scar appeared three months ago.

I was two months pregnant then, and we were walking in the deep forest.

A feral Rogue suddenly rushed out.

Kael didn't think twice before shielding me, fighting the beast with his bare hands.

The Rogue's claws tore through the skin between his thumb and index finger.

Blood had gushed out, and he needed over a dozen stitches.

I had cried my eyes out, but Kael just smiled and kissed my forehead.

"Don't cry. As long as you and the baby are safe, I don't care if this hand is ruined. It's worth it."

The scar that once symbolized his love now felt like a silver dagger stabbing my heart.

Subconsciously, I reached out and touched the scar on his hand.

"Does this still hurt?"

Kael froze for a second and instinctively pulled his hand back.

"It stopped hurting a long time ago. Why do you ask?"

I lowered my eyes to hide the shattered look in them.

"I just remembered the past. You were so good to me back then."

Kael gave a doting smile and held my hand tightly again.

"Silly girl, aren't I good to you now? From the moment you got pregnant, I swore to the Moon Goddess that I would risk my life to keep you and the child safe."

He looked at me with extreme sincerity.

"It is exactly because I want to keep you safe that I cannot let you give birth to a doomed abomination. I cannot bear to see you suffer through months of pregnancy only to watch your child die during its first shift. That would be worse than killing me."

What a thoughtful excuse. What sincere sweet talk.

It was a pity that it was all poison wrapped in sugar.

I looked straight into Kael's eyes and made one last attempt.

"But this is the child we waited five years for. The child you drank countless bitter medicines for, the child you endured silver toxicity to protect. Can you really bear to let it go?"

Kael's eyes flickered, avoiding my gaze.

"I can't. I can't bear it more than anyone."

But the next second, he put on a determined expression.

"But Seraphina, I am your mate, and the father of this pup. I have to take responsibility for you. If this child is born, it will only bring disaster to the pack and pain to you. Listen to me. Let's terminate it. We will have other children in the future."