Chapter 6

[Rose's POV]

Victoria struck first, slamming a stack of photos hard onto the table in front of me. Her sharp, venomous words stabbed like needles. "You shameless whore! How dare you cheat with a human and drag Alpha Wade's name through the mud?"

Wade's mother, Camila Greco, swept her cold, predatory gaze over my lower abdomen, her expression turning dark. She said icily, "The whole pack is talking. They're saying our Luna is carrying a pup that doesn't even have the Alpha's blood. You've disgraced the entire pack!"

I stared at the photos in shock, my heart pounding as I finally realized what had happened.

After Wade cut me off from the outside world, Nina had clearly worked with her parents to spread rumors to every corner of the Bloodmoon pack's territory, saying that I'd slept with a human to fall pregnant with this pup that could never be born.

Before I could even explain, Camila started snapping at me. "Rose Walker, sign this mate-bond dissolution agreement. Once Wade returns, he'll immediately break his bond with you. Since you had the nerve to cheat on him with a human and even get pregnant with a half-blood mutt, this is the ending you deserve!"

I looked at their faces, each twisted with anger and contempt, and suddenly found it all laughable. So this was it—they'd all been blinded by Nina's lies.

In their minds, I was the one who'd betrayed my mate and fallen pregnant with a human's child. They'd already decided I was the one refusing to end the bond.

It never even crossed their minds that the real betrayal and the real refusal to end the mate bond came from Wade.

Fine. It was just as well. I'd already decided to break the mate bond with Wade, anyway. My biological parents would soon arrive; I couldn't care less what these people thought of me.

I didn't struggle. I simply took the mate-bond dissolution agreement and quickly signed my name.

"Don't think it's over just because you've signed the agreement!" Victoria stepped in closer, her eyes vicious. "You and the thing in your belly both have to go. If you stay alive, you'll ruin Alpha Wade's reputation the moment you give birth!"

Her words were like bullets dipped in poison that exploded in my ears. A chill shot down my spine, and a low, disbelieving growl slipped from my throat. "You… Are you insane?"

They were hellbent on erasing every trace of my existence, which included my unborn pup!

Before I could say anything else, two warriors grabbed me, their hands clamping down hard on my arms. Survival instinct and a feral, mother-wolf protectiveness erupted inside me. I fought with everything I had, claws shooting from my fingers as I raked at the warriors restraining me.

"Let me go! No one is touching my pup!"

But my strength was nothing compared to these trained warriors. They dragged me forward as if I weighed nothing.

Allen tried to rush to my side, but two other warriors seized him at once. One of them clamped a hand over his mouth, muffling his cries into helpless, choked sounds.

My feet scraped and kicked against the floor as the warriors hauled me toward the door. Just before they dragged me over the threshold, I lifted my head and swept my gaze over them all, my voice cutting resolutely through the room. "If the pup I'm carrying is actually Wade's blood, will you regret this?"

They were all stunned by the vicious glint in my eyes.

I started laughing so hard that my shoulders shook. My expression twisted with grief and madness. "Remember this. You will regret it!"

"Enough of her nonsense. Take her to the pack infirmary," Camila ordered coldly.

Victoria stood off to the side, smiling in that poisonous, chilling way of hers as she addressed the warriors. "Tell the Healers to deal with both of them properly. You'll be rewarded afterward. Remember that weeds need to be removed from the root. Neither mother nor pup walks out alive!"

The two warriors nodded and obeyed, gripping my arms even tighter as they dragged me out, completely ignoring my swollen belly and the force of my struggling.

I was shoved into the backseat of a sedan, and the door was slammed shut behind me. It sealed me off from the rest of the world.

The windows were tinted so heavily that no light got through. In an instant, the world outside vanished, leaving me in the darkness.

The car shot forward like a beast unleashed, the ride so rough that it felt like my organs were being thrown around inside me. The pup in my belly reacted too, twisting and kicking in distress.

At nine months along, I was already close to my due date. Now, with terror crashing over me and the violent jolting of the car battering my body, a sudden, tearing pain ripped through my abdomen, like something deep inside me was being brutally torn apart.

A strangled groan slipped from my lips as cold sweat soaked my back. Then, I felt it—a rush of warm fluid pouring down between my legs.

My heart plummeted. The pup was coming early!