Chapter 2

Nyra’s POV

I was so lost in grief that I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me. I didn't catch the familiar scent of pine and cedar that once made my heart race.

I didn't notice Cassian until he crouched in front of me.

“Nyra?”

His voice was soft and gentle. Filled with concern.

Once upon a time, that voice could calm every storm inside me. No matter how much pain I was in, no matter how badly another miscarriage shattered me, hearing him say my name always made me feel safe.

Now it made me sick.

I didn’t look up, I couldn’t. Because if I looked at him now, I would see every lie hidden beneath that beautiful face.

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” His hand brushed my arm carefully.

His touch made my stomach twist violently.

“Did something happen at the healer’s?” he asked quietly. “Did it fail again?”

Fail. The word sliced through me. Thirty-six little lives reduced to a single careless word.

As if my babies had simply been mistakes. As if my pain had only been an inconvenience.

His fingers slid beneath my chin, gently tilting my face upward.

For years, I had loved those hands. I loved the way they held me after every miscarriage while I cried against his chest, I loved the way he wiped my tears and whispered soft reassurances into my hair.

Now all I could think about was how those same hands had poisoned me. Those same hands destroyed every child inside me.

His expression softened when he saw my tears.

“Don’t cry,” he murmured. “We’ll keep trying. I told you before, I’m not in a hurry. We’ll have a child eventually.”

Something inside me snapped as a bitter laugh escaped my throat.

Trying? We? He was delusional.

My body shook violently as rage finally clawed through the grief.

I slapped his hand away.

“Stop it.” My voice came out hoarse and trembling.

Cassian frowned slightly.

“Nyra—”

“Stop pretending!” The shout echoed through the hallway.

For the first time in years, genuine surprise flickered across his face. I shoved myself to my feet unsteadily, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

“How long?” I whispered.

His expression hardened slightly. “What is wrong with you, Nyra?”

“How long have you been lying to me?” I snarled.

A heavy silence stretched between us.

“You poisoned me,” I said, my voice cracking. “All those miscarriages… all those years… it was you.”

The softness vanished from his face completely, like a mask finally falling away.

“So,” he said flatly, “you heard.”

There was no denial, guilt, or remorse in his eyes. Just a cold acceptance that his secret is out.

My knees nearly buckled again. Even after hearing the truth myself, a tiny part of me had still hoped he would deny it.

That he would tell me there had been some misunderstanding. That the man I loved wasn’t truly this cruel.

But he was. He really was.

“Seven years,” I whispered shakily. “Seven years I destroyed myself for you.”

“You chose to,” Cassian replied indifferently.

The words hit harder than a blade through my chest. I stared at him in disbelief.

How could he say that so easily? How could the man I loved look at my suffering so casually?

Tears blurred my vision.

“I’m pregnant.”

For the first time since this conversation began, his expression shifted slightly as his gaze dropped to my stomach.

For one stupid, pathetic second I waited to see happiness, shock, and relief on his face.

But all I saw was irritation, like my pregnancy was nothing more than an inconvenience.

“You’re lying,” he said coldly.

I laughed bitterly through my tears. “You wish I were.”

My hand moved protectively over my stomach. A tiny life was growing inside me, my baby.

The only innocent thing left in my ruined world.

“I’ll keep this child,” I said firmly despite the fear trembling beneath my voice. “This time, you won’t be able to stop me.”

A cruel smile curved across his lips.

“You really think so?” he asked in a mocking voice.

Fear crept slowly up my spine but I refused to back down.

“It’s my body,” I snapped. “My child. You have no right—”

Suddenly, his hand wrapped violently around my wrist. I gasped as he dragged me forward.

“Cassian!”

He ignored me completely. My feet stumbled against the floor as he pulled me toward the kitchen.

The housekeeper froze the moment she saw us. Fear instantly filled her face.

“Bring the soup,” Cassian ordered coldly.

“Alpha…” she whispered hesitantly.

“NOW.”

The woman flinched before rushing to obey. Panic clawed violently through me.

“No… no, Cassian, listen to me—”

He shoved me against the counter hard enough to bruise.

The bowl of soup trembled in the housekeeper’s hands as she brought it over.

Then, without hesitation, Cassian grabbed an entire bottle of wolfsbane and poured all of it into the soup.

The housekeeper gasped in horror.

“Alpha, that dosage is too much!” she cried. “She could die!”

“I don’t care!”

My blood ran cold.

Three simple words spoken without hesitation or mercy. He knew exactly what he was doing.

“No…” I whispered weakly.

My body started trembling uncontrollably.

“Cassian… please…”

For seven years I had loved this man with everything inside me. I had sacrificed my body, my pride, my happiness.

I would have given him anything and now he was about to kill me with his own hands.

His fingers dug painfully into my jaw.

“Open your mouth.”

I shook my head desperately. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face.

“No—!”

He forced my mouth open anyway. The liquid burned the second it touched my throat as agony exploded through my body instantly.

I screamed and pushed the bowl, shattering it against the floor.

Pain ripped through every inch of me like my body was being torn apart from the inside.

I collapsed to my knees violently, choking as blood spilled from my lips.

My wolf cried out weakly inside me then she went completely silent.

“No…” I sobbed, my wolf was gone.

Warm blood spread beneath me rapidly.

My baby. No no no… My trembling hands moved instinctively to my stomach.

“Cassian…” I whispered weakly.

He stared down at me coldly, his eyes burning with hatred.

“You never should have tried to come between Isolde and me.”

The words shattered the last remaining piece of my heart. Even after seven years he still wished I had died that night not Isolde.

My vision blurred heavily as darkness slowly crept inward. I could barely breathe, and my body felt cold.

Tears slid silently down my face as I curled weakly around my stomach.

My poor baby… I’m sorry I couldn't protect you.

If… If the Moon Goddess gives me another chance… I won’t love him again. Never again.

My lips moved soundlessly around the prayer as darkness swallowed me whole.