Mag-log inNadia's POVI was reeling from Dylan's sacrifice. He gave up being Alpha. For me. It was insane and romantic and terrifying and I did not know how to feel about any of it. A part of me wanted to run to him and part of me wanted to run away from him and I was stuck somewhere in the middle, frozen.Then Cassandra showed up at my door.I opened it and there she stood with her hand resting on her barely showing belly like she was already playing the devoted mother. "We need to talk. Woman to woman.""I have nothing to say to you." I started to close the door but she put her hand out to stop it."But I have things to say to you. About Dylan. About the baby. About us." Her voice was calm and reasonable like we were old friends catching up over tea instead of enemies fighting over the same man.Against my better judgment, I let her in. Luna would kill me if she knew
Dylan's POVThe separation papers arrived in a plain manila envelope. I stared at them for an hour before I could make myself open them. When I finally did, the words blurred together but the meaning was crystal clear. Nadia meant it. She was actually ending our bond.I sat on the floor of my empty apartment with the papers spread around me like evidence of my failure. This was real. My marriage was over. The woman I loved more than breathing had decided she was better off without me and I had no one to blame but myself.James found me there three hours later. He took one look at the papers and the empty whiskey bottle and shook his head. "You need to fight for her.""She does not want me to fight. She wants me to let her go." My voice sounded dead even to my own ears."Since when do you give up?""Since I destroyed the best thing that ever happened to me." I
Nadia's POVThree days after the paternity results. Three days of crying until I had no tears left. Three days of the kids asking where Daddy was and why Mommy looked so sad all the time.I told them Daddy was working. Another lie. The lies were piling up so high I could barely see over them anymore. Elena watched me with those knowing eyes that saw too much and Aiden clung to my legs like he could sense the world shifting beneath our feet. I held them close and tried to be strong but inside I was crumbling into dust.Luna helped but even she could not fix this. She came over every day with food I could not eat and comfort I could not accept. "Give yourself time to grieve," she said while I stared at the wall. "Your marriage is over. That is worth grieving.""I thought we would make it. Even after everything, I thought we would find our way back to each other." My voice sounded weak and far away like
Dylan's POVTwo weeks. The paternity test would take two agonizing weeks and I felt like I was dying slowly with each passing day. Every morning I woke up hoping this nightmare would be over and every night I went to bed knowing it was just beginning.Nadia would not see me. She would not talk to me except about the kids and even then her voice was cold and distant and completely done. She spoke to me like I was a stranger, like we had not built a life together, like I had not once been the center of her world. The mate bond stretched thin between us, a constant ache in my chest that reminded me of what I had destroyed.I tried everything. I sent flowers and she threw them away. I wrote letters and she returned them unopened. I showed up at the house and she told me to leave through a locked door. My own home had become enemy territory and I was the invader who had brought war to our doorstep.Cassan
Nadia's POVI had not slept. My eyes burned and my head throbbed but sleep would not come no matter how tightly I closed my eyes. I spent the entire night crying and raging and breaking dishes in the kitchen because if I did not break something, I would break apart completely. The sound of shattering ceramic felt like the only honest thing in my life.Elena woke up asking about her father and I told her he had to work. The lie tasted bitter on my tongue but what was I supposed to say? That Daddy might have another baby with another woman? That our family was falling apart again just when we thought we could fix it?Luna arrived at dawn with coffee and sympathy. She took one look at my face and pulled me into her arms without saying a word. I collapsed against her and sobbed until there was nothing left inside me but hollow exhaustion."Tell me everything," Luna said when I finally pulled away.
Dylan's POVI chased after Nadia but she was already gone by the time I reached the restaurant parking lot. The night air was cold against my face and my heart pounded so hard I thought it might break through my ribs. I stood there alone under the streetlights and felt my entire world crumbling around me for the second time in six months.I turned and walked back into the restaurant where Cassandra still stood. The other diners pretended not to stare but I could feel their eyes on us. The fury that rose inside me was hot and dangerous and my wolf pressed against my skin, demanding answers."What the hell are you doing?" I grabbed Cassandra's arm and pulled her outside away from the audience. "You were supposed to leave!""I was leaving." Her voice was calm but her hands shook. "Then I found out I'm pregnant. What was I supposed to do? Not tell you?""We didn't sleep together! I w







