Chapter 2

One night, my heat hit early and left me shaking with pain.

By the time I woke, the sheets were damp with sweat, and the thin nightdress clinging to my skin reeked of distress. My lower stomach twisted so badly I could barely stand. I changed out of the ruined clothes, left them in the bathroom, and decided I would deal with everything in the morning.

At sunrise, Catherine’s voice ripped me out of sleep.

She did not knock. She stormed straight into the room, snatched up the stained bedding, and hurled it at me.

“Get up and clean this,” she snapped. “Do you have any idea how filthy this is?”

I pressed a hand to my abdomen and forced myself to sit up. “I’m not feeling well. Let me lie down for a little while, and I’ll take care of it later.”

Her expression twisted instantly. She strode forward, seized my arm, and dragged me off the bed.

“You still have the nerve to say you feel unwell?” she shouted. “You’ve been in this pack for this long, and you still haven’t conceived. What use are you?”

The blanket was torn away in the struggle, leaving me half-exposed. I grabbed it back against my chest, but by then humiliation had already burned through me.

My voice turned cold.

“I said I’ll change and wash them. Leave my room.”

She looked ready to keep going, but her phone rang. She glanced at the screen and answered at once. She had invited a few pack women over that morning, and apparently they were already on their way.

That saved me from an even uglier fight.

Later, while I was outside hanging the sheets to dry, I heard them talking in the sitting room through the open doors.

“Still no pup?”

“Not yet.”

“That long and nothing? Something must be wrong.”

“My daughter conceived almost right after the bond ceremony. Their son is already old enough to run.”

“Have you tried sending her to a healer?”

Catherine laughed softly, full of contempt.

“I’m starting to think she’s just a barren Omega wearing a Luna’s title.”

My fingers tightened around the fabric in my hands.

What kind of woman humiliated her son’s mate like that in front of guests?

I could not bear to hear another word.

I called Damian several times, but he never answered.

When he finally came home that evening, Catherine pulled him aside the moment he walked in and whispered to him first. By the time he entered our room, whatever softness he might once have had was already gone.

I wanted to speak to him, but he stood by the window answering messages on his phone as though I were not there.

I stepped forward and reached for it.

He pulled it away at once and turned on me.

“Stop it, Serena. I’m busy.”

I stared at him. “Busy with what? You’re already home.”

“With pack business,” he snapped. “What do you think keeps this place running? If I stop working, what exactly are you planning to live on?”

For a second, I could not believe what I was hearing.

Then he went on.

“Everything in this house is paid for by me. You spend freely enough, but you can’t even manage to keep peace with my mother.”

I looked at him in disbelief.

“What have I ever spent on myself? Other than food and household things, what have I used? Your mother humiliates me every day, and now you’re telling me I haven’t taken care of her?”

His face only grew colder.

“I’m exhausted,” he said. “I’m not arguing tonight.”

Then he turned away from me, lay down, and closed his eyes as if that settled everything.

I stood there in silence for a long time.

That night, I cried without making a sound.

And I did not sleep at all.