Chapter 3

I knew exactly what it meant for a pack to have no heir.

An Alpha without a blood heir would be watched by rival packs, questioned by elders, and quietly looked down on by every family waiting for weakness to show. Because of that, no matter how cruel Catherine was, I never truly fought back.

I did not tell Damian the worst of what she said, and I did not expose the truth in the fertility report either. I only kept asking him the same thing.

If we could not have a pup of our own, then let us adopt one.

Each time, Damian found a reason to delay.

I begged him for half a year, and half a year passed with nothing changing.

But his late returns started to feel wrong.

He came home later and later, and the first thing he touched was always his phone. Sometimes there was even a smile on his face, the kind that vanished the instant he noticed me looking.

One day, I followed him.

His car stopped outside a private residential compound deep inside pack territory, the kind of place outsiders could not enter without clearance, so I stayed outside the gate and waited. After some time, Damian finally came out.

He was not alone.

A woman walked beside him, one hand resting on the slight curve of her stomach.

My breath caught.

They got into another car, and I followed them all the way to Mooncrest Medical Center.

When they stepped out, I saw her face clearly.

It was Selene Rowan.

His cousin.

I went still.

Then I remembered what Grandma had told me before she died.

I was not her blood. She had taken me in when I was very young, and when she found me, there had been a moonstone token on my body. She told me that if I ever found the family I truly came from, that moonstone would be the proof of my identity.

I forgot all about Damian and Selene and went straight to the sheriff’s office.

I handed over the moonstone and told them everything.

Not long after, a black luxury car pulled up outside.

A woman stepped out first, elegant and noble, with the kind of presence that made the air itself seem to still around her. The moment she saw the moonstone, her eyes turned red. She rushed toward me, gathered me into her arms, and held me so tightly I could barely breathe.

“Seraphina,” she cried. “My daughter. My Seraphina.”

So Serena Ashford had never been my real name.

My real name was Seraphina Blackwood.

My eyes burned, and I clung to her in shock.

Then another door opened, and the man who stepped out made me freeze.

It was Alaric Blackwood.

Not just Alaric Blackwood, but the Wolf King himself.

The ruler of the Blackwood royal bloodline. The man every Alpha on the East Coast lowered his head to. Even Damian had always treated his name with careful respect, never daring to speak it lightly.

I could hardly believe it.

I was the lost daughter of the Blackwood bloodline.

My mother explained that I had wandered off during a winter gathering when I was small and had never been found. They had searched for years, but Grandma had taken me far from major pack territory, and by the time I was old enough to remember anything, there had been nothing left to trace.

They wanted to take me home immediately.

But I told them I was already bonded and needed to tell my mate first. I wanted to share the news with Damian and bring him with me.

My mother agreed. She gave me their numbers and sent me back.

I walked home with my heart racing, already imagining his face when I told him everything.

But the moment I reached the door, I heard voices inside that made my blood run cold.

“Sign it tonight,” Catherine said sharply.

Then Damian answered, low and tense, “How am I supposed to explain this to Serena? I’m afraid she’ll refuse to let go.”

Catherine’s voice rose at once.

“What exactly are you afraid of? You are the only direct heir of the Vale bloodline. This pack is still waiting for your successor. Selene is already carrying a pup. Are you not going to give her proper status?”

Then I heard it.

A woman crying inside.

That was when I understood everything.

No wonder he had been slipping away. No wonder he kept guarding his phone. He had hidden another woman from me all this time.

And that woman was his own cousin.

But even through the shock, one thought hit me harder than the rest.

That was impossible.

Damian could never have fathered her pup.

I turned around at once and went back to the hospital. I pulled the original fertility records and made the doctor confirm it in front of me again.

Congenital. Permanent. Incurable.

By the time I left, Catherine had already called.

She told me to come home immediately. She said there was something we needed to discuss.

I slid the medical file into my bag and smiled coldly.

Things were finally becoming interesting.