Chapter 1

The healer told me I might not live long enough to hear my pup cry.

I sat there with one hand on my swollen stomach and the other clenched around the report, unable to speak for a long time.

Eight months pregnant.

Late-stage cancer.

A mate who had missed every single checkup.

The healer looked at me with pity. “Selene, where is Alpha Damian? He should hear this with you.”

I lowered my eyes and forced a smile.

“Pack business,” I said.

That was what Damian had told me before he left that morning.

But when I stepped out of the healer’s room, I saw him at the end of the hall.

He was not handling pack business.

He was kneeling in front of Lydia, one hand resting carefully on her stomach.

He had come to accompany Lydia to her checkup.

I was eight months pregnant, yet Damian had never accompanied me to a single checkup.

At that thought, I let out a bitter smile and finally gave up.

“Damian, if Selene finds out you came with me, she’ll be upset. She’s pregnant too, and she’s close to giving birth. Aren’t you worried…”

Lydia sounded worried, but I saw the smugness flash in her eyes.

Damian lowered his head and kissed her stomach gently.

“She doesn’t know about this, and I’m not going to tell her. Maybe it’s the pregnancy, but her temper has been getting worse lately. If she makes trouble for you, that won’t be good.”

“But you can’t keep hiding it forever. If Selene runs into us, her due date is close, and I’m afraid…”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s only right that I come with you to your checkup. The pup you’re carrying is mine too. If Selene wants to make a scene over it, I’ll break the bond.”

I looked at the cold expression on his face whenever he spoke of me, and my whole body went cold.

Three months ago, Lydia’s mate rejected her, and ever since she returned to the pack, Damian had been seeing her again and again.

From the day she came back, I had not spent a single quiet moment alone with Damian.

No matter when it was, as long as Lydia called, or even sent a message, Damian would leave me behind without hesitation.

It wasn’t as if I had never made a fuss.

Every time, Damian would only say that he and Lydia had known each other since childhood, and that he couldn’t turn his back on her now. That was always how he shut me down.

He had long forgotten that Lydia was pregnant, and so was I.

My due date was even closer than hers. I needed care more than she did.

I used to think the pup Lydia carried was Damian’s.

I had tested him more than once. I had even told him that if he no longer loved me, he had to say so.

Yet every time, Damian would pamper me, coax me until I stopped being upset, and even draw a clear line between himself and Lydia right in front of me, deleting her contact with his own hands just to reassure me.

Under his repeated assurances, I finally gave him my trust.

I was willing to believe he was only softhearted, not unfaithful.

But now it seemed clear enough.

The pup Lydia was carrying had always been his.

They had been betraying me behind my back from the start.

Soon, Damian followed the healer inside to collect the checkup report. Lydia stayed where she was, saying she needed the restroom.

Only after they were all gone did she speak lazily.

“You can come out now. You’ve been standing there watching for so long. Haven’t you seen enough?”

I stepped out, my face expressionless.

When I said nothing, she grew impatient instead and looked at me with open mockery.

“What, are you really this shameless? You know Damian doesn’t love you, and you still plan to keep clinging to the place beside him?”

I let out a cold laugh. “The shameless one here is you.”

Lydia curled her lips in a smile. “I knew Damian long before you did. If I hadn’t left the pack back then, you never would have had the chance to mark with him.”

“But now I’m back, and I’m carrying his pup. It’s about time you gave that place back to me.”

From the very beginning of my bond with Damian, I knew there had been a wolf he could not forget.

I just never thought that she would still matter this much.

My fingers tightened around the report in my hand. The pain in my chest was so sharp I almost collapsed.

When Lydia saw it, she suddenly snatched the report out of my hand.

The moment she saw the conclusion written on it, she burst into wild laughter.

“So you have cancer?” she said, laughing harder. “Then tell me, will you even live long enough to give birth to that bastard? Maybe the two of you will die together.”

Hearing her laugh like that, I finally snapped and slapped her hard across the face.

Lydia fell with the force of it and immediately burst into tears.

“Selene, I really didn’t mean to keep it from you, but I’m carrying a pup. You can’t push me like this.”

I had no idea what game she was playing until a sudden force hit me from behind.

Just as I nearly fell, Damian grabbed me and pulled me upright.

I was still shaken when he frowned and demanded, “Why are you here? Why are you bullying Lydia? Do you not know she’s pregnant?”

I had never expected him to say it so matter-of-factly. I had barely opened my mouth when Lydia spoke first, crying all over again.

“Damian, don’t argue with Selene because of me. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have asked you to come with me. As long as the pup is safe, it doesn’t matter if she hits me.”

She finished speaking through sobs, and Damian’s brows drew even tighter.

He looked at me with open blame.

“Selene, you were wrong this time. You should apologize to Lydia.”

I laughed coldly. “You want me to apologize? Damian, do you know what this is?”

I shoved the cancer report toward him, my heart aching so badly it felt as though it would split apart.

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