CHAPTER 4

Fallon POV

Fallon Whitaker presses her hand against her stomach, fighting to steady her erratic breathing as the suffocating silence stretches across the grand parlor.

She forces her gaze up toward Sable Monroe. "Are you truly Finley's biological mother?"

Sable meets Fallon's glare with a maddeningly sweet, sympathetic smile. "Five years ago, because of my demanding tour schedule and my binding pack contracts, I had no choice but to keep my connection to Finley under wraps."

Fallon’s chest tightens like a closing fist. "And his father..."

"Finley is Callahan's and my child," Sable replies softly, the words dropping like poisoned barbs straight into Fallon's soul.

Fallon freezes, a wave of nausea rolling violently through her as the brutal realization shatters every piece of her reality.

For five years, the child she raised, nursed through midnight fevers, and loved with every beat of her heart was actually Callahan and Sable's son all along.

Which means Callahan had been playing her for a complete fool from the very first day she stepped into his territory.

He didn't just hide a secret; he built their entire life on a deliberate, calculated lie.

"Fallon, I am genuinely sorry for keeping this hidden from you," Sable continues, her voice dripping with false remorse. "I actually begged Callahan to tell you the truth from the start, but he insisted it was safer if as few pack members as possible knew the secret."

Sable's voice echoes like a cruel curse inside Fallon's mind.

To Callahan, she was never a true mate—she was just a convenient fixture, a placeholder hidden away in the shadows while he lived his real life elsewhere.

She thought five years of shared domesticity and raising a child side by side had built an unbreakable foundation of trust, even without romantic love.

Now, she realizes the man sharing her bed never let her see past his defenses.

Why did he lie? If he had just been honest from the beginning, she never would have let her wolf surrender to him so completely.

"These past five years cannot have been easy on you, Fallon," Sable adds, stepping closer with a patronizing air of grace. "Callahan and I are both deeply grateful for everything you've done for Finley."

Fallon stares back, her lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line, her arm tightening protectively around the little boy clinging to her coat.

"That's a lie! You're both lying!" Finley shrieks, pulling away from Fallon just enough to glare venomously at Sable, his small face twisted in furious rage. "You're a wicked woman! You aren't my mother, and I never want to see you again!"

Sable gasps, her hand flying to her mouth as theatrical tears spill over her lashes, making her look like a victim in front of the pack elders.

Blythe Callahan's face instantly turns black with thunderous fury as she snaps out of her seat. "Is this how you teach a pup to behave in my household? Where is his obedience?"

Fallon's head spins, her body exhausted and aching from the morning's strain, but she forces out a steady defense. "He is just a child, Blythe. You cannot expect him to accept a sudden upheaval overnight."

"Silence," Blythe sneers, her eyes narrowing with absolute contempt. "Do not think I cannot see right through your pathetic little manipulation, Fallon."

"Everett!" Blythe barks toward the doorway.

The head pack servant hurries forward, bowing his head. "Yes, Elder Blythe?"

"Rip that boy away from her at once. I will not have my grandson brainwashed by an outsider with a hidden agenda!"

Everett hesitates, glancing nervously between Blythe and Fallon, but at a lethal glare from the pack elder, he steps forward and begins prying Finley's small fingers loose from Fallon's waist.

"No! Let me go! Mom, I won't stay here! Take me with you—!"

Finley's desperate screams rip straight through Fallon's chest, the violent tug sending a sudden, searing spike of pain straight across her lower abdomen.

"Finley has a weak chest! Can't you see you're triggering an asthma attack with this brutality?" Fallon snaps, her voice cracking as she stumbles back against the console table.

Blythe hesitates for a fraction of a second, panic flickering across her rigid features at the mention of her grandson's health.

Sable immediately seizes the opening, rushing to Blythe's side and clutching her arm with trembling fingers. "Aunt Blythe, please, tell Everett to release him. It is all my fault for being an absent mother. If Finley rejects me, I deserve every bit of his hatred."

Blythe lets out a heavy, irritated sigh, gesturing for Everett to back off.

The second the servant's grip loosens, Finley lunges forward with a sob, throwing himself back into Fallon's arms with such force that she has to grab the edge of the table to keep from collapsing.

The heavy thud of the boy's body colliding with her stomach knocks the remaining breath from her lungs, the dull ache flaring into an agonizing, white-hot cramp.

"Mom, they're lying, aren't they?" Finley wails, burying his tear-stained face into her shoulder, his small body trembling uncontrollably. "You're my real mom, and I will never let them take me away from you!"

Fallon strokes his hair with a trembling hand, her vision swimming as a hot trickle of liquid slips down her inner thighs.

She pulls her hand away from her coat, staring in absolute horror at the dark stain of fresh blood spreading across her fingers just as her phone vibrates violently against the table.