I Bore His Heirs, Then I Vanished

The blood on the floor was mine.

It ran warm between my legs and pooled beneath the birthing bed while the healer wrapped my daughter in a blanket. He did not show her to me. He did not ask if I wanted to hold her.

He carried her straight across the room and placed her in Seraphina’s arms.

The door shut behind them.

My baby’s cries faded down the hall.

Three days later, Seraphina ordered me to appear before her in the pack hall.

Pack law gave me no right to refuse a formal summons from the Luna, so I forced myself out of bed before moonrise. The tear from the birth had not healed. Every step sent a fresh bolt of pain through my body, and by the time I reached the hall, blood had soaked through the bandages beneath my dress.

Seraphina sat at the head of the council table with a cushion across her lap.

My daughter slept on top of it.

Seraphina traced one finger over the baby’s ear. When I entered, she glanced at me but made no move to stand.

“You look awful. Is there a problem?”

I kept my eyes on the floor. “No.”

“Good.”

She lifted my daughter against her chest.

“Then let’s be clear about something. The Bloodmoon Pack needs heirs whose claim no one can challenge. Your family has one of the strongest bloodlines in the north. That made you the obvious choice.”

Choice.

As if anyone had ever asked me.

Seraphina adjusted the blanket around my daughter and looked toward the cellar door.

“If you’re well enough to stand, you’re well enough to be useful. The storage cellar needs to be cleared. Finish it before you return to your room.”

The cellar beneath the hall was damp and airless. It smelled of mildew, rancid fat, and old animal hides. Broken traps, cracked crates, rusted cage doors, and gnawed bones had been piled there for years.

Dust coated my tongue every time I breathed.

I bent down and carried the debris out one piece at a time.

Above me, footsteps crossed the hall. Then Seraphina began to hum.

She was walking my daughter to sleep.

I kept working until I could no longer feel my hands. When darkness crept across the edges of my vision, footsteps sounded on the cellar stairs.

A guard’s voice reached me through the haze.

“The Alpha is here.”

Seraphina answered from the hall above, her voice soft and unsteady.

“I only asked her to clear a few things. Then she collapsed like I had tried to hurt her. You know I would never do that.”

Lucian replied, but I could not make out the words.

Then the floor rose toward me.

When I woke, night had fallen.

Lucian sat on the edge of my bed, his elbows resting on his knees. His expression was unreadable.

“The healer said you’re still weak from the birth,” he said. “Seraphina didn’t realize how serious your injuries were. She wasn’t trying to hurt you, so don’t turn this into something it wasn’t.”

At eighteen, I had stood beneath the full moon with my heart beating so hard I could hear it in my ears. The Moon Goddess had named Lucian Thorne—heir to the Bloodmoon Pack and the warrior I had loved from a distance—as my fated mate.

I had believed it was the happiest moment of my life.

Now he sat in front of me, defending the woman who had sent me into a cellar three days after I gave birth, and his voice sounded as if it came from another world.

“I understand,” I said. “Seraphina is your Luna. I’ll respect her authority.”

Lucian studied my face.

He remembered the woman I had been three years ago. After our son was born, I had crawled from the bed with blood running down my legs and caught him at the door. I had clung to his sleeve and begged him to let me see my baby.

He had pulled free and walked away.

For months afterward, every time he came near me, I begged again.

Please let me see my son.

Please don’t let her take him from me completely.

I begged until I hated the sound of my own voice.

But this time, my eyes were dry.

“Once the child is officially recognized as Seraphina’s,” Lucian said, “no elder can challenge her place in the succession. That protects the child and the pack.”

“Of course.”

My answer came too easily.

He waited, as if expecting anger or tears. I gave him neither.

A servant called from outside the room. The moon was rising. Seraphina’s dinner was ready, and the baby would not settle without him.

Lucian stood.

At the door, he looked back at me.

“Seraphina lost the chance to have children because she saved my life. I owe her more than I can ever repay.” His jaw tightened. “You’re part of this pack, Riona. I need you to understand what’s at stake.”

He hesitated.

“Take care of yourself. If there’s another child, you can keep that one.”

Another child.

As if the two he had already taken from me did not count.

I said nothing.

I listened to his footsteps fade down the corridor. Then I turned to Morwen, the only attendant who had remained loyal to me.

“Are the northern rogues gone?” I asked.

“Their groups scattered after the fighting last winter. None have crossed the border since.”

“And the elders who wanted my father’s council seat?”

“Lucian sent the worst of them to the southern outpost. The others backed down.”

For the first time in days, I smiled.

There was no warmth in it.

“Good.”

My father was safe. His enemies were gone. The pack no longer needed me to hold its fragile alliances together.

“Then I can leave too.”