[1]

There were three rules every past Luna of the Blood Moon Pack had never broken.

Break one, and the pack questions your worth.

Break two, and they question your mate.

Break three or all three… and you were no longer fit to wear the Luna crown.

First: A Luna had to be marked by her mate within seven days of the mating ceremony.

Alpha Aiden had broken that rule.

Five years had passed since our mating ceremony, yet he still hadn't marked me as his mate—nor had he rejected me.

There wasn’t even the faintest trace of his claim on me.

Second: A Luna had to be capable of carrying the Alpha’s heir. Infertility was not a private tragedy in the Blood Moon Pack; it was a public failing.

After my third miscarriage, the elders of the pack had urged Aiden to reject me and choose a mate who could secure the pack’s future. But he refused until the elders eventually backed down.

For years, I had lived with the constant fear of exile, my body betraying me through four miscarriages.

I had watched other females announce their pregnancies and receive blessings from the elders while I silently wondered if I would ever hear the words, “You're pregnant.”

I had almost accepted that perhaps motherhood was something I would never experience.

Third: A Luna could not suffer from an incurable weakness or illness that threatened the stability of the pack. She had to be strong enough to defend them, or face forced removal.

Until this morning, I thought the second rule was the one I had barely managed to escape.

And for the first time since becoming Luna, I had fulfilled my duty: I was carrying Alpha Aiden's heir.

I should have been happy.

I should have been celebrating.

But somehow I wasn’t.

The truth was, I hadn't felt like myself for a week now.

At first, I blamed the pregnancy. The nausea, the headaches, the strange weakness that seemed to settle into my bones no matter how much I rested. Some mornings, even getting out of bed left me breathless.

I had told myself it was normal. After four miscarriages, I had become too afraid to complain about every little ache. I couldn't bear the thought of everyone watching me again, waiting for my body to fail me.

But this morning was different. The dizziness had come so suddenly that I had nearly collapsed before I made it to the bathroom.

That was what finally convinced me to come to the pack doctor.

I had expected another pregnancy check.

Maybe some medication for the nausea.

I never expected anything more complicated than that.

The pack doctor sat across from me, a thin medical file resting on her lap.

Her hands were trembling—that was the first thing I noticed.

The second was that she refused to look me in the eye.

My fingers instinctively moved toward my stomach.

There was no bump yet, nothing anyone could see.

She had been silent for so long that I finally asked, “How bad is it?”

She looked at me, then at the report, and then back at me.

My heart began to pound.

“Doctor?”

She inhaled slowly.

I tightened my grip on the edge of the chair.

“Please.”

Her lips parted. “You have eight months to live, Luna.”

For a moment, I couldn't even draw a breath.

I looked at her, completely speechless.

Eight months. A literal death sentence.

Just enough time to bring Aiden’s heir into the world—and give this pack my grave.

After five years of fighting to prove I wasn't useless, I finally had my answer. I was never going to be ousted for being barren. I was going to die from being broken.

Just hours ago, I had thought discovering my pregnancy would save my place as Luna. I had believed that giving Aiden his long-awaited heir would finally earn me his mark, erasing five years of shame. But instead, I had walked straight into the abominable third rule.

Air locked in my throat once more. Ice flooded my chest, crushing the breath right out of me before I managed a cracked, desperate whisper. “Is there... really no other way?”

“Alpha Aiden has to mark you so your wolf won’t enter dormancy before eight months,” the doctor admitted, letting out a weary, defeatist sigh. “It only buys you a fighting chance—not a guarantee.”

My heart skipped a beat. The doctor’s words crashed in my mind until none of them made sense. Marked or rejected. Eight months. Wolf dormancy. Fighting chance.

Impossible demands—each one worse than the last.

Yet beneath the terror tightening around my ribs, a fragile hope stirred. I was carrying Aiden’s child. His heir. Surely that had to mean something. Surely it was enough to make him mark his mate at last.

But my wolf had grown frighteningly quiet, silent inside like a locked door. Had Aiden’s refusal to mark me caused it? Was the bond between us broken because he had spent five years keeping me at arm’s length?

I needed answers.

And somehow, there was only one person who could give them to me.

My husband.

Clutching the medical file to my chest, I headed toward the hospital’s upper floor. I tried to hurry, but my body refused to cooperate. My knees felt too weak, and my lungs burned after only half a flight of stairs.

A true Luna—or even an unmarked wolf—should have moved up those steps effortlessly. I hadn't been able to shift since my second miscarriage. My hearing had dulled, my strength had faded, and even my once-sharp senses were no better than a human's.

I had blamed the grief, the stress, anything but the truth.

Without Aiden's mark, my wolf had been slowly fading away.

Before I reached the corridor, someone stepped into my path.

Beta Damon.

He ran a hand through his hair, his expression tightening the moment he saw me. “Luna,” he said carefully, “you shouldn’t be on this wing.”

“Well.. where is Aiden?” My voice came out sharper than I intended, though my breath was already unsteady. “I need to see my husband. Now.”

Damon hesitated. “Alpha Aiden is in the labor ward. He gave strict orders not to be disturbed.”

The labor ward?

A chill slipped down my spine. What was Aiden doing in a delivery ward this early in the morning?

“Excuse me,” I said, gathering the last of my fading Luna authority. “I am his mate, and whatever is happening, I have the right to know.”

Damon studied me for a moment. His eyes flickered to the file pressed against my chest, then back to my face. Finally, he stepped aside with a weary sigh.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Luna.”

I ignored Damon’s warning and hurried down the corridor. The air stung with antiseptic, but as I got closer to the labor room, another scent reached me—fresh blood and the faint, unmistakable scent of newborn wolf magic.

I should have smelled the newborn from miles away. Instead, I had to be this close just to catch his scent.

My fading wolf could barely pick up what should have been an overwhelming scent.

I stopped outside the labor room as I heard Aiden’s voice.

Through the narrow glass window, I saw Aiden standing beside the bed, a tiny bundle wrapped in white blankets cradled in his arms.

His expression was soft.

Reverent.

It was the tenderness I had spent five years begging him to show me.

Then I saw the woman lying in the bed.

The Lycan King’s daughter, Sarah.

My knees nearly gave out.

The senior midwife beside him gently wiped the newborn’s face with a fluffy towel before looking up at Aiden with a warm smile. “He carries the true Alpha bloodline scent. A healthy boy, Alpha Aiden. He has your eyes.”

Aiden looked down at the child, and a proud smile curved his lips.

Aiden’s son.

The words struck harder than the doctor’s verdict—the death sentence.

My hand instinctively flew to my stomach as the truth tore through me. I was carrying his heir, but he already had a child with another woman. A child he could present to the pack without shame. A child who could replace everything I had fought so desperately to become.

So this was it.

Not exile because I was barren.

Not disgrace because I was weak.

I would be discarded because I was no longer needed.

My fingers trembled as I pulled out my phone. The humiliation of it burned through me. Other mated wolves could speak privately through their mind-link, but Aiden had never marked me. He had left me with nothing but a phone to reach my own husband.

I typed his name and pressed call.

Inside the room, Aiden’s phone lit up.

The chime cut through the silence.

I watched him glance down at the screen.

My legs were rooted to the ground while I watched his eyes land on my name.

And then—