03

HAYLEE'S POV

"Help!" I croak weakly, another bolt of pain shooting up through my stomach. My legs buckle from beneath me and I fall to the ground, arms wrapped around my stomach. "Please, not my baby."

I fumble and tremble to grab my phone, needing to phone someone — anyone — who can give me a hand. But who? The pack doctor communicates directly to Aiden. My lady in waiting is naked in my bed with my husband right now. I have no allies here.

There’s a rap on the door that startles me. "Luna Haylee? I mean... Miss Haylee? I'm here to make sure you're packing."

I know whose voice that is—Mia, one of the younger pack who sometimes works in the house. Naïve, sweet, and completely loyal to the Alpha.

I’m all right,” I shout, my voice steadier than I am. ” Tell Alpha Aiden I’ll be gone in the hour as commanded.

"Are you sure you're okay? You sound—"

"I said I'm fine!" I snap, wishing I weren’t so rough. "Please, just go."

Silence, and then the padding of footsteps away. I let out a sigh of relief when another cramp attacks me. This time, I bite into my own hand to stifle the scream.

I need to get out of here. Not just to further my pride, but to save my baby’s life.

I punch Scarlett’s number into my phone with shaking fingers. She picks up on the first ring.

"Luna! I was just about to call you. The council will be eager to see your return, and—"

“Scarlett.” My voice is soft, nearly a whisper. "I need help. I'm bleeding."

Her sudden gasp of breath lets me know she’s put two and two together. "Where are you? Are you safe?"

"In my study in Shadow Pack, for a little while. Aiden has cast me out. He intends to nullify our mate bond at sunset.” Another cramp comes, and I can’t stifle a little whimper.

“That bastard,” Scarlett hisses. "Listen to me carefully. I’ll send a car to the edge of Shadow Pack land. Can you make it there?"

I look down at the clothes ruined with my blood and the puddle forming between my legs. "I have to."

"The driver's name is Marcus. He’s loyal—works on your father’s personal guard. He will reach the eastern boundary in half an hour."

“I will go,” I assure her, even if I’m not certain how.

“Haylee,” Scarlett softens her voice. "Your father had a saying—'A Wolf does not limp on three legs. "

I can’t help it, and I still smile. “Exposing weakness is the classic pathway for you becoming the food.”

"Exactly. You are Alpha Ragnar Wolf's daughter. All legends have blood on their hands. This is not how your book finishes.

Her words light a fire inside me, and I am willing to go through the limits of the pain. My name is Haylee Wolf, Luna of the Ragnar Pack, which posses the strongest wolf bloodline in all of history. I refuse to go down here, at my betrayer's crib.

“Take care, I’ll see you soon,” I say, hanging up.

I slowly climb up from the ground with grit in my teeth. I am in pain with each jerky movement, but I force myself to concentrate. I pull out fresh clothes from my bag, quickly changing and burying the bloody ones under other clothes strewn on the floor.

I groan under the weight of my bag and my body protests but I shut it up. I must get to the eastern border without being discovered. No simple task when every step is like walking on coals.

When I make sure the hallway is clear, I slide out of my study. Empty. Good. The majority of the pack will be in training or working. Maybe I can get to the garage without being seen.

But no luck, it appears, today has left me.

"Going somewhere, Haylee?"

My body freezes at the sound of Arielle’s voice. She is at the end of the corridor, fully clothed, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I think I have an hour with your Alpha," I tell him, speaking with steel in my voice that I would feel better about if screaming pain wasn't running through me. “I’ve got another half hour in me.

She struts toward me, grinning from ear to ear. "I just wanted to say goodbye in person. "How we’ve been so close these last years.”

The betrayal stings anew. My confidante, my lady in waiting—she’s been scheming against me this whole time.

"Was any of it real?" I say without being able to stop myself. "Your loyalty? Your friendship?"

Arielle laughs, and it feels like broken glass on my nerves. 

"Oh, Haylee. You really are naïve. I’ve been in love with Aiden since we were puppies. “I was meant to be his Luna until you came here with your pretty face and enigmatic past.”

“So the last three years were, what? An elaborate revenge plot?"

"More like biding my time." She shrugs, inspecting the pristine nails of her perfectly manicured hands. “Aiden and I have always been each other’s meant-to-be. You were just … a near miss, I would say.”

Another cramp comes on and I grit my teeth, not wanting to let her know she was causing me pain.

We do that to him Kids I just realized, when he does that bad thing to me I say, but You know he will do that to you too, right I mean he'll fence you in, just like Do That Bad Thing to you And, oh, He'll do the same to you, you know I say my voice low. “When your role is over. When someone else newer / and younger catches his eye.”

Her look wavers for a second, you briefly see doubt in her eyes, but her determined expression overshadows it. "That won't happen. We have history. Real history, not whatever farce you two had for a marriage.”

‘There’s nothing new under the sun, Arielle. Just remember when you’re standing where I am now.’

Her eyes narrow. "Get out, Haylee. And you can forget about coming back. Shadow Pack--and Aiden--now belong to me."

I walk right by her, holding my head high even though my aching wants to buck me to my knees. "Savor your win while you can.

My feet thankfully make it to the garage without mishap. But it’s a short-lived reprieve when I discover my car keys aren’t hanging from their designated hook on the wall.

"Looking for these?"

I do double take to see Beta Marcus, who is Aiden’s second in line, swinging my keys around his fingers. My heart sinks. He’s always resented me, I know that now, that I had Aiden’s ear, that I – albeit silently – influenced pack decisions in ways he’d always felt should have been his and his alone.

"Alpha Aiden has ordered me to seize your car," he informs me, not even trying to conceal his smugness. “Pack estate, see.

Of course. Aiden would strip me for leaving, and literally send me out with just the clothes on my back.

“Fine,” I say, mustering whatever little pride powers I have. "I'll walk."

Marcus raises an eyebrow. "To where, exactly? You don’t have a pack or mate or home. What happens to a spurned Luna?”

It’s a question designed to cause pain, an attempt to get me to remember that I’ve fallen. He knows lust, he knows longing when he sees it, but he has no idea that I have a pack, the strongest in the world which is waiting for my return.

“You don’t need to worry about that anymore,” I say coolly. 

“Well, well, now I must be off, long way to go yet.

I shove my way past him, my gut burning with the pain I shut out. It’s excruciating with each step, but I make myself do it, determined not to let any slip of weakness show.

I head the northern east, moving further and further away from my pack house until I reach the border. It’s longer than the main road, but is not as well-traveled. It's not worth it, I can't chance coming across more pack members who may run back to Aiden.

The bleeding is tapering, but not the cramps — which are worsening. I walk for a few minutes periodically, grasping at trees to steady myself, murmuring desperate prayers to the Moon Goddess to spare my child.

“Please,” I cry, tears flowing down my face. That which you will, from this child." Not my last tie to the love of what I thought was real.”

The forest seems never-ending, each footstep a fight against my own deteriorating frame. My vision blurs, edges going dark, but I keep going. I have to reach the border. I have to get to Marcus. I have to save my baby.

My phone buzzes. Message from Scarlett: *"Marcus is at the border. Where are you?" *

I try to type a response, but my fingers are numb with cold and I can’t seem to hit the keys properly. I can only muster one word: "Coming." 

Just a little further. A small creek demarks the border line, which splits territory of Shadow Pack and one which is neutral. After I jump it, I’m going to be out of Aiden’s line of sight.

I think I hear running water, I get a new wind. I keep pushing, but I don’t feel the pain or the exhaustion or the fear.

And then I see it — the creek, shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. And beyond that, a black S.U.V. with tinted windows. Freedom. Safety. Hope.

"Luna Haylee!" A man, tall and broad-shouldered, exits the car and I see his eyes widen when he looks at me. This is Marcus—my Marcus, not Aiden’s Beta.

I try to shout his name, though not even the sound of air leaves my lungs. At last my legs give way, and I sink to the forest floor, only a few feet from the edge.

The last thing I hear before pitch-black takes me over is running feet and a panicked voice screaming out for me. Then, merciful oblivion.

As I lie in the darkness of non-embodied sleep, I dream my father's presence—strapping, strong, wise. The best Alpha the wolf community has ever seen.

“Get up, little wolf,” he says, and his voice it makes sense, it’s exactly how I remember it. "Your pack needs you. Your child needs you."

I attempt to answer, but I can’t get my lips to move.

“You’re forgetting who you are,” he goes on. "Haylee Wolf, you are the Alpha Ragnar and Luna Serena's daughter. Blood of kings runs in your veins.”

I try to grab hold of him, but he is fading away, his voice growing faint.

"Wake up, Haylee. Your tale is only beginning.”

I gasp myself awake, my eyes opening to an unfamiliar room, beep-beep sounds from surrounding machines. You are hooked up to an IV through which a clear fluid drips into your arm, and the bandages around my abdomen remind me that this is all very real.

The chair at my bed moves and a figure leans forward—a woman with blazing red hair and fierce green eyes. Scarlett.

“Welcome back,” she says, her voice tinged with so much relief. "You gave us quite a scare."

"My baby?" It’s the one question that counts.

Scarlett's face changes and my heart just about stops. “Haylee, I need to tell you…”