Chapter 4: Goodbye father, Goodbye Cassian.

Ivy's POV

"You think you're getting a light duty, girl?" Mrs. Gable sneered, stepping closer so her foul breath hit my nose. "You think because you spread your legs for Alpha Cassian, you get special treatment?"

"I don't expect special treatment," I whispered.

"Good! Because you're scrubbing the butcher cellars today," Mrs. Gable barked, slapping her clipboard against my shoulder. "Every inch of stone. On your hands and knees. And if there is a single drop of old blood left on those floors by noon, you won't eat for three days."

"Yes, ma'am," I murmured, keeping my eyes fixed on the dirt.

The news of what happened on the full moon had spread through every corner of the pack like wildfire. As I walked toward the cellars, pack members threw dirty looks, harsh laughs, and rotten food scraps at my back. Children pointed at me, repeating the awful words their parents whispered. I was an outcast, a pariah, a warning to anyone who dared cross the future Luna.

By mid-afternoon, I was hauling two heavy wooden buckets of freezing river water up the steep stone steps outside the laundry house. My hands were blistered, my back was burning, and my bruised jaw throbbed with every step.

"Look out!" a rough voice shouted from behind me.

Before I could turn around, a heavy shoulder slammed violently into my spine.

I lost my balance completely. The heavy buckets clattered against the stone, splashing freezing water over my clothes as I fell hard down the flight of steps, my knees and elbows slamming mercilessly against the sharp rock edges.

I hit the gravel at the bottom with a ragged gasp, the air knocked completely out of my lungs.

Loud, cruel laughter echoed from the top of the stairs. Two Enforcers stood there, smirking down at me. "Watch where you're going, slut!" one of them yelled.

Pain shot through my abdomen, sharp and strange, making me curl into a tight ball on the dirt path. I gasped for air, tears blinding my eyes as I clutched my stomach.

Footsteps approached on the gravel path. Elegant, quiet footsteps.

I forced my eyes open, looking through a blur of tears.

A pair of polished leather boots stopped just three feet away from my face. Above them stood my father, Sabastian Frey, wearing his fine velvet cloak. Next to him stood my mother, Aveline, and Bianca, who was leaning lightly against Sabastian's arm.

"Father..." I whimpered, extending a trembling, dirt-covered hand toward his boot. "Father... help me... please..."

Sabastian looked down at me. His face was like sculpted stone. There was no warmth, no anger, not even pity in his gray eyes—only absolute, soul-crushing void.

"Father?" Aveline mocked, letting out a sharp, nasty laugh. "Do not address the Beta Alpha, you filthy dog."

"Father, please," I sobbed, blood dripping from my scraped elbow into the mud. "I fell... it hurts..."

Sabastian didn't move an inch. He slowly pulled his coat away so my dirty fingers wouldn't brush against the fabric.

"I have only one daughter," Sabastian said, his voice flat, emotionless, and ringing loud enough for every watching pack member to hear. "Her name is Bianca."

"Father..." The word died in my throat.

"I do not have a daughter lying in the dirt," Sabastian continued, turning his head away from me. "In fact, I would prefer it if you were dead. It would save this family from further humiliation."

"Come along, dear," Aveline said sweetly, wrapping her arm through Sabastian's. "Alpha Cassian is waiting for us at the high manor to discuss the engagement feast."

Bianca looked down at me as they walked past, a small, triumphant smile playing on her lips before she turned and followed them up the path.

They stepped over me like I was a piece of rotting garbage on the road.

A strangled scream torn from the deepest part of my soul ripped past my lips, but no sound came out. My chest caved in. The man whose love I had spent eighteen years begging for, the man I had tried so hard to make proud, had just looked me in the eye and told me he wished I were dead.

I lay in the mud for what felt like hours, listening to the distant laughter from the high manor, until the cold forced me to crawl back to the lower medical shed.

—

The smell of dried herbs and rubbing alcohol filled the small, quiet medical room in the basement of the Omega barracks.

An old pack doctor, Dr. Hank, sat on a wooden stool beside the cot where I lay, gently dabbing a damp cloth over the cuts on my face and knees. He was the only person in the entire pack who hadn't yelled at me today.

"Hold still, child," Dr. Hank said softly, pressing a cool salve onto my swollen jaw. "This will sting."

I flinched, but I didn't cry. I had no tears left.

"You're battered up pretty badly, Ivy," Dr. Hank murmured, shaking his head as he wrapped clean white linen around my forearm. "You need to rest. Your body is severely exhausted."

"I have to work tomorrow," I whispered, staring up at the water-stained wooden ceiling. "If I don't work, Mrs. Gable won't let me eat."

Dr. Hank sighed softly, setting his tools down on a metal tray. He looked at me with a quiet, serious intensity that made my stomach turn.

"Ivy," he began, his voice dropping to a low whisper. "I need to ask you something important. And I need you to be completely honest with me."

I turned my head slowly to look at him. "What?"

"Last night... during the full moon," Dr. Hank said carefully. "Did Alpha Cassian complete the bond with you?"

A sharp stab of pain went through my chest at the mention of his name. "Yes," I choked out.

Dr. Hank reached out and gently laid his hand over my lower abdomen, right above my hip bones. He pressed down softly, his brows furrowing as a small blue light flickered from his fingertips, a basic diagnostic medical gift.

He froze. His eyes widened slightly.

"Doctor?" I asked, my heart suddenly hammering against my ribs like a trapped wild animal. "What is it?"

Dr. Hank pulled his hand back slowly, looking at me with a mix of shock and deep, terrifying sadness.

"Ivy..." he whispered, leaning closer so no one outside the door could hear. "You need to get checked properly, but my diagnostic light doesn't lie. The lunar surge was strong last night."

"What are you saying?" I gasped, my voice trembling violently.

"You are pregnant," Dr. Hank said softly. "You are carrying Alpha Cassian's child."

The world stopped.

The air rushed out of my lungs, and the room spun in dizzying circles. My hand flew down to my stomach, resting over the smooth, flat skin beneath my sweater.

‘A baby.’

Cassian's child. The child of the man who had called me a mistake, who had handed me over to be stripped of my rank, who was formalizing his engagement to my sister at this very moment.

"Does... does anyone else know?" I asked, horror and a fierce, terrifying instinct surging through my veins.

"No," Dr. Hank said firmly. "And if you take my advice, you will keep it that way."

"If Aveline finds out..." I breathed, the realization hitting me like a bucket of ice water. "If Bianca finds out..."

"They will kill the child, Ivy," Dr. Hank said plainly, his voice dead serious. "They will see this baby as a threat to Bianca's position as Luna. They will not allow an Omega bastard to carry the Alpha's blood line."

Just then, the loud, booming sound of fireworks exploded in the sky far above the valley, echoing down into the lower sector.

Loud cheers and music floated down from the high manor. The engagement of Alpha Cassian Jaewon and Lady Bianca Frey had just been officially announced to the entire pack.

I lay on the hard cot, listening to the celebration of the man who had destroyed my life and the sister who had stolen my dignity.

I looked down at my stomach, my fingers pressing gently into my skin.

I had stayed here because I was desperate for a home. I had taken the beatings, the insults, the humiliation, and the hatred because I held onto a pathetic, foolish hope that my father would eventually look at me and love me.

But there was no home here for me. There was only poison and cruelty.

If I stayed in this pack, I would live as a slave. I would spend my life in the mud, bowing my head to Bianca and Cassian. And when this baby was born, it would grow up in the dark, treated like a dirty mistake, hated by its family, just like I was.

‘No.’

A cold, unbreakable strength settled deep inside my bones. The fear that had kept me paralyzed all day vanished, replaced by a fierce, maternal fire.

I would not let my child suffer the childhood I had. I would not let them grow up starving for love from people who only wanted to crush them.

"Dr. Hank," I whispered, meeting the old man's eyes.

"Yes, child?"

"Help me get out of here tonight."

Dr. Hank looked at me for a long moment, then slowly nodded his head. "The western border guards shift at midnight. Take the river path. It leads past the scent boundary."

I sat up on the cot, ignoring the sharp pain in my ribs. I grabbed my battered duffel bag, pulling it over my shoulder.

I looked back one last time toward the high manor, where the bright fireworks were painting the night sky in brilliant shades of crimson and silver.

Goodbye, Cassian. Goodbye, Father.

I pulled my hood up over my head, stepped out into the freezing dark rain, and ran toward the boundary line, leaving the pack behind forever.