DOMINIC’S POVI froze. “What?”“She slipped near the training ground. Hit her head. It’s bad. She’s bleeding. She might need stitches,” Elias said in one breath.Time stopped for a second.I clenched my jaw and immediately looked down at my watch. I still had time. Barely—but enough if I moved fast.I cursed under my breath and exhaled sharply, my hand already reaching for the door. The weight of the moment pressed down hard. I had been so close to leaving—to stepping into the sunlight for once without the shadows of the past trailing behind me. A simple day with my kids. Their birthday. Their first birthday with me in their lives.And now this.Evelyn.The one person who had once meant something to me. The one who kept showing up when I least wanted her to. The one I’d already told—no, warned—to stay out of my way.But this wasn’t about feelings. Or the chaos she stirred whenever Olivia was involved. This was blood. Injury. Shock.And I knew Evelyn.She didn’t do well with blood. The
DOMINIC’S POVMy hands were slightly trembling as I adjusted the sleeves of my shirt. Nervous. Anxious. Hopeful. I didn’t remember the last time I’d felt all of that at once. Maybe not since I was a boy, waiting for my father’s approval.But today wasn’t about me. It was about them—Noah and Aria. My children.My pups.Their birthday. The first one I’d be present for, even if I had no claim to any of the ones before. I wasn’t there when they were born. I wasn’t there for their first cries, their first steps, the scraped knees, the nightmares, the tiny victories like tying shoelaces or reading their first books.I missed it all.And that truth—it burned.Not because I didn’t want to be there, but because I could have been. If I hadn’t let my pride, my title, and some damned prophecy blind me… if I had fought for Olivia instead of doubting her. Instead of letting her break.I leaned on the table, closing my eyes for a moment.“I could’ve had a family… years ago,” I whispered to myself.“
DOMINIC’S POVI stormed into the packhouse, my blood boiling with barely restrained fury. I had tried. Goddess knows I had tried to keep things civil. For the kids. For Olivia. For whatever scraps of dignity still remained between all of us. But today? Today my patience had snapped like a twig under pressure.I found my mother standing by the grand window of the living room, sipping tea as if she hadn’t just humiliated the mother of my children in front of them. My chest heaved as I came to a stop.She turned, surprised by my presence. “Dominic, I—”“What the hell were you thinking?” I snapped, my voice low but sharp as a blade.Her brows furrowed. “Excuse me?”“You misbehaved with my mate in front of Noah and Aria.” I didn’t yell—I didn’t need to. The weight of my words was heavy enough to fill the room.Her lips parted in disbelief. “Dominic, you’re mad at me? I did nothing but—”“—But what?” I cut in sharply. “Deliberately provoke her? You knew exactly what you were doing. You knew
OLIVIA’S POVThe night had fallen quiet, blanketing the house in stillness. I was sitting on my bed, still lost in thought. The soft hum of the heater, the scent of lavender from the candle burning on my nightstand—it should have calmed me. But my mind was spinning, whirring with the weight of everything. Even with my daughter beside me, my thoughts kept bothering me.What if I lost my only family, too?That thought had been clinging to me like a shadow all evening. The kind of thought that creeps in when everything else has finally gone quiet—when the clinking of dinner plates stops, when the conversations fade, when the children are busy in their own world, and I’m finally left alone with the noise in my head.The weight of it settled in my chest like a stone.I sat at the edge of my bed, phone in hand, staring blankly at the screen. Not really scrolling. Just… existing. My thumb hovered over the keypad, but I didn’t know who I wanted to talk to. James had done enough. Derek had tri
OLIVIA’S POVThe moment dinner was over and the dishes had been cleared, I curled up on the couch with my phone in hand, my fingers unconsciously tracing over the edge of the screen. I wasn’t checking messages. I wasn’t scrolling mindlessly. I was just… holding it. Because it felt like the only thing keeping me grounded. That and the small, distant hum of Aria and Noah laughing as they played in the other room. Their laughter, at least, reminded me that I still had something worth fighting for.James sat across from me on the armchair, his leg bouncing up and down as he anxiously flicked through a folder of notes we’d started gathering on Mom’s case. He hadn’t said anything about the earlier incident in the hallway—about Grace’s venomous accusations or Dominic’s attempt to play mediator. And for that, I was grateful. I didn’t want to talk about any of them. Not right now.All I could see when I closed my eyes was my mother’s face behind that thick glass barrier in the dungeon. Her tir
OLIVIA’S POVI asked James to take away the kids and get the car started, I didn’t want my kids to witness another drama and James immediately understood. Seeing Dominic approach with Evelyn still at his side was like another slap across the face.No matter how much I reminded myself that I didn’t care, no matter how strong I’d tried to become, that image still twisted something deep inside me. Evelyn stood gracefully beside him, a picture-perfect Luna in everyone’s eyes. But I knew the truth—and I could feel the venom bubbling in my chest.Dominic’s towering form stepped into view, his eyes scanning the scene sharply. He stopped a few feet away, arms crossed, jaw clenched. His gaze darted between me and Grace. His voice, when he finally spoke, carried the cold command of the Alpha he’d always been.“What happened here?”Before I could even open my mouth, Grace jumped in like a starved vulture.“She attacked me, Dominic!” she shrieked, hands flying up in exaggerated horror. “This luna