Our daughter is gone and so is our love Alpha.

Philia's pov

"Tonight is our daughter's death anniversary, will you finally let me see her?"

My mate's body tensed, a groan escaped through the crack of his lips"Philia, we've spoken about this...", he laid his pen flat against the document he was signing, lifting his eyes to mine while his broad back pushed towards the cushions of his chair.

"Ellie isn't there, don't you tire of repeating the same lie even after five years?"

The ever present lump in my throat pushed against the sides, enlarging itself on my grief as I struggled to breath.

Ellie had been born a lovely but fragile pup, from the moment I held her I'd sensed her flickering lifecore. Tests came back and confirmed it all; she'd live all of her life on medication and endless hospital trips.Rowan, my mate and Alpha of Shadowfang was inflamed. He accused me on sharing a bed with another.

"There is no way the moon goddess would curse me with a weakling as my first born!" he'd roared at me, pack members turned their backs on me threatening to cast me and my newborn out.

Cornered I gave in to a paternity test, the results proved my innocence.

But that didn't change anything, Rowan had moved on, soon there was another woman in his arms and heart; Veil his concubine who looked eerily like my late sister- his first love.

As if watching him pull another into his embrace wasn't heart wrenching enough, the clear bulge of her belly as she pranced around the pack house told me his heart had strayed long before I had Ellie.

Life had been bearable, but then I lost Ellie and I've been living in a vacuum ever since.

"I just..." I swallowed hard, grabbing the chair across from him to hold myself up, "... I want to lay her to rest, wherever her body is.. whatever is left of her. Won't you let me bury her? As your Luna... As her mother won't you let me have that?"

He looked at me with a glare so icy it made the temperature in icy office drop.

"For the last time Celia Ellie is not dead, she's living with a distant uncle abroad and he's taking good care of her making sure that she doesn't miss any of her regular hospital visits and recives about all the dozens of pills that she needs to,"

Tears burned at the rims of my eyes and yet a choked laughter found its way out of me first.

"Why are you doing this to me, Rowan? You know I can feel her life core you can feel it too as her father. She's gone and it's been half a decade.Can't you-"

I heard the door of his office creek open and then an excited squeal hit my ears.

"Daddy! daddy!!"

It was Bramwell.

His concubines child.

The one he always wanted, full of life,chatter and boundless energy.

He leaped across the into Rowan's shocked but waiting arms, discomfort snork under My skin because I already knew that in a couple of seconds she would appear.

And as if on cue, Veil slid into the office a pretentious gasp rolling of her lips.

"Bramwell! What have I told you about bothering your father when he's working!"her anger was only surface level, she enjoyed using her offspring to walk into spaces no concubine should even dream of stepping a toe in.

But rules did not apply when it came to Veil, with her startling appearance to my sister she had taken the space in his heart left empty by my sister's passing. Rowan was tender and soft with her the way he wasn't with anyone else.

The way he had never been with me.

I steeled myself with effort, watching buddy settle into Rowan's lap, laughing and rattling some story I wasn't paying attention to. Veil came forward with her performative scolding while Rowan playfully defended buddy.

From afar they looked like the perfect little family, then up close with a ring of a promise of forever gone stale.

"Concubine Veil, I was discussing something with Rowan just now, do you mind taking your son and giving us some privacy?"

I already knew what would come out of this demand but it's still cut like a silver dagger when it happened.

"Philia, We've finished our discussion. The party for brown Wells shifting ceremony anniversary needs to be perfect tonight we are having a lot of guests, shouldn't you take this free time to do a once over of everything? Make sure it all goes well?"

My face burnt with the humiliation and I could see Veil from the corner of her eye barely tucking away her smile, she spread her palm over his chest, his eyes closed briefly for a moment after the contact and I almost threw up.

"My dear why are you so worried? She has arranged the party herself for years I'm sure she knows everything like the back of her hand," She smiled at me condescendingly, "don't you, lady Philia?"

She stood by his side as if she was the Luna and I not even a concubine but a secretary.

I swallowed the humiliation just like how I had done for many years.

"I'll go through whatever needs to be smoothed out,"I said not making eye contact with either of them.

I managed my way out of his office and into the box size room I had been pushed into to make space for Veil in the Luna Chambers, something that had never been done in the pack's history.

That's why everyone saw me as a joke.

But I'm enduring all of this, using the few connections i still have as Luna, to find out what happened to my daughter's body. I can't tell if denying her death is Rowan's way of coping. But she deserved to be laid to rest.

I'll continue to put up with this, ever as it tears my heart out of my chest, after collapsing on my creaky bed my phone beeped and I had half the mind to ignore it.

The other half won.

It was a text from an unknown number that read; I know what happened to your daughter, come to the Crescent hall tonight and I'll tell you everything.