Chapter 3

When I opened my eyes again, my stomach felt horribly light.

The high, hard curve I had carried into the corridor was gone. Thick bandages circled my abdomen beneath the hospital gown. Every breath dragged pain through my empty womb.

But I was alive.

My child was not.

Kaelan stood by the window in a torn white shirt. Blood, ash, and gunpowder covered him from head to toe. The royal insignia was no longer on his coat. With his aura weakened by his injuries and the ward’s scent suppressants flooding the room, he looked like any other wounded soldier.

The woman standing at the foot of my bed did not recognize him.

Chloe Grant had once been my personal assistant.

In my last life, she had given a rogue gang the route I used when I visited the Hawthorne mines. They attacked my car and nearly killed me.

When I tried to take Chloe before the Pack court, Serena cried and begged Lucas to spare her.

Lucas told me I had survived, so there was no reason to destroy a young woman’s future over one mistake.

Later, I overheard him telling Serena that poison would be cleaner next time.

Chloe looked at me now and smiled.

“Commander Mercer asked me to tell you to stop making a scene,” she said. “Miss Vale twisted her ankle because she was frightened by all your calls. He will not leave her just because you found another way to fake an emergency.”

Her gaze dropped to the blanket covering my stomach.

“Still hiding under there?” she mocked. “Do you really think looking weak will make Lucas leave Serena?”

My hands began to shake.

Kaelan turned slowly from the window.

“She was eight months pregnant,” he said.

Chloe rolled her eyes. “And you are supposed to be what? Her new lover?”

She took in his filthy shirt and weakened scent, then laughed.

“Evelyn, your standards have fallen. Commander Mercer is going to be War Minister after this summit, and you replaced him with some blood-covered stray?”

Kaelan’s face did not change.

“Why did Lucas remove the elite unit from the outer perimeter?”

“Because Miss Vale needed protection. Serena is the daughter of an important Pack family. Her life is worth more than—”

Chloe stopped just short of saying mine.

Then she lifted her chin.

“Besides, Lucas said the Alpha King was never scheduled to pass through this district. Whoever Evelyn claims she saved, it wasn’t the King.”

Kaelan gave a quiet, dangerous laugh.

Chloe mistook it for fear.

She stepped closer to my bed and shoved the royal healer aside.

“Get up, Evelyn. Lucas wants you back at the Mercer compound before you embarrass him any further. If you refuse, he said I can drag you out myself.”

She reached for my arm.

Two royal guards appeared behind her.

They forced Chloe to her knees before her fingers touched me.

“How dare you?” she screamed. “Commander Mercer controls security in this entire territory!”

Kaelan walked out of the shadows.

“Not anymore.”

One guard held the royal seal in front of her face.

The color drained from Chloe’s cheeks.

“My… My King…”

Kaelan’s eyes were flat and merciless.

“You knowingly obstructed a royal medical emergency, threatened the Crown’s protected witness, and helped a commander conceal the removal of an elite unit during an assassination attempt. Under wartime Alliance law, the penalty is death.”

Chloe collapsed.

“No! I didn’t know! Serena told me—Commander Mercer ordered me—”

“Take her outside,” Kaelan ordered. “Record the execution and send it to Lucas. Perhaps that will convince him this is not his mate’s performance.”

The guards dragged Chloe away.

Her screams ended with a single gunshot.

Kaelan looked at me. For a moment, grief replaced the fury in his eyes.

“I am sorry about your child.”

I rested a hand on my bandaged stomach.

“So am I.”

“The High Council has called an emergency session. I have to deal with the assassination attempt, but royal guards will remain outside this room.” His voice hardened. “Lucas will answer for what he did.”

I nodded.

Kaelan left with his aide.

I had barely closed my eyes when heavy footsteps thundered down the hall.

The door flew open.

Lucas grabbed my jaw and slammed my head back against the pillow.

“You vicious bitch!”

His eyes were bloodshot. Serena stood behind him, pale and beautiful, one ankle wrapped in a neat white bandage.

Lucas shoved a phone in my face. On the screen was Chloe’s body.

“She came here to deliver a message, and you had her executed! Serena hasn’t stopped crying. When did you become this cruel?”

He did not ask about the bullet wound.

He did not ask why my stomach was covered.

He did not listen for the heartbeat that had followed him around our home for months.

The ward’s bitter herbs and heavy blood still drowned every softer scent. But Lucas was my mate. If he had reached for our bond even once, he would have felt the hollow silence where our child had been.

He never tried.

I looked at the man I had once loved and felt nothing.

“Let’s break the mate bond.”

Lucas froze.