Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Eight : The Lie I Tell MyselfDamon's POVThe room was silent.It wasn't quiet.It felt like judgment.As if the walls were observing. As if the floor was tallying each step I made away from her.I sat on the side of the bed, gazing out at the space ahead of me, back hunched, elbows resting on my knees, fingers grasping the sheets as if they were the only things keeping me anchored to the ground. My breath was jagged, and I could feel the stinging behind my eyes—but I would not cry.I did not deserve to cry.I stroked the hair back from my face and gazed up at the ceiling.Sophia.Her name hurting in my chest like a bruise that was pushed too tightly.The look on her face a while ago—so serene, so peaceful, but cracked in all the places only I could see. I knew those cracks. I had put them there. Every time I retreated instead of advanced, every time I let Cara fall behind instead of making her get left behind, every time I dodged Sophia's gaze like a to
.Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Seven : The Broke Brothers' DiscussionDamon's POVThe evening descended dense over the pack house like a tempest waiting to break. Clouds rolled in above the sky, blanketing the previously golden air with a dim gray hue, reflecting the churn in my belly.I leaned over the edge of my office couch, knees supported by arms, head dipped. The quiet was oppressive. The house was too full — too full of tension, memory, watching eyes, waiting for me to take my next move. And yet it was empty.For Sophia wasn't there with me.I had seen the tears well up in her eyes when the elders had spoken.I'd seen the agony she fought to hide behind those steadfast shoulders.And I'd seen Cara standing there, shining like she was the Queen of Everything. Like she was the Luna, when in fact even I'd known — she couldn't be.The door creaked open inch by slow inch.Lucas entered.He didn't knock. He never did.We'd known each other too long. Fought together. Bled together.
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Six: You Still Have MeSophia's POVThe door shut behind me with a soft slam, closing me off from the world below. From their gazes. Their whispers. Their condemnation.I stood in the middle of my room, shaking.The elders' words were echoing in my mind — bitter and cold, sharp as broken glass."She is not the mother of the heir."."Perhaps it's time to begin considering relocating the Luna title."As if I were a rag to be discarded. As if my sacrifice, my suffering, my loyalty meant nothing.I dropped to my knees.My hands trembled as I clutched the edge of the bed, trying to remain intact. But the pain — it was too loud. Too huge.Tears actually burst from my eyes, softly at first… then savagely. I struggled to breathe in my chest as I wept as hard as I hadn't since I was a little girl.The Luna.They wanted to strip me of that title. The title I proudly bore. With honor.Merely because I hadn't produced an heir for Damon yet.I should have run.I shou
.Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Five : The Gathering Sophia's POVThe morning sunlight streamed into the pack house like an intruder — warm, golden, and piercing beautiful. I was standing at the window, my hand on the curtains and the other clamped hard to my chest, trying to hold everything together that was falling apart.Last night had not been pleasant. Damon had tried to comfort me, saying the things I so wanted to hear — but his caress, though gentle, was detached. I knew his heart was being tugged in too many directions, and Cara… she was playing all the strings.I didn't blame the baby.I didn't blame Damon either.But Cara? She had known what she was doing.She had always known.And now, she was here in this house — under the same roof — breathing the same air, contaminating it with her presence.I moved away from the window and let out a sigh.The silence in the house was broken by rapid movement outside the door. Heavy feet. Then hushed sounds. I turned, alert and curious
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Four: A Battle of SilenceSophia's POVI didn't know if what hurt me was that Damon left or if it was that he had doubts before he left.The moment Cara shrieked behind her door, her voice urgent and laced with feigned desperation, something within me broke. Damon sneered at me—his eyes stormy, guilty, baffled—and for a sickening instant, I believed he'd choose me. That he'd stay.But he didn't.He left.And I was alone in the hallway, the echo of her shriek louder than my own heart pulses.I didn't get it. I couldn't. My feet were rooted, pinned down by a pain I never thought I'd feel again. Everything we'd lived through—everything we'd endured—all this was the knife I hadn't anticipated.I walked back to our room, closing the door and resting my forehead against the wood. My chest ached. My eyes ached. But I didn't cry.Not yet.I collapsed onto the bed, staring blankly at the cold sheets. We had fought for this serenity—Damon and I. For us. We were su
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Three : The Sound of Her Breaking HeartDamon's POVThe voice of hers—high, sharp, desperate—ripped through the walls like claws."Damon! Damon, for goodness' sake! I need you!"It shook me.Sophia's trembling arms, from the previous conversation, gradually slid away from my chest. Her lashes opened, and I could see the panic rising in her eyes. Her breath caught."Go," she whispered, shining eyes."I—Sophia," I started, attempting to calm her before this broke her further. "I don't believe—""Go!" she insisted loudly this time. Her features contorted, not in anger… but in desolation.She turned away from me before I could utter anything else, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as if if she let them go, she would shatter.I stood torn between the echo of the call and the image of my mate crumbling before my own eyes."Just…" her voice shook. "Go to her. You always do."That last word pierced like a spear to the chest.I turned around and left the si
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Two: A Scar Named LoveSophia's POVThe rain had started again outside gentle rain tapping on the windows like tender memories.The wind was just the same as inside my heart—stormy, cold, and loud. I was reclined on the corner of our bed, my fingers drumming the hem of my sweater, my eyes on nothing.I was trying to hold it in.Attempt to act like I wasn't falling apart from the inside out.But with every second that went by, the weight of her being choked me more and more.Cara.The same Cara who'd kidnapped me once, lied, tried to rip us in two, was living with us. And not merely living—she was carrying Damon's baby.The tension hung in the air.The mere idea seemed to be seared into my very bones as betrayal.Behind me, I could sense Damon's soft footsteps enter the room. I did not move. I did not wish for him to catch sight of my face — not when it was contorted with pain I did not know how to hide anymore."Sophia," he said quietly, his voice low an
.Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-One: The Child of RevengeSophia's POVThe entire world halted for one moment.I wasn't breathing. I wasn't blinking. My feet wouldn't budge, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.Cara.It was Cara.Her eyes sparkled with joy behind the mask she no longer wore. She did not need to lie anymore — she had won. Some distorted method, she had managed to insert herself again into our lives. Not through the front door, not with honesty — but through a lie, a deception, a pregnancy.She twitched her chin, seeming satisfied with herself, her voice dripping cool and smug. "Didn't think it'd be me, did you?"Damon took two paces backward as if her face had burned him. His lips parted, but no sound came out. His brows were knitted together so tightly they seemed they'd never relax again.I could sense the heat rising within me like a tidal wave.You. I breathed, gagging on the poison of incredulity. "You kidnapped me. You lied. You said your child was his once bef
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty: Behind the MaskSophia's POVThe sitting room of the pac house was quiet except for the ticking of the old grandfather clock standing nobly in the corner. There was a warm fire crackling in the hearth, its warm glow playing off the walls as the shadows softly fell on the stone walls. Damon and I sat across from each other on the long couch, our silence strained like a rope pulled too tight.I glanced at him.He'd hardly said anything since the news came.His jaw locked. Arms folded. His eyes never leaving the flames.I tried to offer something — a way out. "At least the elders will finally stop questioning," I whispered, hoping the words would calm the tension between us. "No more question. No more pressure."He didn't answer right away.His lips puckered into a line before he finally growled, "Yeah. Great.".I swallowed, forcing a smile that didn't reach my heart.A few minutes had passed when there was a knock at the door. We both looked up.The mana