Chapter 2

I woke up in the hospital feeling empty. Like a void. The sterile scent of antiseptic burned my nose as the fluorescent lights hummed overhead. My throat was dry, lips cracked, but none of that mattered. My hand instinctively went to my stomach, trembling fingers pressing against the soft skin there. It felt empty. 

"No... no, no, no," I whispered, my heart pounding as the memories flooded back. The fight. Slade’s rage. His fists. Zaya’s mocking laughter. And then the pain—so much pain.

And blood. 

A nurse must have heard me because the door swung open, and she hurried over. Her face was sympathetic, so different from the hate I was used to. “Luna Ashford…”

I flinched at the title. Luna. That wasn’t me anymore. I was nothing.

“Don’t call me that,” I rasped.

She hesitated before nodding. “I’m sorry. You need to rest.”

Rest? How could I rest? My baby…our baby… was gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the reality that was clawing at me, threatening to consume me whole.

“I’m going to get the doctor,” she said quietly, but I grabbed her wrist before she could leave.

“Is my…?” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I already knew the answer, but hearing it, confirming it, would break me.

Her expression softened, but her lips pressed into a thin line. “I’ll get the doctor,” she repeated, gently pulling her arm free.

I laid back against the stiff pillow, my chest heaving as I tried to breathe through the pain. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes, wetting the bandages on my forehead. My vision blurred, and I could hear faint footsteps approaching—then a voice.

“Briar.”

I turned my head, and there he was. Slade. Standing at the foot of the bed, his expression hard and unreadable. My breath caught in my throat, and suddenly, the emptiness turned into something else. Rage.

“You,” I spat, my voice hoarse but filled with venom. “You did this.”

He said nothing, just stared at me, his hands in his pockets, his jaw clenched.

“You killed our child, Slade!” I screamed, my body hurt as I struggled to sit up. “How could you—”

“I didn’t come here to argue,” he interrupted coldly. His tone was flat, detached, as if none of this mattered to him. “The pack will handle the rest of your care. You won’t be returning to the Alpha’s house.”

I froze, the room spinning around me. “What?”

“You’re no longer my mate,” he said, his eyes meeting mine for the first time, completely devoid of emotion. “You’re an Omega again, Briar. Go back to where you belong. In the slums.”

I stared at him, the world crashing down around me. Omega.

A title reserved for the weakest. The outcasts. I had once thought being with Slade was my escape from that life, my chance at something better. I had worked in the mines for a short while before I met him, to go back there like other omegas…I…couldn't.

But now… I had nothing.

He turned to leave, but I couldn’t let him walk out. Not like this. “Slade, you bastard! You took everything from me!” My voice cracked as tears streamed down my cheeks.

He paused at the door but didn’t look back. “You took it from yourself. The moment you forgot your place.”

With that, he walked out, leaving me in a shattered mess.

For what felt like hours, I stayed in that bed, staring at the empty doorway. My chest hurt from sobbing, but my tears had dried. I didn’t know who I was anymore, or what was left of me. I wasn’t a Luna. I wasn’t a mother. I was nothing.

The nurse returned later with the doctor, but I barely heard their words. They told me about the miscarriage, about how they had done everything they could. Their voices were drowned out by the memory of Slade’s cold eyes and his rejection.

After they left, I was alone again. The void inside me grew larger, swallowing everything.

There was a soft knock on the door. I didn't bother looking up until a familiar voice broke through the haze.

"Briar?" Lizabella, my best friend,an omega like me, a slave to the mining caves of our pack, rushed in, her eyes red from crying. She looked at me with concern and anger. "What did that bastard do to you?"

I swallowed hard, unable to speak. Lizabella came to my side, her hands clutching mine.

“I’m going to kill him,” she whispered fiercely. “I’ll rip his throat out.”

“You can’t,” I muttered, my voice barely audible. “It’s over, Liz. I’m… I’m nothing now.”

“Don’t say that!” she snapped, shaking me slightly. “You’re not nothing. Slade is a monster, but you’re stronger than him. You always have been. He is just scared of that.”

I shook my head, tears welling up again. “I lost my baby. I lost everything. How can I be strong when I have nothing to hold unto?”

Lizabella hugged me tightly, and for the first time since I woke up, I let myself cry into her shoulder, allowing the grief to consume me.

It hurts. So much that my soul felt like it had been consumed by fire. 

Fire of hatred. 

*****

I think everyone was happy that I was no longer the alpha's mate. A week had passed in a blur. 

It was mostly fake condolences and medications that finished half off the money Slade left behind. He did not want me to work, I guess basically because he wanted me to rely on him, and I was stupid to be manipulated by him. 

Slade hadn’t come back, nor had Zaya. They had moved on. Their wedding was coming up. A baby on the way. 

But I… I was still trapped in this nightmare.

On the seventh day, I signed my release forms and walked out

of the hospital, my feet carrying me to the only place I knew I could think—the bar.