Chapter 2 -What The Alpha Said Next

Sera's Pov

The word hung in the humid, sweat-scented air of the bedroom like a guillotine.

Mommy.

It didn't come to me. It went to Lyra. She wrapped her slender arms around my son, burying her fingers in his dark curls, her eyes meeting mine over his shoulder. Her gaze was triumphant, a silent declaration of war that she had already won. Eli didn't pull away. He snuggled closer into her vanilla scent, the scent of the woman who had just been writhing beneath my husband.

My lungs seized. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. The maternal bond in my chest, the one that had bled for this boy, was screaming in agony.

"Eli," my voice was a cracked whisper, barely audible over the roaring of the blood in my ears. "Eli, come here."

He didn't even turn his head. He just gripped Lyra's silk sheet tighter.

Caden finally moved. He swung his legs off the bed, completely unbothered by his nakedness, and pulled on a dark silk robe that was lying at the edge of the bed. He didn't rush. His movements were fluid, terrifyingly calm, the absolute embodiment of an Alpha who answered to no one. He didn't look guilty. He didn't even look surprised — and somewhere underneath my grief, a small, cold voice noted that he looked rehearsed, like a man running through blocking he'd already walked a dozen times in his head.

"Lyra, take the boy to the nursery," Caden ordered, his deep baritone vibrating through the room, heavy with command.

Lyra slid out of the bed, grabbing my pink robe off the floor and then scooping Eli into her arms with an ease that told me this was routine. She walked past me, her bare shoulder brushing mine. I wanted to tear her throat out. I turned my gaze back on Caden. My claws pricked against my palms, blood pooling under my nails, but Caden's suffocating Alpha aura slammed down on me like an iron vault, pinning my wolf in place.

The door clicked shut behind them. We were alone.

"How long?" I asked. The question tore from my throat, raw and bloody. "How long have you been bringing her into our bed? Into our son's life?"

Caden walked over to the mahogany desk near the window, ignoring my question. He poured himself two fingers of whiskey, swallowed it in one sharp gulp, and finally turned to face me. His gray eyes were entirely devoid of the warmth he used to fake so well.

Classic Caden.

"Long enough for him to know who his real mother is, Sera," he said.

The words hit me like a physical blow. What the hell was he talking about? Was his brain getting foggy from the whiskey?

"I carried him for nine months, Caden! I almost died on that table giving him to you! I am his mother!"

"You were a vessel," Caden corrected, his voice flat, ice-cold, completely mechanical. He didn't raise his voice, which made it infinitely worse. "Don't flatter yourself with fairy tales, Sera. Look at the facts, okay? You were a high-yield match for my bloodline. Your lineage guaranteed a strong Alpha heir. That is the only reason I brought you to this pack. That is the only reason I put a ring on your finger."

I felt a lump building in my throat. My vision went blurry.

Every memory of the last six years — the late-night promises, the way he held me after Eli was born, the birthdays, the pack galas where he introduced me as his queen — shattered into sharp, jagged glass inside my mind. It had all been an act. A calculated, multi-year transaction.

Had it, though? Some traitorous corner of my mind snagged on the memory of his hands shaking the night Eli was born — shaking in a way that had nothing to do with performance. I shoved the thought away. It didn't matter now.

"A vessel," I whispered, the tears trickling down now. "You never loved me."

"Love is a luxury for omegas and weaklings," Caden scoffed, walking closer until he was towering over me. The scent of cedarwood and jasmine rolled off him, making me want to violently gag. "You did your job. You gave me Eli. But a Luna needs more than just a rare bloodline, Sera." His hand traced my jaw, tilting my chin to look directly into his eyes. "You are weak. Your wolf is passive. You don't have the stomach for the political ruthlessness this pack requires. Lyra does."

I stared at him, at the cruel, sharp lines of his face. I had spent years silencing my own instincts, softening my rough edges, making myself smaller just to be the perfect, supportive Luna he claimed he wanted. I had buried my own strength to let him shine. And he had used that exact submission to brand me as weak. I felt so angry that the tears kept falling.

"You're a monster," I breathed. I pulled my jaw away from his grip.

Caden didn't flinch. A slow, mocking smile touched his lips — though it didn't quite reach his eyes, the way it always used to. "I am an Alpha. I do what is necessary to secure my legacy."

He turned back to his desk, opened the top drawer, and pulled out a thick manila folder. He threw it onto the center of the desk with a heavy thud.

"We're done, Sera," he said, tapping the folder with a long finger. "I've already taken care of the logistics. The pack elders have approved it."

Why was I surprised? I should have known from his reaction when I walked in. From that calmness in Lyra.

I took three dragging steps forward, my vision blurring as I looked down at the documents resting on the dark wood. Bold, black letters stared back at me:

MARITAL DISSOLUTION AND TERRITORIAL FORFEITURE.

My eyes dropped to the bottom of the page. Caden's signature was already there, dried and permanent. Next to it was the official crimson wax seal of the Crescent Moon Pack.

"Sign it," Caden said, sliding a heavy silver pen across the polished wood toward me.

He has been planning this for months.