He didn't believe her

Phoebe's POV 

His heavy fingers clamped around my wrist, stopping me right at the top of the stone stairs.

"Phoebe, stop walking," Kendrix said. His chest heaved, his warm breath hitting my shoulder as he pulled me back into the quiet hallway, away from the stripped nursery door. "You’re acting like I just threw you out of the house. We're just moving rooms. Why are you making this so hard?"

I turned to face him, yanking my arm back, but his grip was like iron. "She called herself the Luna, Kendrix. The servants are already bowing to her. She told them to burn my crib."

"She’s excited," he said, rubbing his face with his free hand. He looked so exhausted, but there was a defensive edge in his tone that cut deeper than any blade. "She’s carrying a wolf pup. Her hormones are everywhere, and the whole pack is crowding her. You have to be the bigger person here. You’re my wife."

"I am your wife," I whispered, my voice breaking. "So why do I feel like a guest who stayed too long?"

"Don't do this," he groaned, taking a step closer and reaching for my other hand. "You know how much I love you. I’ve spent five years fighting the elders for you. Every time they told me to set you aside because you couldn't give me an heir, I told them no. I chose you, Phoebe. Every single day, I chose you."

"And what about today?" I asked, looking up into his dark eyes. "Are you choosing me today?"

"I’m trying to keep this pack together!" he snapped, his voice echoing down the empty corridor before he checked himself and brought it back down to a low whisper. "Victoria is having my child. The elders are already talking about succession. If I cast her out or make her feel unsafe, the Beta’s family will pull their soldiers from the border. I have to manage this."

My right hand, hidden deep inside my apron pocket, squeezed the small ribbon box until the hard plastic edges bit painfully into my skin. The two pink lines. The truth I had been carrying around like a secret weapon.

"What if she wasn't the only one?" I said softly.

Kendrix frowned, his eyebrows pulling together. "What are you talking about?"

I pulled my hand out of my pocket. I took the small, white plastic stick out of the ribbon-wrapped box and held it up between us. The faint pink lines were clear and dark under the torchlight of the hallway.

"I'm pregnant, Kendrix," I said, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. "I'm carrying your baby."

The hallway went completely silent. Kendrix looked down at the plastic stick in my hand. He didn't gasp. He didn't smile. He didn't grab me and spin me around the way I had imagined a thousand times over the last five years.

He just stared at it. Then, slowly, a long, tired breath came out of his lips, and he shook his head.

"Phoebe... please," he said, his voice flat, heavy with a terrible kind of pity. "Don't do this to yourself."

A cold weight dropped into my stomach. 

"What?"

"We went to four different pack healers," he said gently, reaching out to take the plastic stick from my fingers as if it were a dangerous toy. "They all said the same thing. Your body doesn't have the wolf spirit to hold a pregnancy. We tried for five years, honey. You know how many times you thought you were late. You know how many times we stayed up crying because the test came back empty."

"It's not empty!" I yelled, pointing at the stick in his hand. "Look at it! Two lines! I bought it from the human town last week! I took it yesterday morning!"

"Human tests aren't made for our kind," he said quietly, his voice full of that soft, terrible patience that made me want to scream. "They give false results all the time when Omega hormones fluctuate. You're stressed, Phoebe. Victoria coming back like this... it's breaking your heart, and I get it. I swear I get it. But making things up isn't going to fix it."

"Making things up?" Tears finally spilled over my cheeks, hot and bitter. "You think I'm lying? You think I made this up because I'm jealous?"

"I think you're hurt," he corrected, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around my shaking shoulders, pulling me against his chest. "I think you want so badly to give me what she's giving me that your mind is playing tricks on you. But you don't have to lie to keep me, Phoebe. I'm not leaving you."

I stood stiff in his arms, feeling the warm beat of his heart against my cheek. He didn't believe me. Five years of failure had built a wall in his mind so thick that even the cold, hard truth couldn't punch through it.

I pushed against his chest, forcing him to let me go.

"If it's true," I said, my voice dropping into a razor-thin whisper. "If I go to a human doctor in the city tomorrow and bring back proof that I am carrying your wolf pup... what happens to Victoria?"

Kendrix went still. His arms fell to his sides. "Phoebe—"

"Answer me," I demanded, staring right into his eyes. "If I am pregnant with your child right now, do you send her away? Do you tell the pack that my baby is the rightful heir?"

Kendrix swallowed hard. His jaw tightened, his eyes darting away from mine for just half a second before returning to my face. "It doesn't change what Victoria is carrying," he said softly. "She's the Beta's daughter. Her child is already recognized by the elders. Even if you are pregnant, Victoria stays here. Her baby will be raised alongside ours. I have to protect both."

The final piece of my heart shattered into dust.

It didn't matter if I had a wolf. It didn't matter if I gave him a child. He had already built a cage for us, and he was inviting her to hold the keys.

"I want a divorce," I said.

Kendrix stared at me, his eyes wide with sudden shock, as if I had just slapped him across the face. "What did you just say?"

"Give me my freedom," I said, stepping backward, away from him, away from the nursery, away from the life I had bled for. "Let me leave the pack. You can have Victoria. You can have her baby. Just let me go."

"No," Kendrix barked, his Alpha tone slamming into the air between us, heavy and suffocating. "Absolutely not. You are my Luna. You are my wife. I will never let you leave this house."

He took a step toward me, reaching out to grab my hand, to lock me in place—

"Alpha!"

A loud, heavy voice boomed from the bottom of the stairs. The Beta, Victoria's father, came marching up the steps, his face dark and stern, a thick scroll of parchment clutched in his leather-gloved hand. Garrick walked two steps behind him, looking pale and restless.

"Alpha Kendrix," the Beta said, barely glancing at me as he reached the top step. "We have an emergency at the eastern border. A rogue scout was captured carrying a letter signed with the Alpha's personal seal—and it was sent from inside this castle three months ago."

Kendrix froze, his hand still stretched out toward me. Garrick’s eyes flicked to mine for a split second, filled with sheer, unadulterated terror.