The box behind the lamp

Kendrix's POV

My palm slammed onto the oak war table, rattling the brass maps and heavy iron inkwells.

"We've been staring at this same rogue border report for four hours, Marcus," I barked, glaring across the flickering candles at the Beta. "The scout is dead, the letter is burnt at the edges, and we have no proof Garrick signed anything. I am done talking in circles tonight."

The Beta leaned back, folding his thick arms across his chest. "The elders are nervous, Kendrix. A rogue seal inside our own walls isn't something you brush under the rug because you're eager to get back to your quarters."

A sharp, restless twitch tugged at my shoulder. My wolf was pacing beneath my skin, clawing at my ribs with a sudden, unexplainable itch. Something felt wrong. The air in the castle felt too thin, too quiet.

"The border watch is doubled," I said, shoving my chair back so hard it screeched against the stone floor. "Garrick, take the morning patrol. Marcus, send the scouts out at dawn. I'm going to my wife."

"She was upset earlier, Alpha," Garrick said quietly from the corner. He had been staring at his boots all night, his fingers nervously picking at the leather strap on his forearm. "Maybe she needs time to cool off."

"She’s my wife," I growled, stepping past him toward the heavy double doors of the council chamber. "She doesn't need time. She needs me."

I wanted this nightmare over. I wanted to sit beside Phoebe, pull her soft body onto my lap, and wrap my arms around her until she stopped shaking. I knew she was hurt about Victoria. I knew seeing another woman carry a child in this house felt like a slap in the face after five years of empty nurseries and cruel pack gossip. 

But she didn't understand the politics. She didn't see that keeping Victoria safe was the only way to keep the Beta's warriors from abandoning our eastern border. I was doing all of this to protect us. To protect her position as Luna. Once she calmed down, she would see that.

I marched up the wide mahogany staircase, my heavy boots echoing through the quiet halls. I reached our suite, nodded at the guard standing beside the door, and unlocked the heavy iron latch.

"Phoebe," I said softly, pushing the oak door open into the dark room. "Honey, I'm back. The meeting is over."

Silence met me.

The room was freezing. The fireplace was completely dead, grey ashes scattered across the hearth. I frowned, reaching out to ignite the oil lamp on the nightstand. The small yellow flame lit up the space, casting long shadows across the empty bed. The sheets were smooth, untouched.

"Phoebe?" I called out, turning around. The washroom door stood wide open. Empty. The wardrobe doors hung ajar, but her silk gowns were all still hanging in neat rows.

I chuckled softly under my breath, though a cold coil of worry tightened in my gut. She was playing a game. She was hiding down in the gardens or staying in one of the guest rooms to make me chase her, to force me to prove how much I wanted her.

"Gamma Vance!" I yelled into the hallway.

The young officer rushed up the stairs, his breath coming fast as he bowed. "Yes, Alpha?"

"Where is the Luna?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. "Did she go down to the kitchens for late tea?"

Vance blinked, his face turning pale in the torchlight. He shifted his weight nervously, his eyes dropping to my boots. "The... the Luna hasn't been to the kitchens tonight, sir."

My brows pulled together. "What do you mean? She hasn't eaten yet?"

"She... well, Alpha," Vance stammered, his lip trembling. "The Beta's daughter told the household staff that you ordered the Luna to fast during her reflection period. No food or water was to be sent up after sunset. The guards kept the door locked until an hour ago."

The air left my lungs in a sharp, brutal gasp.

"What?" I stepped forward, grabbing Vance by the front of his leather tunic and hoisting him off his feet. "Who locked her in?"

"The... the front gate guard said she walked out past the outer walls right before midnight, Alpha!" Vance choked out, his hands clawing at my wrists. "We thought... we thought you sent her on an errand to the lower town!"

"I never ordered her locked in!" I roared, throwing him against the wall. "I never told anyone to deny her food!"

My chest heaved as panic, hot and blinding, slammed into me. She hadn't left out of pride or drama. She had been starved, locked in the dark in her own home, and driven out into the cold night air without a single guard to protect her.

I turned back into the dark bedroom, my eyes wild as I scanned the tables, the floor, the window sill for any sign of her. My knee bumped against the side table beside the lamp, knocking over a small porcelain vase.

It shattered against the floorboards.

Beneath the broken pieces, half-hidden under the base of the lamp, lay a small, cardboard box wrapped in a pink ribbon.

My breath caught. I knelt down on the cold floor, my trembling fingers reaching out to pick up the box. The ribbon was frayed at the edges, pulled loose as if her hands had held it tightly for hours. I opened the flap and pulled out the small white plastic stick inside.

Two dark pink lines stared back at me under the flickering oil light.

The world went dead silent. The noise of my own heartbeat hammered in my ears like a war drum.

I'm pregnant, Kendrix. I'm carrying your baby.

Her voice echoed in my head, sharp and clear as a crystal bell. The way her voice had broken on the stairs. The way her eyes had pleaded with me while I held her wrists and told her she was confused, told her she was lying, told her her body was too weak to hold a wolf pup.

She wasn't lying. She hadn't made it up to steal attention from Victoria. She had held the proof right in her hand, waiting to gift it to me after five years of heartbreak, and I had taken it from her fingers and called it a trick of her mind.

"God... no," I gasped, dropping to my knees as the full, crushing weight of my mistakes caved my chest in.

While I was standing downstairs defending Victoria's honor, while I was promising the pack that another woman's child would be raised in our home, my wife was sitting alone in a freezing room, carrying my true heir, starving in the dark.

I squeezed the test in my fist until the plastic groaned, a wild, territorial roar tearing out of my throat and rattling the glass in the windows.

I stood up, my wolf surging to the surface, my eyes burning golden in the dark room. I marched out into the hallway, slamming my fist against the stone railing.

"Assemble the pack!" I shouted, my voice echoing through every floor of the castle like thunder. "Every warrior, every tracker, every hound! Search the woods! Search the lower town! If a single scratch touches my wife, I will tear this territory apart with my bare hands!"