you miserable woman

Her heels clicked softly against the floor, unhurried, deliberate. She paused just inside the doorway, eyes sweeping over the room with cool curiosity. Her gaze moved from the healer, to Dorian, and finally to the bed.

To Rowen.

Her lips parted slowly.

“Oh my God,” she said, her voice coated in false shock. “What is wrong with Rowen?”

The words were light. Careless. Mocking.

Something inside me screamed.

I turned toward her so fast the room tilted. “Get out,” I said.

Marisol blinked, feigning confusion. “I just heard there was a situation. I came to check.”

Her eyes lingered on Rowen’s still body.

Dorian frowned. “Marisol, this is not—”

“He looks asleep,” she continued, cutting him off. “Did he finally stop struggling?”

The healer gasped.

I felt my knees weaken, then lock.

“You do not get to speak about him,” I said. My voice shook, but it did not break. “You do not get to stand here.”

Marisol tilted her head, studying me like a puzzle she had already solved. “I am his father’s mate,” she said calmly. “That gives me every right.”

“Do not say that word,” I whispered. “Do not say mate.”

She smiled faintly. “Why? Is it uncomfortable now?”

Dorian stepped closer to her. “Enough,” he said. “Selene is unstable.”

Unstable!!

I laughed. The sound tore out of me, sharp and wrong. “My son is dead,” I said. “And you are calling me unstable.”

Marisol folded her arms. “Selene, let us be honest. This was always going to happen. The boy was weak.”

The world narrowed.

“What did you say,” I asked.

She shrugged. “Unstable wolf. Constant sickness. He was never going to survive adulthood. We all knew it.”

My hands curled into fists.

“You knew,” I said. “And you still smiled at him. You still touched him.”

She scoffed. “Touched? He clung to me. That was not my doing.”

My chest burned. “He was a child.”

“He was a liability,” she corrected. “To the pack. To Dorian’s legacy.”

I screamed.

The sound ripped through the ward, raw and animal. My wolf surged forward, howling in fury, pressing against my skin like it wanted to tear free.

“Do not talk about legacy,” I shouted. “You stood by while he begged for his father.”

Marisol rolled her eyes. “He begged because you raised him soft.”

The healer stepped forward. “Please,” she said. “This is not ”

“Stay out of it,” Dorian snapped.

I stared at him. “You are letting her say this.”

Dorian’s expression hardened. “She is not wrong.”

That was it.

I walked toward Marisol, “Say it again,” I said.

She smirked. “He was weak and he would have died anyways why you acting up like he was meant to live long selene.”

The sound of my palm hitting her face echoed through the ward.

The slap was sharp.

Marisol staggered back, hand flying to her cheek, eyes wide with shock. “You hit me.”

“Yes,” I said. My voice was low and Steady. “I did.”

Dorian surged forward. “Selene.”

“Touch me,” I warned. “And I will burn this place down.”

Silence crashed over the room.

Marisol’s shock turned to rage. “You miserable woman,” she hissed. “You think this changes anything? He is still dead.”

I stepped closer. “You will never say his name again.”

She laughed bitterly. “You think you won? You lost everything the moment you failed to keep your mate.”

I leaned in, close enough for her to hear the tremor in my breath. “I did not fail,” I said. “You stole a man who was already empty.”

Her smile faltered.

Dorian grabbed her arm. “That is enough,” he said. “This ends now.”

“No,” I said quietly. “This is only beginning.”

I turned back to the bed, to my son. I brushed my fingers over his hair one last time.

“I am here,” I whispered. “I will always be here.”

Behind me, Marisol laughed again, thin and cruel.

“Grieve all you want,” she said. “The pack will move on.”

I turned slowly.

“And you,” I said, “will never forget this moment.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Is that a threat?”

“No,” I said. “It is a promise.”

Then her lips curved into the coldest smile I had ever seen.

“Good,” she whispered, voice low enough that only I could hear. “Because the elders already approved the announcement. In three days the pack will celebrate the new heir… the one growing inside me right now.”

The mate mark on my neck flared white-hot, as if the bond itself had just been stabbed. My wolf slammed against my ribs so violently I tasted blood.

I felt my claws slide out for the first time in eight years.