Chapter 0004

•CATHERINE•

The room suddenly felt too small, the air too thin, as Leo’s words echoed in my mind like a cruel spell I couldn’t break free from.

Mary is my ex. She’s also Brian’s mother.

For a long moment I couldn’t hear anything—not the ticking clock on the wall, not my own breathing, not even Leo walking away after dropping the truth like a blade into my chest.

All I could hear was Brian’s tiny voice from years ago, wheezing in my arms as I rocked him through another endless night. The dozens of times I stayed awake until dawn praying he would survive. His little fingers tangled in my hair when he was scared. His soft “Mommy?” every time he woke from a nightmare.

And now…

Now the truth made everything tilt off its axis.

I pressed a trembling hand against my stomach, trying to breathe. The walls of the hallway swayed as I walked toward Brian’s room, desperately needing to see him, to confirm that nothing had changed—

But the moment I stepped near his door, I heard his voice.

Clear and Eager.

“I want Mary to read my favorite story before getting up.”

My world froze mid-step.

“Brian—” I sat down beside him on the bed, trying to keep my voice steady. “Sweetheart, I’ve read you stories since you were a baby. You wanted no one else to do it, not even your father. What has changed?”

Brian was six now, and I had raised him since he was a newborn, pouring everything I had into loving him like he was my blood.

From the moment I first held him, I swore to protect him with everything in me. He didn’t let anyone else comfort him when he cried, but only me. The helpers tried, but he pushed them away, and secretly, that made me proud.

He was born with chronic asthma, and for two years, the pack’s healer worked tirelessly to keep him alive. I spent countless nights by his side, holding him through every wheezing breath, terrified I would lose him.

When he finally got better, I thought I had earned my place in his little heart forever.

But now he wouldn’t even look at me.

“I want Mary,” he repeated, but if he had asked for someone else, it wouldn’t have hurt as much.

My stomach twisted. It felt like Mary was taking everything from me — Leo’s attention, and now my son’s love. The two people I lived for were slipping through my fingers, and I didn’t know how to stop it.

“I’ll—” I tried again, but he cut me off.

“Mama MARY!” he screamed.

The door swung open instantly. Leo and Mary rushed in together.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” Leo asked, brushing past me as if I weren’t even there.

Brian’s face lit up. “I don’t want her to read to me. Can Mom Mary do it?”

The word Mom slammed into my chest like a physical blow.

I felt my breath catch. “Brian,” I whispered, my voice barely holding together as I sat slowly on the edge of his bed, “sweetheart… I’m your mom. I’ve been here with you since you were born. Why would you—”

But Leo cut in before I could finish.

“It’s okay,” he said gently—to Brian, not to me. Never to me. “If he wants Mary, let him have Mary. There’s no harm in that.”

I swallowed hard, my heart shattering beyond repair. My son was replacing me in front of my eyes. And Leo—my husband, my mate of years—was letting it happen. Encouraging it.

Mary stepped forward with a hesitant smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “If it’s really what he wants, I can read to him. Only if Catherine doesn’t mind.”

Brian reached for her with small eager hands. “Mom Mary, read the wolf knight one! Please!”

Mary sat beside him, opening the storybook like she belonged there. Like she had been doing it his whole life. Leo moved to stand near them, a protective presence — one he used to reserve for me and Brian alone.

I felt the floor tilt beneath my feet.

Three feet away, my family sat together, warm and complete.

And I was the outsider.

“I’ll let you all… enjoy,” I managed, forcing my voice not to break as I turned toward the door.

Lila ran into me in the hallway, and I tried to smile so she wouldn’t see that I was on the verge of breaking down.

“Luna, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Beta Luke asked me to tell you that there’s a council meeting tomorrow morning to review your innovation proposals before the festival.”

“Thank you, Lila,” I smiled at her. “I’ve been waiting for them to set a date. I’m glad they finally did.”

Even if my family was falling apart, my duty wasn’t.

For months, I had poured every spare hour—usually those between midnight and dawn—into the innovation proposals. I studied the healer logs from the last decade, analyzed energy depletion rates among young healers, even cross-checked the mortality records from the rogue attacks that took my own family. Every number pointed to the same truth: our pack was dangerously dependent on luck.

And we would lose more wolves than we could afford.

That was why I fought so hard for a healer-training facility, even when the elders dismissed it as unnecessary. It wasn’t just a building. It was a future where our wolves didn’t have to beg human hospitals for help. A future where we could save more children like Brian, more warriors, more families.

The word family used to mean safety. Now it only reminded me of everything I’d already lost. Once as a child, and again now as a woman.

I wanted to call my parents so badly, just to hear their voices and fall apart in peace, but they died when I was two years old.

My uncle had raised me after my parents were killed in a rogue attack. He told me my mother had hidden me behind a moss-covered tree before she was shot, and my father had died fighting to protect the pack.

The rogue king had found me, marked me with a claw on my arm, and promised to come back for me someday.

My older sister was the one who found me that day and took me to our uncle and his wife.

I reached for the faint scar on my left arm and sighed. For the first time in years, I cried for them again and for everything I had lost.

I was about to head to the bathroom when the door opened. Leo walked in and frowned when he saw me. He didn’t even glance at me as he went straight to the closet and started packing a few outfits.

“I want a divorce.” He finally said it.

And even after everything, my heart still clenched in pain.

“The papers are in your bedside drawer, and I hope you can sign it—”

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“I will,” I said immediately.

He froze for a second. It looked like the thought hadn’t even occurred to him.

“Do I still need to attend tomorrow’s meeting?” I asked.

He glanced at me. “Oh, yes. But I’ll need you to handle the transition.”

“Transition?” I echoed.

“Simply put, I need you to help Mary gain the pack’s support. So at tomorrow’s council meeting, I expect your full cooperation.”

I gave a bitter smile. “Of course. But I’ll still finish my part.”

With that, I turned around and walked away.