Chapter 6: Five Years Later, The Life She Built

Serena

Five years is a long time to become someone else.

Most days I forget I ever used to be the frightened, wolf-less Luna who fled Blackthorn bleeding and alone into human territory. I gave birth alone in a human hospital, a nurse holding my hand instead of a husband. It was only weeks into motherhood, exhausted and half-alive, that my wolf finally woke up inside me.

She changed everything. Sharper features, a new scent, the frailty that used to earn me *barren and useless* behind my back gone completely. A new name, a life built somewhere Blackthorn never bothered looking.

None of it came fast. I raised an infant with no pack, no Alpha, no family, using every scrap of administrative skill I picked up as Luna to build something that was actually mine. Now I run a trading and logistics company connecting human businesses to werewolf territories across three regions.

"Blackthorn sent another proposal." Marcus sets the folder on my desk before I've had my coffee. "This one's better than the last three, honestly. The route access alone—"

"No."

"You haven't even opened it."

"I don't need to." I push it back across the desk. "The answer's the same as every time they've asked."

He doesn't push. My employees know their CEO won't touch Blackthorn contracts. None of them know why.

*Protecting her comes first.*

The phone rings.

The second I see the hospital’s name on the screen, everything else stops mattering.

I answer immediately. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Vaughn, Marlowe is having another episode.”

My heart drops. “Again? I'll be there.”

I grab my coat.

...

I make it to the hospital faster than I should legally be driving. Marlowe's propped up in bed, pale and worn out, and still managing to look thoroughly unimpressed with the whole situation.

"Mommy!" She reaches both arms out the second she sees me.

I hold her carefully, feeling how warm she still is. "Hey, baby. How are you feeling?"

"Bad." She pouts, dragging the word out. "And they won't gimme the good jello. Only the boring red one."

I almost laugh, even with my heart still hammering from the drive over. "The boring red one?"

“It doesn’t even taste like anything, Mommy.” She says it like she’s been given the biggest punishment in the world.

The doctor calls me out a few minutes later, her face carrying the same careful weight it always does before she says something I don't want to hear.

"She's stable now," she says. "But these episodes are getting more frequent, and we're running out of explanations on your side alone. Without any information on her father's medical or wolf history, we're limited in what we can rule out."

"That's not an option," I say, too fast.

"I understand there are complications." She doesn't push yet. But I can see it in her face, this conversation isn't over, only postponed.

I go back into the room and Marlowe is already trying to negotiate with me.

"Mommy, I was really, really brave." She holds up two fingers like it proves something. "The nurse said so. Can I get ice cream? And the wolf? The gray one, downstairs, I saw it when we came in."

"You just had one cramp and a little fever, Marlowe."

"Mommy." She nods very seriously.

I hold out for exactly as long as it takes her to give me the look she's perfected since she could talk, and then I promise to get her both.

...

I leave to go find the ice cream and the wolf, the doctor's words still sitting heavy in my chest.

*Paternal bloodline. Kael.*

That whole life is something I buried five years ago. Something I've spent five years making sure never finds its way back to either of us.

I turn down a quiet corridor toward the gift shop and stop.

That voice.…I know that voice. Something about it makes me look up.

He's a few feet away, talking to another man in low, clipped tones. Older than I remember, something harder around the eyes now. But unmistakably him.

*Move. Don’t let him see you. Walk away right now, Serena.*

My feet don't move. He lifts his head and for one endless second, his eyes land directly on me.

Nothing shifts in his face at first. Just a flicker, the kind of curiosity you'd give a stranger.

*Does he recognize me?*

Then he starts walking toward me.