Chapter 1

The first thing I did after waking up was file to dissolve my mate contract.

Only after I sent the email did I see the message Adrian had sent me.

[Stop letting Maya use your phone to insult Vera. She was injured.]

I stared until the words stopped hurting. Then I typed back.

[I filed to dissolve our mate contract. We're done.]

The phone that had been impossible to reach during the crash rang before I could set it down.

I answered, and Adrian's tightly controlled anger cut through the line. "So this is because I wouldn't abandon Vera's treatment and come running? You're inventing a crisis and threatening to break our bond because you're jealous?"

"I'm not threatening you."

"I'm treating Vera for a possible silver-laced cut," he said. "If silver enters her bloodstream, it can damage her wolf's core. You know that, yet you're still making this about whether I choose you over her."

"Your condition was stable this morning. An eight-month pup doesn't disappear because of an ordinary bump, Elena. You studied healing. You know better than this."

He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice turned colder. "Stop using our pup and leaving the pack to punish me for helping Vera. Grow up, Elena."

“Adrian, don’t be angry with her. Elena probably didn’t mean to lie. She just… wanted you there. She’s been under a lot of stress lately.”

She was defending me.

But somehow, every word made me sound like a desperate, jealous female trying to steal Adrian’s attention.

Adrian’s silence lasted only a second.

“Enough.”

“You are my mate. You are carrying my pup. And you still choose to turn every situation into a test of whether I love you.”

“I am tired of this, Elena.”

The next second, the call ended.

My mind went back to that morning.

Maya and I had gone to the medical center for our final prenatal appointment. Both pups were healthy. Our due dates were four days apart, which Maya considered proof that hers would be born first because, according to her, "Champions know how to get a head start before they're even born."

Outside the clinic, we ran into Vera. She said her SUV was being serviced and that she had booked a rideshare large enough for all of us. Since the snow was getting heavier, she offered to send us back to the Alpha residence.

I didn't want to accept, but Maya smelled apple-cinnamon rolls from a bakery across the street and insisted on getting two.

"Don't eat mine," I warned as she climbed out.

She gave me the finger through the window. "I'd rather starve than eat anything you like."

Less than two minutes after we pulled away, the driver swerved across the maintenance road without warning. A refrigerated delivery truck came straight at my side of the SUV.

Warm blood soaked through my dress.

The driver had only a few cuts, but he didn't even look back. He kicked open his warped door and ran into the snow, leaving me trapped in the crushed back seat.

Pain drained my wolf strength faster than I could summon it. Cramps tore through my belly, and the pup's energy flickered like a candle in a storm.

I called the pack emergency line first. The dispatcher told me Kane had issued a border lockdown after a possible rogue sighting. No ambulance could enter the eastern road without authorization from the enforcement commander.

That commander was Kane.

So I called Adrian.

The first call was declined. So was the second. And the third.

A message appeared on my screen.

[Treating a silver injury. Do not disturb.]

On the fourth call, he finally answered.

"Adrian..." My voice was barely there. "I'm on the eastern maintenance road. There was a crash. I think the placenta tore away. Please help me. I can feel our pup fading."

Silence stretched for several seconds.

Then he spoke in the measured tone he used on an unreasonable patient. "Your examination showed no abnormalities this morning. Placental abruption isn't diagnosed because you say you feel it. Stay calm and stop turning fear into symptoms."

Vera sucked in a delicate breath on the other end. "Adrian, it hurts. What if there's still silver in the cut?"

His voice softened instantly. "Don't move. I'll check again."

Then he came back to me. "Elena, I'm busy. Stop wasting emergency resources."

The line went dead.

Just before I blacked out, the window on the opposite side shattered. Maya crawled through, soaked in snow, the bag of cinnamon rolls long gone. One look at the blood beneath me drained all the color from her face, but she still managed to sound furious.

"Elena, close your eyes and I'll kill you myself."

She wrapped me in her coat and called Kane on speaker. "There's been a major crash on the eastern maintenance road. Lift the lockdown and send an ambulance now."

Kane's voice exploded through the phone. "Do you know what happens when you file a false emergency report? Vera's cabin was sabotaged. We may have rogues inside the border, and I don't have time for one of your stunts."

Maya looked at me, and for the first time in our lives, I heard her voice shake. "I'm not putting on a show. Elena's dying, and our pups—"

"You were eight months pregnant when you kicked three recruits across the training ring last week," Kane cut in. "Don't tell me you suddenly can't make it down one road."

He hung up.

The lockdown stayed in place. No ambulance came.

Maya stared at the dark screen for two seconds, shoved the phone into her pocket, and dragged me from the wreckage.

"It's only five miles," she said through clenched teeth as she pulled my arm over her shoulders. "You owe me for this."

Eight months pregnant, she hauled me through snow and wind, step after step, toward the medical center.

My pup didn't survive.

Neither did hers.