The Lycan's Temporary Vow: Desired By The Lycan King

Novaretta,

"Luna, under the side effects of the high-powered medication, I do not think you can conceive right now. Once you stop the medication and lose some weight, it will not take long to get pregnant."

Healer Ashton's words were polite and direct as he handed me the medical report.

I stared at the document with a blank expression while a slow ache tightened in my chest and spread outward.

Six months ago, during a sudden enemy attack, I had been heavily injured. The powerful herbs that kept me alive had also made me gain weight. Soft curves settled where sharper lines once lived, and the mirror became something I avoided whenever I could. Each glance at my reflection only deepened the quiet insecurity that had taken root.

I expected this result, but I did not expect it to hurt so much. Lately the behaviour of people around me had shifted in small, cutting ways. Glances lingered longer than necessary.

Whispers stopped the moment I entered a room. Even the pack members who once greeted me with easy respect now spoke with careful distance. The damage to my body remained far from healed. Until then, pregnancy was impossible, and it settled in my chest like a heavy burden.

"Also, you are at your weakest, My Luna. Pregnancy will damage you further," he added, watching the conflict on my face.

I nodded and thanked him. I, Novaretta Starwood, had married Cedric Valedor two years earlier, when I was twenty-two and he twenty-three. He was Alpha of the Valedor Wolf Pack, the third strongest on the continent.

We had never spoken of children until recently, when my in-laws began treating me with a quiet, growing distance that made every shared meal feel colder.

Today I had carried a thin, stubborn hope that the answer might finally be different. The report and the healer's calm voice crushed it completely.

I swallowed the ache and said, "Alright. Thanks for your time. I will talk to Cedric about it."

I took the report and returned to the pack house. Two meetings with ministers still waited, work I had carried alone since Cedric left on his sudden international trip.

The days without him had stretched long and heavy. He would come occasionally. He returned home yesterday and I wanted to get another medical checkup before my heat cycle.

By the time I reached home, exhaustion sat deep in my bones and every step sent a dull reminder of the injury that refused to fully fade.

My mother-in-law's voice cut from the living room. She held a cup of tea, posture relaxed, silk gown smooth despite days spent indoors. Grace, to her, was a duty she never set aside.

"Nova. Come here. We need to talk." She set the cup down. Her pale blue eyes held open contempt and something sharper beneath it.

"Yes, Mom." I sat across from her, the report still in my lap, the paper edges pressing into my fingers.

"I heard you visited the healer again. What did he say?"

I pressed my lips together. I had told no one of the appointment. Someone had watched me leave and return.

"It is nothing. Just about my health."

"Health?" She looked me over from head to toe, slow and deliberate. "You are doing so well that all I see is fat settling over your body."

My stomach dropped. "What did you say?"

She sighed as if the conversation already wearied her. "Nova, let us be plain. You have been married two years. My son is nearly twenty-five. His position as Alpha will be threatened if he has no heir soon."

"Mom, I am under medication. It is not easy—"

"Then stop the medication. I see no improvement, only more weight gathering around your womb. What if you never conceive?"

"Without the medication I will die. I have to recover first—"

"That is your problem. The elders care only about your womb. If you cannot give us an heir, it ruins our reputation and the Starwood name as well."

Tears stung my eyes. When an assassin nearly killed her, I had thrown myself between them without hesitation. The scar still marked my skin beneath my clothes, a quiet proof of the choice I made that day. Now she told me to stop the medicine that kept me breathing, as if my life weighed less than the need for an heir.

"I cannot do it," I said, voice cold and steady.

"How dare you!" She slammed the table. The porcelain cup rattled against its saucer.

"What is happening here?" Cedric's voice came from behind. I turned. A few tears struck the floor before I could stop them.

His eyes narrowed at the sight of me standing there, fighting the tears. "What is going on?"

"Your Luna dared to talk back to me," my mother-in-law hissed, face flushed.

"What did you say to my Luna?" He stepped beside me, the familiar weight of his presence filling the room.

"The elders demand an heir to secure your position. Look at her. The way she has let herself go."

I looked at him, heartache plain in my eyes. "Can you not say something? You know my body cannot take a pregnancy—"

"Mom has a point."

My breath caught hard. "What did you say?"

Cedric rubbed his temple and sat on the opposite side of the couch. His face looked almost resigned, as if the conversation already exhausted him.

"Last night Elder James came to me. Nova, it is time we face the issue."

"What issue? Are you agreeing with her? Do you want me to stop the medication?"

"No." He raised a hand, the gesture almost a command. "No one is forcing you to risk your life." Then his gaze settled on me, cool and distant in a way I had never seen before. "There is another way to keep my position and still let you recover. All you must do is agree to my terms."

My heart sank. Our marriage had never been a love match, yet for two years we had stood together in every decision—pack politics, enemy threats, quiet nights of shared silence. That look made me feel smaller than I ever had in this house.

"What terms?" My voice dropped. My fingers shook against the fabric of my skirt.

He drew a folded paper from his coat and laid it on the table between us. "My Luna. I found someone who has been carrying the heir for the last six months. I met her during the business trip."

The medical report slipped from my hands and hit the floor. A single heartbeat roared in my ears and silenced everything else. The room seemed to tilt. The silk of my mother-in-law's gown, the cooling tea, the faint scent of the pack house—all of it faded behind the sudden roar in my head.

"What did you say, son!" My mother-in-law's voice rang bright with open joy. "Are we truly going to have a grandchild?"

I blinked. The tears stopped, but the floor beneath my feet felt unsteady. Six months. The same six months I had spent in pain, swallowing bitter herbs day after day, fighting to stay alive while the pack waited for news of his return. While I lay in a hospital bed clinging to recovery, he had already begun a new life with someone else.

"You made someone pregnant while I was fighting for my life in the hospital?"

The words left me in a whisper that somehow filled the entire room. Cedric did not look away. His expression stayed steady, almost calm, as if this path had always been inevitable.

My mother-in-law glowed with satisfaction. I stood frozen, the report lying open at my feet, two years of quiet loyalty collapsing under the simple, devastating fact that while I had been trying only to survive, he had already secured his future without me.