The Warrior Queen Returns

I could get pregnant.

The doctor said it that morning, and I gripped the edge of the examination table so hard my knuckles went white. One year. One whole year of blood tests and specialists and watching every other woman in the Pack announce her pregnancy while I smiled and said nothing.

Now my body was finally ready.

I was a rogue when Harrison found me. No wolf, no pack, no memory of where I'd come from. I'd been wandering his territory half-dead when his patrol picked me up. The moment he touched my hand, the mate bond slammed into both of us so hard neither of us could breathe.

A fairy tale. That's what everyone called it. The rogue and the Alpha.

I'd spent the past year earning my place in that fairy tale. I managed the Pack's finances, balanced the accounts, organized the supply lines that kept Harrison's warriors fed and armed. He led the battles. I held everything else together.

All we needed was a child.

The Pack had just won a major victory, and tonight Harrison was throwing a feast. I smoothed the front of my dress, a plain blue cotton one. The nicest thing I owned. I pinned my hair up. My reflection looked flushed, but for once it wasn't from embarrassment.

I was going to tell Harrison tonight.

---

The great hall was already packed when I arrived. Warriors crowded the bonfire pit, and the smell of roasted venison and pine smoke thickened the air. Mugs clashed. Someone sang off-key near the barrels.

I wove through the crowd, looking for Harrison. Instead, I caught scraps of conversation from a group of warriors.

"—took down three rogues before the rest of us even shifted."

"The new strongest female warrior. I'm telling you, she's something else."

I slowed my steps.

The strongest female warrior had always been Valerie — Alpha of the Crimson Fang Pack. They called her The Selene-Blade. People said the Moon Goddess herself had blessed her, and she fought in a terrifying mask — all you could see were her red eyes, glowing. No one had ever beaten her.

But Valerie vanished a year and a half ago. Two of the most powerful Alphas in the territory — Killian and Gregory — were still searching for her.

"Did Valerie come back?" I asked.

A warrior snorted. "Valerie doesn't deserve the title anymore. If she was truly Selene-blessed, she wouldn't have lost and disappeared." He elbowed the man beside him. "We're talking about the new Selene-Blade."

Before I could press further, the noise in the hall shifted. Voices dropped. Bodies turned toward the entrance.

Harrison.

My breath caught. He filled the doorway — tall, broad-shouldered, his jaw set with the quiet authority of a man who'd just won a war. Firelight hit his jaw, and my fingers curled at my sides. Even after a year of cold silences and dinners eaten alone, the sight of him still did that to me.

Then I saw the woman walking beside him.

She matched his stride. Shoulders squared, chin lifted, dark hair swept over one shoulder. Her eyes caught the firelight — sharp, proud, untouchable. The warriors parted for her the same way they parted for him.

Something about her face tugged at me. I couldn't place why. A faint sting pressed behind my ribs, like a bruise I didn't remember getting.

Harrison raised his voice over the crowd. "Tonight, we honor Sasha — daughter of Alpha Theron of the Silvercrest Pack. She is the new Selene-Blade, and her strength won us this victory."

He lifted her hand high.

The crowd roared.

They stood close. Closer than ceremony required. Harrison's gaze swept over Sasha with something I recognized — admiration, warm and open. A look I used to see directed at me, in the early weeks of our marriage. Before it cooled into something distant and polite.

I felt the stares before I saw them. The mate of Harrison's Beta looked at me sideways, then whispered to the woman beside her. Neither of them bothered to hide it.

My nails dug into my palms. But I straightened my back.

She'd risked her life. A warrior like that deserved every bit of this. Harrison was honoring her, that was all. He'd come find me after.

And I had my own news.

The crowd surged toward Harrison and Sasha, and I let it carry me forward. I pressed my hand flat against my stomach without thinking. I'd been doing that all day, ever since the doctor's office. Like the news was something I could hold in place.

He'd pull me close. He'd press his forehead against mine the way he had on our wedding night, before the silences started. I could almost feel the warmth of it.

An heir. Our heir. He'd be so happy.

I squeezed past elbows and shoulders. Someone's mug sloshed warm ale across my sleeve. I didn't stop. A woman tried to push me back, but I slipped through the gap before it closed.

By the time I reached the front, my heart was hammering so hard I could feel it in my teeth. Harrison stood two feet away. Sasha was still at his side, her hand resting on his arm. Her fingers curled around his bicep the way mine used to.

I took a breath. Steadied myself. The words were right there on my tongue.

I opened my mouth.

"I have one more announcement," Harrison said.

The hall went quiet.

"For the strength of this Pack and our future," he continued, his voice carrying to every corner, "I am honored to announce my union with Sasha. With the Selene-Blade leading our warriors, we will become the most powerful Pack in the territory."

Cheers exploded around me. Someone threw an arm in the air and bumped my shoulder. I stumbled.

The sound hit my ears wrong. Muffled, distant, like hearing it through water.

Union.

He said union.

My hand was still pressed against my stomach. The news I'd carried all day sat there like a stone, suddenly worthless.

"Harrison." My voice cracked. "What are you saying?"

The people around me were still clapping, still cheering. A woman brushed past me to get closer to Sasha. Nobody looked at me. Nobody stopped.

Harrison's gaze dropped to mine. No warmth. No flicker of guilt. His jaw was set, and his eyes were the eyes of an Alpha addressing a subject.

Not the eyes of my husband.

"For the prosperity of this Pack," Harrison said, "I reject you, Vera."

The words landed one at a time.

Reject.

You.

Vera.

The cheering didn't stop. It got louder.