Chapter 3

I froze.

Adrian had azoospermia. He could not father a child.

My thoughts crashed into each other. I had to know whether the test had been wrong, or whether Lydia had lied to him.

I went straight back to the hospital.

The file said exactly what it had said before.

Adrian Hale. Congenital azoospermia. No natural reproductive ability. No known cure for a congenital case.

I took the report and headed home, ready to tell Adrian he was being deceived.

Then my phone rang.

“Ms. Serena Quinn, following a review of the Pack Population Registry and archived genetic evidence, your DNA shows a 99.9 percent match with Alpha King Gideon Ashbourne of the Northern Direwolf Dominion. Your identity has now been confirmed. You are the missing direct blood descendant of the Ashbourne line. Please report to the Security Bureau as soon as possible.”

I stopped walking.

Gideon Ashbourne.

The Alpha King of the northern packs.

The man who ruled the strongest wolf dominion in the North.

He was my father?

Back at the orphan house, the matron had only ever told me she found me in the snow woods near the border. The only thing on me had been a silver pendant marked with an old northern crest.

So I had not been abandoned.

I had been lost.

By the time I reached the bureau, my hands were shaking.

The doors had barely opened when a tall man rushed toward me and wrapped his arms around me so tightly I almost lost my breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely. “This is my fault. I lost you. I lost you.”

Before I could even react, a woman came up behind him with tears already running down her face.

“My daughter,” she said. “Come home with me.”

That was how I learned the truth.

When I was three, my brother had taken me into the forest to catch rabbits. I wandered off. They searched for me until the snow came down too hard to track my scent.

The bloodline verification confirmed everything.

I was not wolfless.

The Ashbourne line had a sealed-blood awakening. Our wolves did not fully wake without a family rite.

All those years, I had been carrying a dormant royal bloodline, and no one in Blackthorn had ever known.

I told them I needed to go back first. I said I had to bring my mate with me.

Even then, some part of me still wanted to believe Adrian had only been fooled.

I was halfway through the front door when I heard his voice.

“What if she refuses to dissolve the bond? What if she makes trouble?”

Then Mrs. Hale answered, sharp and certain.

“She has no wolf, no family, no one who will stand for her. Even if she makes a scene, the Council of Elders will never side with her.”

Another voice followed, and I knew it was hers before I even stepped fully inside.

“She’s an Omega. She has no awakened wolf. She’s occupied the Luna’s place long enough.”

I went cold.

So this had never been sudden.

They had chosen a better womb for Blackthorn’s future heir long ago. They had already decided to force me out. They were only waiting for the right moment.

And I had been worried Adrian was the one being lied to.

My hand struck the tall ceramic vase by the doorway. The room went silent.

Mrs. Hale looked at the shattered pieces, then at me. She did not even try to hide it.

“Well. Since you heard everything, you may as well sign.”

She lifted her chin and looked me over with open contempt.

“You’re an Omega without a wolf. You cannot give Adrian an heir, and you cannot bring this pack any value through family ties. If you have any sense at all, you’ll leave with dignity.”

I turned to Adrian and held onto the last piece of hope I had left.

“Is that what you want too?”

There was no guilt in his face. No shame.

“We were together for years,” he said. “I won’t leave you with nothing. Sign the bond dissolution papers, and I’ll give you enough to live on in the lower district.”

I looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.

I did not want this ruined bond anymore.

At the Moon Oath Hall, we dissolved our mate bond.

The ink on the dissolution register was barely dry before he stepped forward with Lydia to file their own bond papers.

As we were leaving, I looked at Lydia and asked, “Is the child you’re carrying really Adrian’s?”

She froze. The color drained from her face.

Adrian turned on me at once. “What exactly are you implying, Serena? You can’t carry a child yourself, so now you want to accuse someone else? Do you have no shame?”

I said nothing.

He took my silence for guilt.

With that same look of condescending pity, he pulled a few coins from his pocket and held them out to me.

“Take them. You were with me for years. I’m not going to let you starve. Let’s end this properly.”

I heat rushed straight to my head.

I slapped his hand away before he could pull it back.

The coins scattered across the stone.

“I don’t need anything from you.”

I did not argue after that.

When the truth came out, I wanted to see whether he could still look that sure of himself.

I took out my phone and made one call.

“Mom,I’m ready. Come get me.”

“Stay where you are, sweetheart. Your father is already on his way.”

Adrian let out a short, mocking laugh.

“Your father?”

He looked at me like I had finally lost what little dignity I had left.

Then a roar of engines rolled in.

Dozens of black Mercedes pulled up outside the Moon Oath Hall.

The doors opened, and the Wolf King stepped out.

Adrian’s expression shifted at once. He went forward quickly, forcing a smile.

“Your Majesty. I’m Adrian Hale, Alpha of Blackthorn Pack. We met last time at the Northern Summit.”

Gideon Ashbourne gave him a cold, dismissive glance.

Then he walked straight past him and stopped in front of me.

He reached out, touched my hair with a trembling hand, and his voice dropped low.

“My daughter,” he said. “You’ve suffered enough.”