Chapter 1

I was about to turn when the head healer's voice made me stumble on my legs.

“No matter what, Alpha! But, having destroyed Luna’s regenerative core to stop her from giving birth was just too cruel.”

I grabbed the doorknob to stop myself from collapsing. The shock triggered my wound, making my bleeding excessive.

Alieus sensed my presence and pulled open the door.

He didn’t blink. He didn’t offer an apology. He simply stepped closer to me, helping me stand up with a clinical, unhurried gentleness.

"You heard him," Alieus said, his tone conversational, as if discussing pack territory borders. "I was backed into a corner. Elena refused to give up her child to you unless she was certain you could never conceive another. Breaking your wolf's reproductive core during the forced delivery saved you from a separate execution later. Consider it a mercy."

He noticed the tears spilling over my temples and reached out, his thumb catching the moisture with a terrifyingly familiar tenderness.

"I didn't anticipate the silver rejection would cause a complete marrow shutdown. You're fortunate the witches I had brought to look after Elena helped you survive. You actually owe Elena your life.”

A violent tremor racked my entire body. Summoning every scrap of strength left in my mangled, dormant wolf, I whipped my hand across his face. The slap echoed like a gunshot in the sterile room.

"Alieus Blackwood," I croaked, my throat raw. "You are a demon."

Alieus didn't even flinch; his Alpha reflexes easily caught my wrist mid-air.

Before he could speak, the clinic door burst open. A petite figure rushed in, her eyes wild with tears, and shoved me hard against the wall. It was Elena.

"How dare you!" she screamed, shielding Alieus with her body, glaring down at me with fierce indignation. "Do you have any idea what he sacrificed? He stood vigil outside your chamber for three days, suppressing his own aura so the silver wouldn't agitate your blood! If I hadn't brought him fresh kills to sustain his strength, his inner wolf would have gone feral!"

"This man is the Supreme Alpha... he shouldn't have to bleed for your ungrateful soul!"

I watched the subtle softening in Alieus's eyes as he looked down at her. It was a look I knew intimately.

The first time he looked at me that way was when I took a poisoned rogue blade to the shoulder, nearly dying to secure his claim to the Alpha seat. The second time was when I knelt before the Lycan Council, begging them to spare his life after he defied the High King.

I had given my blood, my wolf, and my youth to build his pack. Yet, it wasn't worth a single tear from his chosen mate.

The realization twisted in my chest like a dull silver blade, a hollow, bitter laugh escaping my lips.

"So, I'm supposed to bow to my knees? Thank him for forcing my pup out before its lungs were formed, just so your child could inherit the title?"

Elena’s tears overflowed, her shoulders shaking violently. She looked at Alieus, then back at me, a sudden, manic desperation taking over her features.

"I ruined everything! Let me pay the blood debt!"

With a crazed shriek, she grabbed the silver knife lying on the healer’s desk and aimed it directly at her own pregnant belly.

Alieus moved like lightning, wrapping his massive arms around her, his bare hand clamping directly over the silver knife’s sharp corners. Searing white smoke rose from his palm as the silver burned his flesh, blood dripping onto the white tiles.

He looked up at me, his eyes flashing a dangerous, demonic crimson.

"Is this the pound of flesh you wanted, Lyra?"

Without waiting for an answer, he lifted the fainting Elena into his arms, turning his back on me completely. His parting words were colder than the northern winter.

"I have indulged your pride for too long. You’ve forgotten your place in this pack. Effective immediately, I strip you of my protection. Let's see how the pack treats a broken Luna without an Alpha."