Your Loss, Alpha

Madeline’s POVThey didn't knock or ask to come in. Two guards just pushed the door open and grabbed my arms roughly, like I was already guilty of something, and pulled me out into the hallway in my nightgown with my eyes still red from crying just moments ago."What the hell are you doing? Let go of me!" I tried to twist out of their grip, but it didn't matter. They were trained, strong in a way I'd never be, and I was seven months pregnant and completely terrified.They marched me down two flights of stairs to the council hall, and when the doors opened, I understood why nobody had bothered explaining anything to me. Half the pack was already there, waiting, as if they'd known this was happening before I did, and I was the last person in the entire pack to find out about my own life falling apart.I scanned the crowd for one friendly face and didn't find any. No one stepped forward to even ask if I was okay, or ask why I was being dragged into a room full of people at midnight in no

Madeline’s POVI never got the chance to run.The door opened again before Harper's five minutes were even up, and this time it wasn't her. It was the guards again, grabbing my arms and roughly hauling me off the cot while I was still weak, bleeding, and barely able to stand.My daughter—the one they didn’t know I still had—was wrapped tightly against my chest under a ratty blanket I’d grabbed off the cot without thinking."Please," I said, stumbling as they pulled me down the hallway. "Please, I just gave birth. I can barely walk—"Nobody answered me. They didn’t even act like they could hear me.I thought about my other daughter, wherever she was in this huge house, being fed or held or maybe not held at all, and my chest ached so badly that I felt weaker than I’d ever been in my life.They dragged me in front of the council again. My legs shook the whole way there, and I had to lock my knees just to stop myself from collapsing. Alexander stood at the front of the room, scowling, hi