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“Push, Sierra. You have to push.”

“I can’t. I’ve been pushing for hours and nothing is happening. Something is wrong. Something is wrong with the baby. Please, you have to get help. You have to bring someone who knows what they’re doing.” the tears were running down my eyes in torrents, and it didn't mirror the pain I was going through right now. This felt like death.

“I am the midwife.”

“You’re just a chef!!! You told me you’d assisted at three births. You're not a midwife. Call my mate! Call Darius immediately. Tell him to bring the pack doctor! His child is about to be born!" More angry tears streamed down my face. Where was Darius right now? Didn't he know I was in labour? He was supposed to be here with me.

“Do you want me to leave? Because I can leave. I can walk out of this tent right now and let you deliver this baby alone on the cold ground with no one to even catch it when it comes out.” the chef who had been assigned to me said coldly, and when I looked up, I saw she meant every word she said. My heart dropped.

“No. Don’t leave. Please don’t leave. I’m sorry. I’m scared and I’m tired and I don’t know what I’m doing. Please stay. Please.” I begged her. There was no way I could do this alone especially as we were the only people in this wing apart from the guards.

The pain came again and I stopped being able to form words. When it passed, the woman was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t read. “The Alpha said this would be difficult,” she said. “He said you were weak.”

“The Alpha has never given birth." A spark of rage ran through me. "How can this pain end? Tell me, please."

“Push again. Harder this time. Harder than you’ve ever done anything in your life.”

I pushed. I pushed until my vision went white at the edges and I was certain something inside me had torn beyond repair. And then the pressure released all at once and I heard a sound I had been waiting nine months to hear.

“Is that my child?" My voice came out in gasps.

"It's a girl..." the chef said slowly, as if relieved.

"Is she crying? Let me see her. Give her to me. Give me my daughter.” I stretched out my arms to hold my daughter in my arms.

The chef didn’t hand her over right away. I watched her wrap my baby in a cloth, her movements slow and deliberate, and something about the way she avoided my eyes made my stomach clench. “What’s wrong? What aren’t you telling me? Is she breathing? Is she healthy?”

“She’s healthy.”

“Then give her to me.”

She placed the bundle in my arms and I looked down at the tiny, furious face of my daughter and I forgot everything else. The pain, the exhaustion, the months of isolation — none of it mattered. She had dark hair plastered to her head and her eyes were closed tight against the candlelight and she was the most perfect thing I had ever seen.

“Hello, little one,” I whispered, pressing my lips to her forehead. “I’m your mother. I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”

The midwife moved toward the tent entrance. “I should inform the Alpha.”

“Wait. What should I name her? I need to name her before anyone sees her. I need her to have something that’s just from me.”

“You can name her whatever you want. It won’t matter.”

“What does that mean? Why won’t it matter? What do you know that you’re not telling me?”

She didn’t answer as she slipped out of the tent and I was alone with my daughter, stroking her tiny fingers and marveling at the silver-grey of her eyes when she finally opened them. Silver. Not brown like Darius, not blue like mine. Where had she gotten silver eyes? The tent flap tore open and Darius walked in.

“You’ve done well,” he said, and he didn’t look at me. He looked at the baby in my arms with some sort of detachment in his eyes. My heart dropped to my stomach. Wasn't he pleased? Wasn't this supposed to call for celebration after three years without an heir? "She’s healthy?”

“She’s perfect. Come look at her. Come see your daughter.”

“I’ve seen her.” He reached down and took her from me, and I was too shocked to resist. One moment she was in my arms and the next she was cradled against his chest and he was turning toward the entrance. “The pack is waiting. They need to meet the heir.”

“Wait. Let me come with you. Let me clean myself up and walk out there with you. We should do this together. We should present her as a family.” I tried to get up despite the pain I still felt. I wanted to be part of this excitement, to prove to the pack that I wasn't barren, and I had given them what they wanted most.

Darius stopped and turned back to look at me, and the expression on his face made the words die in my throat. “A family? Is that what you thought this was?”

I felt my blood run cold when I heard the harshness in his voice. “I don’t understand. What are you saying? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Sierra.” he chuckled slightly and his lips curved into a cruel smirk I have never seen on his face before. “You were never my mate. You were just a vessel to breed and heir for me... Do you understand what that means?”

I stared at him and I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t think and all I could do was shake my head. “No. No, that’s not true. We have a mate bond. I felt it. When you claimed me, I felt the bond snap into place. You said we were fated.”

“I said what I needed to say to make you stay. Did you really think I would spend my life with a fat, ugly, wolfless omega? Did you really think I would be proud to walk beside you in public? Look at yourself. Look at what you are. You’re nothing. You were useful for one thing and you’ve done it. Now your part is over.”

“You can’t do this.” I tried to push myself up but my body wouldn’t obey. The weakness from childbirth had turned my limbs to water. “Darius, please. That’s my daughter. I carried her. I labored alone for hours. You can’t just take her. You can’t just throw me away like I’m nothing.”

“I’m not throwing you away. I’m releasing you. The pack has already been told the truth, that you tried to steal the child I have with the Alpha King's daughter... They’re waiting outside right now to drive you out.”

“The Alpha King's daughter? Who is she? Is she your mistress? I am your mate, Darius. You can't have another woman. Darius, no one is going to believe a stranger gave birth to my child.”

“They’ll believe whatever I tell them to believe. They always do.” He looked down at the baby in his arms and adjusted the blanket around her face. “Liriel is her mother now. She always was. And you, Sierra… you were never anything.” he said this strange woman's name with a doting expression on his face.

He walked out of the tent and I screamed his name until my voice cracked and broke. The warriors came next, two of them, grabbing my arms and hauling me up while I thrashed and sobbed and begged. Then the pack members poured in, their faces twisted with hatred, their hands full of stones.

“Liar! Barren omega! How dare you try to steal the Alpha’s child!”

“I didn’t steal her! She’s mine! I gave birth tonight! Ask the chef. Ask anyone who was here. Please, you have to believe me. She has silver eyes. My daughter has silver eyes.”

A stone hit my shoulder and I cried out. Another caught me in the ribs and I felt something crack. They dragged me through the pack territory, hitting and spitting and screaming accusations, and I caught one last glimpse of the ceremonial dais before I was thrown beyond the gate. Darius was standing there with a slender woman beside him, his arm around her waist, and in her arms was my daughter, wrapped in the blanket I had knitted during the long months of my pregnancy.

“That’s my child!” I screamed. “That’s my daughter! Someone help me! Someone please!”

The gate slammed shut, and I was alone in the cold with nothing but the echo of my daughter’s cries in my ears.