Seraphina POV
The crinkled medical paper in my hand was my only lifeline. *Positive.* I traced the printed word with a trembling thumb, my other hand instinctively resting over my flat stomach. A baby. I was carrying the next heir to the Blackwood Pack.
For a wolfless like me, this was a miracle. It was the ultimate offering to my pack, and more importantly, the only hope I had left to salvage my fragile, arranged mating with Kain.
I sat in my car at the edge of the pack’s private airfield. Kain’s black Gulfstream jet had landed over two hours ago, sitting silently on the tarmac surrounded by pack guards. Yet, my mate was nowhere to be seen. Because I had no inner wolf, I couldn't reach out to him through the mind-link. I was entirely shut out of his world, forced to rely on a human cell phone.
Taking a deep breath, I dialed his number again. It rang four times before the line clicked open.
"Kain?" I breathed out, a smile touching my lips.
"The Alpha is... occupied right now," a woman’s voice purred through the speaker. It was smooth, arrogant, and dripping with a dark, feminine amusement.
My blood ran cold. The smile died on my face. "Who is this?"
A soft click was her only answer. She had hung up.
The mate-bond, buried deep within my chest, let out a pathetic, phantom whimper. *The Alpha.* The possessive way she said his title made my stomach churn. I stared at the steering wheel, my vision blurring as a suffocating wave of humiliation washed over me.
Fifteen minutes passed in agonizing silence before I couldn't take it anymore. I redialed.
This time, Kain answered.
"Sera," he said. His voice was tight, rough around the edges, as if he was actively fighting to suppress his inner wolf, Rage.
"Kain, where are you?" I asked, my voice shaking despite my best efforts. "I've been waiting at the airfield. I have something wonderful to tell you."
"Go home, Sera," he commanded, his tone entirely devoid of warmth. "I had an urgent pack emergency. I'm meeting with the Silvermoon delegates."
"But... are you coming home tonight? We need to talk."
"We do have things to discuss," he replied coldly. "But not tonight."
Before I could beg him to listen, a sound drifted through the receiver—a silvery, mocking laugh. It was the same woman. The sound pierced my chest like a silver dagger, burning away the last shred of my naive hope.
The line went dead.
He was with her. The realization shattered me. The secret growing in my womb suddenly felt less like a gift and more like a heavy, tragic burden.
Hours bled into the night. By 10 PM, the sprawling Alpha villa was a tomb of modern glass and cold shadows. I had curled up on the massive living room sofa, clutching a velvet throw pillow to my chest, staring blankly at the muted television until exhaustion finally dragged me under.
I didn't know how much time had passed when the sensation of strong arms lifting me pulled me from the dark.
I kept my eyes closed, my senses instantly flooded by the familiar, intoxicating scent of my mate. *Pine after a heavy storm.* It was a scent that usually brought me a profound sense of peace. But tonight, it was tainted.
Beneath the sharp tang of expensive whiskey, there was something else. A heavy, aggressive floral note. *Tuberose.*
It was the scent of a powerful, dominant she-wolf. It clung to Kain’s shirt, woven into the fabric of his clothes and lingering on his skin. It was a scent that screamed of intimacy and claimed territory.
My heart violently seized. The physical pain of the mate-bond reacting to his betrayal was excruciating, making my skin prickle with cold sweat. The daytime phone call wasn't just a misunderstanding. The proof was right here, suffocating me in the dark.
Kain carried me up the stairs, his steps slightly uneven from the alcohol. He didn't say a single word. He didn't press a kiss to my forehead. He simply laid me down on the cold silk sheets of our king-size bed, turned his back, and walked toward the bathroom.
I lay frozen in the dark, my hands tightly gripping the bedsheets. The scent of the tuberose lingered in the air around me, a toxic cloud invading the very bedroom that was supposed to be our sanctuary.
Seraphina POV
The bathroom door clicked open, spilling a sliver of pale light across the dark bedroom before plunging us back into shadows. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, my breathing shallow and measured, pretending to be asleep.
The mattress dipped heavily behind me. Kain’s massive frame settled onto the bed, radiating a blistering heat that I usually craved. Tonight, however, that heat felt like a threat.
A heavy, calloused hand slid over my hip, his long fingers splaying across my waist. Even through the silk of my nightgown, his touch sent a violent jolt of electricity straight to my core. His inner wolf, Rage, was restless. I could feel the subtle tremor in Kain's hand, a silent plea for comfort. My own scent—*Night-blooming Cereus*—was naturally drawing his wolf in, trying to soothe the frayed edges of his drunken exhaustion.
But as he leaned closer, his face burying into the crook of my neck, the suffocating stench of tuberose hit me again. It was woven into his skin, masking his natural pine scent.
My stomach violently heaved. The mate-bond flared with a sickening, agonizing sting. He was touching me with hands that had just been on *her*.
Instinct took over. A fierce, protective urge for the tiny life growing inside my womb surged through my veins. I couldn't let this toxic energy near my baby. I couldn't let him touch me while reeking of another she-wolf's claim.
I violently shoved his hand away, jerking my body forward and curling into a tight, defensive ball at the very edge of the mattress.
Kain froze. The silence in the room became absolute, heavy with unspoken words. For a agonizing second, I waited for him to ask what was wrong, to explain the scent, to fight for us.
Instead, a low, guttural growl vibrated in his chest—a sound caught somewhere between deep frustration and wounded pride. He didn't try to touch me again. The mattress shifted as he rolled over, turning his broad back to me.
The fragile thread connecting us snapped in the dark. I pressed a trembling hand over my mouth to muffle my sobs, mourning the secret I had planned to share.
*
The next morning, the sprawling living room felt more like a sterile corporate lobby than a home. The monochromatic gray and white decor offered no comfort.
Kain was already sitting on the massive white leather sofa when I came downstairs. He was dressed in a crisp, tailored suit, his jaw clenched, his eyes devoid of the vulnerability from the night before. He looked every inch the ruthless Alpha of the Blackwood Pack.
I paused at the bottom of the stairs, my hand subconsciously resting over my flat stomach. *This is it,* I told myself. *The baby will change everything. He just needs to know he's going to be a father.*
Taking a deep breath, I walked over to him.
"Kain, I have something wonderful to tell you," I said, my voice trembling slightly with a desperate, fragile hope.
He didn't even blink. His icy gaze met mine, shutting me down instantly. "I have something to say first."
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thick stack of papers, sliding them across the glass coffee table toward me. The bold, black letters at the top of the page made my blood run cold.
*Dissolution of Union Agreement.*
"What is this?" I whispered, the air leaving my lungs.
"It's over, Sera," Kain said, his voice entirely stripped of emotion. "I'm initiating the Rejection. My pack lawyers have already drafted the terms. You will be well compensated."
The room started to spin. The words echoed in my head, tearing at the mate-bond until I felt physically sick. He was throwing me away. He was throwing *us* away.
"But... we are mates..." I choked out, tears finally spilling over my lashes. I desperately wanted to scream that I was carrying his heir, that we were a family.
Before the secret could leave my lips, Kain delivered the final, fatal blow.
"Galilea's returned."
The name struck me like a silver bullet to the chest. My jaw snapped shut. The baby secret died instantly on my tongue, turning to ash.
It wasn't about our arranged mating. It wasn't about my lack of a wolf. It was about *her*. She was the tuberose scent. She was the reason he was willing to defy the Moon Goddess and tear our souls apart.
My wonderful news suddenly felt like a cruel, twisted joke. Numbness washed over me, freezing the tears on my cheeks. With a hollow chest and a shattered soul, I slowly reached out and picked up the cold, heavy document.
Seraphina POV
The heavy, cold parchment of the *Dissolution of Union Agreement* felt like lead in my trembling hands. The silence in the sprawling, monochromatic living room was deafening, broken only by the chaotic, agonizing hum of the frayed mate-bond.
Kain shifted on the white leather sofa. I could feel the restless pacing of his inner wolf, Rage, bleeding through our connection. Rage was furious, confused by the sudden severing of our ties, and Kain was clearly struggling to suppress him.
"Sera," Kain's voice broke the quiet, softer this time, laced with a sickening attempt at pity. "I know this is hard. But even with the union dissolved, I will always make sure you are taken care of. You will always be family to me. I'll look after you... like a sister."
*Like a sister.*
The words were a physical blow, striking harder than the rejection itself. The Moon Goddess had woven our souls together, designed us to be two halves of a whole, and he was reducing that sacred bond to a sterile, platonic obligation just to soothe his own guilt. It was the ultimate insult.
A cold, hollow laugh escaped my lips, twisting into a mocking smile that felt entirely foreign on my face. "A sister," I repeated, my voice devoid of any warmth. "Right. We can discuss the logistics of that later."
Kain frowned, a flicker of unease crossing his stoic features. He clearly hadn't expected this icy detachment. "You said you had something to tell me earlier," he pressed, his brow furrowing. "What was it?"
My hand instinctively hovered over my flat stomach. *A pup destined to be rejected by its own father.* I looked at the man sitting across from me—a man willing to defy the heavens for another woman. I would never use my child as a bargaining chip to keep a mate who didn't want me.
I swallowed the bitter ash in my throat and met his gaze with dead eyes. "It was just about the new MQ Clothing design proposals. But it doesn't matter now."
Kain stared at me for a long moment before checking his Rolex, seemingly eager to escape the heavy atmosphere he had created. "I need to change," he said, standing up and smoothing his tailored suit. "We can ride to the Blakely Group building together."
I stared at him, appalled by his ability to compartmentalize our destruction. He was tearing my soul apart, yet he expected us to commute like nothing had happened.
"No," I said, my voice turning to ice as I stood up. "Since we are dissolving the union, it's best the pack doesn't see us arriving together anymore."
Without waiting for his response, I turned on my heel. I grabbed my purse from the foyer table and walked out the heavy ebony doors, leaving him standing in the sterile hallway.
The underground garage was a cavern of polished concrete and gleaming supercars. I practically threw myself into the driver's seat of my modest sedan, slamming the door to shut out the suffocating scent of his territory.
In the cramped, quiet sanctuary of my car, my hands began to shake violently. I needed proof. I needed to kill the last, pathetic sliver of hope in my chest that maybe, just maybe, this was all a misunderstanding.
I pulled out my phone and opened Facebook. It didn't take long. Eddie Dawson, Kain's closest aristocratic friend and a notorious social climber, had just posted a new update.
It was a photo taken at the high-end pack club they frequented. Kain was in the center, looking relaxed and powerful, holding a crystal glass. And there, pressed intimately against his side, was Galilea. She looked radiant, her smile triumphant as she clung to his arm.
The caption below the photo felt like a silver blade twisting in my gut:
*Welcome back, Galilea! Our true Luna has returned! A wedding's on the way! *
*Our true Luna.*
The pack had never accepted me, a wolfless weakling, but seeing it written out so blatantly confirmed my worst fears. Kain hadn't just spent the last month on "pack business." He had been with her. They had already planned their future while I was sitting at home, waiting to tell him he was going to be a father.
The words on the screen blurred as a single, scalding tear slipped free, landing directly on Galilea's smiling face.
