“Your mate approved it,” she replied gently.
“Did he… know?” I whispered, dread clawing at me.
“Yes,” she said quietly, and the words sank deep, leaving a hollow ache that no time could heal.
Selene
“Luna Selene?”
The healer’s voice drifted toward me like an echo in a cave, barely reaching through the crushing ache twisting my lower belly. My hands instinctively pressed against my abdomen as tears blurred my vision. For moons—years, even—I had prayed the Moon Goddess would bless me with a pup. Two winters ago, Gideon and I tried relentlessly, clinging to the hope that a child would steady our marriage, breathe life back into the bond that had been fading.
But then he’d sunk his claws into Brielle.
And once she slithered her way into his bed, he barely touched me anymore. The rare times he did, he was half‑drunk, his breath thick with ale, his wolf disinterested in me entirely. Even then, I kept hoping. I foolishly believed that an heir, a tiny heartbeat, would tether us together again.
Instead… Gideon had ordered the death of our pup.
Our innocent child—executed with a single command.
A fury unlike anything I’d ever known crackled through me. I refused to collapse beneath the pain, refusing to let grief tear me apart when betrayal already had.
“Luna Selene?” the healer called again, more firmly this time.
“That monstrous bastard,” I growled, my voice low and venomous.
With shaking fingers, I ripped out the IV embedded in my wrist. The sting was nothing compared to the agony inside me. I pushed off the cot and staggered toward the exit.
“Luna—please! You’ve lost too much blood. Your wolf needs time to mend. Come back—”
“Where,” I snarled, stopping just long enough to pin him with a deadly glare, “are Gideon and his mistress?”
The healer swallowed hard. “Luna, I—I don’t think—”
Another hard stare from me silenced him instantly. He lifted a trembling finger toward the adjoining room.
I shoved the door open.
There he was.
Gideon, Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack, bending tenderly over Brielle, brushing stray strands of hair from her cheek as if she were his goddess‑given treasure.
“You vile creature,” I roared. “You filthy traitor!”
Gideon jerked up. Before he could utter a word, my palm cracked across his face with a force that echoed through the infirmary. He froze—stunned, speechless.
“That’s for murdering my pup,” I screamed, voice breaking.