Chapter 3

Evelyn's POV

"Where is Nyra?!"

I slammed through the wooden doors of the lower nursery, my knees bleeding through my ragged pants.

The old witch doctor sneered from behind her desk. "Calm down, spent-wolf. She's in the back ward."

I sprinted toward the damp cellar. Through the iron bars of the small chamber, I saw Nyra lying on a straw mat. Her small four-year-old body was bloated, her skin ghastly pale, and her breathing shallow and ragged.

My heart stopped beating.

"What happened to her?!" I grabbed the witch doctor's thick robes.

"Moon-Wasting Syndrome," the old woman said coldly, pulling out a faded parchment. "She's been deprived of her biological father's Alpha scent and blood for too long. Her internal organs are failing. She won't survive the week without a direct Alpha Blood Infusion."

My legs buckled. "I'll—I'll find a way to get her father here," I stammered, gripping the edge of her desk. "But please, can you just stabilize her? Give her some kind of emergency treatment until then?"

The old woman sneered, unmoved by my panic. "Medicine isn't free, spent-wolf. You need to pay."

My throat tightened. "How much..."

"100 Moon Sovereigns," she said. "Pack rules. No gold, no treatment."

One hundred gold coins.

The twenty coins in my pocket suddenly felt like a cruel joke.

"Please!" I dropped to my bloody knees. "She's only four... I have twenty coins now, I can pay the rest later—"

"Full payment up front," the witch doctor cut me off.

From inside the cell, Nyra's feeble voice drifted out: "Mommy... my belly hurts so bad... when can we go home?"

I shoved past the bars and gripped her tiny, freezing hand, tears bursting from my eyes. "Soon, baby. Mommy's taking you home real soon."

---

5:00 AM, Outside the Blackwood Pack Fortress

I knelt on the cold stone steps, soaked through by freezing snow.

This used to be my home. Three years ago, I stood here as Luna, welcoming my Mate back from war. Now, I knelt in the slush like a beggar, waiting to plead for my child's life.

At seven sharp, heavy iron gates creaked open.

Alpha Valen stepped out, surrounded by pack guards. His crimson eyes narrowed the moment he spotted me.

I dragged myself forward, crashing onto my knees at his feet.

"Valen! Save Nyra!"

"You again," he growled, looking down at me with cold disgust. "Twenty coins weren't enough last night? How much are you begging for now?"

"She needs your Alpha blood!" I screamed into the blizzard. "Nyra has Moon-Wasting Syndrome! She's dying!"

Patrolling warriors stopped to watch, snickering among themselves.

"Why do you care so much about a half-breed stray?" Valen's voice carried zero warmth.

"She is not a stray!" I forced my chin up, my throat raw. "Nyra is your daughter! She carries your Supreme Alpha blood!"

Valen's face darkened instantly, his wolf eyes flaring with dangerous wrath.

"My daughter?" He let out a harsh, mocking laugh. "Evelyn, you still have the audacity to spout that lie?"

"She is your flesh and blood!" I crawled closer, clutching the hem of his cloak. "The scenting test three years ago was wrong! She can only be yours!"

"Wrong?" Valen's aura flared, crushing me against the snow. "Are you saying I can't recognize my own bloodline?"

"I never betrayed you!" I pleaded frantically.

"Enough!" He kicked my hand away, sending me sprawling against the ice-covered stairs. "Stop this pathetic act!"

I struggled back up, the wounds on my knees reopening and staining the snow red. "I'm not acting!"

"Not acting?" Valen stepped closer, towering over me in fury. "Then explain why I found you in our bed, wrapped around another male?"

Every word hit like a silver dagger in my chest.

The nightmare of that night rushed back. Nyra was barely a month old. Caelia had invited me to drink tea under the guise of making peace, but she had laced my drink with wolfsbane and sleep-herbs.

She staged everything—the strange wolf, our bed, and Valen "catching" us. Even worse, she planted rumors that Nyra wasn't his. The blood testing elder she bribed faked the results, and from that moment on, Valen wiped his hands of our child.

"It was a setup!" I cried out in agony. "I was drugged!"

"Drugged?" Valen chuckled coldly. "You're still using that pathetic excuse?"

"You unfaithful bitch!" His voice grew colder than the frost around us. "You dare stand in front of your Alpha and pretend to be innocent?"

"Even if you hate me!" I screamed, weeping at his boots. "Nyra is innocent! She's only four years old!"

"Innocent?" Valen looked down at me, his lip curling. "A stray's life isn't worth a single drop of my blood."

"She is dying!"

"Then let her die. The world doesn't need more half-breeds."

"She is your daughter!"

"Shut up!" Valen clamped his hand around my jaw, squeezing until my bones creaked. "I am warning you one last time—never speak of that stray again!"

I couldn't breathe under his grip, tears streaming down my bruised cheeks.

"You want my Alpha blood?" His face pressed close, his breath cold. "You want to save that little bastard?"

I nodded frantically. "I'll do anything! I'll be your slave, I'll vanish forever, just save her..."

Valen stared at me for a long time, his crimson eyes unreadable.

Just as a sliver of hope rose in my chest, he shoved me back, letting me fall hard onto the steps.

He reached into his fur coat, pulled out a folded piece of cloth, and tossed it into the snow before me.

It was Nyra's baby swaddling blanket—the one I had kept for four years.

"I had Caelia test it with scent-blocker herbs this morning," Valen said, his voice laced with cruel satisfaction. "There is not a single trace of my Alpha scent on this rag. It reeks of a rogue."

My breath hitched as I reached for the blanket. The familiar faint pup scent was completely erased, replaced by a pungent, artificial chemical odor.

"You framed yourself, Evelyn," Valen growled, turning his back on me. "If you want blood, go beg whatever rogue fathered her."

"Valen, no! It's coated in herbs! Listen to me!" I reached for his boots, but a pack guard slammed the butt of his spear into my shoulder, knocking me down.

"Throw her out of the inner territory," Valen commanded coldly without looking back. "If she steps near the fortress again, break her legs."

I lay in the bloody snow, clutching the ruined blanket to my chest, watching his tall figure vanish behind the massive iron gates.

---

An hour later, I dragged my broken body back to the edge of the territory, shivering under the relentless blizzard.

I knelt outside the lower nursery, staring at the small window where Nyra lay dying.

I had no gold. I had no Alpha blood. I had nothing left to trade.

"Evelyn Vance."

A soft, melodious voice broke through the howling wind.

I turned my head slowly. Caelia stood a few feet away, wrapped in a plush white fox coat, a dark veil covering her eyes, supported by two elite guards.

"Caelia..." I rasped, my fingers tightening on the icy ground. "Did you come to mock me?"

"Mock you? No," Caelia said softly, taking a step closer. Her voice was sweet, but her words were lined with pure poison. "I came to offer you a deal."

"A deal?"

"My eyes were ruined by wolfsbane silver three years ago," Caelia whispered, tilting her head. "According to the ancient dark rituals of the Moon Cult, only the fresh eyes of a pureblood White Wolf can restore my sight."

She paused, a malicious smile touching her lips under the veil.

"Give me your eyes, Evelyn. In exchange, I will convince Valen to give your daughter his Alpha blood."