Chapter 3

Bianca’s voice trembled as if crushed by injustice. Suddenly, she pulled up her ceremonial skirt, revealing a series of faint scars along her calves.

Choking back sobs, she began her performance:

“That night… I only brought Alpha Lucas a few sweets while he worked late for the Pack. But you, Winnie—you publicly accused me of seducing him.”

“You locked me in the Omega quarters, surrounded by wildhound guardians. I didn’t think I’d survive the night…”

“I never reported you to the healers—not because I wasn’t hurt, but to preserve your dignity as Luna.”

She paused, then added with teary eyes and soft righteousness:

“And today, I offered you a job because I thought it might help you… Why are you so hostile to me?”

Alpha Lucas’s expression hardened. His golden eyes darkened, rage building behind them.

“Winnie,” he said through clenched teeth, “I never thought you could be this cruel. I used to think you were just jealous. But now I see—you’re truly vicious.”

I laughed.

Cold. Detached. Done.

In the silence of my mind, Wendy, my wolf soul, whispered:

“They don’t care what’s true. They only want you to bow.”

Bianca tugged on Lucas’s sleeve gently, eyes shining with tears:

“I’m fine, Alpha… Don’t get upset because of me.”

My stomach churned. My fingers had gone ice-cold.

I didn’t want to fight anymore. I turned to leave.

But Lucas grabbed my wrist violently, his face twisting like a rabid beast.

“You’re not going anywhere. Not until you kneel and apologize to Bianca—in front of the sacred altar!”

In the struggle, my loose blouse slipped slightly—

and my rounded, pregnant belly was suddenly exposed to the crowd.

Time stopped.

Alpha Lucas froze. His face drained of color. His eyes widened in horror.

His voice cracked into a roar:

“You’re pregnant?! When did you bond with someone else? WHOSE CHILD IS THIS?!”

I calmly pried each of his fingers off my wrist and said, voice sharp as silver:

“Alpha Lucas. My life is no longer your concern.

Who I love, who fathers my child—that is none of your business.”

My voice wasn’t loud,

but each word sliced the air like a silver blade under moonlight.

Low laughter spread through the hall.

From cloaked Elders to elegantly dressed Alpha spouses, the whispers started:

“Doesn’t even know who the father is? She really went wild.”

“Oh, now that Foster Pack’s power is solid, she suddenly shows up again? What ‘perfect timing.’”

Lucas’s fury shifted into something worse—disgust.

“Winnie… You’ve fallen so low, it sickens me.”

I opened my mouth to respond—

but was suddenly shoved.

I crashed backward, spine scraping the stone floor. Pain tore through me like a blade. My arms instinctively curled around my belly, but agony still pierced through, sharp and cold.

“You’re a terrible person!”

Noah stood in front of me, trembling with fury, his face twisted with hatred.

“Dad said you abandoned us! That baby inside you—it’s a mongrel’s!”

My eyes burned. I forced myself to sit up through the pain, clutching my communicator.

A memory surfaced—uninvited and cruel.

Noah, just three years old. Burning with fever, I had sat by the fires of the clan hall for three nights, holding him in my arms.

He’d whispered, voice soft and sleepy:

“Mama smells like cream candy. Better than Aunt Bianca’s perfume.”

Wendy’s voice rumbled inside me:

“That was your child, Winnie. And they destroyed everything between you.”

Tears blurred my sight. My voice trembled as I looked at him:

“Noah… When you were sick at three—who read you Wolf King Rhymes every night?

Who stayed by your bed, awake through every hour?”

He hesitated.

Then, slowly, he stepped back—hiding behind Lucas like someone brainwashed.

“It was Mom—Bianca. You never took care of me.

Dad said you wanted to abandon me the moment I was born!”

The cold I felt in that moment—it wasn’t just in my bones.

It was in my soul.

Fingers shaking, I reached for my communicator, trying to call the Pack hospital.

But Lucas struck again—his hand slapping the device from mine, voice rising in fury:

“Stop acting! You know exactly whose child that is. You’re unfit to be a Luna!”

Inside me, Wendy roared, her voice thundering like a storm crashing through my blood:

“Push him back, Winnie. You don’t belong to beasts drowning in lies and power.”

My abdomen burned. Blood ran down my legs, staining the hem of my robe.

The air filled with the bitter sting of silver toxin.

It flared inside my veins—a familiar, fiery pain.

I looked up, trembling with agony, and locked eyes with Lucas.

“You say I’ve fallen?”