Chapter 3

I held the test report and lay there as if I'd been nailed to the bed.

My mind was completely blank.

Two months.

The night of the engagement ceremony.

That day our two families had exchanged vows at the temple of the Moon Goddess, and at the banquet afterward Ethan had taken drink after drink that was meant for me.

Late that night, he walked me to my room. He stood at the door for a long time, and in the end he bent his head and kissed me.

Back then, he still looked at me the way he had at fifteen, when he carried me running down the mountain.

I thought that night was the beginning of the rest of our lives.

I never imagined that in just two months, everything would change.

I walked out of the hospital with the report in my hand, my legs unsteady.

By rights, I shouldn't keep this baby.

Its father was the heir of the pack that had killed my brother.

The man using my brother's life to force me to hand my vaults to another woman.

And yet I pressed my hand gently against my stomach.

In there was a tiny life, growing.

It didn't know anything.

It hadn't done anything wrong.

I walked with my head down, and I wasn't paying attention. I bumped right into someone coming the other way.

"I'm sorry."

I apologized at once and looked up, straight into a surprised face.

It was Chloe.

Her eyes went to my face first, then slowly drifted down and stopped on the report in my hand.

I saw her fingers curl into a fist, so tight her knuckles went white.

Too late, I tucked the report into my pocket and walked faster, trying to get around her.

But she came after me and grabbed my arm. She raised her voice on purpose, loud enough for the whole street to hear:

"What are you doing outside the hospital? Aren't you feeling well? Let me go in with you and get you checked!"

"Don't be polite with me. Ethan brought me into the pack's main house and even had all my personal things ready for me. I owe you both so much."

People walking by stopped and turned to look.

She dragged me, half pulling, half hauling, toward the mouth of an alley by the road.

The moment we stepped into the shadows where no one could see, her innocent, pitiful face changed.

She made a fist and drove it hard into my stomach.

I doubled over in pain.

She leaned in close to my ear, her voice low, like a snake flicking its tongue:

"I thought once your brother was dead, you'd know when to quit."

"I never imagined you'd try to use the thing in your belly to win him back. Dream on."

The words struck me like a bolt of lightning and blew every shred of reason out of my head.

"It was you!"

It was her.

Behind the person who'd hung my brother in silver chains and broken his bones one by one, it was her.

Hatred rushed straight to my head.

I didn't care about anything else. I shoved her away with all my strength.

She let herself fall backward and landed hard on the sidewalk.

She sat on the ground with her brow furrowed, and the tears came on cue.

"Celeste, I only wanted to do something for you... If you didn't want my help, fine, but why would you hurt me?"

She was crying so prettily, her voice so soft and trembling, that the crowd took her side at once.

Someone helped her up, then turned and jabbed a finger in my face.

"How can anyone be so vicious! No wonder the Blackwood heir called off the wedding!"

"We all saw it. You pushed her!"

"A useless girl who can't even shift thinks she deserves to be Blackwood's Luna? Shameless!"

The insults grew louder and uglier.

Someone in the crowd kicked out, and the kick caught me right in the stomach.

The world went black from the pain, and I dropped to my knees.

A strange, wrenching cramp tore through my lower belly. It hurt so much I couldn't get out a single word.

Someone grabbed me by the hair, yanked my face up off the ground, and raised a hand to slap me.

But the hand stopped in midair.

A bigger hand had clamped down on the person's wrist.

"Lay one finger on her. I dare you."

The voice exploded beside my ear like a thunderclap.

For a moment, my clouded mind cleared.

It was Ethan.

He saw my bloodless face, and for the first time, fury flooded his eyes.

It was the look an Alpha only wears when he's claiming what's his. Gold light bled out slowly from deep in his pupils.

The people around us backed away, afraid even to breathe too loudly.

"Who hurt her?"

He roared it, and the whole street went silent.

Then his gaze swept the crowd and landed on someone.

"...Chloe?"

He froze.

Chloe was visibly panicking.

She quickly held out her scraped palm to Ethan and sobbed so hard she could barely breathe.

"Celeste didn't look well, so I wanted to take her to the hospital... But she's angry I'm living in your house, so she... she pushed me..."

"If only my father were still alive... then I wouldn't have to put up with this..."

Ethan stared at her palm, and his pupils contracted. His face changed.

He turned, his expression dark, walked over to me, and looked down at me from his full height.

"Did you push her?"

I wanted to speak. I wanted to tell him she'd hit me first, that she'd killed my brother, that I was carrying his child.

But the pain had my mind slipping away. I couldn't get out a single word.

His patience ran out all at once.

He lifted his foot and kicked me, hard, in the stomach.

In that moment, I couldn't even scream.

I heard his cold voice falling from somewhere very high and very far away:

"Just this once. If there's a next time, your brother is never getting out."

He turned, swept Chloe up into his arms, and carried her through the crowd.

Chloe rested her head on his shoulder, looked back at me, and smiled.

Something warm rushed out of me.

It ran down my legs, little by little, and spread across the pale gray paving stones in a glaring stain of red.

I knew what it was.

I curled up on the ground and pressed my hands hard against my stomach, as if that could make it stay.

But I couldn't make it stay.

I could feel that tiny life leaving me, bit by bit.

I turned my head and watched his back as he walked farther and farther away.

When I was fifteen, he carried me down the mountain trail for two hours, running and crying the whole way, telling me Celeste, you are not allowed to die.

And now he was carrying another woman, walking right past me as I bled.

He never once looked back.