Chapter 3

Seeing my son's blood spill across the flagstones, memories I had tried to bury came flooding back, sharp and unforgiving.

When I first met Kaelen, he was nothing but a rogue, a lone wolf lying at death's door outside the Sanctuary.

His pack had cast him out because the wolf inside him was deformed, chained by a dark curse.

The Supreme Alpha of the time-Kaelen's own father-refused to acknowledge him as his son, leaving him to rot.

I found him. I was captivated by his untamed, unbroken spirit.

When he looked at me, there was no fear in his eyes, only a burning defiance.

I fell in love with a dying dog.

To save him, I broke the sacred laws of my kind.

I fed him my royal blood. The magic of a pureblood vampire healed his deformed wolf, transforming him into a creature of terrifying power.

But that wasn't enough for him. He wanted revenge. He wanted his father's throne.

Because I loved him, I gave him the world.

I used the vast wealth and secret armies of the Night Clan to fund his rebellion.

I fought by his side, using my shadows to block silver arrows for him on blood-soaked battlefields. Step by step, bathed in blood, I helped him conquer the packs and reclaim his rightful title as the Alpha King.

On the day of his coronation, he carried me into the luxurious penthouse suite of the Blood Moon Packhouse. He fell to his knees, buried his face in my stomach, and wept.

"I swear to the Moon Goddess," he whispered, his tears soaking through my dress. "I will cherish you forever, Elara. I will never betray you. You are my life."

We were happy. For a fleeting, beautiful moment in time, we were incredibly happy. Even when I discovered I was pregnant-an unprecedented miracle between a vampire and a werewolf-his joy was boundless.

He treated me like fragile glass.

Until he brought her home.

Selene.

He found her during a border skirmish-a stray, beautiful, and fragile Omega with clear, doe-like eyes.

She was shivering, claiming her entire pack had been slaughtered. Kaelen took pity on her and brought her back to the pack lands.

Because she was a wolf, and because my pregnancy left me bedridden and weak, I welcomed Selene with open arms.

I treated her like a little sister.

She was so gentle, always sitting by my bed, reading to me, and brewing special herbal teas to ease the agonizing pains of my pregnancy.

Whenever I asked about her future and offered to find her a strong, high-ranking mate within the pack, she would blush, look down at her hands, and softly say that her heart already belonged to someone out of reach.

I was so blind. Utterly blind.

The tea she fed me every day wasn't some miracle cure; it was a slow-acting dark voodoo brewed by a swamp witch.

It suppressed the werewolf genes in my womb, mutated the baby, and slowly drained my own magic.

When I went into premature labor, the pain was apocalyptic. I screamed until my vocal cords tore.

When the child was finally born, the midwives gasped in horror and backed away.

I didn't give birth to a majestic, powerful wolf pup. I birthed a scrawny, scentless, hairless creature that looked like a sickly feral mutt.

Kaelen, the proud new Alpha King, stood by the bed. I will never forget the look of absolute revulsion on his face. The love in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, murderous fury.

He accused me of whoring myself out to a rogue dog. He refused to believe the child was his, entirely ignoring the biological fact that vampire loyalty is absolute.

Fueled by wounded pride and the whispers of the pack, Kaelen flew into a blind rage and drew his massive silver broadsword.

Before I could even reach for my baby, Kaelen brought the blade down, cleanly cleaving the newborn infant in two.

I screamed.

He stripped me of my Luna title right there, while I lay in a bed soaked in my own blood. He announced to the pack that I was a whore, banished me to the Sanctuary, and that very night, he took Selene as his new mate.

Only then did I realize who Selene's "out of reach" lover was. She had played the long game, and she had won.

To stitch my child back together, I performed a forbidden blood sacrifice.

Kaelen was right about one thing: purebloods possess nine drops of Ancient Blood, the source of our immortality and magic. Every time we suffer a fatal wound, we burn a drop to resurrect ourselves.

To regenerate my son's severed limbs and broken body, I sacrificed my Ancient Blood, pouring my life force into his tiny, shattered form.

But what Kaelen didn't know was that I didn't have nine drops to spare. I only had two left.

During his ruthless rise to power, I had secretly used seven drops of Ancient Blood to save him from assassinations.

I took the silver bullets and poisoned blades meant for him, dying and coming back to life in the shadows, never letting him know the price I paid.

In his final battle with the old Alpha King, when the magical core of his wolf was shattered, he was inches from death.

While he lay in a coma, I tore open my own chest, ripped out my crystallized Scarlet Core, and placed it into his heart to sustain his wolf's life.

I gave him my heart. Literally.

With only two drops of Ancient Blood left, saving my son consumed one. I was left with a single drop, hovering on the brink of death, entirely stripped of my magic, my core, and my strength.

As I lay exhausted on the blood-soaked sheets, holding the miraculously revived and breathing infant, my bedroom door locked with a heavy click.

Selene walked in.

The sweet, clear-eyed Omega was gone. Her eyes were manic, gleaming with dark, triumphant malice. She held a silver dagger.

"Don't blame me, Elara," she whispered, her voice dripping with venom. "Blame yourself for trusting a wolf. Blame yourself for standing in my way."

She bound me in silver chains, burning my weakened flesh. She grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out of the Packhouse and into the blinding sunlight.

She sliced open my chest with the dagger and plunged her hands into the cavity, searching for the Scarlet Core that would grant her supreme power and immortality.

When she found the cavity empty-because the core was already beating inside Kaelen's chest-she shrieked in frustration.

She crushed my remaining cardiovascular system and dragged my broken body to the edge of the Daylight Rift, a bottomless chasm eternally bathed in lethal sunlight.

"Goodbye, Princess," she sneered, kicking me off the cliff.

As I fell, turning to ash, I looked up.

At the edge of the cliff, a tiny, determined figure hurled itself into the abyss, plunging after me. It was my son. The baby I had just saved.

Through the searing, blinding light, the curse placed upon my womb broke. Just before the darkness swallowed me, I saw his true form for the very first time.

He wasn't a mutt.