Chapter 2

Elara Vance POV:

Sleep was a distant country I couldn't reach. I tossed and turned in the cold, empty bed, the ghost of that wild ginger scent haunting my every breath. The icy wall in our Mate Bond felt thicker, more permanent.

*We can't just lie here!* Lyra's pacing in my mind was frantic, her anxiety a sharp, clawing thing. *That bitch could be in our house right now!*

She was right. I couldn't be passive. I couldn't wait for him to feed me more pretty lies. Slipping from the bed, I pulled on a dark robe, becoming a shadow in my own home. My destination was the same: the study. But this time, I wasn't going to walk through the door.

I knew a secret of this old house, a secret from my childhood. A memory of playing hide-and-seek with my father surfaced, a flash of warmth in the encroaching cold. There was an old ventilation shaft in the hallway, its grate hidden behind a heavy tapestry depicting a great white wolf howling at the moon.

My fingers found the thick, dusty fabric, and I pulled it aside. There it was, a brass grille, cool to the touch. I knelt, pressing my ear against the unforgiving metal, my heart a frantic drum against my ribs.

At first, there was only the rustle of paper, the low, even sound of Ryker's breathing. Disappointment warred with a sliver of desperate hope. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was just a paranoid, pregnant she-wolf.

Then I heard it. A woman's voice. It was soft and sultry, but the duct amplified it, delivering it to my ear like a poisoned arrow.

"Ryker, how much longer do you have to keep her alive?"

My breath hitched. My heart stopped. The woman-*that woman*-was in the study with him.

Ryker's voice was laced with an impatience I'd never heard him use with me. "Be patient. Everything is proceeding as planned. Gloomfang Peaks is the perfect place. There will be no traces left."

Her voice dripped with a possessive sweetness. "I just can't wait to be your Luna. To take her place, to have all of you."

A soft rustle of fabric followed, then a low, breathy moan from the woman. My stomach churned violently. They weren't just talking.

A deep, guttural growl rumbled from Ryker's chest, an expression of raw, primal lust he had never, not once, shown me. Every gasp, every throaty sigh from the woman, was a physical blow. The sounds traveled through the grate and straight into my soul, but a deeper agony came through the Mate Bond.

It convulsed, a living thing being torn apart inside me. Waves of nauseating pain crashed over me, so intense they stole my breath. My unborn child thrashed in my womb, reacting to my agony. I bit down hard on the back of my hand to stifle a scream, my nails digging into my own flesh, drawing blood.

"...and what about the bastard?" the woman asked, her voice thick with pleasure.

Ryker's reply was cold, clinical, utterly devoid of emotion. "An 'accident' will take care of all our problems. The Black Moon pack doesn't need the weak blood from her line."

*Bastard. Weak blood.* The words echoed in the hollow chambers of my heart. He had once touched my belly with such reverence, calling this child the symbol of our fated love. All of it, a lie. A monstrous, calculated lie. He didn't just want me gone. He wanted our baby dead.

A wave of pure, unadulterated rage washed over me, so powerful that my bones ached with the urge to shift, to tear through the walls and rip them both to shreds.

*Kill him! Kill them both!* Lyra shrieked, her fury a match for my own.

But I forced it down. I clamped down on the shift with every ounce of my will. If I burst in there now, I would be signing my own death warrant, and my child's. I was strong, but he was the Alpha, and I was no match for him and his whore.

Scrambling backward, I let the tapestry fall back into place, erasing any sign of my presence. I fled, a ghost in my own home, my feet carrying me back to the cold sanctuary of my bedroom.

I didn't lock the door this time. There was no point. The monster was already inside.

Lying on the bed, I stared at the ceiling as the darkness outside slowly gave way to a bleak, grey dawn. The shock had burned away the tears, leaving behind a terrifying clarity. There was only one thought in my mind.

Escape.

But I knew, with a certainty that chilled me to the bone, that a marked she-wolf, carrying an Alpha's heir, had nowhere to run.