Chapter 4

Seraphina POV

The deafening silence stretched, heavy and suffocating. For a fraction of a second, the glacial mask on Kael's face cracked. His cyan eyes widened, and I could almost feel his inner wolf, Fenrir, thrashing against his iron control, howling in sudden, desperate joy at the mention of a pup.

Then, a cold, delicate laugh shattered the quiet.

Genevieve stepped forward, her eyes glittering with malicious amusement. "A phantom child to secure your crown? You truly have no shame, Seraphina. A desperate, pathetic lie from a desperate, pathetic Rogue."

"It's not a lie!" I cried, my hands instinctively moving to shield my flat stomach. I turned wildly to the only person left. "Isabelle, tell him! You're my best friend-you know I wouldn't lie about something like this! "

Isabelle let out a broken sob, burying her face in her hands. When she looked up at Kael, her eyes were swimming in perfectly timed tears. "Alpha... I am so sorry. She told me weeks ago that if you continued to grow distant, she would fake a pregnancy to trap you. I didn't want to believe she would actually stoop this low."

The air punched out of my lungs. The betrayal was so absolute, so flawlessly executed, that I couldn't even form words.

Kael's brief flicker of hope died instantly, replaced by a disgust so profound it radiated from him like heat. His jaw clenched, and when he spoke, his voice carried the crushing, undeniable weight of the Alpha's Command.

"You are a stain on my bloodline," Kael snarled. The power in his words washed over me, and though my wolfless body didn't physically buckle under the Command the way a wolf's would, the sheer force of his hatred-combined with the exhaustion, the rejection, and the loss-made my legs give way. I sank to my knees, not by magic, but by despair. "The thought of you carrying anything of mine makes my very soul sick."

He snatched the Writ of Exile from Elder Elias's frozen grip and threw it at my feet. The heavy parchment hit the stone floor with a dull thud.

My tears stopped. The agonizing throb of my severed mate-bond was suddenly eclipsed by a cold, hollow numbness. I picked up the pen Elias had dropped. My hand shook violently, but I pressed the nib to the paper and signed away my life, my pack, and any claim I had to the Blackwood name.

I stood up, my knees trembling, and shoved the parchment hard against Kael's chest. He didn't even look at me. He turned his back and walked up the grand staircase, taking my heart with him.

"Throw her out," Tyler sneered, gesturing to the Warriors.

"Don't touch me," I hissed, yanking my arms away. "I can walk."

As I moved toward the heavy oak doors, Genevieve stepped into my path. Her manicured fingers clamped onto my arm, her sharp nails biting deep into my flesh. She leaned in, her expensive perfume masking the rot in her soul.

"That little mongrel in your belly will never draw breath on Blackwood land," she whispered, her voice a venomous hiss meant only for my ears. "The Moon Goddess doesn't bless the wombs of traitors."

Before I could react, the Warriors shoved me out into the freezing night.

They dragged me to the very edge of the Blackwood territory, tossing me into the dirt where the manicured lawns met the wild, dark woods. The moment their footsteps faded, the shadows between the trees shifted.

A massive figure stepped out. He wore a dark mask, and the sour, feral stench of a Rogue hit my nose. Panic spiked in my chest. I scrambled backward, but he was too fast. He grabbed me by the hair, dragging me deeper into the suffocating darkness of the trees.

"Please!" I screamed, thrashing wildly against his iron grip. "I'm pregnant! Please don't!"

The Rogue threw me to the ground. He stood over me, his eyes dead and merciless. "That's the point."

His heavy boot slammed into my abdomen.

A scream tore from my throat, raw and bloody. I curled into a ball, desperately trying to cover my stomach, but his knee crashed into my side, then his foot found my stomach again. Agony exploded through my body, blinding and absolute.

"A message from those who value a pure bloodline," the Rogue spat, kicking dirt onto my face. "Your kind has no place here."

He vanished into the night, leaving me broken in the mud.

A warm, terrifying wetness began to pool between my thighs. No. No, please.

Gasping through the blinding pain, I dragged my shattered body over the dead leaves and sharp rocks, crawling toward the distant hum of the asphalt road. My fingernails tore as I pulled myself onto the freezing pavement.

Headlights pierced the darkness. A car was coming. I raised a trembling, blood-soaked hand, praying to a Goddess who had abandoned me.

The human driver saw me-a battered, bloody nightmare crawling from the woods. The tires shrieked as the car violently swerved, speeding away into the night.

The taillights faded into red blurs. The agonizing cramps tore through my womb, and as the darkness finally pulled me under, I felt the tiny, fragile spark of my baby's life slip away into the cold.