Alpha Caius\'s lips brushed over the faint scratches on Seraphina\'s porcelain skin, the wounds mere remnants of her earlier fall. His usually impassive eyes darkened with something dangerously close to sorrow, as though each mark on her body carved a deeper one into his soul. Wrapped in the warmth of our pack’s bed, their bodies moved together beneath the moonlit sheets, lost in each other’s embrace.

       Above them, the Luna’s bonding portrait swayed with the rhythm of their passion. My gaze locked onto the image—the woman I once was, the one who had looked at Alpha Caius with unwavering devotion. Yet even in that frozen moment, his face was cold, detached, untouched by love.

       And in that moment, I understood.

       Even a soul could grieve.

       But at least now, Alpha Caius could rest easy. Nothing—not fate, not duty, not even the bond we once shared—would come between them again.

       Because I was already dead.

       The night he came for me, I ran. My body was heavy, burdened with the life growing inside me, but I pushed forward, desperation outweighing exhaustion. My swollen belly made escape nearly impossible, my feet stumbling over uneven earth, yet I refused to surrender.

       Alpha Caius watched in silence, arms crossed, expression unreadable, as his warriors moved in. I was nothing more than a cornered prey delaying the inevitable. Within seconds, they seized me, dragging me back to the heart of the pack.

       I barely had time to struggle before I was thrown onto the rusted seat of an ancient punishment device—once used to make traitors beg for death. His hands pressed me down, their familiar warmth now ice against my burning skin. Thick leather straps wrapped around my wrists and ankles, cinching tight, locking me in place.

       I fought. I screamed. I begged my mate to listen.

       The ride lurched, chains groaning as it began its slow, merciless ascent. My pleas turned into raw, broken sobs. The moment the first jolt rocked my body, a hot rush of liquid streamed down my legs.

       My water had broken.

       I gasped, struggling for air, my heart slamming against my ribs. My baby. Our baby. I wasn’t ready—this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Terror clawed at my chest as I turned my desperate gaze toward Alpha Caius.

       For a fleeting heartbeat, hesitation flickered across his face.

       Then, Seraphina’s soft voice cut through the chaos.

       “I thought Aeris wasn’t due for another week?” she murmured, pressing close to him, her pale fingers ghosting over his arm. “But…… she does look frightened. She even wet herself before the ride went up… Maybe we should just let it go. I’m fine now, anyway.”

       A single breath. That was all it took.

       Alpha Caius’s expression twisted with revulsion. His lip curled as he sneered, “You disgust me, Aeris. Using our pup to manipulate me? Stay up there and think about what you’ve done.”

       The ride surged higher, the wind screaming past me like a wolf’s dying wail. My dress, thin and soaked, clung to my trembling body. Pain struck again, deep and sharp, tearing through my abdomen.

       The pup was coming.

       I thrashed against my bindings, the rough fibers biting into my skin, peeling away layers of flesh. Blood streaked down my arms as I clawed at the restraints, nails splitting, bones grinding. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t let my pup come into the world like this.

       The third time the ride shot upward, I summoned everything I had left. And then I heard it—fragile, impossibly small, but unmistakable.

       A newborn’s cry.

       My body gave out, shaking violently as I felt the tiny weight leave me. I couldn’t even see, my vision blurred by pain and exhaustion. I tried to hold on, tried to reach out—

       But then the ride plummeted.

       The force of the fall ripped my pup from my arms.

       A single, heart-stopping moment.

       Then impact.

       A tiny, delicate body met the unforgiving ground below, crushed under the weight of the merciless world.

       I reached, screamed until my throat was raw, until no sound came out—but my hands were useless. All I could do was watch as the most precious part of me was reduced to nothing but torn flesh and a pool of crimson on the cold, indifferent earth.

       Then my own blood followed, a violent storm of red against the night.

       And where was Alpha Caius?

       Not by my side.

       He stood in the packhouse, surrounding Seraphina with our best healers—not for me, not for the life we lost, but for the faint scratches marring her perfect skin. He pressed a bouquet of moonlit lilies into her hands, their scent carefully selected to soothe her delicate nerves. A one-of-a-kind necklace, glistening under the soft lantern glow, was placed around her neck as a gesture of comfort.

       When someone tried to speak of my death, he silenced them with a single, cold command.

       “She did this to herself,” he said, dismissing me as though I were less than nothing.

       Two days later—my due date—I would be nothing more than a ghost, an echo of a life never truly lived.

       “Aeris will come to apologize,” Alpha Caius murmured, his fingers lazily running through Seraphina’s golden hair as she curled against his chest.

       Seraphina traced absentminded circles on his skin, her voice barely above a whisper. “Maybe we should forget it. I don’t think Aeris meant any harm. It’s my fault—I shouldn’t have come back. I never wanted to come between you two.”

       Caius caught her wandering hand, bringing it to his lips with reverence.

       “Seraphina, you saved my life.” His voice, once sharp as a blade, now melted with warmth. “For that, I will protect you until my dying breath.”