Chapter 4

Rhett didn't move for a long time. His hands clenched on his knees.

"Say that again."

His voice was low. Dr. Marsh was shaking.

"It's a second heartbeat, Alpha. She's carrying. I'm certain."

Cora dropped to her knees beside the exam table. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't suggested sending her to the rogues, she never would have had the chance to—"

Rhett didn't look at her. He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off the table. The stitches on my neck pulled. Blood smeared across his hand.

"You let a rogue breed you?" His face was close to mine. "I sent you there to learn your place, and you spread your legs for them? You're carrying their pup?"

I knelt on the floor and lowered my head. No strength left to hold it up.

He didn't know.

I'd been pregnant more than once in The Hollow. The rogues never let me carry. Every time, they beat it out of me until there was nothing left.

And the baneroot — years of it had destroyed my wolf and everything else inside me. I couldn't carry a pup even if I tried.

Whatever Dr. Marsh was claiming, it wasn't real.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Three years of training. I knew that apologizing was the only thing that made them stop.

Rhett grabbed my chin and forced my face up. "Don't give me that submissive act. Tell me who it was."

My body was giving out. My vision kept sliding in and out.

"I don't know who. Please. Just let me go."

Something hot and metallic rose in my throat. Blood spilled from my mouth — not a trickle, a mouthful.

Rhett shoved me back. "You're still playing games? The healer just said you're fine." He wiped the blood off his hand. "Don't think biting your own lip is going to make me feel sorry for you."

He stood up. His jaw was set.

"Get rid of it."

Dr. Marsh brought the wolfsbane purge. I didn't know what it was. I just swallowed what they poured into me because that was what I'd learned to do — take whatever they give you and don't fight.

The pain hit low and deep. Something inside me tearing open. It didn't stop.

When the bleeding finally started, Rhett exhaled.

"No one speaks of this. Anyone who does — I'll rip their tongue out."

He walked out.

Cora stayed. She stood over my bed, looking down at me with a smile that didn't reach the doorway.

"Don't think coming back means the Luna title is yours, Neve."

Her voice was quiet. Almost friendly.

"You're done. I didn't even have to lift a finger this time."

"Just lie here and watch me take everything that was supposed to be yours."

The baneroot had already eaten through too much. The wolfsbane purge finished the job.

I couldn't feel my body anymore. Everything went light. Quiet.

I was floating.

Then I looked down and saw myself on the bed. Eyes closed. Not breathing.

Oh.

I was dead.

Cora waited a few more seconds for a reaction. When I didn't move, she waved the Pack members out of the room.

"Nobody goes in without my permission."

By the next morning, the news had spread through the entire Pack. The Luna had been unfaithful. She'd been bred by rogues. She was carrying their pup.

The elders demanded Rhett strip me of my title. Some of them wanted worse.

He refused. He overruled all of them and kept my position.

That night, he came to my room alone. I could smell the whiskey before the door opened.

He didn't come inside. He leaned against the doorframe and talked to the dark.

"Why, Neve? I gave you everything. Why would you do this to me?"

He took another drink.

"I've made my decision. If you come back to me — if you stop fighting — I'll forget all of it. Tomorrow I'll hold the ceremony. You'll be Luna again. Officially."

I stood beside him, watching. Drunk talk. That's all it was.

And I was already dead. How exactly was I supposed to be Luna?

The next morning, his Beta came running.

"Alpha — the Luna. She's gone. She's not breathing."