Chapter 3

Before leaving, Olivia stood at the entryway, applying lipstick in front of the mirror.

Her fingers lightly grazed Lucius’s sleeve. “I’ve got a 3 p.m. nail appointment. I’ll be back later.”

Lucius gave a soft grunt in reply, but his gaze landed on me.

The moment the door closed behind us, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I kissed him first. His hand closed around my wrist instinctively, his grip painfully tight.

“The bed in the guest room is too hard.” His breath was hot against my neck. “Let’s go to the bedroom.”

I let myself get swept away, even though I was the one who had started it.

He left mark after mark on my skin, taking me again and again until pain slowly blurred into numbness.

All I could do was clutch his robe in my fists as the heat of his body pressed against mine, as though the sheer heat of him might burn straight through my skin.

I looked at him, at the way he abandoned all restraint and treated me as if I were nothing more than a plaything.

"Stop holding back."

Amy’s voice rang out in my mind—my wolf soul.

"Look at him—does he even look like he cares?"

After it was over.

I lay there, hand resting lightly on my lower abdomen. The heartbeat within was faint, yet impossibly steady.

“Alpha Lucius, I have something to tell you.”

He was tying the belt of his robe. “Hm?”

“I…”

The words caught in my throat.

“I want to keep something.”

Finally, he looked up. “What is it?”

Just then, his phone on the nightstand lit up.

It was a bridal boutique sending over a design draft.

The lace on the screen made my eyes sting.

Lucius picked up the phone, swiped through it, then suddenly turned the screen toward me.

“I’m proposing to Olivia next month. This design is too plain.”

His finger tapped the mermaid silhouette on the screen.

“You studied fashion design. Help me revise it.”

My throat closed up—I couldn’t make a sound.

Seeing I wasn’t responding, he added, “She likes simple styles, but I think it’s missing something. You get this stuff—give me some suggestions.”

His tone was casual, as if he were talking about some minor business task.

I stared at the sketch, fingertips icy cold.

So all that clumsy affection he claimed to have…

He just never gave it to me.

He remembered Olivia’s taste, put thought into her wedding gown…

Yet the things I’d saved for ten years—he thought they were trash.

“What am I to you?”

The question was soft, barely audible.

Alpha Lucius paused, as if caught off guard.

“You’re my niece.”

He said it with certainty.

“That’s all.”

That’s all.

“Alright.”

I heard myself reply, voice too calm to be mine.

“I’ll revise it.”

He seemed relieved.

His wolf tail swept over a wrinkle in the carpet. “Give me the first draft tomorrow.”

I said nothing more. Just turned and walked back to the guest room.

There, I reached under the bed and pulled out the hidden prenatal report.

The little wolf pup in the ultrasound was strong—its heartbeat like a greeting.

I traced the words “8 weeks pregnant” with my finger, and suddenly laughed.

Tears fell onto the paper, bleeding the ink into blurred shadows.

In the middle of the night, I sat at my desk, working on the revised wedding design.

The sound of the pencil scratching paper was faint.

Each curve of lace, each pearl placement—every line was like cutting into my own flesh.

Lucius was right.

I knew exactly what Olivia liked—

After all, I had been imitating her for ten years.

Just before dawn, I finally finished the first draft.

And I didn’t know…

That in his study, a plan was already forming.

Papers rustled behind the closed door,

and his low voice gave quiet orders:

“Have the apartment in the Southern Border checked again. Make sure it’s ready for move-in next month.”