ARIA's POV
You ever have one of those dreams where you're falling, and right before you hit the ground, you wake up? Yeah. That's what the past 24 hours have felt like.
Except in this version, I actually hit the damn ground. Face first. And the landing? Not imaginative but very much physical, very much painful, and very much emotionally humiliating.
Let me back up.
The thing about being half-wolf, half-human? Your body tends to scream at you when something's off.
And mine had been screaming for a week straight.
My sense of smell became sharper, Kael's damn cologne made me gag for three days straight.
I couldn't even shift without my stomach flipping like it was riding a carnival ride.
I thought I was dying. Honestly, a part of me almost hoped I was. Less complicated than what actually happened.
"I swear to the Moon Goddess, if I puke one more time, I'm shifting and running into a tree on purpose," I muttered to myself, clutching my gut in the tiny little bathroom outside the warriors' hall.
Mara, the only pack nurse I actually trusted not to spread my business around, knocked on the door.
"You okay in there?" she asked.
"No. I'm dying," I replied, forehead against the cool tile. "Tell Kael he can have my corner of the bed. He won't notice anyway."
Mara snorted. "You're not dying, drama queen. I think you're pregnant."
I blinked. "...Excuse me? What do you mean I'm pregnant?"
She shoved the door open with zero sense of boundaries holding up a tiny white stick.
"Congratulations, mama wolf. Better start craving something weird and impossible."
And just like that, it was real. I was pregnant. With Alpha Kael's baby.
The man who kissed me like I was the only soul in the room, but also didn't care much about my physical or mental wellbeing.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy. I mean, scared? Of course. Nervous? Obviously. But also... hopeful.
Maybe this meant something. Maybe it would finally mean something.
So I got dressed in my best black dress, you know, the one that doesn't scream "hey I'm just a help pleasing my alpha" and headed to the court gathering.
Tonight, Kael was making some big pack announcement. I assumed it was about expanding the southern borders, or giving me a damn title that wasn't "his favorite sin."
But no.
No, no, no.
Because the second I stepped into the grand hall, he walked in behind me, in his Alpha regalia.
"Pack," Kael said, his voice strong and commanding, "Tonight, I name my Luna. The future of this pack."
I smiled hoping for a life changing news
And then I saw her, my life indeed change immediately I saw her.
White dress. Pale skin. That same little scar above her lip from the rope swing she fell off when we were kids
Her eyes met mine, Cold and Unbothered.
Seraphina.
Dead. Seraphina.
The sister I thought had died.
At this point it's like I could feel my lungs not working and my brain foggy.
Ten years ago, we were just two girls on a riverbank.
She challenged me to swim across. I didn't feel like it and plus I warned her that the current of the bank was rougher that day.
But she dove in anyway.
I went after her when I saw her struggling, but her hand slipped right out of mine.
The last thing I saw was her mouth opening under the surface, a silent scream I could never forget.
The villagers found her shoe. That was all. My father never forgave me.
"Why did it have to be my daughter Seraphina and not you instead," he said at her grave,
I stood behind the tree, bleeding inside, how could he say that to a 10 years old, a situation that wasn't my fault.
And now here she was. Alive and Smiling at the pack like a goddess. Standing next to the man I loved.
"Seraphina is your new Luna," Kael announced. "She is strong, loyal, and the right future for us all."
I felt like I was going to be sick but I swallowed it down and walked right up to him.
"I'm pregnant," I said loud enough for the room to hear. "With your child."
He didn't flinch. Didn't blink.
"Aria," Kael said softly, like he was trying not to cause a scene, "this isn't the time."
"Oh no, I think it is the time," I said, buttered
He looked me over like I was some misbehaving pup. "You and I... were never meant to be more than what we were. Seraphina is the Luna now. She's the right choice for the pack and you….you are ... no longer needed here."
And just like that I was humiliated.
I stormed back to my dorm.
It was a glorified box with a bed, but it was mine. For now.
I was throwing what ever I could grab into a bag when the door creaked open.
And there she was. Seraphina. Dressed like the Moon herself picked her outfit.
"Get out," I spat.
She stepped inside anyway. "You're leaving?"
"What, want to throw a goodbye party? With poison in the cake?"
Her face was unreadable. "You took my life."
I paused tilting my hea. "You drowned, Seraphina."
"You left me," she said, stepping closer. "You let me go under."
"I tried to save you!"
"You didn't try hard enough."
The silence between us grew as she leaned in
"But now I have it back. My life. My mate. My pack. And you? You're nothing but a ghost clinging to a man who never really wanted you."
I looked at her and she shoved me hard, hard enough tohit the floor.
My back slammed against the dresser. Pain flared at my back, but I didn't cry out.
She crouched down, caressing my hair "Once that child is gone," she whispered, "there will be nothing left tying him to you."
That's when I knew I had to run. Not tomorrow. Not with a plan. But Now.
Immediately she left, I grabbed my bag, pulled my hood over my head, and slipped out of the pack lands while the moon stared down at me.