Aria's POV
I woke up screaming.
"My baby! Where's my baby?"
My hands flew to my stomach, searching, pressing, desperate to feel something. Anything. The last thing I remembered was fainting in Alpha Kael's arms. What if they had done something to my child while I was unconscious? What if—
"Easy, child. Easy."
Gentle hands pressed me back against the pillows. I blinked through my tears and saw an old woman sitting beside the bed. Her face was wrinkled like a dried apple, but her eyes were warm and kind.
"Your baby is fine," she said softly. "I examined you myself. The little one is strong and healthy."
I didn't believe her. I couldn't. Everyone in my life had lied to me.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" My voice cracked. "How do I know this isn't another trick?"
The old woman smiled sadly. "You don't. But I swear on the Moon Goddess herself—your child is safe."
Something about the way she said it made me want to believe her. I took a shaky breath and looked around the room.
It was beautiful. A huge bed with silk sheets. A fireplace crackling with warmth. Sunlight streaming through tall windows. This was nicer than anywhere I had ever slept in my entire life.
"Where am I?"
"Nightshade Pack house. East wing." The old woman handed me a cup of warm tea. "I'm Nana. I've been taking care of wolves in this pack for sixty years."
I took the tea but didn't drink it. "Why am I here? Why didn't they kill me?"
Nana's eyes flickered with something I couldn't read. "That's not for me to say. The Alpha will explain."
The Alpha. Kael. The monster with silver eyes who had carried me like I weighed nothing. Who had called me his mate.
My heart started racing again.
"He said something to me," I whispered. "Before I passed out. He said his wolf called me..."
"Mate?" Nana finished.
I stared at her. "You know?"
"The whole pack knows by now. Word travels fast." She patted my hand gently. "I know you're scared, child. But Alpha Kael isn't what the stories say."
"He kills rogues on sight."
"He protects his pack."
"He murdered his own father."
"His father was a monster who deserved far worse." Nana's voice hardened. "I watched that man torture his own children for sport. Kael did what had to be done."
I didn't know what to say. My whole life, I had heard stories about the terrifying Alpha Kael. Now this kind old woman was telling me those stories were wrong?
Before I could ask more questions, the door slammed open.
Kael stood in the doorway. In daylight, he was even more intimidating than before. His silver eyes locked onto me immediately, and I felt that strange pull again—like an invisible thread connecting us.
"Leave us," he said to Nana.
She stood up slowly. "Be gentle with her, Alpha. She's been through—"
"I said leave."
Nana gave me one last reassuring look before walking out. The door closed behind her with a heavy thud.
And then I was alone with the monster.
He didn't move from the doorway. Just stood there, staring at me with those unreadable silver eyes.
"I want answers," he said. "Now."
My throat went dry. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything. Why you were running. Why you crossed into my territory. Why you carry Damien's scent—" He spat the name like poison. "—and his child."
The hatred in his voice when he said Damien's name was terrifying. It was also confusing.
"You know Damien?"
Kael's jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind. "Answer my questions first."
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly feeling very small in this huge bed.
"I was running because he was going to kill me," I said quietly. "Damien. He... he used me. For four years he made me believe he loved me. But it was all a lie."
"What did he want from you?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. Something about my bloodline. Something about the Moon Goddess." Tears started falling down my cheeks. "I don't understand any of it. I'm just an omega. I'm nobody."
Kael crossed the room in three long strides. He grabbed my wrist—not roughly, but firmly—and turned it over.
There, on my inner wrist, was a mark I had never noticed before. It looked like a crescent moon surrounded by tiny stars. It glowed faintly silver in the light.
"You're not nobody," Kael said, his voice strange. "You're the last of the Moon Goddess bloodline. That mark proves it."
I stared at the mark in shock. "That wasn't there before."
"It was hidden. Dormant. Until your powers started waking up." His silver eyes bore into mine. "That's why Damien wanted you. That's why he got you pregnant. He wanted to breed the power out of you and into a child he could control."
The words hit me like a punch to the stomach.
Everything Damien had said in his office came flooding back. *"If I can get her pregnant, our child will have abilities no wolf has had in centuries."*
My baby. My innocent baby. Damien had created it to be a weapon.
"I'm going to be sick," I whispered.
Kael released my wrist and stepped back. For a moment, his cold mask slipped. I saw something almost like concern in his eyes.
"He'll come for you," Kael said. "Damien. He won't let you go. Not now that you're carrying what he wants."
Fear gripped my heart. "Then give me to him. I don't want to cause a war. I'll just—"
"No."
The word was absolute. Final. It echoed through the room like a command from the Moon Goddess herself.
"You are my mate," Kael said slowly. "Whether I want it or not. Whether you want it or not. The bond exists. And I will not hand my mate over to the wolf who murdered my sister."
The air left my lungs.
"Damien killed your sister?"
Kael's eyes turned to ice. Pure, frozen hatred.
"Ten years ago. She was fourteen years old. He ripped out her throat and left her body at our border as a message." His voice was barely human. "I have waited a decade for my revenge."
He stepped closer, towering over me.
"And now you've brought me the perfect opportunity. Damien's secrets. Damien's child. Damien's weakness."
My blood ran cold. "You're going to use me?"
"I'm going to protect you." His silver eyes gleamed dangerously. "And then I'm going to burn Blackwood Pack to the ground."
He turned and walked toward the door.
"Wait!" I called out. "What about my baby? What happens to my child?"
He stopped with his hand on the doorknob. He didn't turn around.
"That depends."
"On what?"
The silence stretched for an eternity.
"On whether it's truly Damien's child." His voice was ice. "Or whether something else is going on that even you don't understand yet."
Then he left, slamming the door behind him.
And I was left clutching my stomach, terrified by his words.
What did he mean? Of course the baby was Damien's. Who else could be the father?
Unless...
Unless there was something about my bloodline—something about the Moon Goddess power—that changed everything I thought I knew.
What was growing inside me?