After My Alpha Refused to Save My Mother

"Frank, please. Save my mother."

My knees had gone numb against the stone floor an hour ago. I was still kneeling outside the Alpha's chambers, my plea letter crushed in my fist. My knuckles had turned white around it.

"The healer only has to look at her," I called through the heavy oak door. "One visit. That's all I'm asking. If he sees her tonight, she still has a chance."

No answer.

Two guards stood on either side of the door. The taller one, Marcus, wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Luna Zoe," he said quietly, "the Alpha said he's not to be disturbed."

"He said that yesterday." I pushed myself up. My legs shook. "And the day before. And the day before that."

Three times.

The first time, Frank had kissed my forehead and promised the pack healer would come after the council meeting. The second time, it was border patrols. Rogues near the eastern ridge. The third time, he hadn't even looked up from his maps.

"Territory disputes, Zoe. Tomorrow."

Tomorrow never came.

And my mother was burning alive in a narrow bed on the edge of the pack lands. Her fever had climbed for five days straight. She'd worked herself to the bone raising me after my father died. Scrubbing floors. Mending clothes for warriors' families. Skipping meals so I could eat.

Now I was Luna of the Silvercrest Pack, and I couldn't even summon a healer without my husband's seal.

"Move," I told Marcus.

"Luna, I really—"

"I said move."

Something in my voice made him step aside. Maybe pity. Maybe he knew what I was about to find.

I shoved the door open and crossed the outer chamber. Frank's desk sat empty. His cloak was thrown over a chair. The fire had burned low.

Then I heard it.

A woman's moan. Low and breathless. Then a man's groan, rough and familiar.

My feet stopped moving.

I knew that groan. I'd heard it in the dark for six years.

"Frank," the woman gasped. "Don't stop. Please don't stop."

My hand found the bedroom door. It wasn't even latched.

It swung open.

Frank was on the bed, his broad back bare, his body moving over a young she-wolf with dark hair spread across my pillow. Her nails dug into his shoulders. Her head was thrown back, and around her slender throat, catching the firelight—

My necklace.

The silver crescent moon with the tiny blue stone. Frank had fastened it around my neck on my eighteenth birthday, under the full moon, with his whole pack watching.

"You're mine now," he'd whispered then. "Always."

I'd thought I lost it two weeks ago. I'd torn my room apart searching for it. I'd cried.

The girl saw me first. Her eyes widened. Then her lips curved into a slow smile.

Frank turned his head.

For one second, I waited for him to scramble off her. To look sorry. To look anything.

Instead, he scowled.

"Have you lost your mind?" His voice cracked through the room. "This is the Alpha's chamber!"

I laughed.

I didn't mean to. It just came out, thin and strange, like something breaking.

"The Alpha's chamber," I repeated. "Our bed, Frank. That's our bed."

He sat up, finally pulling away from her, but he didn't reach for his clothes. He didn't reach for me. He just stared at me like I was the one who'd done something wrong.

The girl draped herself across his chest, sliding her fingers through his hair.

"Frank told me," she purred, "that I'm the only one who makes him truly happy." She tilted her head, studying me. "You're just a woman who got the Luna title because her daddy was a Beta. Everyone knows it."

My whole body trembled. I locked my knees so I wouldn't fall.

"Take off my necklace."

She touched the crescent moon and smiled wider. "He gave it to me."

"He gave it to me first."

"And now it's mine." She pressed her lips to Frank's jaw. "Like everything else."

I tore my eyes from her and fixed them on my husband. The man I'd loved since I was sixteen. The man I'd defended to every wolf who called him cold.

"Do you remember our vows?" My voice came out too quiet. I made it louder. "Under the moon. In front of the whole pack. You swore you'd protect me. You swore you'd protect my family as if it were your own."

Frank's jaw tightened.

"My mother is dying," I said. "Right now. While you're in here with her."

Something flickered across his face. Just for a moment.

Then it was gone.

He looked past me, toward the door.

"Guards."

Marcus and the other guard stepped in behind me.

"Take the Luna back to her rooms," Frank said.

That was it. No denial. No apology. Not one word about the vows.

"Frank." I stared at him. "Frank, look at me."

He didn't.

Rough hands closed around my arms. I twisted against them.

"Don't touch me! I'm your Luna—"

"Sorry, Luna," Marcus muttered. His grip didn't loosen.

They dragged me backward through the outer chamber. My heels scraped across the stone. The plea letter fell from my fingers and fluttered under Frank's desk.

We were halfway down the corridor when a voice slammed into my mind through the pack link.

Luna! Luna, can you hear me?

It was Ada, the old she-wolf I'd paid to sit with my mother.

Ada, what is it?

Her breathing. It's changed. She's rattling, Luna. She keeps saying your name. Her voice broke. I don't think she has long. Please hurry.

The world tilted.

"Let me go," I choked out. "My mother— she's—"

The guards hesitated. Their hands slipped.

I stumbled free and spun back toward the Alpha's chambers. If I begged. If I crawled. If I screamed loud enough, maybe he'd—

Frank stood in the bedroom doorway, a sheet wrapped around his waist.

Our eyes met down the long corridor.

"Frank!" I shouted. "She's dying! Please! Just send the healer!"

He held my gaze for one heartbeat.

Then he stepped back and shut the door.

The sound echoed off the stone walls. Final. Hollow.

I stood frozen, my mouth still open around his name.

The door creaked.

It opened just a crack. A slim hand curled around the edge. Then a face appeared in the gap. Dark hair. Flushed cheeks. My silver moon glinting at her throat.

She smiled at me like we were old friends.

"Oh, I almost forgot," she called sweetly. "My name is Selena."

She let the words hang. Then she leaned out a little farther.

"From today on, I'm the real mistress of this pack."

The door clicked shut.

And somewhere at the edge of the territory, my mother was calling my name.