Luna Rejects Alpha's Lies

The acrid smell of wolfsbane still clung to my clothes as I knelt beside Eliza's bed in the pack clinic, my hands trembling as I smoothed her dark hair back from her pale forehead. Blood had dried on my palms from where my Luna aura had torn through me like shattered glass, the magical backlash leaving me weak and hollow.

"She's stable now," Dr. Morrison whispered, her weathered hands gentle as she checked Eliza's pulse. "But Clare, this wasn't an accident. The concentration of wolfsbane in her system—someone deliberately—"

The clinic door burst open with enough force to rattle the glass bottles on the shelves. Evan's presence filled the room like a thunderstorm, his Alpha aura crackling with barely contained fury. But when his eyes landed on me, kneeling bloodied beside our daughter's bed, there was no concern. Only cold, cutting anger.

"What the hell happened?" His voice was ice, each word a blade. "How could you let this happen to her?"

I stared at him, speechless. After everything—after finding him with Miley, after being banished to the servants' quarters, after watching him parade his mistress in front of the entire pack—he was blaming me?

"Evan, please," Dr. Morrison interjected, stepping between us. "The wolfsbane was mixed into Eliza's food. Someone targeted her specifically. The amount, the placement—this was deliberate poisoning."

"Excuses." Evan's jaw clenched, his gaze never leaving my face. "You're her mother, Clare. You're supposed to protect her. Instead, you're so busy playing the victim that you can't even keep our daughter safe."

The words hit me like physical blows. My mate bond, already fractured beyond repair, screamed in agony as his rejection of me—of us—became absolute. I felt something inside me break completely, a final thread snapping under the weight of his cruelty.

"I used my Luna aura to save her life," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "While you were too busy with your mistress to even notice your daughter was dying."

Evan's eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't you dare—"

"Alpha Stone." Dr. Morrison's voice cut through his rage like a scalpel. "With respect, your mate nearly killed herself protecting Eliza tonight. The magical backlash from using her aura in that state could have stopped her heart. She chose to risk her own life for your daughter's."

But Evan had already turned away, dismissing both the doctor's words and my sacrifice with a wave of his hand. "Fix her," he commanded, his tone flat and emotionless. "Both of them. I have pack business to attend to."

He left without another word, without even looking at Eliza's unconscious form. The door slammed behind him, and in the sudden silence, I heard Dr. Morrison's sharp intake of breath.

"Luna," she said softly, "this can't continue. What he's doing to you, to Eliza—"

"I know." The words tasted like ash in my mouth.

Three days later, while Eliza napped fitfully in our cramped servants' quarters, I heard Miley's voice drifting through the thin walls. She was speaking to someone on the phone, her tone hushed but excited.

"Yes, I have the gold," she whispered. "And I can guarantee safe passage through Silver Moon territory for the next month. All I need are the documents we discussed."

My wolf stirred uneasily. Documents? What kind of documents required gold and safe passage as payment?

"Make sure they look authentic," Miley continued. "The bloodline markers need to show... inconsistencies. Yes, that's right. Make it look like the child isn't his."

My blood turned to ice. Bloodline tests. She was talking about forging bloodline tests.

I pressed my ear closer to the wall, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"I don't care what it costs," Miley's voice was sharp with determination. "Just make sure no one can prove they're fake. The Alpha needs to believe his daughter isn't really his blood. Once he sees those results..."

The rest of her words faded as she moved away from the wall, but I'd heard enough. Miley wasn't just stealing my mate—she was planning to destroy Eliza's legitimacy as Alpha heir. To make Evan believe his own daughter was a bastard.

I sank onto the narrow bed, my hands shaking as the full scope of her plan became clear. She'd poisoned Eliza to make me look negligent. Now she was forging evidence to make Evan question Eliza's parentage entirely.

And knowing Evan's current state of mind, his anger and disappointment with both of us, he would believe whatever lie she presented.

My daughter was about to lose everything—her father, her birthright, her place in the pack. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

The mate bond pulsed weakly in my chest, a dying ember of what we'd once shared. Soon, even that would be gone.