Chapter 3
The cabin appeared like a mirage through the dense pines, smoke curling from its chimney into the twilight sky. My injured leg throbbed with each step as I approached alone, having ordered my guards to wait at a safe distance. The mate bond pulled me forward with cruel certainty, growing stronger with each painful step.
I limped closer, my breath clouding in the frigid air. Frost had formed delicate patterns on the cabin's windows, but one pane remained clear enough to see through. My trembling fingers gripped the rough wooden sill as I peered inside.
The scene that greeted me shattered whatever remained of my heart.
Alexander sat in a rocking chair before a crackling fire, cradling two small pups against his broad chest. His face—so often cold and distant with me—was transformed by a tender smile I hadn't seen in years. The pups, perhaps two years old, had his dark hair and strong features. A boy and a girl, both healthy and beautiful.
Across the room, Madison moved with practiced ease, her rounded belly protruding beneath a simple wool dress as she pressed tea leaves into a pot. The cabin was modest but warm, filled with children's toys and the unmistakable scent of family.
A family that wasn't mine.
My wolf howled in anguish, the sound echoing only in my mind as tears froze on my cheeks. This wasn't just an affair. This was a double life—a complete betrayal of everything our mate bond represented.
I must have made some sound, for Alexander's head snapped up, his eyes locking with mine through the window. For a brief moment, shock and something like shame flickered across his features before his expression hardened into the cold mask I'd grown accustomed to.
I stepped back as he rose, passing the pups to Madison before striding to the door. When it swung open, we stood face to face, the Alpha I had sacrificed everything for and the shell of a Luna I had become.
"Isabella." My name fell from his lips like a stone. No apology. No explanation.
"Three years," I whispered, my voice breaking. "You've been living this lie for three years?"
The wind whipped between us, carrying the scent of pine and betrayal. Alexander didn't flinch, didn't look away.
"This isn't a lie," he said flatly. "This is my family."
The words struck me with physical force. I staggered slightly, my injured leg nearly buckling beneath me.
"And what am I?" The question escaped before I could stop it, pathetic in its desperation.
"You're my Luna," he replied, as though stating an obvious fact. "But you couldn't give me what I needed—what the pack needed."
Madison appeared in the doorway behind him, one pup on her hip, the other clinging to her leg. Her eyes gleamed with triumph as she assessed my disheveled appearance, my tear-streaked face.
"The pack deserves strong heirs," she said, her voice honey-sweet with poison. "I've given Alpha Alexander two already, with a third on the way."
I felt hollow, emptied of everything except pain. "You promised to end this," I said to Alexander, the memory of his kneeling form begging forgiveness three years ago rising like bile in my throat.
"Things changed." His voice was cold, dismissive. "You'll need to accept this reality, Isabella. As my Luna, you will share me with Madison. Her pups are the future of Shadowmere."
Share him? The suggestion was so grotesque that a bitter laugh escaped me, surprising us both.
"There's nothing left to share," I whispered.
Three days later, I sat alone in Elara's healing tent at Shadowmere, staring at the parchment in my trembling hands. The healer's elegant script confirmed what my body had been trying to tell me for weeks: after ten years of failure, of pain and treatments and moon ceremonies, I was finally pregnant with Alexander's pup.
A miracle that had come too late.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I rose and approached the small brazier burning in the corner of the tent. With steady hands, I held the parchment over the flames, watching as the edges curled and blackened.
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