REJECTED BY FATE, CURSED BY PROPHECY

"Are you mad?"

The words cut through the night like a blade.

Naira did not turn. She stood at the edge of the river with her cloak pulled tight around her shoulders, staring at the black water as if it might swallow her thoughts.

Behind her, her sister stepped closer. "Do you know what you have done?"

Naira swallowed. "I know what I survived."

"That is not an answer."

The wind dragged dead leaves across the ground. Somewhere beyond the trees, wolves howled, their voices distant but watchful.

"You lay with the Alpha," her sister said again, slower this time. "After his brother rejected you."

Naira's fingers curled into fists.

"He did more than reject me," she said quietly. "He promised me a bond. He promised me a name. Then he gave it to another woman and told me to forget him."

Her sister scoffed. "And so you chose the throne instead?"

"I chose not to die poor and forgotten," Naira snapped.

Silence fell between them.

The Alpha's house rose on the hill like a scar in the dark. Stone walls. Iron gates. The center of all decisions.

"You will be called a mistress," her sister said. "They will spit your name like poison."

"They already do," Naira replied. "Even before this."

Her sister stepped closer. "What about the Luna?"

Naira looked away.

"She watches everything."

"And she will destroy you."

Naira pressed a hand to her stomach.

"She cannot touch what she does not know," she said.

Her sister froze. "What do you mean?"

The words came out like a confession and a curse.

"I am with child."

The night seemed to hold its breath.

"...Whose?" her sister asked slowly.

Naira lifted her chin. "The Alpha's."

A sharp breath escaped her sister's lips. "You have sentenced yourself."

"I have saved myself," Naira whispered.

"You think this will protect you?"

"It already has."

Her sister shook her head. "You should have left the pack. You should have run."

"And go where?" Naira demanded. "To starve among rogues? To be hunted like meat?"

"You would have lived."

"Living is not the same as surviving."

Her sister looked at her with something close to fear.

"What will you tell them?"

Naira hesitated.

"I will say the child belongs to his brother."

Her sister stared. "You will lie?"

"I will breathe," Naira said. "I will walk in daylight. I will not beg again."

The river whispered beside them.

"You will destroy him," her sister said. "The brother."

"He destroyed me first."

"Two wrongs do not make safety."

"They make silence."

Footsteps broke the night.

Both women turned.

The Alpha stepped from the trees, his presence bending the space around him. His cloak moved like shadow. His eyes were cold, unreadable.

"You should not meet here," he said.

"I belong nowhere else," Naira answered.

His gaze dropped to her stomach.

"You told her."

"Yes."

He studied her sister. "She will keep quiet."

Her sister swallowed but said nothing.

"No one must know," the Alpha