Kira Hayes POV:

"Aiden... hold me."

It was our first wedding anniversary, and for once, I wanted to believe the distance that had grown between us could disappear for one night.

His mouth brushed the sensitive skin beneath my ear, his hand firm around my waist as he pulled me closer. I wore the silver silk slip dress I'd chosen just for him, the thin fabric cool against my heated skin.

For a few precious seconds, there was no pack, no work, no endless responsibilities—only Aiden Carlisle, my husband and my fated mate.

He was the reigning Alpha of the powerful and wealthy Carlisle Pack, and one of Hollywood's biggest A-list movie stars.

To the rest of the world, he was a man with everything—power, money, fame, and countless admirers. But tonight, I only wanted him to be my husband.

Then his laptop chimed.

Aiden went still. The warmth vanished from his expression almost instantly. He released me and stepped away, leaving cold air where his body had been.

"I have a video conference," he said, already reaching for the crisp shirt draped over the back of a chair.

I stared at him, still trying to catch my breath. "Now? Aiden, it's our anniversary..."

"Pack business always comes first." He pulled on the shirt, the words laced with an authority that allowed no argument. It was an Alpha's command, a fundamental rule of our world, even to his mate.

A wave of hurt washed over me, but I forced a smile. "Okay. I'll wait for you."

My hand unconsciously settled over my still-flat stomach.

I hadn't told him yet. I was pregnant.

For three days, I had carried the secret alone, imagining every possible expression on his face when I finally told him. Tonight had seemed perfect. Our first anniversary. A fresh beginning. Maybe this baby could bring back some of the tenderness we'd lost.

For our baby, I told myself. I could be patient a little longer.

Aiden sat at his desk, put on his headset, and turned his attention completely to the screen. I remained nearby, the anniversary night I'd imagined slipping away minute by minute while his voice stayed cool and businesslike behind me.

An hour later, he finally took off the headset. I stood up immediately, my face arranged back into a mask of hopeful expectation.

He walked toward me. My heart hammered against my ribs, thinking, finally. A hug. A word.

He just picked up his jacket from the sofa. "Thanks for waiting. Get some rest."

His lips brushed my forehead. As cold as a snowflake.

My smile froze. "Where are you going? It's almost midnight."

His phone buzzed. The screen lit up with a name that felt like a physical blow.

Blanche.

Aiden answered it instantly. The impatience he'd shown me vanished, replaced by a tenderness I hadn't heard in months.

A woman's broken sob came through the phone.

"Aiden... I'm sorry. I know it's late, and I know tonight is probably important to you and Kira, so I really shouldn't be bothering you..." Blanche's voice trembled delicately. "But my tire blew out on this mountain road outside the city. It's so dark here, and I'm all alone. Some reporters recognized me after I pulled over, and now they're surrounding my car. They keep banging on the windows and taking pictures. I'm scared to even get out."

Her breath hitched with another soft sob. "I called roadside assistance, but with all these reporters blocking the road, I don't even know if they can get to me. I'm sorry, Aiden. I really didn't know who else to call."

She sniffled, then added quickly, "Forget it. I shouldn't have bothered you. Kira must be waiting for you. I'll just... stay in the car and figure something out myself."

"Don't be afraid. Tell me where you are. I'm on my way."

My mind went blank. The blood in my veins turned to ice. Blanche Watkins. The actress who always hinted at something more with Aiden in her interviews. His ex-girlfriend.

He hung up and walked straight to the door without a single glance at me.

"Don't go!" I scrambled after him, grabbing his arm. The words tore from my throat, raw with panic. "Aiden, I'm pregnant!"

He stopped. He turned, and his eyes held no surprise, no joy. Only cold assessment and a flicker of annoyance.

"Kira, don't use lies like that to get attention. Not now."

Lies?

The word ripped my heart to shreds. He thought I was lying.

He yanked his arm from my grasp. The force sent me stumbling backward.

"Her car has a flat tire on a mountain road outside the city," he said, his voice cold, as if explaining a duty of grave importance. "She's alone and it's dangerous."

I ran after him, down the grand staircase. My foot slipped on the plush runner.

The world spun.

I tumbled down the long flight of stairs, a sharp, twisting pain exploding in my abdomen.

"Aiden..." I landed in a heap on the cold marble floor. A warm, sticky wetness spread between my legs. I reached for him, my hand trembling.

He glanced back. I saw a flash of hesitation in his eyes, quickly replaced by overwhelming irritation.

With my last ounce of strength, I reached for him through our mind-link, the sacred connection between fated mates.

"Aiden, save me... save our baby..."

My mental touch, a fragile thread, found him. A jolt of my agony shot through the link.

A second later, he severed it. Cleanly. Brutally.

"Stop being so dramatic, Kira."

That was his last message to me.

Darkness swarmed my vision. I felt my life, my hope, and our child draining away with the blood pooling beneath me.

The heavy front door of the manor slammed shut, sealing me in my own private hell.

Kira Hayes POV:

I came to on the cold marble floor, my clothes damp and sticky with blood. The metallic tang of iron filled my mouth and nose.

I struggled to open my eyes. My vision blurred in and out, and it took several seconds before I could make out the grand foyer around me and the dark stain spreading beneath my body. My blood.

The pain in my abdomen was agony, a physical reminder of the small life I had just lost.

My hand trembled as I fished my phone from my pocket. The screen was a spiderweb of cracks, but it lit up.

I dialed Aiden's number. Again. And again. Each time, the same cold, automated voice: "The user you are calling is currently busy."

I tried the mind-link again, pushing my consciousness toward his. It was like throwing myself against a steel wall. It bounced back, rejected. He had blocked me.

Despair washed over me, a suffocating tide. My Alpha, my mate, had chosen to believe another woman, had cut off my every cry for help while I was bleeding out on his floor.

Tears I couldn't control slid down my cheeks, mixing with the blood on the marble.

Just as my consciousness began to fade again, the cracked screen of my phone lit up.

Chloe Sullivan. My best friend.

The one person I knew I could still count on.

I swiped to answer, my fingers clumsy. I couldn't form a word, only a weak, guttural sob.

"Kira? Are you there? Oh my god, what's wrong?" Chloe's voice on the other end was sharp with alarm. She always knew when something was truly wrong.

I tried to speak, but only broken sounds came out. "...stairs... blood..."

"Don't move! I'm coming right now!" Her voice was firm, decisive. The line went dead.

I don't know how long I lay there. It felt like an eternity. The front door burst open, not unlocked but forced, and Chloe rushed in with several men in Pack security uniforms.

She saw me and let out a strangled scream. She ran to my side, her hands shaking as she pulled off her own coat to wrap around me.

"Oh god, Kira. Who did this to you?"

I just looked at her, fresh tears welling up, unable to speak.

I barely remembered being rushed to the Pack hospital. There were only scattered flashes—the wail of the ambulance siren, Chloe's hand gripping mine, and the ceiling above me slipping in and out of focus.

I woke up to a stark white ceiling and the sharp, clean scent of antiseptic.

Chloe was sitting by my bed, her eyes red and swollen. "You're awake," she said, her voice hoarse.

"The baby..." I whispered, my hand flying to my stomach. It felt empty. A hollow, aching void that made it hard to breathe.

Chloe's tears fell. She took my hand. "I'm so sorry, Kira... The Healer said... you were eight weeks pregnant. But you lost too much blood. The cub... it didn't make it."

Even though I already knew, hearing the words spoken aloud was a final, brutal verdict. My heart felt like it had been scooped out with a spoon.

The Healer, an older she-wolf with kind, compassionate eyes, entered the room. "Luna," she said softly. "Your body is very weak. You need to rest." In our world, the Healer was a revered position, their skills innate and precious.

"Does... does Aiden know?" I asked, my throat raw.

A flash of fury crossed Chloe's face. "I called him a dozen times. Texted him. He didn't answer a single one. He hasn't even asked about you."

The Healer sighed. "The Alpha has a right to know he has lost a cub. I have sent him an official notification through Pack channels."

A tiny, stupid flicker of hope ignited in my chest. An official notification. He couldn't call that a lie, could he?

Hours passed. The door to my room remained closed. Aiden never came.

Then, my phone vibrated on the bedside table. A text from Aiden. His first contact since he'd left me bleeding on the floor.

My hands shook as I opened it.

The message was only one sentence.

"Using Pack medical resources to support your performance, Kira. You've truly disappointed me."

I stared at the words, the blood in my body freezing solid. He still didn't believe me. He thought all of this—the hospital, the Healer's official diagnosis—was just an elaborate play I had staged to get him back.

Kira Hayes POV:

I read the text message over and over. Each word was a shard of ice, poisoned and sharp, driving deeper into my heart.

"Performance?" I whispered, and a laugh escaped my lips. It was a raw, ugly sound. The tears were gone. There was nothing left to cry.

Chloe snatched the phone from my hand. Her body trembled with rage as she read the message. "That bastard! I'm going to kill him!"

"Don't, Chloe," I said. My voice was eerily calm, without a ripple of emotion. "He's not worth it."

The greatest sorrow is a dead heart. In that moment, all the love I had for Aiden Carlisle died, along with the child we never got to meet.

I stayed in the hospital for two more days. Chloe never left my side. Aiden never sent another message, never made another call, and certainly never appeared.

On the day of my discharge, I refused Chloe's offer to drive me back to the manor. "No. I have to go back myself. Some things need to be finished, face to face."

I took a cab back to the place I once called home. It had only been a few days, but the opulent mansion felt alien and nauseating.

Aiden was in the living room, sitting on the sofa, reading a file as if nothing had happened. He glanced up when I walked in, his expression bored.

"If you're done with your tantrum, try to be quiet."

I walked right up to him and slapped a copy of the hospital's diagnostic report onto the coffee table in front of him. "Here are the props for my 'performance,' Alpha Carlisle."

He glanced at the title, "Diagnosis of Miscarriage." His brow furrowed for a second, then smoothed out again, his face a mask of condescending indifference. "Did you bribe the Healer? Kira, your methods are getting more and more pathetic."

"Where did you go?" I asked, my voice cold, ignoring his insult.

He seemed taken aback by my tone. He hesitated before answering. "I went to deal with Blanche's situation. After her tire blew out on that mountain road, someone recognized her. Word got out that she'd been stranded there alone, and reporters started showing up. By the time I arrived, they were surrounding her car and shoving cameras in her face. She was already shaken up from the breakdown, and the reporters made it worse."

"So your celebrity ex-girlfriend getting cornered by gossip reporters after a flat tire was more important than your mate's life? More important than your own child's life?" My voice was quiet, but every word was a poisoned dart.

Aiden's expression finally changed. He stood up, his tall frame casting a heavy shadow, radiating pressure. "I warned you. Don't test my limits with a non-existent child."

I looked at him and found it all so ridiculous. I straightened my spine, meeting his deep brown eyes without flinching.

In the clearest, coldest voice I could manage, I spoke the words that would change everything. "I, Kira Hayes..."

Aiden's pupils contracted violently. He knew what was coming. In the werewolf world, every single one of us knew what those words signified. The beginning of the Rejection.

"Stop!" he snarled. A wave of his powerful Alpha pheromones crashed against me, an invisible wall meant to force me into submission, to silence me.

In the past, his Alpha's Command would have made my knees buckle.

But today, the pain of losing my child and the last of my love for him burned hotter than the instinct that once compelled me to obey my Alpha.

I stood my ground against the immense pressure and finished the sentence he had tried to cut short.

"...reject you, Aiden Carlisle, as my mate."

The moment the words left my mouth, I felt a searing pain, as if my very soul was being ripped in two. It was the backlash from rejecting a fated bond. The room went dark for a second.

Aiden staggered, his face instantly turning deathly pale. As the one being rejected, the pain he suffered was far greater than mine. It was the law of the Goddess.

He clutched his chest, staring at me in disbelief. "Are you insane?"

According to Pack law, a rejection required mutual consent. As soon as he said, "I accept your rejection," our bond would be severed forever.

I gritted my teeth against the agony. "Now," I said, looking at him coldly. "Say you accept."

He was breathing heavily, a flicker of panic in his eyes, quickly masked by rage.

"I will never accept," he bit out. "You're making a fool of yourself, and of me. You're not going anywhere without my permission."

He was using his Alpha status to threaten me. "As long as I don't agree, you will always be the Luna of the Carlisle Pack. Don't forget your family still lives on Pack lands."

I looked at his face, twisted by pain and anger, and said nothing more. I turned, picked up the small suitcase I had packed before leaving the hospital, and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" he roared from behind me.

"To a place without you," I said without looking back, and pulled open the heavy front door.