"Or I will have the pack guards strip you of your title right here in this hallway," Damian warned, his voice echoing off the sterile walls.

I didn't wait to hear another word. I turned my back on my mate and my sister, pushing through the heavy glass double doors of the clinic.

The afternoon sun beat down on the asphalt parking lot, but I felt only ice in my veins. My joints throbbed with that familiar, crippling ache. I took one step, then another, my vision swimming until the concrete blurred into a gray smear.

A violent cough tore through my chest, ripping a ragged sound from my throat. I doubled over, pressing both hands to my mouth.

Warm liquid coated my tongue. I pulled my hands away.

Blood. Bright, sticky crimson smeared across my skin.

My knees buckled. The ground rushed up to meet me.

Tires shrieked nearby. A matte-black sedan slammed into park just feet away. A car door flew open. Strong arms caught my waist before my head could strike the pavement.

"Selena!" a deep, commanding voice barked.

I blinked, trying to focus on the sharp jawline and dark eyes above me, but the darkness dragged me under.

"Swallow," a harsh voice ordered.

I choked down the bitter liquid and forced my heavy eyelids open.

Cassian Ravenwood stood beside the hospital bed, holding a glass of water. He wore a tailored black shirt, the sleeves rolled up to expose heavily scarred forearms. The boy who used to sneak through my bedroom window was gone. In his place stood the Alpha of the Northern Pack, a man whose reputation for ruthlessness stretched across territories.

Yet, resting against his collarbone, a silver crescent moon pendant caught the fluorescent light. The exact one I bought him at a summer festival ten years ago.

"Cassian," I rasped, my throat raw.

He set the glass on the bedside table with a sharp clink. "You look like a corpse, Selena."

"Good to see you too." I pushed myself up against the pillows. The room smelled of bleach and sterile cotton, entirely different from the pack clinic I had just left. "Where am I?"

"My territory," he said, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "My private hospital. When I saw you collapse outside the obstetrics wing, I didn't trust Damian’s medics to touch you."

I flinched at Damian’s name.

Cassian leaned closer, his dark eyes narrowing. "You chose him over me. You stood in front of my father, rejected my claim, and told the entire council Damian was your fated mate. So tell me, why is your fated mate parading your pregnant sister around while you cough up blood in a parking lot?"

I looked away, staring at the IV taped to the back of my hand. "I have Lupus. My body is failing. I lost our pup a month ago."

"Bullshit," Cassian snapped.

I snapped my gaze back to him. "Excuse me?"

"I said it is bullshit." He turned toward the door. "Thorne! Get in here."

A tall man in a white coat stepped into the room, holding a thick manila folder. "Alpha Ravenwood. Luna."

"She is not his Luna anymore," Cassian corrected sharply. "Tell her what you found."

Dr. Thorne opened the file. "I ran a full toxicology and blood panel when Alpha Ravenwood brought you in. You do not have Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Selena."

My fingers tightened on the edge of the blanket. "I saw the lab results. My joints ache. My hair is falling out. I could not carry my baby to term."

"Those are symptoms of a systemic failure, yes," Thorne replied, pulling out a glossy scan. "But they are not caused by an autoimmune disease. They are caused by Wolf-bane herb."

The name hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.

"Wolf-bane?" I repeated, my voice hollow. "That is a myth. A dark magic toxin from the old wars."

"It is very real," Cassian said, stepping in front of the doctor. "And someone has been feeding it to you for a long time."

Dr. Thorne tapped the scan. "The toxin is designed to suppress your inner wolf. It attacks the immune system, mimics chronic illness, and induces severe weakness. It also makes the uterus completely uninhabitable for a werewolf pup. It caused your miscarriage."

My lungs seized. The sterile room spun.

My baby. My tiny, perfect pup. I didn't lose him because my body was broken. I lost him because someone murdered him.

"Are you certain?" I whispered, my voice trembling.

"Absolutely," Dr. Thorne said. "But Wolf-bane herb breaks down quickly in the bloodstream. To keep you this sick, to maintain the illusion of Lupus, the poison must be ingested continuously. Every single day."

"Thank you, Thorne. Leave us," Cassian ordered.

The door clicked shut, leaving us alone in the tense silence.

Cassian gripped the metal railing of my bed. "Who handles your food, Selena? Who prepares your drinks?"

"The pack omegas," I murmured, my mind racing. "But they cook for everyone. If it was the main food supply, Damian and the others would be sick too."

"Then it is something specific to you," Cassian pushed, his voice dropping to a low, demanding growl. "Think. What do you consume daily that no one else touches?"

I stared at the white blanket. The past six months flashed through my mind. The sudden onset of my insomnia. The exhaustion.

“You look so tired, sister. Let me make you something special.”

Vivian’s sweet, innocent voice echoed in my ears.

“It is a special herbal blend, just for sleep. You have to drink it every night, Selena. Promise me.”

My stomach violently churned.

"Tea," I choked out.

Cassian’s jaw tightened. "What tea?"

"Vivian," I said, the name tasting like ash on my tongue. "For the last six months, she comes to my room every night. She brews a special sleep-aiding herbal tea. She stands there and watches me drink every last drop."

Cassian’s eyes darkened with lethal understanding. "Your little sister."

"She told me it was to help me rest." I grabbed the collar of my hospital gown, struggling to pull air into my lungs. "She poisoned me. She killed my baby. And now she is carrying Damian’s pup."

"She cleared the path," Cassian stated, his tone devoid of pity, offering only cold facts. "She broke your body so she could take your mate and your title."

I threw the blanket off my legs.

"What are you doing?" Cassian grabbed my shoulder, pushing me back down.

"Let go of me," I snarled, my wolf suddenly clawing at the surface, fueled by a rage I had never known. "I need to go back. I am going to rip her throat out."

"You can barely stand!" Cassian shouted, his Alpha aura flaring, pressing me into the mattress. "If you go back there now, Damian will kill you to protect her. You have no proof. You are weak. You will die."

I fought against his grip, tears of pure fury spilling down my cheeks. "She murdered my baby, Cassian! She smiled at me while she poured poison down my throat!"

"I know!" he roared back, his face inches from mine.

The silence that followed was deafening. He exhaled sharply, his expression softening just a fraction. He reached up, his thumb brushing away a tear that had streaked down my jaw.

"I know," he repeated, his voice dangerously quiet. "But you do not fight a war by walking into an ambush. You want revenge, Selena?"

I stopped struggling. I stared into the dark eyes of the boy I had rejected, the man who had just saved my life. "More than anything."

Cassian stepped back and reached into his jacket pocket. "Then we start by finding exactly what she has been feeding you."

He tossed a small, familiar object onto my lap.

My leather purse. The one I had at the clinic.

I unclasped the brass lock and dug past my wallet. My fingers brushed against cold metal. I pulled out the silver travel thermos Vivian had pressed into my hands this morning.

I twisted the cap off, and floating at the top of the dark liquid were three intact, dried purple roots.

Cassian threw a thick stack of printed bank statements onto my lap. "Three wire transfers. All routed through offshore shell accounts, but my trackers pinpointed the origin."

I picked up the top page. "Vivian Ashford," I read aloud, my voice flat.

"She bought the Wolf-bane from a black market dealer in the eastern sector," Cassian said, pacing the length of the sterile hospital room. "Every month for the past half-year. I had my men extract the dealer an hour ago. He confessed to everything."

He stopped at the foot of the bed, his dark eyes locking onto mine. "Dr. Marcus. The physician who diagnosed your Lupus."

"What about him?" I asked, gripping the paper.

"He received a deposit of fifty thousand dollars two days ago. From the same account." Cassian pulled a tablet from his jacket and handed it to me. "My hackers pulled your real medical file from the clinic's secure server. The one Marcus hid from you and the pack council."

I studied the glowing screen, my eyes scanning the dense paragraphs of medical jargon.

"Read the highlighted section," Cassian ordered.

"Fetal demise due to acute Wolf-bane toxicity," I read, the words scraping against my throat like broken glass.

My chest tightened. The air vanished from the room.

"He didn't die because my body was weak," I whispered. "She poisoned him. She flooded my system until his heart stopped."

"Marcus altered the official logs to show a natural miscarriage," Cassian stated, his tone a low rumble of restrained fury. "Your sister didn't just steal your mate, Selena. She murdered your pup."

The tablet slipped from my fingers, clattering onto the floor.

A guttural snarl ripped through the room. Cassian kicked a metal chair out of his way. It slammed into the wall, denting the plaster.

"I am sending my elite guard," he declared, marching toward the door. "I will drag her out of Damian's den by her hair and execute her in the middle of the borderlands."

"No!" I shouted.

I forced my legs over the edge of the mattress. My joints screamed in protest, the residual toxin flaring hot in my veins, but I planted my bare feet on the cold tile.

Cassian spun around, his jaw clenched. "She killed your child. The penalty is death."

"And she will die," I said, locking my trembling knees in place. "But not a quick death. Not a martyr's death."

He crossed his arms, the silver crescent moon pendant glinting against his dark shirt. "You want to let her live?"

"I want her to lose everything," I corrected. "If you kill her now, Damian will mourn her forever. The pack will remember her as a tragic victim. I will not give her that satisfaction."

I took a step toward him. "I want her stripped of her title, her mate, and her dignity in front of every single wolf who ever smiled at her. I want her to feel the exact same emptiness she forced down my throat."

Cassian studied my face. The feral glow in his eyes slowly faded into a cold, calculating gleam.

"Do you think Damian knew?" he asked, his voice dropping an octave.

"No," I answered immediately. "Damian is arrogant and cruel, but he values his bloodline above all else. He would never allow anyone to harm his heir. Vivian played him just as she played me."

"Then you stay here," Cassian said. "The Night Pack territory is secure. Dr. Thorne will start your detox protocols immediately. You do not leave this compound until the Wolf-bane is entirely flushed from your veins."

"Agreed," I said.

A sharp chime echoed from my discarded purse.

Cassian retrieved my phone and tossed it onto the mattress. The screen lit up with a notification from the pack's official communication channel.

"Your mate is busy," Cassian noted, glancing at the screen.

I unlocked the device. A live video feed filled the display.

Damian stood on the grand balcony of the Alpha estate. The very balcony where we had shared our first kiss. Below him, hundreds of pack members cheered.

He held Vivian's hand, raising it high into the air. She wore my favorite white silk dress, the one I had saved for our anniversary.

"The Moon Goddess tests us all," Damian's voice boomed through the phone's tiny speakers, echoing with absolute authority. "Selena's illness is a tragedy, but the pack cannot show weakness. She has chosen to step away for her health."

I scoffed. "I didn't choose anything. I bled out in a parking lot."

"In her absence," Damian continued on the screen, "Vivian will assume all duties. She carries my heir. She carries our future, and she will be treated with the respect of a Luna."

The crowd erupted into applause. Vivian leaned into Damian's chest, offering a shy, perfect smile to the cameras.

"My sister is resting," Vivian said, leaning into the microphone. "I only wish to make her proud while she recovers."

Not a single search party. Not a single text message asking if I was alive. He had replaced me before the sun even set.

"Pathetic," Cassian muttered, watching over my shoulder. "He doesn't even question your disappearance."

I watched the man I had loved since childhood. The man who promised to protect me from the world, now parading my would-be murderer as his queen.

I set the phone face down on the bedside table.

I looked down at my left hand. The diamond engagement ring and the gold wedding band felt heavy. Suffocating.

I pinched the gold metal and pulled.

The rings slid over my knuckle. I dropped them onto the metal tray next to my IV bags. They landed with a sharp, hollow clink.

Cassian watched the rings settle. "Severing a mate bond will tear your soul in half. Especially in your weakened state. You could die."

"Then Thorne better pump me full of every antidote he has," I replied, meeting his gaze. "Because I am not dying before Damian feels the bond snap."

"When?" Cassian asked.

"The Moon Goddess Festival is in seven days," I said. "The entire pack council will be there. The elders, the neighboring Alphas, everyone."

"A very public stage," Cassian observed.

"Exactly." I turned my back to the discarded rings. "On the night of the festival, I will walk onto that stage and sever the mate bond myself."