Alex's hand was already reaching for the document in my hands.

Then his closest subordinate burst into the bedroom in a panic.

"Alpha! Something's happened!" The man hadn't even knocked. "Vivian was attacked by rogues at the border!"

At the sound of her name, Alex's hand froze in midair.

The subordinate shot a nervous glance at me, swallowed, and continued.

"The warriors you secretly assigned to protect Vivian captured the rogues."

"The rogues confessed that the Luna paid them to kill Vivian."

Alex's face changed instantly.

He whipped around and stared at me, his eyes blazing with disbelief and fury.

"You hired rogues to kill her?" he snarled through clenched teeth.

I looked at him and felt nothing but disgust at the absurdity.

"It wasn't me," I said, meeting his gaze evenly. "Since the day she was banished, I haven't spared a single thought about whether she lived or died."

"This is obviously a setup Vivian staged herself — to force you to go running back to her."

But Alex wasn't listening.

He snatched the document from my hands and slammed it down on the table.

"Ivy, your jealousy is terrifying!"

He threw those words at me, grabbed the car keys, and stormed out.

"Get the car! We're going to the border for Vivian!" His voice echoed down the hallway.

I stood there, watching his retreating figure until it was gone.

I decided I was done waiting.

Five days was too long. I needed hard evidence of his betrayal to fast-track the Alpha Council's proceedings.

I walked into Alex's study.

In a hidden compartment at the very bottom of his desk, my fingers found a hard metal case.

A second phone.

I tried his birthday as the password. Wrong.

I paused — then tried Vivian's birthday.

The screen lit up.

The moment I opened the photo gallery, my blood ran cold.

It was full of Vivian's photos and selfies.

Several were intimate pictures of the two of them together.

Scrolling further, I found explicit videos.

But what destroyed me was a locked folder buried at the very bottom.

I entered Vivian's birthday. The folder opened.

Inside were screenshots of every love note Vivian had sent Alex a year ago.

When I'd discovered those messages back then, Alex had knelt before me, sobbing.

He'd deleted every last one right in front of my eyes.

Now, every single screenshot had been recovered.

Saved again. Neatly arranged in chronological order.

This phone had been sitting in the desk where he worked every single day.

A whole year of devotion. A whole year of tenderness.

The truth had been right there the entire time — within arm's reach.

But it never occurred to me to look through his drawers.

Because I'd trusted him without reservation.

I let out a bitter, mocking laugh.

I pulled out my own phone and screenshotted everything that mattered.

I backed up all the photos and videos and sent them straight to my private email.

Then I called Bramwell.

"Archive everything I just sent you," I told him. "Submit it along with the Bond dissolution petition as evidence to the Alpha Council."

After I'd handled all of that, my body suddenly felt wrong.

A dull, tightening pain gripped my lower abdomen.

I didn't dare ignore it — not with a seven-month baby inside me.

I called an Omega servant and had him drive me to the pack's medical center.

The car stopped at the entrance. I stepped out, one hand pressed to my belly.

I pushed open the doors.

And there, walking out of the examination room at the far end of the hall, was Alex — with Vivian on his arm.

One of Vivian's hands rested gently on her slightly swollen stomach.

Her other hand clung to Alex's arm.

She wore a delicate, coy smile, tilting her head up to say something to him.

Alex's head was bowed, his gaze glued to Vivian's belly.

His eyes were soft, focused entirely on the life growing inside her.

As they walked, his hand hovered protectively around her waist.

I stood frozen in the doorway.

Vivian was pregnant too.

Alex looked up and his eyes met mine.

The tenderness on his face turned to stone. A flash of panic crossed his gaze.

Vivian followed his line of sight and saw me.

She spoke first, her voice quivering on the edge of tears.

"Luna... I didn't expect to run into you here..." She shrank back slightly. "Please don't hurt my baby. Whatever happened between us adults — the child is innocent..."

The moment those words left her mouth, Alex's entire body went rigid.

He immediately stepped forward and shielded Vivian behind him with his body.

His eyes locked onto me, full of suspicion, watching my every move.

He'd even tensed every muscle, fully expecting me to lunge at her.

I stared at Alex, standing guard over Vivian like that.

The old scars ripped wide open.

A year ago, I drank poison, collapsed in a pool of my own blood, and lost my child.

He'd rushed into the room — and the first person he reached for was Vivian.

Now Vivian was carrying his baby.

He was protecting her with everything he had, pouring all his love on her.

A violent wave of dizziness hit me.

My vision went black. Every ounce of strength drained from my body, and I collapsed.

The Omega servants saw me collapse and screamed in panic.

They rushed over, scrambling to carry me into the nearest examination room.

The Healer ran a full checkup. He said the fainting was caused by severe emotional distress combined with the physical toll of pregnancy.

The baby was stable for now, but I'd need strict bed rest going forward.

I came to quickly.

The first thing I did when I opened my eyes was reach for the phone beside my pillow.

I sent Bramwell an encrypted message, ordering him to contact my father — Alpha King James — immediately.

I laid everything out clearly.

Alex had been secretly seeing Vivian, the woman permanently banished from the pack, and had gotten her pregnant.

As Alpha, he had openly violated the pack's highest laws.

I requested that the Alpha King handle this personally.

My father was livid when he got the message.

He brought the Ashford Pack's Gamma and a squad of fully armed warriors and tore straight into the Blackwood Pack's healing center.

He didn't come to my room first.

He led his men directly to the treatment room at the other end of the hall.

Alex and Vivian were hiding inside.

Vivian was crying, telling Alex how the Luna had caught her at the medical center, how she was afraid the Luna would hurt her and the baby.

Alex held her tight, swearing up and down that he'd protect her and the child.

Then — BANG.

My father kicked the door open.

Alex's head snapped up. The color drained from his face when he saw his father-in-law flanked by armed warriors, radiating pure fury.

He couldn't get a single word out.

My father didn't give him the chance to explain. He didn't waste a single breath.

He stood in the doorway and delivered the verdict.

"By the absolute authority of the Alpha King, I hereby strip Alex Blackwood of his Alpha title, effective immediately."

"All territorial jurisdiction of the Blackwood Pack is revoked and placed under Ashford Pack management."

"Current pack members may choose to stay or leave."

My father's cold gaze swept over Alex's ashen face.

Alex's identity as Alpha ceased to exist from that moment on.

After stripping Alex of his rank, my father ordered his warriors into action.

They removed Vivian from the territory without mercy.

Only after all of that did my father come to see me.

He looked at my pale face, his expression torn between heartbreak and rage.

He said through gritted teeth that he should just kill Alex and that woman and be done with it.

Hearing those words, something warm finally stirred in my frozen heart.

I shook my head. I told him our Mate Bond hadn't been fully dissolved yet.

Once the Bond was completely severed, I would handle the rest myself.

My father sighed, and left with his men.

I forced myself out of bed and went back to the pack house.

I pushed open the door and found Alex slumped on the living room couch, utterly defeated.

He looked up at me.

There was no guilt in his eyes. Only a deep exhaustion and cold resentment.

"You called your father." His voice was flat and sharp.

"Yes." I didn't flinch.

Alex shot to his feet and strode toward me.

His voice was low, but every word cut like a blade.

"Ivy, if you'd been generous enough to tolerate Vivian, I would have kept being your mate. Kept being this pack's Alpha."

"But you kept pushing."

"First you hired rogues to kill her. Now you've dragged your father in to interfere."

"You're the one who destroyed our pack. You ruined my position!"

"Vivian is carrying my child. How can you be this heartless?"

He looked down at me, his tone dripping with accusation.

"I will never agree to dissolve the Bond."

"You're going to stay put and have this baby."

"Once things blow over, I'll go talk to your father myself. I can get the Alpha title back."

"You're my Luna. What you should be doing right now is helping me hold things together — not fighting me."

I stared at him and his breathtaking audacity.

But my mind drifted, unbidden, to the day we first confirmed our bond as Fated Mates.

That was the first time Alex felt the resonance of the Bond.

He'd been trembling with emotion, gripping my hand, his eyes red.

"Ivy, the luckiest thing that ever happened to me was the Moon Goddess giving me you."

He'd dropped to one knee under the moonlight and sworn a solemn vow.

"I swear you will be my only mate in this lifetime."

"If I ever break this oath, let me lose my wolf."

I looked at the man standing before me now.

The boy who once made vows under the moon was long dead.

This Alex only saw me as the obstacle standing between him and someone else's love — the one who'd cost him his power.

I didn't have a single word left for him.

I turned away without acknowledging him and called Bramwell.

"Get the car," I said coldly.

I went to the bedroom, packed a few belongings, and walked out without looking back.

I drove straight to the Ashford Pack's main residence.

My mother took one look at my face and shook with anger, tears streaming down her cheeks.

My father slammed his hand on the table so hard it rattled.

"Everything he has came from me. And now he's going to give every last bit of it back!"

I looked at my furious parents, my voice perfectly calm.

"After the Bond is dissolved, he leaves with nothing."

"The territory, the assets, the pack — all of it was granted by the Ashford family."

"He doesn't get to take a single penny or an inch of land."

I let out a cold laugh and made my final decision.

"Let him and Vivian have each other with nothing to their names."

"I want to see how long their grand love story lasts without wealth, without power, without the Alpha title."

Alex didn't show his face at the Blackwood territory for days.

He didn't send me a single message either.

I didn't ask. I didn't go looking.

I went back to the Blackwood Pack's main residence alone.

Every day I sat quietly in my room, sorting through the things that belonged to a life with Alex.

Gossip spread through the pack quickly.

They said the former Alpha was living with Vivian in an old hunting cabin on the outskirts of the territory.

They said the two were inseparable.

Some even claimed Alex had publicly promised to formally take Vivian as his new Luna once things settled down.

I never found out who made sure these rumors reached the main house.

But servants and guards kept "accidentally" mentioning them within earshot.

I acted like I heard nothing.

I went through the things I'd collected over the years, one by one.

A wolf fang pendant — the first gift Alex brought me from the training grounds when we were young.

The braided leather bracelet he'd made for me by hand the day we confirmed we were Fated Mates.

All those messages full of promises he'd sent over the years. I used to screenshot them and print them out — a thick stack of paper.

Now I packed everything into a cardboard box.

I had Bramwell drive it to Alex at the hunting cabin.

I tucked a note inside. Three words: "Returning your belongings."

Bramwell came back and reported.

He said Alex stared at the box for a long time.

But he never opened it. He just shoved it into a corner.

Not long after the box was delivered, word came in.

Vivian, visibly pregnant, had knelt on the public road outside the Ashford Pack's territory gates.

Bramwell pulled up the security footage for me.

On the screen, she was on her knees, her face drenched in tears.

There were several visible wounds across her face.

Her voice was loud enough for every pack member passing by to hear.

"Please, Luna, spare me and my child..."

"I've already been banished. I have no one. Why does the Luna keep sending rogues to hunt me down..."

"I'm guilty, but the baby is innocent. Please, Alpha King, have mercy on us..."

The crowd outside the gates grew.

Some wore expressions of sympathy. Whispers started spreading.

They said that no matter what happened between the Luna and the former Alpha, sending people to hunt down a pregnant, banished woman was too cruel.

Others openly questioned me.

They said I was abusing the Alpha King's power, that I'd gone too far — that not even a pregnant woman was safe.

Overnight, my reputation and the Ashford Pack's image were dragged through the mud.

That evening, a car screeched to a halt at the front entrance.

Alex stormed into my room, eyes red, reeking of alcohol.

He crossed the room in two strides, grabbed my wrist, and hauled me out of my chair.

"Ivy, wasn't it enough that you destroyed her career as a Healer a year ago?"

"She's pregnant now, and you're still sending rogues after her?"

"One attempt wasn't enough, so you tried again? Have you lost all humanity?"

I looked at him coldly.

"It wasn't me," I said. "That was a setup Vivian staged. The marks on her face — she did that to herself."

"She put on that whole performance outside Ashford territory for your benefit."

Alex didn't hear a word.

He shoved my hand away, stepped back, and fixed me with a hard stare.

There was no rage in his voice. Just a cold, matter-of-fact contempt.

"I stopped loving you a long time ago."

"The only reason I kept this Bond was your father's power and the Ashford family's generosity over the years."

"Did you really think I'd had a change of heart?" A bitter laugh escaped his lips. "I was just repaying a debt."

He paused, then delivered the cruelest line of all.

"If you could have been as sensible as Vivian — quiet, undemanding, not making a scene — I could have at least respected you."

"But you had to push everything past the point of no return."

"At the end of the day, you survived that miscarriage a year ago because you were lucky."

"But don't expect me to feel guilty about it forever."

My entire body began to tremble.

A year ago, when I was unconscious after the miscarriage, he'd sat by my bed day and night.

He held my hand and called my name, over and over, soft and tender.

And now he was telling me to my face that I was just lucky I didn't die.

Then — a tearing pain ripped through my abdomen.

I doubled over, both hands clutching my stomach.

Cold sweat soaked through my clothes instantly.

"Alex..." My voice shook. "The baby... call the Healer..."

Alex saw the pain on my face. Something flickered in his eyes — a flash of panic.

But it was gone just as quickly, replaced by that cold, detached mask.

"This again?" He scoffed. "Every time you lose an argument, you use the baby as a weapon."

"Vivian already checked your prenatal records. Your pregnancy has been perfectly stable."

"If you want to put on an act, do it alone. Don't drag the baby into it."

With that, he turned and walked toward the door without a shred of hesitation.

I used every last ounce of strength to reach out and grab the hem of his shirt.

He stopped. Looked down at my fingers clutching the fabric.

"Give it a rest," he said flatly.

But looking at my ashen face, a flicker of doubt crossed his eyes.

Just as he was about to reach for me — his phone buzzed.

The screen lit up. A message from Vivian.

She said her stomach felt uncomfortable. She wanted Alex to come right away.

Alex glanced at the screen, turned, and walked out without looking back.

My hand grasped at empty air.

The pain consumed me. My body slid helplessly toward the cold floor.