I burst into the penthouse, clutching a trembling Lydia.

Julian's warriors had rescued us and vanished without a trace.

But I knew this was just the beginning.

"Sweetheart, Mommy's taking you on an adventure," I whispered, forcing a smile I didn't feel. "We'll go somewhere far, far away, and see a real meteor shower."

"Is Daddy not coming?"

The word "Daddy" was a knife in my chest.

"Daddy's... busy," I said, unable to meet her innocent eyes. "We're going to leave first. Now, go pack your favorite toys."

I ran into the bedroom, grabbing our passports and all the cash I had. My fingers were shaking, but I moved fast. I had to get out before he came back.

I couldn't let my daughter be his next sacrifice.

Just as I zipped the bags, I heard footsteps outside the door.

My blood ran cold.

Ethan was back.

"Sera! Lydia! Are you okay?" He burst through the door, his face a perfect mask of frantic concern. But I could smell her on him. The cloying, cheap scent of Lilith's perfume.

"We're fine. Someone saved us."

"Thank the Goddess." He moved to hug me. "Sera, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

I took a step back.

The smell was too strong. It made me sick.

"What's wrong?" He frowned. "Are you avoiding me?"

"No, just... still shaken," I managed a weak smile.

"Baby, it's my fault." He reached out to touch my face. "It's our anniversary, I should have been with you. But there was an urgent pack emergency..."

He was still lying.

Just moments ago, that hand was touching another woman.

"I understand," I said through gritted teeth.

"My Luna. Always so understanding," he murmured, leaning in to kiss me. I flinched away. His smile faltered. "I promise, this will never..."

Suddenly, his face tightened. A mind-link. Lilith's voice, laced with pain, echoed in my head. She hadn't even bothered to block me.

"Ethan... it hurts... Your mate bond... it's rejecting me!" Lilith’s voice was filled with panic. "It's like... Luna's power, coming through you, burning my soul! It's her! Seraphina knows! She's using your bond to punish me!"

Ethan’s eyes snapped to mine, a flicker of something new in them.

"Seraphina," his voice dropped, turning hard as steel. "What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything." I fought to keep my voice steady.

"Don't you lie to me!" he snarled, unleashing his Alpha command. The force of it slammed into me, a physical blow. The air thickened, and every breath was agony.

My knees buckled, and I fell to the floor.

"I didn't..."

"Liar!" he snarled. The crushing weight of his Alpha power slammed down on me.

The air grew thick. Every breath was like inhaling shards of glass.

My knees buckled, and I was forced to the ground.

"I didn't..."

He grabbed my arm, his eyes dangerously dark. "How dare you use our bond to hurt someone else? You've already tainted it once, Seraphina! What more do you want to do?"

Just then, our daughter ran out of her room.

"Mommy, when are we leaving?" she asked innocently. "Didn't we say we were going on a trip?"

The air froze.

Ethan's gaze flickered to the suitcase behind me.

"A trip?" he sneered, his eyes flicking to the suitcase behind me. "Running to Julian?"

Ethan didn’t roar. He didn't explode. He just went still. A terrifying, predatory calm.

He even calmly adjusted his cuffs before walking slowly toward us.

"Oh, Sera. You never learn." He crouched, his cold fingers tracing my cheek. His eyes held a sick, obsessive light. "Why are you trying to run away with his stain? Once she's gone, we can finally be together. The way we were always meant to be."

"She's your daughter!" I cried out.

"Shh—" His long finger pressed against my lips. "Don't lie for Julian's whelp. It drives me mad with jealousy. Be a good girl. Watch me get rid of it, and then we'll go home."

He snatched Lydia with one hand, not like a father holding his pup, but like a man tossing out the trash. His eyes held no hatred. Only the chilling, flat relief of a problem being solved.

"This filth doesn't deserve to stand between us."

The mother wolf inside me let out a desperate roar.

"Daddy, don't scare Mommy..." Lydia cried, reaching for him with her small hands.

But Ethan shoved her away.

"Don't touch me!" he roared. "You're not my daughter!"

My daughter hit the floor. Something inside me snapped. I launched myself at him, all claws and teeth.

But he was an Alpha. He was faster. One hand shot out, pinning me to the wall by my neck. The other snatched Lydia up like a rag doll.

"Since you want to take this bastard with you so badly, I'll grant your wish!" His smile was cruel and twisted.

"Let her go!" I struggled. "Do whatever you want to me!"

"To you?" He dragged us toward the door. "Every time I look at her, I'm reminded of how you let another man touch you. I've tolerated this long enough, Sera. Now, you're going to watch me dispose of a traitor's pup. And you... you will stay by my side. Forever."

"Daddy, please..." Lydia’s sobs were heart-wrenching. "I'm scared..."

Ethan didn't even look at her. He dragged us into the car, ignoring our daughter's desperate cries.

The car tore through the night. I held my sobbing daughter in a death grip.

"Ethan, where are you taking us?" I asked.

He didn't answer, just gripped the steering wheel, his eyes dark.

Ten minutes later, the car skidded to a halt at the sacrificial grounds.

Ice flooded my veins.

"Get out," he ordered coldly.

"No!" I refused. "We're not getting out!"

"GET OUT!" His roar shook the entire car.

His Alpha command left me no choice. I stumbled out, clutching Lydia.

The crumbling ruin of the Moon Goddess Altar loomed at the edge of the cliff, a skeleton under the moonlight.

"Ethan, please, don't do this..." I begged.

But he had already pulled Lydia from my arms.

"No! Daddy, no!" she struggled, her little fists beating against his chest.

"Quiet!" He walked up the stone steps, his face a mask of stone.

I scrambled after him. "Ethan! She's your daughter!"

"My daughter?" He stopped and looked back at me, his eyes dripping with sarcasm. "Are you sure?"

He set her down on the broken edge of the platform, right where the runes had died.

"Daddy..." Lydia reached for him, trembling. "I'm scared..."

He paused, then shoved a file into my chest.

"Open your eyes, Sera," he sneered. "Stop lying for Julian's pup."

He set Lydia down on the cliff's edge.

He calmly adjusted his cuffs. "Now, answer me. Did you attack Lilith? Was it jealousy? Or were you protecting his bastard?"

"I didn't attack Lilith!" I screamed. "I swear I didn't!"

"Liar." He kicked one of the altar's support beams.

The entire platform shook violently. Lydia screamed as she slid closer to the edge.

"No!" I tried to run forward, but his guards grabbed me.

"I'll ask you one more time," Ethan’s voice was pure ice. "Did you hurt her?"

"No! I really didn't!" I sobbed. "Ethan, we're fated mates! How can you not believe me?"

"Fated mates?" he sneered. "Does a fated mate betray me? Sleep with another man? Give birth to another man's bastard?"

He kicked the beam again, harder this time.

"Ten seconds," he began to count down. "Ten... nine... eight..."

"STOP!" I shrieked, dropping to my knees. "I'll talk! It was me! I did it!"

I lied. I lied to save my daughter's life.

"I knew it." He smiled, satisfied, but the countdown didn't stop. "Seven... six... Seven..."

"I already admitted it!" I shrieked. "Let her go!"

"Admitting it changes nothing," he said, his smile a cruel slash in the darkness. "Now, tell me why."

"Because... because I was jealous..." I choked out the humiliating words.

"Jealous of what?"

"Jealous that you love her..."

"Four... three... two..."

"Please!" I crawled towards him, grabbing his pant leg. "I'll take it back! I'll undo it right now!"

"Too late," he kicked me away. "Besides, there's something else I want to know now."

His gaze turned lethal.

"Are you trying so hard to save her because she's really my daughter?"

I froze.

"Or..." he leaned in, his voice a venomous whisper, "...are you this desperate to save Julian's little bastard?"

"She IS your daughter!" I screamed hysterically. "Ethan! She's yours!"

"Mine?" He laughed, a harsh, broken sound that echoed in the night. He pointed a shaking finger at Lydia. "Then explain her eyes! Explain this!" He waved the paternity test in my face. "It says she doesn't carry a single drop of my Alpha blood!"

"That's because..." I tried to explain, but the words wouldn't come.

Because I didn't know why. But I knew, I swore on my soul, I had never betrayed him.

"See?" Ethan sneered. "You can't even come up with a decent lie. That proves it. She's Julian's spawn!"

"No!" I cried. "She's your daughter!"

"One!" he finished the countdown.

Then he kicked the altar with all his might.

"NO!" I shrieked in despair.

Ethan raised a hand, signaling the guards to restrain me.

"Drag her back," he ordered, his voice utterly devoid of emotion. "She cares so much for Julian's whelp. Let's give her a front-row seat."

The guards grabbed my arms. I fought like a wild animal.

"Ethan! She's your daughter!" I wailed. "Even if you don't love me anymore, she's innocent!"

"No, Sera. You're my fated mate. Of course I love you." He glanced back, his expression almost tender. But his eyes were chips of ice. "But a traitor's pup is never innocent."

I threw my pride, my dignity as a Luna, into the dirt at his feet. It wasn't enough. He wouldn't even look at me.

"Ethan, please... believe me," I choked out, the words drowned by sobs. "I never... I never betrayed you."

But he had already turned his back on me.

"Mommy..."

My daughter's weak voice drifted from the altar. She couldn't hold on much longer.

"Lydia! Hold on!" I screamed.

Ethan stood by the edge, looking down at me.

"Still putting on a show?" he sneered. A wave of his Alpha power slammed into the crumbling altar, shaking it to its core.

The stone platform lurched. Lydia shrieked as she slipped further.

"DON'T!" I struggled, but the guards held me fast.

"You're insane... " I trembled.

"You care this much for a bastard?" The storm in his eyes darkened.

His hand clamped onto the back of my neck, forcing me to look up at the edge of the cliff.

"You'd throw away your pride for his pup?" The storm in his eyes darkened. "Seraphina, your love is mine. Your life is mine. Your very pain is mine to command."

Just then, his Beta rushed over.

"Alpha!" the Beta gasped. "It's Lilith! Her mind is breaking! The healers say the shock could kill the baby... your heir!"

Ethan's eyes turned to ice. "You'd hurt my only pure-blooded heir for Julian's bastard?"

"I didn't..."

"That's not fair, Sera," he said, his voice laced with a twisted, pitying tone. "An eye for an eye. You hurt my heir. I take his."

"No! Lydia is innocent!"

But he ignored me and kicked.

CRACK.

The support pillar snapped.

The entire altar tilted and began to fall toward the cliff.

"Daddy..." My daughter looked at him, her small hand reaching. Her voice was a whisper. "Save me..."

But Ethan turned his back, refusing to look.

"MOMMY!"

Her scream tore through the night. And then... silence.

I watched her tiny body fall through the air and vanish into the darkness.

"NO!"

I broke free from the guards and ran for the cliff.

I would follow her. I would die with her.

"Seraphina!" Ethan grabbed me and threw me to the ground.

"Let me go!" I kicked and clawed at him. "Let me go! I have to find my daughter!"

"You want to die?" he snarled, his fingers digging into my throat. "I forbid it. Your life is not yours to take."

I stared back at him, my eyes burning with hate. "Kill me. Just kill me!"

"If you love that bastard so much," he hissed, "then you can live a lifetime of agony remembering this lesson."

He leaned close, his voice a venomous whisper in my ear. "Watch, Sera. This is the price for your betrayal. And when you are done screaming, I will forgive you."

He held me while my daughter fell, a sickening, possessive embrace. "There," he whispered against my hair, his tone one of deep satisfaction. "Now your world is empty. Now there is only room for me."

I lay on the ground, my world falling apart.

He killed my son.

He pushed my daughter off a cliff.

What reason did I have left to live?

Blood trickled from the back of my head. My vision blurred.

Before the darkness claimed me, I forced my eyes open one last time, searching the churning black water below.

Lydia... Mommy is so, so sorry...