I opened my eyes slowly. The ceiling swam into focus. I was in a hospital room. My whole body felt like it had been run through a wood chipper and put back together wrong.

“You’re awake.” A pack nurse leaned over me, her voice gentle. “Nova, I need you to stay calm.”

“Where—” My voice came out as a rasp. “Where’s Darren?”

She didn’t answer right away. That silence was answer enough.

“You were in a car accident,” she said instead. “You lost a lot of blood. We managed to stabilize you, but…” She paused, choosing her next words carefully. “I’m so sorry. You lost the pregnancy.”

The words hit me like a second crash.

Pregnant.

I hadn’t known. There had been no signs I recognized, no morning sickness, no shift in my scent that I had noticed. One moment I was a woman who had just discovered her mate never registered their marriage and was already replacing her. Now, I was a woman who lost a child she had no idea about, after years of miscarriages.

I didn’t cry. I had used up every tear on that sidewalk. Now there was only a cold, expanding emptiness where something I never even knew existed had been taken.

“Can I have my phone?” I questioned.

The pack nurse hesitated, then handed it over. My hands shook so badly I could barely unlock it. I called Darren. It rang and rang and went to voicemail. I called again. Voicemail. I called my dad. Nothing. My mom. Nothing.

“I can’t get through to either of them,” I whispered, more to myself than to her.

The nurse’s face filled with a kind that showed she knew more than she should.

“A doctor brought you in himself last night,” she said, changing the subject. “He’s the reason you’re alive. You lost so much blood on a back road in the dark, you shouldn’t have made it.”

“A doctor?”

“He didn’t leave a name. Just said he’d come back to check on you. One thing is for sure, he’s not from any neighboring pack.”

I didn’t have the energy to ask more. My mind stayed locked on one question—why wasn’t anyone answering? Even if Darren had already chosen Briar, even if the whole family had decided I was disposable, wouldn’t someone at least check whether I was still breathing after an accident?

I scrolled through the pack’s shared social feed with hands that wouldn’t stop trembling.

And there, I found a photo that had been taken at a lake somewhere upstate. Four familiar faces squeezed together, grinning at the camera. Darren’s arm around Briar’s shoulders. My father mid-laugh and my mom holding up a fish she clearly hadn’t caught.

The caption read: *Family trip. First one in five years!!*

The photo had been posted six hours ago, while I was fighting for my life.

I carefully set the phone down on the blanket, because if I didn’t, I might throw it through the window.

I didn’t know how long I lay there staring at the ceiling, letting that image burn itself into the back of my eyes. Long enough that the door finally burst open and the room filled with noise.

“Nova! Oh my god, are you okay?” Briar rushed in first, her face a perfect mask of worry, hands pressed to her mouth like she was about to faint from concern.

Darren came right behind her. Mom and Dad trailed in after, all wearing the exact expressions I now recognized for what they were; a performance.

“We came as soon as we heard,” Darren said, taking my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Baby, I’m so sorry. If I’d known—”

If I’d known. As if he hadn’t stood on the Pack Registry steps less than a day ago promising to “deal with Nova soon.”

I knew everything now. I knew about the marriage that was never registered. I knew my own parents had laughed about selling me off before I could make a scene.

I knew all of that, but I didn’t say anything. Something told me to wait, watch, and learn exactly how far they would go.

“I’m tired,” I said instead, pulling my hand back gently. “Can someone help me to the bathroom?”

Briar practically shoved Darren out of the way to do it herself—all soft concern and gentle hands guiding me up, playing the devoted sister so well that if I hadn’t already known the truth, I might have believed it.

She walked me halfway down the hall, chattering about how worried she had been, how she had come the second she heard.

Then my knees buckled, just a small stumble as my body was still weak from the blood loss. I needed one more second of support before I could stand steady again, but Briar let go instantly and stepped back like I was contagious.

I felt myself start to fall.

“Oh—I think I hear Darren calling me,” she said, already turning away, already walking back toward the room. “You’ve got this, right? You’re basically fine.”

I caught myself against the railing, breathing hard. Humiliation and fury mixed low in my chest with the fresh, sharp grief of a loss I hadn’t even known was possible until an hour ago.

This was who they were. This was who they had always been, and I had been too in love to see it.

“Easy.”

A hand caught my elbow before I could go down all the way.

I looked up. It took me a second to place him, but it was Callum, a face I hadn’t seen in years. He looked at me carefully, like he was checking for damage no scan could find.

“Callum?” I breathed.

He gave me a small, tired smile. “Yes. It’s me, Nova.”

The nurse’s words from earlier came back all at once—a doctor had brought me in himself and said he would come back to check on me.

Of course it was him.

Before I could say another word, footsteps echoed down the hall behind us. Darren’s voice called my name possessively, like he still had any right to sound that way.

Callum didn’t let go of my arm. If anything, his grip tightened, as if he already knew exactly who was coming and exactly what he thought of him.

“We need to talk,” he said quietly.

I didn’t get the chance to answer before Darren rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the two of us like he was seeing a ghost.

Darren’s face went through three expressions in half a second—shock, suspicion, and jealousy all at once.

“Callum.” His voice was tight. “What are you doing here?”

“My job,” Callum said calmly. He didn’t let go of my arm. “I’m the doctor who brought your mate in last night. You’d know that if you’d answered your phone.”

The silence after that landed like a slap. Something flickered across Darren’s face.

“We were dealing with a family emergency,” he said. “Briar collapsed from shifting for the first time. We couldn’t just drop everything.”

You could have answered a phone call.

I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t say anything at all. I just let him see me standing there, held up by a man who wasn’t him.

Briar reappeared at Darren’s shoulder, all wide eyes and trembling lips, as if she hadn’t abandoned me in a hospital hallway two minutes earlier.

“Nova, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said. “I was so worried.”

I almost laughed, but I held it back. Laughing would mean giving her a reaction, and I had decided I was done handing my reactions out for free.

“I’m tired,” I said again, and this time it was true in more ways than one. “I want to go back to my room.”

Callum walked me there himself, ignoring the way Darren trailed behind us like a shadow that had forgotten it wasn’t wanted. At the door, Callum finally let go of my arm, but he didn’t leave.

“Five minutes,” he told Darren. “Doctor’s orders.”

Darren’s jaw tightened, but something about Callum made him back off. He retreated down the hall with Briar trailing after him, already whispering in his ear.

Once we were alone, Callum pulled the door shut and turned to me. For the first time since I woke up in this place, someone looked at me like I wasn’t invisible.

“You remember me,” he said.

“Of course I remember you.”

How could I forget the boy who once told me my wolf’s quiet scent was the only one he ever wanted, right before I chose someone who promised me a whole pack instead of just himself.

“You left.”

“I had to.” Something painful crossed his face, gone before I could read it fully. “That’s not why I’m here now. I’m leaving the city again in five days. I came to tell you that… and to tell you something else.”

He paused, weighing the words even though he had clearly already decided to say them.

“You don’t have to stay here, Nova. Not in this pack and not with him. I’m inviting you back with me to the Lycan Kingdom. There, no one will treat you like a placeholder. You can finally be yourself. You can design the life you actually wanted instead of the one they decided for you.”

My chest went tight. “Why would you do that?”

“Because five years ago I watched you choose a life that was supposed to make you happy, and instead it’s made you miserable every single time I’ve seen you since.” His voice didn’t waver. “I’m not asking for anything in return. Just an open door, if you want to walk through it.”

Part of me wanted to say yes immediately—to grab his hand and leave this hospital and never look back. But another part, the part that had spent five years building something (however fake it turned out to be), needed time to let it die properly before I left the body behind.

“I need a few days,” I said. “There are things I have to handle first.”

He nodded, as if he had expected exactly that answer. “Five days. I’ll be ready whenever you are.”

He left before Darren could come barging back in demanding explanations.

Two days later I was discharged. No one came to pick me up, so I took a cab home.

I reached the apartment door and stopped with my hand on the handle. Voices carried clearly from inside.

“—all those miscarriages weren’t accidents,” Darren was saying, low and casual. “You both know that. We made sure nothing stuck. Last thing we needed was a pup tying her to me for good.

Father’s voice followed. “We did what was necessary. When Briar left, you needed a temporary claim to keep the Alpha path open. Nova was useful. A child would have complicated everything once Briar came back.”

Mother spoke next. “We helped Briar leave cleanly. She needed time. We always knew she and Darren were the real mates. We just… managed the situation until she was ready to return.”

Briar’s soft laugh floated through the door. “And you still made him give Nova the ring. You organized the whole thing.”

“Of course we did,” Father said. “It kept the pack stable. It kept Darren’s claim intact. Now that you’re home, we can finally correct the mistake.”

I stood frozen on the wrong side of the door, the words carving through me one by one.

Every miscarriage. Every quiet hope that had ended in blood, all of it was arranged by my parents, who helped Briar disappear, stayed silent while I fell in love with her true mate, and then engineered a marriage they never intended to last. They had handed me a ring and a role, knowing I was only ever a placeholder until the favourite daughter returned.

After a while, I pushed the door open.

Briar was curled on my couch in one of my old sweaters, laughing at something on her phone while Darren leaned over her shoulder.

Mom and dad were in the kitchen, raiding what was left of the wolfsbane-free honey I had bought.

No one asked how I was feeling. No one asked about the hospital or the drive home.

“Nova!” Briar hopped up and threw her arms around me in a performative hug. “How are you feeling? We would’ve come to get you, but Darren said you’d want your space.”

I glanced at Darren. He didn’t meet my eyes.

“I’m fine,” I said flatly, stepping back out of her arms.

Briar’s face did something small before smoothing back into sweetness. “I’m just so glad you’re okay. I felt awful hearing what happened. Really, I did.”

“Did you?” It wasn’t a question.

The air in the room changed. Dad straightened from the counter while mom set down the honey jar. All three of them looked at me like I had said something dangerous, when all I had done was stop pretending to believe her.

“Nova.” Darren’s voice carried a warning. “Don’t start.”

Don’t start. Like I was the one who had been lying for five years. Like I was the one who had filed a marriage certificate behind someone’s back and then made sure no child could ever make the lie permanent.

I opened my mouth, ready to say everything I had been holding since the sidewalk outside the Pack Registry Hall. That was when Briar swayed on her feet, pressed a hand to her forehead, and dropped gracefully onto the arm of the couch.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured in a trembling voice. “I just get so dizzy since the turning. I didn’t mean to upset anyone.”

Instantly, all three of them were at her side. Darren crouched in front of her, murmuring soft reassurances. Dad fetched water and mom hovered, glaring at me as if I had made her dizzy simply by existing.

I stood in the middle of the living room, completely forgotten, and understood with perfect clarity how the rest of the night—and the rest of my time here—was going to go.

I went to my room instead of watching the show.

I opened the door and stopped cold.

My things were gone. My photos. My pillows. The soft gray blanket I had owned since before I ever met Darren. All of it now replaced with Briar’s clothes that hung in my closet. Her perfume sat on my dresser where my jewelry box used to be.

Three days, I thought. They didn’t know it yet. But I was already gone.