I shoved the heavy oak doors of the Alpha's study open. They slammed against the plaster walls, rattling the framed pack maps.

Lily froze. She stood over the whirring paper shredder, feeding a stack of our pack's financial ledgers directly into the metal teeth.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded, crossing the Persian rug in three strides.

"Just clearing out some old trash, Evelyn," she said, her voice far too sweet. She didn't stop feeding the pages into the machine.

I snatched her wrist. Her skin felt clammy, her pulse racing beneath my fingers. "These are the winter budget reports. The timber contracts. You've been draining our accounts for months, and now you're destroying the evidence."

Chase had been distant through most of our year-long bond, but the last three months were worse. Since his brother died, Lily had taken over every room that mattered. She claimed the master suite, demanded round-the-clock guards, and gained unrestricted access to the pack vault while I, Chase's fated mate, was pushed into the guest wing.

"Let go of me," she hissed, her sweet facade slipping. She yanked her arm, but I held firm.

"You bought a diamond necklace yesterday using the pack emergency fund," I said, my grip tightening. "You told Chase it was for a memorial tribute. Where is it?"

"The pack owes me," Lily sneered, leaning closer. "My mate died for you people."

"He died in a rogue attack. It was a tragedy, not a blank check." I pulled her away from the desk, twisting her hand away from the shredder. "Tell me what you're hiding in these ledgers."

"He doesn't care about the money," Lily laughed, a sharp, grating sound. "He only cares about me. And the baby."

Heavy footsteps pounded against the hardwood floor in the corridor. Chase.

Lily's eyes darted toward the open doorway. A strange, cold smile curved her lips.

"Watch this," she whispered.

Before I could release her arm, she threw her entire body backward.

She launched herself toward the steep marble staircase just outside the study.

"No!" I lunged forward, my fingers grazing the silk of her blouse.

She tumbled backward down the steps. Her shoulder slammed into the stone, then her hip, her body twisting as she rolled. She hit the bottom landing with a sickening thud.

Chase burst through the hallway entrance right as she landed.

"Lily!" he roared.

He rushed past me. The draft of his movement chilled my arms. He didn't spare me a single glance. He vaulted down the remaining stairs, dropping to his knees beside his dead brother's mate.

Blood pooled on the white marble beneath Lily's leg, impossible to ignore.

"Chase," she whimpered, reaching a trembling hand up to him. Tears streamed down her pale face.

He gathered her into his chest, his large hands hovering over her swollen belly. "I've got you. You're safe. Someone get the doctor!" he shouted over his shoulder.

I stood at the top of the stairs, my nails biting into my palms. My throat felt tight, coated in dust.

"I was just trying to help," Lily sobbed, burying her face into his shirt. "I promised Evelyn I would leave right after the baby was born. I told her I didn't want to be a burden to your pack anymore. She didn't have to push me."

"Shut up," I said, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "I never said a word to you."

Chase's head snapped up. His golden irises flared, the glowing ring of an Alpha pushed to the edge of violence. The air in the stairwell turned thick, pressing against my lungs like a physical weight. The scent of pine and ozone, usually so comforting to me, turned sharp and suffocating. My knees trembled under the crushing pressure of his command, but I locked my joints, refusing to bow to him.

"You pushed a pregnant woman down a flight of stairs," he snarled.

"She threw herself backward. I caught her shredding the ledgers."

"Liar." He stood up, lifting Lily effortlessly into his arms. Her head lolled against his collarbone, leaving a smear of crimson on his white shirt. "My brother died protecting this pack. I swore on his grave I would protect his unborn child with my life."

"And what about me?" The words tore out of my throat before I could stop them. "I am your mate."

Chase took one step up the stairs, his gaze locking onto mine. The absolute hatred in his eyes made my chest cave in.

"You are nothing but a jealous, spiteful woman," he said, his voice a low, gravelly rumble. "You couldn't stand that I was caring for my brother's widow."

"She is stealing from us, Chase. Look at the shredder!"

"I don't care about the damn ledgers!" he yelled, the force of his voice vibrating through the floorboards. "Look at her! She is bleeding!"

I stared at the blood dripping from Lily's leg onto the pristine marble. The sight made my stomach churn.

"If her child doesn't survive this," Chase said, stepping closer, his fangs elongating past his lower lip. "You will pay with your life. I will execute you myself."

I stared at his expression. The man I had loved, the mate the Moon Goddess had chosen for me, was promising to kill me over a lie.

My hand instinctively floated upward, hovering just inches over my own flat stomach.

Eleven weeks.

I was eleven weeks pregnant with his pup. The doctor had confirmed it yesterday. I had bought a tiny pair of knit socks, planning to tell him tonight over dinner. I had foolishly hoped this baby would finally bridge the gap between us, that it would make him look at me the way an Alpha should look at his mate.

Instead, he was looking at me like an enemy.

I pressed my lips together, sealing the secret inside. I refused to let my child become a pawn in this twisted, suffocating house. I would not beg for my life using the baby growing inside me. If he wanted to kill me, he would have to do it looking me in the eye, without knowing what he was truly destroying.

"Say something," Chase demanded, his jaw clenched so tight the muscle twitched.

I gave him a single, slow nod. "Take her to the doctor, Alpha."

My formal title for him made him flinch, a tiny fracture in his rage. But he recovered at once, his expression hardening into stone.

"Get out of my sight," he barked, turning his back on me.

He carried her toward the medical wing, shouting for the pack nurses to prepare a room.

From my vantage point at the top of the stairs, I watched them go. Lily's arm hung limp over Chase's broad shoulder. Her fingers were coated in blood, dripping small red dots onto the hallway runner.

As they moved out of the main corridor, her hand twitched.

She slipped her bloody fingers into the pocket of her cardigan, pulling out a small black smartphone. Her thumb slid across the screen, pressing the red record button.

"The trauma team did everything possible, Alpha," Dr. Mercer said. He stood rigidly by the stainless steel counter, his surgical scrubs stained with fresh crimson. "We lost the pup."

Fluorescent bulbs buzzed overhead. They flickered briefly, casting harsh, gray shadows over the clinic walls.

"No," Chase whispered, his broad shoulders dropping.

"There was too much internal hemorrhaging," the doctor continued, keeping his head bowed. "The impact from the fall was too severe to stop the bleeding."

A low, mournful howl ripped out of Chase's chest. The raw agony in the sound rattled the glass vials on the medical trays. He spun around and drove his fist straight into the clinic wall.

The concrete cracked with a deafening crunch. Drywall dust rained over his knuckles, and a jagged fissure spiderwebbed toward the ceiling.

I stood by the doorway, my fingers gripping the cool metal handle. My heart hammered against my ribs, but I forced my voice to stay steady.

"Chase, you have to listen to me," I said, stepping into the room. "She threw herself down those stairs."

He didn't turn around. He just kept his forehead pressed against the fractured wall, his breathing ragged.

"She was destroying the embezzled financial records," I pressed on. "She fed the winter ledgers right into the shredder. It was a setup to hide her theft."

A pathetic sob echoed from the hospital bed.

Lily shifted, weakly propping herself up on her elbows. Her hospital gown hung loosely off one pale shoulder, and her skin looked drained of color.

"I know you always hated me, Evelyn," Lily wept. Her voice trembled, fragile and broken. "I knew you wanted me out of the pack house."

"Shut up," I snapped. "Tell him the truth. Tell him about the diamond necklace you bought yesterday with the pack's emergency funds."

Lily ignored me, turning her tear-streaked face toward Chase's back. "But I never thought you would be so cruel to an innocent pup."

"I didn't touch you!" I yelled, taking another step forward. "You threw your weight backward. You planned this the second you heard his footsteps in the hall."

"Why would I kill my own baby?" Lily cried out, burying her face into her hands. Her shoulders shook. "It was all I had left of my mate! I had the nursery painted. I bought the crib!"

Chase pulled his bleeding fist from the wall. He stalked to the side of the bed and wrapped his large, shaking hand around Lily's arm.

"You pushed her," Chase snarled at me, his golden eyes burning with unspent grief. "You murdered my brother's child because you were jealous of the attention she received."

"I am your mate!" I shouted, the injustice of it burning my throat. "Why would I be jealous of a thief? Check the cameras in the study. Check the shredder basket!"

"The study cameras were disabled this morning," Chase said, his voice dropping to a deadly calm. "By your order."

I froze. I hadn't ordered anything of the sort.

"She told the guards I needed privacy to mourn," Lily lied, her voice muffled against Chase's shirt. "She planned everything."

"That is a lie!" I pointed a finger at her. "I never spoke to the guards today."

Lily sniffled, reaching into the pocket of her discarded bloody cardigan resting on the bedside chair. She pulled out her black smartphone.

"I didn't want to show you this, Alpha," she whispered, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I wanted to keep the peace for the sake of the pack. But she cornered me yesterday."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"She told me I didn't belong here," Lily sobbed.

Her thumb tapped the screen.

My own voice echoed from the tiny speaker, sharp and distorted by the recording.

“Sometimes I wish that baby had never existed.”

The audio cut off with a sharp click.

The silence in the clinic became absolute. Even the doctor stopped breathing.

My stomach plummeted. She had recorded me yesterday in the kitchen. I had told her I wished the baby didn't exist so she couldn't use it to manipulate the pack's resources anymore. She had sliced the sentence in half.

"That is heavily edited," I said, my voice rising in panic. "Play the rest of the clip, Lily! Play the part where you demanded the vault codes and threatened to frame me!"

She just sobbed harder, burying her face into Chase's torso. "She told me she would make sure my pup never saw its first full moon."

"Liar!" I screamed, lunging toward the bed to snatch the phone.

Chase turned his head.

The raw grief on his face vanished, replaced by something cold and fixed. Grief hardened into hatred in his eyes.

He moved faster than I could track.

He slammed into me, driving me backward until my spine hit the metal doorframe. The impact knocked the wind from my lungs.

"Alpha," Dr. Mercer warned, taking a step forward. "Please, not in the clinic."

"Get out," Chase roared over his shoulder, not breaking eye contact with me.

The doctor fled the room, the heavy door swinging shut behind him.

"Chase," I gasped, my hands flying up to his chest.

He grabbed me by the throat. His thick fingers clamped around my neck, tight enough to bruise, tight enough to cut off my air, but perfectly calculated not to break my windpipe.

He hoisted me upward. The tips of my shoes scraped against the linoleum floor as he lifted me onto my toes.

"You sick, twisted murderer," he hissed, his face inches from mine. His fangs grazed his lower lip.

"Look at her phone, Chase!" I choked out, kicking my legs slightly to find purchase on the floor. "Check the file data! It was modified!"

"I don't need to check anything," he sneered. "I have all the proof I need right here."

"Don't hurt her, Chase," Lily cried weakly from the bed. "I don't want any more violence. I just want the truth to stop hurting us."

Chase released my throat so suddenly my knees almost gave out. I caught the doorframe and dragged air into my lungs.

"You are not coming near her again," he said. "Not at the funeral. Not at the pack house. After we bury my brother's child, I will decide whether you still have a place in this territory."

I touched the bruises already forming beneath my jaw. "You have already decided. You just have not admitted it."

His expression hardened. "Get out."

I left the clinic without looking back.

Behind me, Lily began to cry again.

Two days later, Chase ordered me to attend the burial anyway - not as family, but as the accused woman he intended to punish in public.

"Keep moving," a guard barked, shoving my shoulder hard enough to make me stumble.

"Don't touch me," I snapped, righting myself. I glared at the broad-shouldered guard beside me. "I can walk on my own."

My thin black dress offered zero protection against the biting winter wind. I tripped over a snow-covered tree root in the pack cemetery, barely catching my balance before the hundreds of gathered wolves. The frost bit into my bare legs, turning my skin numb.

Chase stood at the front of the crowd beside a small, open grave. He kept one thick arm wrapped securely around Lily. She wore a heavy, fur-lined coat, her face pale and buried against his chest.

"It is time for the final respects," the pack elder announced, his voice carrying over the frosted tombstones. "We honor the pup that was taken from us."

Chase turned his golden eyes toward me. The absolute disgust in his stare made my stomach clench tight.

"Get over here, Evelyn," Chase demanded.

I stepped forward, the ice crunching beneath my bare flats. The crowd parted, creating a narrow aisle for me. Every eye tracked my movements.

"Look at her," a she-wolf muttered to my left. "Not even a coat. Playing the victim."

"Disgusting," another replied. "She has no respect for the dead."

"She deserves to be banished," a male voice chimed in.

I ignored the whispers and stopped three feet from the grave.

"Apologize to her," Chase said. His voice rumbled low, vibrating through the frozen air. "On your knees."

I locked my gaze with his. "No."

The single word cracked like a whip across the silent graveyard.

"What did you say?" Chase stepped away from Lily, his fists balling at his sides.

"I will not apologize for a crime I didn't commit," I shouted, keeping my spine straight. "I didn't push her. She threw herself down those stairs."

Angry whispers erupted from the surrounding crowd.

"Murderer," someone hissed from the back row.

"She has no shame," another voice added.

Lily let out a loud, theatrical sob and grabbed the sleeve of Chase's black suit. "Please, Alpha. Don't make her do it. I just want my baby back. I don't want any more fighting."

"You're a liar," I snapped, pointing a trembling finger at her. "You destroyed those ledgers, and you planned that fall."

"Why are you doing this?" Lily cried, burying her face in her hands. "Haven't you taken enough from me?"

"I took nothing!" I yelled. I turned toward the pack elder. "Check the emergency accounts! Check the missing funds from the winter timber contracts! She is stealing from us!"

The elder frowned, shaking his head in disappointment. "Silence, Evelyn. This is a funeral."

"Shut your mouth," Chase warned, taking a threatening step toward me. "Do not speak to her that way."

"Are you blind, Chase?" I demanded, the injustice burning my throat. "She played you. She played all of you."

"You pushed a pregnant woman down a flight of marble stairs," Chase snarled. "You stood there and watched her bleed on the floor."

"She faked it to cover her tracks!"

"She lost her child!" Chase yelled, his voice echoing off the distant tree line. "My brother's only heir is dead because of your jealousy."

"I was never jealous of her!" I screamed back.

"Enough!" Chase roared.

His patience snapped. A heavy, suffocating pressure exploded outward from his body. The supernatural weight of his Alpha Command slammed into my shoulders like a concrete block.

"Kneel," he commanded.

My knees buckled. The unnatural force drove me downward, slamming my bare skin against the icy ground. Sharp pain shot up my shins as the frozen earth scraped my legs.

"Show some damn respect for the life you took," Chase sneered, towering over me.

The pressure pinned my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs. I gasped, tasting the metallic tang of blood where I had bitten the inside of my cheek.

"I didn't take anything," I choked out, staring at the toes of his polished shoes.

"You killed my brother's child," Chase stated flatly. "You will stay on that ground until she accepts your apology."

"Then I'll freeze to death," I replied.

Humiliation burned my throat, but I refused to stay down. I clenched my jaw until my teeth ached.

My baby.

The thought of my own hidden pregnancy flared in my mind. I would not bow to a man defending a snake. I had to protect the life growing inside me.

I planted my freezing palms against the frost-covered grass. My muscles screamed in protest against the command.

"Stay down," Chase warned, his eyes flashing a dangerous gold.

"I will not," I grunted.

I forced my right foot flat against the dirt, pushing my body up onto one freezing knee. My arms shook under the strain, but I lifted my chin and glared right at him.

"I said, I didn't do it," I panted, fighting the crushing weight of his aura. "And I won't bow to a thief."

Lily gasped loudly. She took a quick, exaggerated step forward, then shrank back, pressing her body tightly against Chase’s side.

"Chase, she's coming at me!" Lily cried out, throwing her hands over her face. "Keep her away! She wants to hurt me again!"

"I'm not even moving toward you," I said, my voice straining under the effort to stay upright.

Chase didn't hesitate. He saw my upward movement, heard Lily's panic, and reacted.

"Get back!" he shouted.

He swung his heavy combat boot.

The thick leather connected with my left shoulder. The sheer force of the blow lifted me off my knee.

I crashed hard onto the frozen cobblestones lining the grave site. My numb hands failed to catch my weight. My hip and ribs slammed into the jagged rocks.

At once, a sharp, tearing pain pierced my lower abdomen.

A harsh gasp tore from my lips. I curled into a tight ball, wrapping both arms around my stomach.

"Don't you ever try to attack her again," Chase spat, adjusting his cuffs.

The pain intensified, ripping through my insides like a serrated blade. I couldn't speak. I couldn't pull air into my lungs.

"Let's go," Chase said, turning his back on me. He wrapped his coat around Lily's shoulders and guided her away from the grave.

"Leave her," the pack elder instructed the crowd. "She needs to reflect on her sins."

The crowd parted for them, their boots crunching against the snow as they followed their Alpha. They left me lying in the dirt, casting disgusted glances over their shoulders.

I lay on the ice, the cold seeping into my bones, but it was nothing compared to the fiery agony radiating from my stomach. I curled into a tight ball, my vision blurring as I stared at Chase's retreating back.

A dark, warm trail of blood began to seep through the thin fabric of my dress, pooling rapidly over the frost-covered cobblestones.