"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.