The Founders' Feast began with a seating chart that told me exactly what Knox had chosen.

An hour before the guests arrived, I had stood alone in the dressing room with a fresh liner in my underwear and the healer's warning open on my phone. The spotting had not worsened. I almost stayed home anyway. Then the pack secretary messaged to ask whether the Luna would receive the elders at the entrance.

I went because disappearing would let Bianca narrate my absence for me. I put on the silver crescent badge, slid the blue envelope into the hidden pocket of my dress, and promised myself I would leave the moment my body told me to.

Bianca's place card sat beside Theo at the center of the head table. Mine had been moved four chairs away from Knox.

I waited until the arriving elders passed us before I spoke.

"You moved my seat."

Knox kept smiling at the guests. "The chart was already printed."

"You control the territory. You can change a place card."

His smile vanished the second no one was looking. "Do not start tonight. Bianca needs to stay calm."

"And your wife needs to be publicly displaced to accomplish that?"

"Evelyn. Enough."

I took the distant seat rather than give Bianca the scene she wanted.

Halfway through dinner, Theo climbed onto his chair and held up another matching bracelet.

"I made one for me too!" he announced. "So everybody knows I'm going to be a big brother."

Several pack members applauded.

Bianca rose next. Her pale pink gown made the curve of her stomach impossible to miss. She pulled the private DNA report from her clutch and pressed it to her chest.

"Thank you, Knox," she said through tears. "Thank you for giving our child a place here."

Knox stood with his glass.

He did not call the child his son. He did not read the report aloud.

He chose words that would sound careful later and absolute tonight.

"I protect what is mine," he said. "Whatever the final paperwork says, no child under Blackwood protection will be abandoned."

The hall erupted.

Every cheer turned me into the jealous Luna who refused to celebrate.

I reached to the silver crescent badge at my collar, unpinned it, and put it in my pocket.

My fingers brushed the blue envelope.

Enough.

I would tell Knox about my pregnancy after the speeches. Then I would tell him I was leaving the Alpha House until Bianca's claim was verified. I would not let another woman use my title, my home, or my son to erase me one piece at a time.

I slipped through a side door into the quiet stone corridor.

"Evelyn."

Bianca followed.

The second the banquet doors closed, her tears disappeared.

Her gaze dropped to the envelope in my hand.

"What is that?"

"None of your business."

She stepped closer. "You're pregnant."

It was not a question.

I held her stare. "Eleven weeks."

For the first time since she arrived, Bianca looked genuinely afraid.

"Does Knox know?"

"He will tonight. And tomorrow, you will submit to an independent bloodline test."

Her mouth twisted. "If your baby is his heir too, do you think that makes mine disappear?"

"Children are not competing pieces on a board. The only person treating them that way is you."

Footsteps sounded from the stairwell behind us.

Bianca's eyes flicked toward the corner.

Then she grabbed my wrist.

Her nails dug into my skin.

"Let go."

She released me abruptly and threw herself backward.

Her heel struck the edge of the top step. She twisted her body deliberately, hit the short flight with her shoulder, and screamed all the way down.

I never touched her.

Knox and Theo rounded the corner as she landed.

"She pushed me!" Bianca shrieked, clutching her stomach.

Knox charged past me. His shoulder hit my chest hard enough to throw me backward into the stone balustrade.

Pain exploded across my lower spine.

Then a cramp tore through my abdomen.

I folded around it, unable to breathe.

"Knox," I gasped. "Look at me."

Bianca screamed again. "My baby!"

Theo ran to the top of the stairs and planted himself between us.

"Mom, you already have me!" he cried. "Why do you have to hurt my brother?"

Something warm slid down the inside of my thigh.

"Theo," I whispered.

He did not see the blood.

Knox lifted Bianca into his arms.

"Get the car," he barked at the guards.

"Knox."

He looked back once.

Not at my face.

At me as if I were a problem he would punish later.

"Stay here until I get back," he ordered. "Do not make this worse."

Theo ran after him with his silver wolf plush clutched to his chest.

The corridor emptied.

I slid down the wall until my knees hit the floor.

Blood soaked through my stockings.

Two pack healers rushed past the side entrance. I reached toward them.

"Please."

One hesitated.

The other grabbed his arm. "Alpha ordered us to the pregnant patient."

They kept going.

I pulled out my phone and called a neutral emergency hospital beyond our border.

Then I called Knox.

No answer.

Again.

Declined.

A third time.

Declined.

I called Theo.

He answered over the scream of sirens.

"Mom, stop causing trouble," he snapped. "The doctors are trying to save my brother."

The line went dead.

Another cramp doubled me over.

My screen lit with a message from Knox.

Bianca may lose my child. Do not contact me tonight.

I stared at the words until they blurred.

Then I pushed myself upright and walked out through the side entrance.

I drove because no one came back for me.

Every crack in the road sent pain through my abdomen. By the time I reached the neutral hospital, my dress was wet with blood.

A nurse rushed out with a wheelchair.

"How far along?"

"Eleven weeks."

She pushed me through the emergency doors while another nurse cut away the stained fabric at my waist.

I kept the blue envelope pressed flat against my lap.

The triage healer rolled an ultrasound machine beside the bed and squeezed cold gel over my abdomen.

"Stay with me, Evelyn," she said. "We're going to find the heartbeat right now."