After being released from the healers’ward,I took a carriage back to the Hamilton Pack Estate.

The moon was waning,its pale light spilling over the grand manor that had once felt like home.

I entered quietly,heading straight to my chamber to gather what little still belonged to me—when I heard the faint rustle of silk,followed by a soft giggle.

Stephanie.

She stood before the mirror wearing my Luna gown.

The pearl-laced dress that my grandmother had hand-stitched on her deathbed—her final blessing to me after realizing that the Winslet Pack never cared for her true-born granddaughter.

I had worked five shifts across pack borders to buy that silk.

And now?

It hung loose on Stephanie’s frame,the front torn open,her claws gripping the fabric like a predator playing with its prey.

“Oh,sister,”she beamed,twirling.“You’re alive.Pity.I was hoping you’d die.But guess what happened last night?”

My chest tightened.I already knew.

She stepped closer,the shredded hem dragging across the marble floor.

“Alexander took me to the Moonspire Suite—you know,your favorite?The one where you spent your last birthday alone?”

Her voice dripped with false sweetness.

“He said he wanted to see the same view you adored.The same balcony where you and he first marked each other.”

My stomach twisted.That had been our place—the place where he’d first whispered“mine.”

“We left the curtains open,”she smirked.“I howled his name loud enough for the staff to hear.”

I tried not to flinch.

“Alexander said I taste sweeter,”she added,tugging at the ripped neckline.Red-purple bite marks shimmered across her skin.

“When I told him I wanted to start a family,he didn’t hesitate.Who knows?Maybe I’ll bear his heir soon.”

My hands trembled,claws threatening to unsheathe.

“You’re vile,”I whispered.

She tilted her head,feigning sympathy.

“Funny.That’s not what your husband says when he’s inside me,growling my name.Maybe I’ll give him what you couldn’t.”

Something inside me snapped.

Slap.

The sound cracked like thunder.Stephanie staggered,falling backward in shock.

“You—!”

“Lavina?”

Alexander’s voice boomed from the doorway.

He stopped dead,eyes flicking between us—Stephanie half-naked in my ruined gown,me standing rigid and furious.

Stephanie’s tears came instantly.

“I’m sorry,sister!”she sobbed.“I was just trying on your gown for a modeling campaign!It ripped—I didn’t mean it!I already stole your parents’love,but please forgive me!I can’t bear this guilt—I’ll just die!”

Before I could react,she grabbed a fruit knife from the table.

“Stop,”Alexander barked,snatching it away.She twisted dramatically in his arms,then darted toward the wall as if to smash her head open.

He caught her mid-lunge,arms circling her waist.She collapsed against his chest,crying as if she were some fragile creature deserving rescue.

“Stephanie,”he murmured firmly,“I invited you here as my guest.If anyone dares harm you—they’ll answer to me.”

I stared,numb.Stephanie weeping in his arms.Alexander shielding her like a wounded pup.

A bitter smile curved my lips.

When he turned to me,his voice was colder than steel.

“Lavina,apologize to her.”

“Apologize?”I asked quietly.“Alexander,aren’t you even curious where I was last night?”

“I don’t care!”he snapped.“You don’t lay a hand on her!If you don’t apologize right now,I’ll cut off your access to pack funds and move you to the servants’quarters!”

My heart lurched.

Our pup had nearly died.

And all he cared about was her.

“That should humble you,”he sneered.“Maybe I’ve spoiled you too long.”

I said nothing.

Because I finally understood.

To him,I was never a mate—just a pet.A servant.

He thought taking away comfort would break me.

But I’d already known hunger,loneliness,and humiliation long before I met him.

He turned to the guards.

“Move her things.She’ll stay in the servants’quarters until she apologizes.”

And just like that,I became the villainess in their love story.

After Alexander and Stephanie left the manor,my communicator buzzed.

An unfamiliar number flashed on the crystal display.

“Where was he,”the voice thundered,low and furious,“while you were locked in that cold chamber,barely breathing,Miss Winslet?”

I froze.I knew that voice.

Alpha Damien Stone.

“He was…with her,”I whispered.

“I can’t stay away anymore,”he said,his tone trembling with restrained fury.

“How long?”

“One week,”he vowed.“After that,I’ll come to take you home.”

My fingers tightened around the crystal.

“Alright,”I breathed.

For days I was a prisoner inside the Alpha’s den.

No locks—just silence and walls that felt like stone around a caged wolf.

Three times a day,a servant knocked.Her voice grew smaller each time.

“Luna…”she whispered once through the door,trembling,“I know you did nothing wrong.Please eat something—your hands are turning blue.”

But the head housekeeper snapped behind her,fangs half-bared.

“You are not to defy Alpha Alexander’s orders!No meals until she apologizes.”

I never replied.

A few bruised apples found their way under my door,smuggled in secret.

I ate them without complaint—for the sake of the tiny heartbeat inside me.

I sat by the window,wrapped in the same wool cloak I had worn since that night,counting backward.

Three days gone.Four to go.

When the Council seal approved the bond-severance decree,I would leave—burn every trace of this life behind.

My communicator never stopped buzzing.

Stephanie.

Her messages dripped like venom wrapped in perfume.

[Stephanie:You never won our mothers,and you’ll never win Alex.One word from me,and he forgets you exist.]

She was right.

Alexander never returned.

Not that night.Not the next.

But she made sure I saw him.

Every hour—new vision-crystals.

Him helping her into my favorite fur robe.

Him tying her hair by the hearth in his farmhouse lodge.

Him kissing her shoulder in bed.

Others were quieter—and crueller.

Her wearing his shirt,mouthing“I love you”at the lens before flipping it off with a wink.

Or his off-screen murmur:

“Steph,if we have a daughter,we’ll name her Hope.If a son—Xavier.”

Once,I would have curled into the blankets and sobbed.

Now I only stared at my reflection in the frosted glass,calm and pale,rubbing my belly while another wave of sickness passed.

Then my communicator chimed.

[PACK ATTORNEY:Congratulations,Miss Lavina.The Council has approved your severance.Alpha Alexander Hamilton is stripped of all paternal rights.He has no claim over the pup in your womb.]

I wanted to smile—but tears came instead.

Three years of bond and blood,dissolved into dust.

Cold wind bit through my sleeves as I stepped onto the balcony.

Each breath fogged in the night air.

My body ached from hunger;my legs shook;the world tilted.

Still,I needed air—anything but the suffocating stillness of that house.

Then—

A sudden crack split the sky.

Fireworks—loud,violent—burst right above the estate.

I flinched,stumbled;my heel caught on uneven stone.

Pain tore through my abdomen.

A scream escaped my throat.

Warm liquid spread fast between my thighs.

Guards rushed forward,faces shifting from indifference to alarm.

“Get the healer—now!”

One grabbed his crystal communicator.

“Alpha!It’s the Luna—she fell from the balcony!She’s bleeding badly—please—”

Alexander’s voice cut through,cold and sharp.

“I know her tricks.She’s faking again to escape punishment.Lavina is not to leave the manor until she learns her place.”

The line went dead.

The guard stared at the device,pale with shame.

I looked up at the surveillance rune carved into the balcony pillar,tears blurring my vision.

“I apologize,”I rasped,clutching my belly.“I’m sorry—for meeting you,for loving a heartless man like you,Alpha Hamilton.”

Another firework exploded—pink,then gold,then white.

Thousands of drones shaped words across the heavens:

[HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE]

A single tear slid down my cheek.

So today…the day I was switched at birth…was also my own birthday.

“My baby…just save my baby,”I whispered—the only gift I begged for before darkness claimed me.

“Luna!Luna?!”

“Her body’s going cold!”another voice cried.

“We didn’t know—while everyone starved her,she was already pregnant!”

I regained consciousness three days later.

The healer told me the entire Western Territory had been thrown into chaos,the best pack healers and foreign shamans summoned to save me and my unborn pup.

After eight hours of rituals and transfusions,we both survived.

Tears welled,but I blinked them away.

While I lay motionless beneath the glow-stones,Alexander burst into the infirmary.

He stopped at the threshold,breathless,his cloak damp from drizzle,hair tousled from the wind.

Behind him,a guard hovered,guilt twisting his features.

“Alpha,”the guard began softly,“the Luna lost too much blood—”

“I fainted,”I interrupted,my voice hoarse but steady.“From exhaustion and malnutrition.”

Alexander’s gaze dropped to the IV feeding rune on my arm,to the hollowness beneath my eyes,the faint bluish tint on my fingertips.

“You haven’t been eating?”his voice softened.

“I wasn’t hungry.”

“Lavina,you only had to say sorry once.How was I supposed to know it wasn’t another tantrum?”he muttered,frustration edging his tone.

“You should’ve called me.I was in the Eastern Isles—it took two days to fly back.”

“It doesn’t matter,”I said quietly.“You were busy.I wouldn’t dare disturb you.”

Something flickered—guilt,perhaps—but it faded fast.

On the bedside table sat a small bunch of wildflowers,tied awkwardly with a ribbon.

A maid had left them earlier with a note:Belated Happy Birth-Moon,Luna.

Alexander followed my gaze.Realization dawned.

He’d forgotten my birth-moon.

Within the hour,gifts arrived—heavy with guilt,not love.

A chest of antique brushes for painting,a velvet case with a sapphire pendant,a rare signed novel from my favorite author.

All unopened.

Alexander said nothing,only poured soup from a flask and lifted a spoon to my lips.

“Eat.You need strength.”

Then his communicator buzzed—Stephanie’s name glowing across the rune.

“What?I’m coming.”

He set the bowl aside.

“Stephanie’s wolf-hound can’t breathe.I need to go.Eat something and rest,Lavina.”

I caught his sleeve with trembling fingers.

“For the sake of three years as mates…just this once,can you stay?”

“Lavina,I…”He hesitated—until another message flashed.His tone hardened.

“This is important.Rest and recover.”

He pulled free and left without a backward glance.

A faint,miserable smile touched my lips.

In the end,he would always choose her.

Hours later my communicator buzzed again.

[Damien Stone:Lavina,this is Alexander Hamilton’s true face.]

I opened the file.

A vision-crystal flickered to life—inside Jules Selection,the most luxurious bridal atelier in the Capital.

Stephanie stood before a mirror,twirling in a gown of white lace and moon-crystals.

Alexander stood beside her.

“Alex,I want this one,”she said,beaming.

“Of course.Choose whatever you love.We’re announcing our mating tomorrow at grandfather’s banquet.”

My pulse went still.

So the sick wolf-hound had been nothing but an excuse.

“But Alex…what about sister Lavina?”

He flinched,jaw tightening.

“She’ll cry,obviously.But I’m done playing house with her.Thinking about her tears already gives me a headache.Stephanie—the she-wolf I truly love—is you.”

I didn’t sleep that night.

Not because of the monitors’hum,but because the silence inside me was louder.

I had loved Alpha Alexander Hamilton with everything in me.

And he had left me…for her.

When dawn crept through the blinds,I was already dressed,movements mechanical.

The healer entered with my discharge parchment,smiling softly.

I had no smile left to give.

“Could you do something for me?”I asked,handing him a cream-colored envelope.

He frowned.“What is this?”

“My last gift to Alpha Hamilton.”

He opened it slightly—and froze at the bold heading:Bond Dissolution Decree.Signed.Final.

“Lavina…what about the pup?You don’t need to rush—”

“My child deserves better,”I whispered.“From this moment,we stop waiting for a man who never chose us.”

My communicator chimed again.

[Damien Stone:Waiting for you.It’s time we meet.]

I walked outside,the air sharp against my skin.

One by one,I dropped every gift Alexander had sent into the trash bin.

Then I snapped my crystal link in two and tossed it after them.

“Let’s never meet again,Alpha Hamilton.”