When Zelda walked into the den, I almost didn’t recognize her.

Just five days ago she had been as radiant as a wildflower in bloom. Now her cheeks were swollen, the corners of her mouth cracked, and dark bruises wrapped around her wrists so savagely they were painful to look at.

“Yvonne!” She fell to her knees the moment she saw me, bone striking stone with a sharp thud. “Please let me go. I can’t take it anymore.”

Instinctively, I stepped back. “What are you talking about?”

“They make us train from sunrise to moonrise. No rest. Barely any food.” She lifted her skirt of torn hide, revealing lash marks on her waist. “I fainted from exhaustion. They whipped me awake with a leather strap.”

“That’s impossible,” I blurted. Before sending her to the trainee barracks, I had investigated the clan thoroughly. They had no record of mistreating novices.

Zelda’s tears splashed onto the dirt floor. “It’s true. Please don’t send me back. I can’t be a trainee anymore.”

A chill crawled up my spine. “What do you mean I’m sending you? You told me it was your dream. You begged me to help you join.”

“I never had a dream,” she whispered. “I only wanted to stay by Kurt’s side.”

Then she turned to Kurt with trembling lips. “Kurt… the training is too hard. I can’t endure it. May I stay with you instead? I promise I’ll be good.”

Kurt reached out, gently patting her head, helping her rise.

When he turned toward me, his gaze was colder than an ice-edged blade. “Why did you force her?”

“I didn’t,” I protested, my voice shaking. “She begged me to go. I vetted the training clan. They don’t treat initiates this way. There must be some mistake—”

“Look at her injuries,” Kurt snapped. His brow furrowed. “What misunderstanding could explain this?”

He took a step closer. “Since you won’t admit it, then you will feel the suffering Zelda endured. Think of it as penance.”

Before I could speak, he seized my wrist. His grip tightened so fast a bruise bloomed immediately.

He dragged me toward the storage cavern.

He called to Zelda. “Bring Ethan.”

Kurt had always been gentle with our son. So when Ethan saw him, the little one giggled, reaching for him, nestling into his father’s shoulder for comfort.

But Kurt didn’t respond.

With a cold expression, he peeled our child off his neck and shoved him into my arms.

“Zelda was beaten. I won’t lay a hand on you. But your son will suffer with you.”

“Kurt,” I cried, grabbing his arm. “I swear I didn’t do anything. We can ask the elders to check the vision stones—call the guard, check the records.”

“So now you claim Zelda is lying?” Kurt’s voice dropped low. “Why would she harm herself just to frame you?”

“I raised her for six years,” he said, voice filled with conviction. “She is gentle, kind, pure.”

His eyes darkened as he looked at me. I never felt more like a stranger. “When did you become so cruel, Yvonne? You would even harm a child?”

My soul felt as if it were being dragged into a frozen abyss.

We had known each other sixteen years. Shared a den for six.

Yet Zelda’s tears erased everything.

The storage cavern door slammed shut behind us, plunging us into darkness. Ethan’s cries filled the air—loud, frantic, terrified.

The hot, dusty air choked us.

My baby, still fragile from fever, thrashed weakly in my arms. His cries faded into broken sobs, each one weaker than the last.

“Kurt. Open the door.” I pounded until my palms numbed. “He’s burning up again. He was just released from the healer’s hut. His wounds aren’t healed. He could die in here.”

“Kurt, punish me. Strike me if you want. But save Ethan.”

“He’s your son too. I’m begging you.”

Silence.

Only silence.

My legs buckled. I slid down the wall, trembling as though my heart had been cut out while I was still breathing.

Ethan’s cries grew softer. His breath shallow.

“Ethan. Don’t fall asleep.” I patted his cheek gently. “Baby, look at Mama.”

His lips parted with the faintest whimper, but his eyes did not open.

“Ethan.”

Zelda pushed open the cavern door.

I froze, then rushed toward her. “Zelda, please. Call Healer Edrin. Ethan needs fever herbs.”

She was my only hope. For Ethan’s sake, I could beg her, even if she was the reason we were trapped here.

A faint, unreadable smile curved on Zelda’s lips. She opened her palm. “You mean this?”

“Yes. That’s it. Thank you.” I reached forward, but just as my fingers brushed the bundle of dried whiteroot, she flipped her hand.

The medicine dropped to the floor.

I lunged to grab it, but she pressed her bare foot down, grinding the crushed herbs into dust.

“I thought he would die in the desert,” she murmured. “He’s very lucky.”

I stared blankly at the pale powder smeared across the stone.

Zelda pinched my chin and leaned close. “Yvonne, listen to me. Kurt and I are bound by life and death. We were fated long before you existed.”

“Do you know what he told me when he held me?” Her voice softened. “He said he can’t sleep beside you. Only my scent calms him.”

I bit my lip hard, fighting the wave of pain clawing up my chest. I remembered clearly.

After our first night as mates, Kurt held me close and whispered, I can’t sleep without your scent.

“He doesn’t love you, Yvonne,” Zelda breathed. Each word sliced deeper.

“Why couldn’t you let go? Why did you bring a child into this world just to trap him?”

A cold dread crept through me. Holding Ethan tightly, I asked, “Did you do all this on purpose? Just to take Kurt from me?”

“Not entirely.” Zelda tilted her head, smiling sweetly with venom beneath. “I also wanted to watch you suffer.”

“You and I were both orphans. So why did you get adopted by the Kurt clan and win his heart, while I had to trail behind with no name and no rank?”

I said quietly, “Kurt wanted to adopt you. It was you who—”

“Who wants to be his adopted daughter?” she snapped, voice cracking into a scream. “I am his destined mate. His wife.”

Her fingers slid across my abdomen and jabbed Ethan’s flushed cheek. “When your baby died back then, I was thrilled.”

My vision blurred.

She continued softly, “Kurt protected me. Even though I killed his child, he still protected me.”

“That’s when I knew he was mine.”

Her nails dug into Ethan’s cheek, making him cry out.

I grabbed her wrist. “Don’t touch my child.”

Suddenly, Zelda stumbled backward with a gasp of fear.

“Ah!” Her forehead slammed into the iron door latch, and blood streamed down her face.

“Zelda!” Kurt stormed in, immediately gathering her into his arms and pressing his hand to the wound. “Steward, bring the healer.”

Zelda sagged against his chest. “Kurt, I’m alright. Ethan has a fever. Let the healer see him first.”

Then she looked at me with watery eyes that hid triumph. “I only wanted to give him medicine. Why did you push me?”

Tears mixed with blood trailed down her cheek.

Kurt’s face twisted with anguish. He turned toward me, voice cold. “Yvonne, why can’t you be more patient?”

“She fell on her own,” I said, pointing at the crushed herbs. “She destroyed Ethan’s medicine.”

His eyes dropped to the floor. For the first time, something flickered in them.

He knew how long I had waited to become a mother. He knew I would never risk my child’s life.

Hope flickered in my chest. “Kurt, Ethan’s fever—”

But before I could finish, Zelda broke into ragged sobs. “It’s my sister. She said Ethan would rather die than take my herbs. Kurt, please help him. He’s really sick.”

Kurt gently cupped her face. “Even now, you’re still thinking of him.”

Then he stood and approached me.

I will never forget the look in his eyes.

“Yvonne,” he said softly, the gentleness colder than any snarl, “I never imagined your jealousy would blind you to your own child’s suffering.”

He held out his hand.

“Give me Ethan.”

I instinctively held my son tighter. “What are you trying to do?”

“How can I trust Ethan to stay with you when you’re in this state?” Kurt’s voice was cold.

“No.” I staggered back. “He is my son. I will not be separated from him.”

Kurt’s gaze hardened into ice. He tore Ethan from my arms. The little one wailed, claws curling, ears pressed flat in fear.

“Give him back to me!” I reached for them, but Kurt kicked me aside. My waist slammed into the sharp corner of a stone chest, and a strangled cry escaped me.

For a moment, Kurt’s back stiffened, but he never turned around. He lifted Zelda gently and left the cavern… carrying my child.

The door shut. Darkness swallowed me whole.

When consciousness returned, everything was washed in pale white.

The ceiling of our den.

I turned my head. Kurt sat beside me. He stirred the moment I moved and brushed a hand across my cheek. “You’re awake. Do you feel unwell?”

“I…” My throat scraped like sand. No sound came out at first.

Kurt quickly pressed a cup of heated springwater to my lips. “You were unconscious for a full day and night. Why didn’t you tell me your blood-essence drops so easily? I was terrified when you collapsed.”

His concern looked real. His voice gentle.

Gentle enough to almost make me forget he had locked his mate and their child inside a storage cavern to suffocate.

Almost.

A day and a night.

Only four more days. Then I would be gone.

I forced myself upright. “Where is Ethan?”

He pressed me back into the furs. “Don’t worry. Zelda is tending to him.”

“What?” My heart clenched. I shoved him away and stood.

Kurt seized my wrist and threw me back onto the bedding. “What are you doing?” His jaw tightened, as if holding back rage. “Yvonne, you need rest.”

Fear and fury surged hot through my veins. “You left my child with Zelda. How do you expect me to rest?”

“Yvonne!” Kurt erupted, pacing beside the bed, then snapping, “Why are you so hostile toward Zelda? You two used to get along.”

“Yes,” I laughed, bitter and cracked. “I once treated her like a sister. But what did she do? Have you ever asked? Have you ever cared to know?”

“You—”

A woman’s scream burst from the next chamber.

Then a baby’s cry—raw, choking, desperate.

I shoved Kurt out of the way and sprinted into the nursery hollow.

The sight froze my blood.

Ethan lay on his back, his tiny chest heaving, his face burning red as he coughed and gagged. Curled milk—too thick, too sweet—covered his cheeks, his chest, the bedding beneath him.

Zelda stood off to the side, wiping her tunic with a cloth, her face twisted in irritation, not concern.

I swept Ethan into my arms, patting his back, trying to clear his airway. As I pressed him close, I saw angry red welts blooming across his forehead and chest.

A reaction. A strong one.

Kurt turned to Zelda first. “What happened?”

I demanded, “Zelda, what did you feed him?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Only some clan-milk mash.”

Kurt immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Why are you blaming her? She is still just a girl.”

I stared at him, disbelief clawing through me. “You trusted her with Ethan? Did you check if he reacts to mountain-milk? Did you even look at him when you walked in?”

“Enough!” Kurt roared, the sound rattling the cavern walls. “Zelda did her best to care for him. And you? You only ever find fault.”

“Yvonne, your jealousy, your bitterness… it disgusts me.”