I was once the pack's strongest beta. I broke my wolf saving my mate, Alpha Damon. I lost my hearing. I lost our mind link.

But Damon never treated me like I was broken. He learned sign language for me. He made sure the whole pack respected me as their Luna.

Our daughter was sweet and perfect. She always showed me how much she loved me.

Then one day, it happened. My hearing returned. The mind link snapped back into place.

I was so excited. I wanted to tell Damon and Lily at the full moon ceremony.

Instead, I heard them. Lily, my precious daughter, talking to Damon on our link.

"Daddy, the cripple is still carrying my brother. When can we bring Momma Elara home? I want her to be our real Luna!"

That’s when I knew. My daughter. The son in my womb. They were never mine. They belonged to Elara.

Elara was a half-breed omega. She couldn't carry an Alpha’s pups. I was just a surrogate. A living incubator.

Damon fed me poison to make me barren. Then he used black magic to implant his lover's child inside me.

I trembled. Tears streamed down my face.

Damon betrayed me. I would burn his entire world to ash. Then, I would vanish from his life forever.

The pack’s Full Moon Festival was in full swing.

I cradled my six-month belly, joy filling my heart.

Five years. A world of dead silence. It was finally over tonight. The curse was broken. My hearing was back. Even the mind link worked again.

My mate, Alpha Damon, didn’t know. Our daughter, Lily, didn’t know either.

I couldn’t wait to see the surprise on their faces. My mind flashed back five years. He was cradling my blood-soaked body. He swore to the Moon Goddess he would never leave me.

My eyes found them across the crowd.

Damon signed to me tenderly, his eyes overflowing with love. "My love, you look beautiful tonight."

A familiar ache of love tightened my chest. Even when I was “the deaf one,” he never forgot to praise me. This was the man I loved with my whole soul.

The next second, a voice stabbed through me.

“Daddy, the cripple is still carrying my brother. When can we bring Momma Elara home?”

Lily’s childish voice came through the mind link. It was sharp, clear, and filled with a venom far beyond her years.

“I’m sick of this deaf-mute monster. She’s a total embarrassment in front of the other pups. She can't even use the mind link. How can a worthless creature like her be our Luna?”

The words hit me like stones. Cripple. Deaf-mute monster. Worthless.

Was this really my daughter?

My blood ran cold. An invisible hand gripped my throat.

“Lily…”

This was the daughter I carried for ten months. The daughter I nearly died giving birth to after my injuries.

Across the way, he stroked Lily's head, a doting smile on his face.

But the words he sent her on their mind link were pure ice.

“Patience, my little princess. You and your brother must have Elara’s pure, noble bloodline. That woman is just a container. A living womb.”

A container? A living womb?

A tsunami of pain crashed over me. I staggered, nearly falling to my knees.

What did that mean?

Damon’s voice echoed in my head. It was horrifyingly cruel.

“I used forbidden black magic. I transferred Elara’s bloodline seed into her belly. The cripple’s womb is of a low-born line, but it’s a healthy vessel. As soon as the heir is born, we’ll get rid of this burden. Then, Momma Elara will give you a complete family.”

The baby I was carrying… wasn’t mine?

A demonic seed… growing inside me?

A tearing pain ripped through my chest. For the first time in five years, I felt the Mate Bond shake. It was the agony of a soul being torn in two.

I remembered Damon, his head on my belly every night. "This is the miracle of our love," he'd say.

All lies. A complete sham.

I was a clown. Performing a one-woman show of happiness in my silent world for five years.

"Lily, watch it." He warned our daughter in my head, his eyes tracking me as I walked closer. “Don’t let her see you move your lips. The deaf one is stupid, but she’s sensitive.”

Lily’s laugh, once like silver bells, now sounded like a demon’s hiss. “Don’t worry, Daddy. The cripple is so pathetic and stupid. She’ll never find out.”

Cripple. Pathetic and stupid.

My knees gave out.

Damon walked toward me. His face instantly shifted back to that perfect, loving mask I had drowned in for five years.

He opened his arms, pulling me into his embrace like I was a priceless treasure.

“My Luna, my love. You must be tired.”

He signed words of love. His thoughts were venom in my mind.

But now, all I could hear were the sickening calculations in his heart.

I stood stiffly in his arms.

He kissed my ear. But his mind link carried his longing for another woman. “It’s almost over, Elara. Just a few more months. Then this idiot’s purpose will be fulfilled.”

Purpose.

I shoved him away. My fingers trembled uncontrollably.

I fought back the nausea. I signed, “I… I don't feel well. I want to go back.”

“Of course, baby.” He kissed my forehead. His eyes hid his impatience, but his face was a mask of perfect concern. “Get some rest. You have to be healthy. For our child.”

I turned and fled the hall. Every step was like walking on knives. Blood everywhere.

Behind me, I heard Lily’s bright laughter and Damon’s loving reply.

The silver blade that stole my hearing five years ago was nothing compared to this agony.

The Josie who loved Damon died tonight.

I burst through the Pack House doors as if the devil himself was at my heels.

A huge portrait from our mating ceremony hung in the hall.

I was smiling like an idiot in the photo. I clung to Damon’s arm, thinking I had the whole world.

“Josie.” He had knelt before me then. His eyes were so sincere, I would have believed any lie he told. “We may not be fated mates, but I choose you. Between bloodline and true love, I will always choose you.”

I believed him.

Like a fool, I had actually believed him. A common warrior's daughter chosen by an Alpha Prince. The perfect fairytale.

Looking back now, it was just a cover. A convenient plan to hide his black magic experiment. A way to find a safe container for his beloved’s children.

I collapsed against the bed, my body giving out. The battle that destroyed me flashed in my mind again.

Rogue wolves attacked. A silver blade flew toward Damon’s heart.

I didn’t hesitate.

“No!”

I threw myself in front of him. I took the fatal blow with my own body.

When I woke again, Damon was holding me, sobbing. I was so weak. He handed me a note.

"My love, you've been through so much. I swear, I will be your ears. I'll protect you. Always!"

Five years.

Every silent night, I held onto that promise for warmth.

I see it now. From that moment on, I went from his lover to his “tool.”

A useful, obedient, deaf-mute tool who couldn’t spill his secrets.

The door opened. Damon walked in.

“Josie?” He rushed over, his brow furrowed. He was a phenomenal actor. And I was his greatest fool. “Is the baby bothering you?”

He reached out to touch my face.

I flinched back instinctively, like he was a venomous snake.

Damon’s hand froze mid-air. His eyes filled with hurt. “What’s wrong, baby? Do I smell of sweat?”

No, not sweat.

It was a sickeningly sweet, rotten smell.

It was Elara’s scent, mixed with the stench of leftover dark magic.

I’d noticed it a week ago when my sense of smell returned. I thought it was just my pregnancy making me sensitive.

Now I knew. It was the evidence left behind after their trysts.

“Let me see.” Damon’s hand moved to my neck, to our mating mark.

The moment his fingers touched my skin, a wave of revulsion hit me. I shoved him away.

“Don’t touch me!”

I used all my strength. Unprepared, Damon slammed hard against the wall.

“Josie!” He stared at me in shock. He couldn’t believe his meek little sheep would ever fight back.

He scrambled to his feet, his signed apology a mask of perfect, wounded innocence. “Did I do something wrong?”

The old me would have knelt and begged for his forgiveness.

Now, I just felt sick.

I trembled, fighting the urge to rip his throat out. I signed back, “The pregnancy makes me sensitive. I smell something… rotten.”

Damon’s pupils contracted for a split second before he covered it up. “You still need to behave, Josie. You are the Luna. You can’t be willful.”

He walked over and pressed a kiss to my forehead. It was the kiss of an arrogant owner.

“Get some rest. I have some ‘pack business’ to deal with in my study.”

He paused at the door, his back to me. A cold thought sliced through the mind link. Damn it. Is her wolf fighting the magic? I’ll have to increase the dosage.

The door clicked shut.

I clapped a hand over my mouth in the darkness, choking back a sob.

Increase the dosage?

That “calming tea” he made me drink every day for five years…

I touched my swollen belly. This wasn't a miracle growing inside me. It was a monster. And it was devouring me from the inside out.

I pulled a file from a hidden compartment under the bed.

It was an application I’d prepared long ago—a benefit for the family of a warrior who died in service. A place in a neutral-territory sanctuary.

But I picked up a pen. In the applicant field, I added my own name.

Reason for application: Severe pregnancy-related depression. Requesting transfer to the "Moon Goddess Sanctuary" for prayer and a peaceful birth.

It was the only absolute neutral zone in the werewolf alliance. An Alpha’s power couldn’t reach it.

It was my only escape route.

The next morning, Damon and Lily were acting strange. They wanted to take me to the “sacred place” to pray.

“It’s where we fell in love, the Moon Goddess Falls,” Damon said, his smile bright. “Praying there will make the baby even healthier.”

I looked at the father and daughter. A chill went down my spine.

They weren’t taking me there to pray. They were taking me there to reinforce the black magic.

I stood before the waterfall. The roaring water drowned out all evil.

Damon took a bracelet woven with dark runes from his pocket. He forced it onto my wrist.

“Lily and I made this for you,” he said, his voice full of love. “The obsidian in it will keep you safe.”

Lock down her wolf. We can't let her body reject my son, his real thoughts echoed coldly.

The moment the bracelet clicked shut, an icy chill shot through my bones. The fetus in my womb seemed to jump for joy, feeding on my life force.

“Mommy looks so pretty!” Lily clapped her hands, her eyes glinting with cruelty. “This way, my brother can gobble up all your strength to grow big and strong!”

The innocent words of a child? No. The honest words of a demon.

I looked at the bracelet on my wrist. It felt like a shackle. I slowly signed, “Are you sure this is what’s best for me?”

Damon froze for a second, then laughed. “Silly girl. You are my life. Who else would I do this for?”

Just then, his body went rigid.

A jolt shot through the mind link. It was Elara’s scent, thick with arousal.

His face went pale with panic. A flash of desperation crossed his eyes.

“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Lily asked, already knowing the answer.

“The border… there’s an urgent military situation.” Damon couldn’t even come up with a better lie. “We have to go back. Immediately.”

He grabbed Lily and rushed off without a backward glance. He was running to his real mate.

He left me there. Alone. Discarded like trash by the waterfall.

I watched them go. Then I slowly took off the bracelet reeking of dark energy.

I hurled it into the water.

It made a perfect arc before the bottomless pool swallowed it whole.

You want to drain me dry? Fine. We’ll see who drags who to hell.

For the next three days, I moved like a ghost, erasing myself from this home.

Photos, clothes, diaries. I burned them all.

While cleaning Lily’s playroom, I found something inside her favorite unicorn doll.

A polaroid picture.

In it, a shirtless Damon held a petite Elara in his arms. Lily sat between them. All three were smiling brightly.

On the back, a line was written in elegant but vicious handwriting:

To my real mommy. As soon as the mute incubator gives birth, our family can finally be together.

This was the proof.

I didn’t cry. I almost laughed.

I took a picture of the photo with my phone and uploaded it to a secure cloud.

On the fourth morning, I stood in the living room with a small suitcase.

On the table was the “prayer application” for the neutral zone.

Once it was approved, I could escape this hellhole for good.

Just as I was about to step out the door, it burst open.

Damon and Lily stormed in. Damon was clutching a copy of my application. His face was a thundercloud. His eyes swirled with a violent storm.

“Josie.” His voice was tight with fury. “You’re going to the neutral zone? And you’re taking my heir with you? Is this how you repay me?”