Genevieve’s POV

His warning lingered in my ears long after he stopped speaking.

For several seconds, I couldn’t seem to draw a full breath. The doctor’s words—a miracle… perhaps your only chance—collided violently with the chaos of the past few days. My pulse pounded so fiercely it almost hurt.

My hand drifted to my abdomen again without thinking.

I remembered the countless nights I had lain awake inside the Alpha estate, staring into the darkness while Nikolai slept beside me as though nothing in the world troubled him. I remembered the quiet humiliation of pack gatherings, when other Luna’s would announce their pregnancies beneath glittering chandeliers while congratulations echoed around the hall. I would always excuse myself before my composure fractured, hiding in empty corridors until the ache in my chest dulled.

I remembered praying silently to the Moon Goddess for something—anything—that would fill the hollow space inside me.

And now, that answer was here.

And I had nearly chosen to destroy it because of a male who had already erased me from his life.

The realization broke whatever restraint I had been clinging to. Tears spilled over as I covered my mouth, my shoulders shaking. The thought of willingly ending the only life that had chosen me felt unbearable.

“No,” I whispered hoarsely, shaking my head. “I can’t do it.”

The doctor studied me carefully. “You’ve reconsidered?”

“I’m keeping this pup,” I said, my voice trembling but firm. “Even if I have to raise it alone. This isn’t a mistake. It’s the only blessing I’ve ever been given.”

A faint warmth touched his expression. “Then we’ll proceed carefully. Given your medical history, we’ll monitor you closely. You’ll need to be cautious.”

When I stepped out of the hospital later, the air felt different—lighter somehow. For the first time in days, something steadier than grief settled in my chest.

In three days, I would leave.

And this time, I would not be alone.

“Genevieve!”

My name cut sharply through the air, freezing me mid-step.

Nikolai.

I turned slowly, tension tightening every muscle. He crossed the hospital entrance in long, urgent strides and seized my arm before I could speak, his fingers gripping hard enough to bruise.

“Thank the Goddess I found you,” he said, breath uneven, eyes alert in a way that told me this wasn’t about reconciliation.

I pulled slightly against his hold. “What’s happened?”

“It’s Sabrina,” he answered quickly. “She’s been admitted.”

I frowned. “Admitted for what?”

“She spiked a fever during the night,” he said, his tone sharpening. “After the stress you put her under.”

My jaw clenched. “I never laid a hand on her.”

He ignored that entirely. “She collapsed this morning. The physicians say she’s weak and dehydrated. They need to transfuse blood.”

A cold sensation crept through me. “And?”

Nikolai’s gaze locked onto mine. “Her blood type is rare. You’re a universal donor. You’re the only immediate match available.”

For a moment, I simply stared at him.

“You expect me to give her my blood?” I asked quietly.

“This isn’t about your wounded pride,” he snapped. “It’s about protecting my heir.”

He began pulling me toward the entrance.

I dug my heels into the pavement. “You command half the hospitals in this city. You have access to private reserves and blood banks. Why me?”

He turned sharply, his eyes hard as stone. “Because this situation is your fault.”

The accusation stunned me. “She lied to you!”

“I don’t have time for your delusions,” he cut in coldly. “She carries my pup. If anything happens to her—”

Something inside me snapped.

“I’m pregnant,” I said.

The words escaped before I could reconsider them.

He went completely still.

“What did you say?”

“I’m pregnant,” I repeated, louder now, my voice shaking despite my effort to remain steady. “The doctor confirmed it. It’s high risk. If I donate blood, it could jeopardize the pregnancy.”

Silence stretched between us.

Then he laughed.

It wasn’t disbelief.

It was disdain.

“You expect me to accept that?” he said slowly, shaking his head. “You think fabricating a pregnancy will excuse you from responsibility?”

“I’m not lying,” I whispered, tears threatening again. “You remember what the healers told us after the accident. They said it was nearly impossible. This is a miracle.”

His expression only hardened. “You’ve always wanted leverage. Now you believe this makes you untouchable.”

“Nikolai—”

“Enough.” His voice dropped, final and absolute. “You will donate. That is not negotiable.”

Anger surged through me, stronger than fear this time. I pulled my arm free.

“No,” I said, meeting his gaze without flinching. “I won’t risk my child for her.”

His face darkened dangerously.

“You would let her die because of jealousy?”

“I won’t sacrifice my pup,” I answered steadily. “Not for Sabrina. Not for you.”

The fury in his eyes burned hotter.

“If you walk away from this,” he said slowly, jaw clenched tight, “I will dismantle that sanctuary your father built. Stone by stone. And I’ll make sure you’re there to witness it.”

The threat struck exactly where he intended.

The sanctuary was the last untouched piece of my father’s legacy—the only place in this territory not stained by pack politics or blood.

And Nikolai knew it.

He leaned closer, his voice dropping to something lethal. “Choose wisely, Genevieve.”

In that moment, clarity settled over me.

I was no longer afraid of losing him.

I was afraid of what I would become if I stayed.

Genevieve's POV

Ice spread through my veins the instant he mentioned the sanctuary again.

He knew precisely where to wound me. That place wasn’t just some charitable front funded by pack politics and blood-soaked deals. It was my father’s final untouched legacy in a world ruled by dominance and violence. He had built it long before alliances with the Virelli pack, before power carved the softness out of him. The orphaned wolf pups there were the last innocent thing left tied to my name.

“You wouldn’t,” I said under my breath, though the tremor in my voice betrayed the doubt I felt.

Nikolai stepped closer until the heat of his anger brushed against my skin. There was no uncertainty in his expression—only a challenge. “Try me.”

For several seconds, I could only look at him. This was the male I had once trusted with every vulnerable part of myself. The Alpha who had sworn to protect what I loved. Now he was threatening to destroy it without hesitation.

My palm drifted instinctively to my stomach. Tears slipped down my cheeks in silence.

When he seized my wrist and began pulling me toward Sabrina’s private wing of the hospital, I didn’t resist this time. I followed without protest, numb, his threat echoing inside my skull.

He had secured one of the elite suites reserved for high-ranking officials and powerful Alphas. Sabrina lay propped against crisp white pillows, machines humming steadily around her, an IV threaded into her arm. Her complexion looked pale, lips parted slightly as if she were struggling to remain conscious.

Nikolai went to her immediately.

“I’m here,” he murmured, his voice soft in a way I hadn’t heard directed at me in months. He took her hand carefully. “You’ll be fine. I brought Genevieve.”

Sabrina released a weak, trembling breath. “Nikolai… it hurts… everything feels wrong…”

I stood near the doorway, watching my mate lean over her with tenderness that felt like claws dragging across my ribs. He brushed strands of hair from her face and whispered reassurances meant for her alone.

Then he turned to call for the physician.

The moment his back faced her, Sabrina’s eyelids lifted.

One eye opened.

She looked directly at me.

And she winked.

Slowly. Deliberately.

A faint curve tugged at her lips before her expression slipped back into feigned fragility.

The sound of my own pulse thundered in my ears.

Was this entire display a performance? Was I about to endanger my child for a staged spectacle orchestrated by a woman who took pleasure in humiliating me?

Rage tightened my fists.

I stepped forward, ready to expose her, but Nikolai’s grip clamped down on my hand with bruising force. His fingers dug into my skin in silent warning, his gaze sharp and unmistakable.

Don’t.

The memory of his promise to tear down my father’s sanctuary snapped me back into stillness.

The door opened, and a doctor entered briskly. Nikolai moved toward her without hesitation.

“She’s getting worse,” he said. “Begin the transfusion.”

The doctor glanced at the monitors. “Her vitals are stable at the moment. We can wait until we confirm compatibility—”

Sabrina let out another fragile sound.

Nikolai’s patience evaporated. “The donor is here,” he said curtly, gesturing toward me as though I were a tool rather than his Luna.

The doctor’s eyes shifted to me briefly before she nodded and instructed the nurses to prepare.

Cold sweat slid down my spine as they arranged the tray. I had always despised needles. Nikolai knew that. Once, he would have stood beside me, distracting me until it was over.

For a fleeting moment, his hand hovered near mine as though memory tugged at him.

Then Sabrina whimpered again.

He withdrew instantly and returned to her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as if I no longer existed.

Something in my chest tightened painfully.

I turned my face away when the nurse approached, my stomach twisting—not from fear of the needle, but from what this could cost.

Please, I begged silently. Please let something interrupt this.

Just as the doctor lifted the needle toward my arm, the door flew open.

“Stop!”

Another physician rushed in, breath uneven, a file clutched tightly in his hand.

The room went still.

He looked directly at Nikolai. “Mrs. Virelli is pregnant.”

The doctor holding the needle froze mid-motion.

Nikolai stared at the newcomer as though he had spoken nonsense. “That’s not possible.”

“She was scheduled for a termination this morning,” the doctor explained quickly, extending the chart. “She canceled. The test results confirm the pregnancy.”

Nikolai took the file, scanning it with narrowed eyes.

Relief surged through me so abruptly my knees nearly buckled. Proof. Tangible proof that I hadn’t fabricated anything. That I wasn’t manipulating the situation to escape responsibility.

For the first time in hours, I exhaled fully.

Then Nikolai closed the file.

When he spoke, his voice was colder than I had ever heard it.

“Continue.”

The word didn’t register immediately.

My eyes widened slowly. “What did you say?”

He didn’t even look at me.

“I said take the blood.”

Genevieve’s POV

The room went completely still.

Doctors and nurses exchanged uneasy looks, disbelief written plainly across their faces.

“Alpha Virelli,” one of the senior nurses began carefully, “your Luna cannot donate. You heard the diagnosis. Her pregnancy is unstable. Even minor strain could cost her the pup.”

Nikolai’s expression didn’t shift.

“I heard you,” he replied calmly, stepping forward with quiet authority. “Continue.”

The attending physician hesitated. “Sir, this goes against medical protocol. We risk losing both mother and child.”

“I’m not concerned about protocol,” Nikolai interrupted, his tone turning razor-sharp. “You’re compensated generously. Do what you’re instructed to do.”

The air felt thin in my lungs. I stared at him, disbelief hollowing out my chest.

This was the male who had once sworn before the Moon Goddess to protect me. The Alpha who had promised my safety above all else. Now he was ordering a room full of professionals to gamble with our unborn child as if it were nothing more than a strategic inconvenience.

Nikolai’s jaw tightened as his gaze swept across the staff. “If anyone here refuses, I’ll have this hospital shut down by sunrise. I sit on half the board. Don’t test how far my reach extends.”

No one doubted him. The Virelli name carried weight in every corner of the territory.

The nurse turned back to me, her voice gentler. “Luna… we require your consent.”

I couldn’t look away from Nikolai.

“You said you wanted a pup,” I said slowly, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it. “Now that you finally have one, you’re willing to sacrifice it over a convenient fever?”

His eyes darkened. “You were scheduled to terminate it this morning.”

“I changed my decision,” I shot back. “You heard the doctor.”

He exhaled in frustration. “Sabrina’s pregnancy is strong. Yours is fragile. The specialists already warned you that you may lose it regardless.”

My stomach dropped.

“So you’re choosing hers.”

“It isn’t about choosing,” he replied, though his tone suggested the opposite. “She’s unstable and needs blood. Your pregnancy may not even survive the first trimester.”

The words echoed emptily inside my skull.

This wasn’t clinical judgment.

It was preference.

And I wasn’t the one he preferred.

“You’ve already decided,” I said quietly.

For a brief second, something unreadable flickered across his face. Before he could respond, Sabrina let out another faint cough from the bed.

Nikolai turned instantly, returning to her side.

That was answer enough.

A strange calm settled over me.

Arguing would change nothing. His mind was made up. The staff were bound by his influence, just as I had been.

The nurse squeezed my arm gently. “Luna… we need a clear answer.”

I looked at Nikolai one final time.

He didn’t even glance back.

My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. “Do it.”

The doctor moved quickly. The needle pierced my skin, and dark red flowed through the tubing.

I didn’t flinch.

I didn’t cry.

I stared at the glossy white tiles beneath my feet and focused on breathing evenly.

At first, it was only a slight wave of dizziness.

Then it deepened.

My chest tightened sharply, and an icy weakness spread through my limbs.

Something was wrong.

I tried lifting my head, but my vision blurred at the edges. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, erratic and far too fast.

The nurse monitoring me glanced at the screen and paled. “Her blood pressure is dropping!”

“Stop the transfusion,” the doctor ordered urgently, rushing toward me. “She’s crashing!”

Sabrina whimpered from the bed.

“No!” Nikolai barked, shoving the doctor aside hard enough to make him stumble. “Keep it going. She needs it!”

“She’s stable!” one of the nurses shouted. “Her vitals are completely normal!”

“You don’t know that!” Nikolai roared. “Look at her. She’s in pain!”

A searing cramp tore through my abdomen, and a cry escaped me before I could suppress it.

Nikolai didn’t turn toward me.

Not once.

Every ounce of his attention remained fixed on Sabrina.

The room spun violently. My body felt distant, as if I were slipping outside of it. The taste of iron flooded my mouth.

So this was how it would end.

Not in battle. Not through a coup.

But in a hospital suite, discarded for another wolf’s deception.

Regret surged through me as Kael’s face rose in my mind. The way he had said finally, as though he had always known this reckoning would come. I had told him to wait.

I had hesitated.

Voices rose around me—doctors arguing, nurses protesting—but Nikolai stood unmoved, staring at Sabrina like she was the only life in the room that mattered.

My lips parted weakly.

“Moon Goddess… please…” I whispered, barely audible. “Protect my pup…”

The lights above me blurred into white streaks.

The shouting grew distant.

And then everything went dark.