My Mate Chose Another and Let Our Daughter Die

Ava’s POV

“Mommy!”

A warm smile spread across my lips as I watched my daughter, Mia, running around joyfully, her laughter echoing through the village.

The sight of her carefree happiness always filled my heart with warmth. She was my world, my light. Sitting on the wooden bench outside near the pack house, I sewed quietly, occasionally glancing up to see her playing. The way the afternoon sun bathed her in golden light made her look even more angelic.

“Mia, be careful!” I called out, my voice gentle yet firm, making sure she didn’t trip or hurt herself.

But then, in a blink of an eye, everything changed.

One moment, she was laughing. The next, she collapsed.

My breath hitched as my needle slipped from my fingers. My body went cold as I watched her tiny frame convulse on the ground, her limbs shaking uncontrollably. Panic seized me when her face turned pale, her lips losing their rosy hue.

“M-Mia!” I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat in sheer terror.

I didn’t even realize I had dropped everything. My hands trembled as I bolted toward her, my feet barely touching the ground. My mind refused to process what was happening.

No. No. No…

This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening!

I fell to my knees beside her, scooping her up into my arms, but her body was limp. Unresponsive. Her small chest barely moved. “M-Mia, baby, open your eyes!” My voice cracked as I shook her gently, my heart pounding against my ribs.

Before I could react further, a blur of movement caught my eye. Lucas.

“What happened to her?!”

The Alpha of the Moon Dagger Pack.

His strong arms reached for Mia, pulling her from my grasp with a desperation I had never seen before.

“Mia,” he whispered, his voice rough, edged with fear—so unlike the cold, untouchable Alpha he usually was. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”

His hands, always steady, always powerful, trembled as he cradled her close. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might break. He was trying to stay strong. But I could see it—the terror in his dark eyes.

Mia’s breath was faint, weak.

“Dad…” she whimpered, her voice so small, so fragile.

“I’m here,” Lucas reassured her immediately.

Then, without hesitation, he took off.

I followed, my legs barely keeping up with his pace. My lungs burned, but I didn’t care. My daughter needed help!

“Call the healer!” Lucas’s voice boomed through the village, his command shaking the air with authority.

I didn’t wait for anyone else to react. I turned on my heels and sprinted toward the healer’s residence. My heart pounded, my pulse deafening in my ears. Please, please let Alicia be there!

Bursting through the door, I barely registered the startled look on Alicia’s face.

“Alicia! My daughter…she collapsed! She’s pale, and she—she can’t breathe properly!” My words came out in frantic gasps.

Alicia didn’t waste a second. “Take her here!”

Lucas barged in, Mia limp in his arms. He gently laid her down on the healer’s cot, his movements careful but urgent. He hovered, his entire body tense as if prepared to fight death itself to keep her alive.

I stood beside him, my fingers twisting together, unable to breathe properly myself.

Alicia knelt beside Mia, her hands hovering over our daughter’s small body. “She’s burning up,” she muttered, her expression darkening.

Lucas and I exchanged glances, and in that moment, I saw it. The same fear that clawed at my chest was reflected in his eyes.

Then, Alicia lifted her gaze to us, her face pale, her lips pressed into a tight line.

“Mia’s condition… it’s not normal.”

My stomach dropped.

And the fear I thought had already consumed me grew tenfold.

"W-What’s wrong with her?" My voice wavered, barely above a whisper, as I looked at Alicia.

She hesitated, her gaze shifting between me and Lucas, fear evident in her eyes. My heart pounded so loudly I thought it might burst. Then, finally, she spoke.

“It’s severe aplastic anemia.”

My breath hitched.

Alicia continued, her voice heavy with urgency. “It’s a condition in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells. Without a transfusion, her body won’t be able to fight infections or carry enough oxygen. She needs a donor, a compatible one.”

The air around us grew suffocatingly still.

Lucas turned to me, his dark eyes filled with an emotion I had rarely seen in him.

Fear.

A fear that mirrored my own.

“Who is a match?!” Lucas demanded, his voice raw. He had always been strong, always in control, but now… now, his voice held something I never thought I would hear. Desperation.

Alicia took a deep breath, her gaze settling on him. “You are, Alpha.”

Lucas didn't hesitate. “Then let’s do it.”

Alicia rushed to prepare everything, her hands moving swiftly as she gathered what she needed. The tension in the air was thick, suffocating, as Lucas rolled up his sleeve. I could see the muscle in his jaw tighten, his body rigid with determination.

We were moments away from beginning the transfusion when a sudden, urgent voice interrupted us.

“Alpha!”

Lucas’s Beta, Dante, burst into the room.

Lucas let out a frustrated growl, his patience snapping. “I’m in the middle of something, Dante! This better be important.”

Dante hesitated, his face pale. “Someone… someone came back.”

My breath caught.

Before anyone could say another word, the door swung open.

And then, she walked in.

A woman. Beautiful. Striking.

My heart dropped to my stomach.

Charlotte.

I felt my entire body freeze as I stared at her, my mind struggling to process what I was seeing. My lips parted, but no words came out.

Lucas’ first love.

His fated mate.

The woman who should have been Luna.

The woman who ran away.

And I, the one who had been left behind to pick up the shattered pieces of Lucas’s heart, was the one who had taken her place.

Lucas’s grip on the chair tightened, his knuckles turning white. “Charlotte.”

Her name left his lips like a ghost of the past returning to haunt him.

But she wasn’t alone.

Beside her stood a little girl.

A girl the same age as Mia.

My stomach twisted painfully.

The child clung to Charlotte’s hand, her small frame trembling. Her face was pale, almost sickly, her breathing shallow. She looked weak, fragile, just like Mia.

No.

No, this cannot be!

I forced myself to swallow the lump in my throat, my eyes darting between the girl and Charlotte. My hands curled into fists at my sides.

Alicia, too, was staring at the child, her brows furrowing in silent realization.

Lucas finally found his voice, though it was rough, edged with tension. “Why are you here?!”

Charlotte’s fingers trembled as she gripped her daughter’s tiny hand. Her eyes, once full of fire and confidence, now brimmed with something I had never seen in her before.

She looked… in pain and desperate.

“I came back because…” She inhaled sharply, as if the words pained her. “I need a great healer, and Alicia… she’s the only one I know who can treat diseases like my daughter’s.”

Silence filled the room.

I could feel the unspoken words hanging in the air, suffocating me.

Why now?

And most importantly…

Why did her daughter look so much like Lucas?

“Leave this place!”

Lucas’s voice was cold.

The tension in the room was suffocating, the air thick with unspoken emotions. His entire body was rigid, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He didn’t even look at Charlotte anymore, as if dismissing her would make her disappear.

The guards standing nearby shifted, waiting for his order to escort her out. But before they could move, Charlotte spoke.

And her words stopped my world from spinning.

“Her name is Sophia!”

A sudden, deafening silence filled the room.

Charlotte’s voice trembled, but she forced herself to continue, her next words shaking me to my core.

“And she is your daughter, too!”

My breath caught in my throat.

The words echoed in my head, over and over again, refusing to make sense.

No…

I took a step back, my hands instinctively going to my chest. My vision blurred for a moment, my mind struggling to comprehend the weight of what she had just said.

Lucas froze beside me. I saw the way his body tensed, the way his jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might break.

“What the fuck are you saying?”

Charlotte lowered her gaze to the floor, her shoulders shaking. For the first time, she looked small, so different from the confident, untouchable woman she once was.

“She’s…” Her voice cracked. She forced herself to look up at him again, eyes brimming with emotions I couldn’t even begin to untangle.

“She’s six years old.”

My heart stopped.

Six years old.

The same age as Mia.

I turned to Lucas, searching his face for something, anything, that would tell me he didn’t believe it either. But his expression was unreadable.

Then, slowly, Charlotte turned her gaze toward him, her desperation spilling into her words.

“I need Alicia. I overheard you. She has the same condition as your other daughter.”

The world tilted on its axis.

My mind screamed at me to deny it, to refuse to believe any of this.

But then, I saw her.

Sophia.

Small. Fragile. Pale.

Just like Mia.

I turned to Lucas, my voice barely more than a whisper. “Lucas…”

His name slipped from my lips, heavy with emotions I couldn’t contain.

But he didn’t look at me.

His gaze was locked onto the little girl—the daughter he never knew he had.

And then I realized something.

Lucas, the great Alpha King, the strongest man I had ever known… was struggling.

For the first time, he had to make an impossible choice.