The first thing that I did after Isaac kicked me out of my own house, was not to cry, or scream, or collapse onto the greenish ground.

Such raw, animalistic reactions were for the weak, the naive Elara I had buried beneath the ashes of his memories.

I did not waste any second and headed to meet the head of Elders' Committee-To nullify my mate bond with Isaac and file a case against him–of our child's murder.

"Are you sure about this? Because it's... it's a crime to go against the Beta of the pack, especially when there is no Alpha in the pack. He is second in command right now."

"More importantly, he is your husband, your true mate! Are you really want to do this, Elara?"

"Are you really sure he... he murdered his own child?" I could sense the disbelief in his voice as he questioned my conscience repeatedly.

"I wouldn't be here if I was not sure, Elder Victor." I replied, my voice firm and confident.

"You swore to obey my command in front of my father. It's time to fulfill your duty."

He sighed, "That was when he had announced you his heir. But, everything changed after Lyra's arrival in his life, especially now that she is pregnant with his son."

I narrowed my eyes, waiting for him to continue talking because I knew he was going to.

"But, my loyalty lies with you, Elara. I'll do as you say. However, to nullify your mate bond with Isaac and hold a meeting of elders against him... it will take time."

"How much?" I asked, my voice desperate.

"A week." He replied.

"A week then," I replied before I stood on my heels and walked up to the door of his den.

"Elara..." He called me from behind, "I met your father the day before he died. Do you want to know what we talked about?"

I stayed silent. If I opened my mouth, I would have said something bad about my dead father-for betraying my mother and for bringing a wrench, Lyra, into our lives.

"He never changed his mind." Elder Victor continued, "He wanted to see you rule over the pack as the first ever female Alpha."

My hands clenched so tightly that the nails pieced my palm. I bit my lower lips. Tears streamed down my cheeks. But, I did not turn back. I just walked out.

'He never changed his mind.'

'He wanted to see you rule over the pack.'

His voice echoed through my mind.

It didn't matter what he wanted in his last moment. He had already announced Lyra as his Luna in front of everyone.

And, I had already paid its price with my four babies' life.

No one was going to buy what he told Elder Victor behind the walls.

***

I returned to the house under the cover of the late-night darkness, but the journey back felt longer than the trip to Elder Victor's den under the weight of my father's regret and his wish of seeing me as his heir.

Now that the die was cast—the documents signed, the Elder’s Committee process begun—I had to play the part of the meek, defeated wife for a full week.

I had to live under the same roof as the man who murdered my children and the woman for which it was done.

I let myself in quietly. The house was not as I left it in the morning.I noticed it immediately: a gaudy, floral-scented candle, one Lyra always favored, burning on the antique mahogany console.

It was the first sign that she hadn't waited for morning to claim her space.

I walked to the bedroom.The door was ajar, a sliver of warm, dim light leaking out.

I reached for the handle, intending to push it open, when I heard a soft, unfamiliar sound—a low, rhythmic groan, followed by a woman's breathless giggle.

Isaac and Lyra. Already.

The porcelain mask I had been wearing since the argument cracked, but only on the inside.

No tears, no scream. Just a sudden, paralyzing drop in temperature around my heart.

I pushed the door open, not with a bang, but with a slow, deliberate creak, forcing them to see me.

Isaac was half-dressed, his back to me, leaning over Lyra on our bed. Lyra, sprawled across the silk sheets I had hand-selected, gasped and covered herself with a sheet, her eyes wide with malicious triumph mixed with momentary fear.

Isaac whirled around, his Beta scent clouding the air, a scent now permanently mixed with Lyra’s heavy, sweet perfume.

"Elara..." He whispered, a moment of hesitation flickered through his eyes. Just then, Lyra got up. Seductively wrapping herself in a blanket, she said,

"I was feeling cold. Isaac was just giving me a body massage. I hope you don't misunderstand us, honey."

"Stop calling me honey. I'm not your daughter." I replied coldly, the mask of calmness slowly breaking up with the sight of her.

I turned to look at Isaac. "I didn't know you like giving body massage to other woman... while being naked."

"I was feeling cold. So, he was keeping me warm." Lyra replied quickly.

My eyes, devoid of any warmth, scanned Lyra’s mock-innocent pose and settled on Isaac’s nervous, half-covered form. I didn't need to argue their pathetic lie; I only needed to state the new reality.

"Save your breath. I don't care what you do to each other in this house. Just know this: the stench of your sin ends with you. You will never again do some disgusting act before my eyes, in case it effects the baby."

After throwing out these words, I walked out of the room, slamming the door on Isaac's face who quickly chased after me.

"Elara wait..." He called from behind. But, I did not stop.

I continued my walk toward the back staircase.

He reached me at the foot of the stairs, grabbing my arm—too rough for a simple touch, yet not aggressive enough to be a true threat.

"I asked you to apologise to Lyra." He barked, "You know I don't like it when you don't obey me."

I looked down at him, my eyes red in anger. I just caught this man who called himself my mate, having sex with my stepmom and he had the audacity of showing his authority on me.

“I saw you in my bed, Isaac, with the woman who now occupies the space my mother once held in this pack, and you think I will care what you like or not?" I screamed out.

Just then Lyra emerged from our bed room.

"Please don't fight your mate because of me, Elara. If you don't like me staying here. I'll just move out." She said, standing beside Isaac, her face pitiful.

However, the first thing that I noticed was the red sweater she had worn off her nighty. The sweater was too small to cover her body and was torn off because of forceful wearing.

My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth would crack. She was wearing the sweater my mother had gifted me before dying. It was her last gift to her future grandchildren, suitable for ten years old kids.

Blood ran cold to my head watching the woman responsible for my children's death, now ruining the blessings their grandmother had left for them.

This time, I could not stop myself. Anger driven, I rushed to her side and slapped her.

Just one slap was enough to get her on her knees, face swollen as she watched me, stunned.

"How dare you lay your hands over something that belonged to my child!" I spat, my voice shivering with rage.

"I... I was feeling cold. I couldn't find anything else other than... I did not know it was for your child. I really don't," she choked out, pointing her fingers at the suitcase.

"Elara..." Before I could add something, Isaac's voice echoed through the whole house, cold and furious.

His anger finally boiled over, his Beta aura flaring with heat."It was merely a piece of cloth. Just what the hell is wrong with you?"

He rushed to Lyra's side, helped her standing up and said, "She is pregnant. How could you do this to her? I thought you were mature than this."

"Merely a piece of cloth?" I choked. "It was for our first daughter, Isaac."

Of course, you wouldn't care. The man who killed his own children, would not flinch over a sweater who keep the memories of both my mother and daughter.

"Enough..." He spat, "Lyra is hurt. Go bring a herbal lotion and apply it on her cheeks."

I looked down at him, my expression utterly pitiless. "You care so much about her as if she isn't pregnant with my father's child, but yours."

I watched as my words hit him. It stripped his facade off before me. A moment of hesitation flickered through his eyes.

But, he still attempted to appear normal. His voice raising up, "Elara... Are you in your mind what you are saying?"

"My father died four months ago yet she is pregnant with three months old baby bump. Is it too hard to crack whose baby she is carrying?" I smirked.

"Elara..." Lyra choked, her expressions extremely pitiful."I get that you don't want any step siblings. But, please don't defame me like this."

"Your Alpha father wanted a son from me, a heir to the pack. So, he froze his sperm just so that I could get pregnant in future. This is his son, your brother, okay?" She said, trying to appear pitiful.

"Save it, Lyra." I cut her off, "Tell this to the pack members who believe your lies. Because I don't."

With that, I turned to walk past them. But, then Lyra's scream echoed through the whole house. I turned around only to find a scratch on Lyra's stomach.

"Elara, you heartless woman!" Isaac's roared, his beta rage fuming over me. He almost shifted to his wolf, shivering in rage.

I was stunned. I did not know how Lyra got injured but she kept staring at me, and just one glance from her was enough for Isaac to blame me.

"Elara... You have lost four of your babies. How can you still have the heart of trying to kill someone's baby?" She hummed in pain.

"Stop this pathetic act, Lyra." I snapped back. "I don't know how it happened. But, I didn't do it."

Before I could say something more, my eyes frowned as I watched Isaac shifting to his wolf and charged at me.

My subconscious mind immediately wrapped my hands around my belly, protecting my baby with all I could. However, even the thought of an innocent child breathing in my womb could not stop Isaac from his vengeance.

He grabbed my neck and slammed my head against the wall.

"Isaac... Stop, please!" I begged, "You will kill our child."

The world went white, then black, then swam into a sickening, dizzying gray. The impact of my skull against the solid stone wall was like a thunderclap inside my head, instantly shattering my focus.

But, Isaac's chilling response was the one that took all my breath at once.

"If it dies then let it be!" Isaac snarled, his voice a low, guttural growl that vibrated through my body. His eyes, now the fierce, gold-flecked yellow of his fully enraged wolf, bore into mine.

"The child you carry is a miracle you don't deserve after what you've done to Lyra. You wanted to kill her baby, so I’ll take yours!"

The air left my lungs in a sickening, desperate cough. His words—"If it dies then let it be!"—were not just a threat; they were the absolute, final destruction of every illusion I had ever held about our bond.

He wasn't just my mate; he was my executioner, willing to sacrifice our child for Lyra’s poisonous lie.

Isaac’s wolfish snarl was inches from my face, his gold eyes burning with homicidal rage, convinced he was a protector of innocence, not a destroyer. His claws flexed, ready to tear into my neck.

But the fear that had momentarily paralyzed me evaporated. It was replaced by something cold, ancient, and terrifying.

A sound, piercing and resonant, erupted from my throat. It wasn't human.

The pain in my head, the pressure on my throat, and the bleeding that had started down my legs, fueled a raw shift I had never controlled before.

The transformation was physical and immediate. Isaac, his monstrous half-shifted body poised to kill, froze as if struck by lightning.

“Release. Me.”

The words left my lips, yet they were not my voice. They were deep, layered, and resonated through the floorboards. It was the Alpha’s command, a power that bypassed his mind and went straight to the survival instinct of his wolf.

Isaac’s powerful hands fell away from my neck as if they’d been burned. He stumbled back, his heavy wolf legs useless, scrambling to put distance between us.

He shifted back to his human form. He stared at my face dyed red in blood. My forehead was torn open, neck got several strips of his nails and the blood was sipping beneath my skirt.

A moment of hesitation flickered through his face, his eyes down with guilt and regret. He took a step closer to me.

"Elara..." He whispered, "I didn't mean to hurt you. My wolf... It lost its mind. You shouldn't have hurt Lyra."

My wolf roared in anger before it finally lost its strength, forcing me to shift back to my human form. I fell off the floor, every inch of my energy was used up in my last attempt of survival.

I kept lying on the floor, my body trembling in pain. Isaac leaned closer, just enough to pull me up. He held my hands in his. But, before he could pull me up, Lyra's voice, laced with pain, grabbed his attention.

"Isaac... I can't feel my son. Could it be that it got traumatized by Elara's violence?"

Violence?

A desperate move to protect my baby was violence in their eyes while killing my four babies and almost the fifth one, was a fair deal in their sick game of power.

As soon as the words left Lyra's lips, Isaac grip over my hands loosened. He stood up and crossed my body, in a rush to reach by her side.

He quickly grabbed her up in his arms.

"I'll take you to the pack's infirmary, Lyra. Don't worry, I'll not let anything happen to your child."

And the next moment, the sound of door slamming aggressively echoed through the hall.

He had gone.

Leaving me bleed to death!

This time, he didn't even pretend to care.

I lay there, trembling on the cold marble floor.The trembling wasn't just physical pain; it was the aftershock of my wolf’s desperate, panicked retreat after it had used its last shred of power.

But with the energy gone, the paralysis lifted. But, this was not a moment for pleading, or for guilt, or even for vengeance. It was a moment for survival.

My child.

The name, the promise, the fragile, tenacious life within me, was the only thing that mattered.

I pushed my elbow against the marble and tried to move. A white-hot spike shot through my core, stealing a choked gasp. I couldn't afford to be weak. I had to get out.

The journey to the Pack's infirmary was a complete blur, and finally blank after finally managing to reach the door of it.

***

One weeks later, I opened my eyes only to hear a cold mechanical voice from the old healer treating me.

"I'm sorry, Miss Elara. We could not save your child." She said, "The damage was too much to be recovered."

The world didn't go silent; it shattered. It wasn't the dramatic, cinematic grief I had rehearsed in my head—the weeping, the screaming, the bargaining. It was far worse.

It was a cold, absolute vacuum. The pain of the physical trauma—the gash on my head, the bruises blooming across my ribs—vanished, completely subsumed by an emptiness so profound it felt like my very soul had been ripped out.

Just then my phone rang. It was Isaac.

The first thing he said after I picked up the call was where I have been for a week or how was I after he left me to bleed.

"Elara, tonight is Lyra's baby shower event. Arrive at Pack's banquet hall by 7:00 PM." He said, his voice ever so commanding.

I clenched the phone in my hands so tightly that it screen broke and blood gushed out of my fingers.

But, then a message popped up on its shattered screen. It was Elder Victor.

"Elara, your mate bond with Isaac Wilson is successfully terminated."

"The elders have investigated through the case you submitted against Isaac and they found him guilty."

"One more thing, while cleaning the Committee building, Elder Emily found your father's will. He had left everything for you, the pack, the Alpha's position. It's all yours. When are you planning to claim what's yours?"

A cold, mirthless smile filled with vengeance spread through my lips as I took the phone close to my ears. Isaac was still on line, waiting for my response.

"Don't worry, I won't be late." I replied, my voice devoid of any emotions, "I have planned a beautiful gift for you."

After hanging up, I texted Elder Victor.

"Tonight. Please wrap everything up in a box and deliver them at Pack's Banquet hall sharp at 9:00 PM."