Third Person POV

"You shouldn't have hurt our mate. What is wrong with you?"

Kade's wolf, Ghost, had just confirmed what Kade had been suspecting for five years: Samantha, the girl who had caused his parents to die and his sister to go mad from the brutal rape she'd endured, was his mate.

Of course, Kade had wondered on many occasions before if Samantha was his mate. He could never sense her wolf, but sometimes, during those nights when he brought her to his bedroom…

He couldn't help but feel a deep and profound connection to her despite his hatred.

On more than one occasion, he had even wondered if the reason why he kept calling her to his room—and why she always came, even if they loathed one another—was because she was his mate.

But he had never been absolutely certain. Not until now, at least.

Not until he scented her wolf for the briefest of moments, sensing both their mate bond and the pup she carried within her.

Samantha was Kade's mate. And she was pregnant.

It should have been a joyous occasion for any wolf, especially an Alpha that still had no Luna or heir, but all Kade felt was festering, bitter hatred for her. Samantha had ruined his life. Now his parents dead and his beloved sister broken.

The once intelligent, beautiful girl he'd called his sister was now a shell of her former self who could barely string two coherent sentences together without having a meltdown. Her episodes sometimes lasted for days—thrashing and screaming and hallucinating about the men who had broken her.

And it was all Samantha's fault.

Kade despised his mate with a burning passion. And yet, seeing the look of despair in her eyes as she stared up at him was unbearable. Kade didn't want to protect her, but he also couldn't help but notice the sudden urge not to hurt her.

"You must protect the child, if not her," Ghost insisted. "Put aside your hatred for one moment, Kade, and do what's right."

What's right.

What was "right" felt like throwing her into the cells right now and letting her rot down there for hiding so much from him. She really thought she could slip away without him ever knowing that she'd kept their bond and their child secret? What else did she have planned?

But Ghost was right; Kade couldn't let his pup suffer because of its mother's sins.

Internally, Kade felt a tide of panic threatening to overwhelm him. But he controlled his voice as he said, "It's no matter. I know the truth now." He dropped to a crouch beside Samantha, who shivered and scooched backwards until her spine hit the wall. "And now that you're pregnant, you belong to me. I wasn't going to let you go before, but I especially won't now."

Samatha's mouth parted wordlessly. The look in those blue eyes of hers was equal parts horror and resignation.

Kade slowly stood and turned to his Beta. "Take her to the doctor at once."

And without another word, he stormed out of the room.

…

"Mom…? Dad? Alpha Kade just pulled in."

Serena pointed at the sleek black car that had just parked in the driveway, and her parents came running. Indeed, Kade climbed out and began walking up the path with short, quick strides.

Serena's heart thudded as she rushed to the foyer and briefly smoothed her hair down in the hallway mirror before flinging the door open.

"Alpha Kade!" Serena trilled, smiling warmly. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Kade's expression was cold and calculated. Serena resisted the temptation to twist her hands nervously as she stood in front of the Alpha who was both terrifying and incredibly handsome. That square jawline covered in dark stubble ticked as he looked at her.

"I need to speak with your parents," he said gruffly.

Before Serena could reply, her parents appeared behind her. "Alpha Kade," her father said, bowing respectfully. "Please, come in. Margaret, why don't you go prepare some tea—"

"No need." Kade seemed to have no intention of setting foot in the house. "I just found out that your daughter is pregnant."

Serena and her family went utterly silent. Samantha was… pregnant? Surely it couldn't be Kade's child—Kade would never—

"Apparently it's mine," Kade went on as if reading their minds.

A wave of jealousy washed over Serena so intense that it nearly made her knees buckle out from under her. Kade and Samantha had slept together. For how long had this been going on? They didn't love each other, did they?

Samantha and Kade might be friends when they were kids, which made Serena jealous of Samantha, but Kade should've hated Samantha now after what happened five years ago.

Serena had always heard of Kade as becoming an aggressive and ruthless Alpha after what happened five years ago, not the type to make sweet love to anyone—especially not Samantha. And yet Serena had seen the way Kade looked at her in his office.

He'd looked at Samantha like he actually cared, even if only for a moment. It almost seemed as if the brutal, cold Alpha exterior was starting to crack and reveal something soft and tender underneath.

And now Serena wanted him all to herself even more.

Margaret immediately stepped forward and touched her husband's arm. "Jack, if I might have a word…?"

Serena's father nodded, and Kade agreed to wait on the porch while they spoke in private. Behind the closed door, Jack whirled on Margaret. "Is it really his?"

Margaret furrowed her brow. "I guess so. But Samantha—"

"If it's true, then Samantha probably became pregnant against her own will," Serena blurted out, turning to her parents. "She shouldn't be around him. It's not safe for her or the baby."

Jack's throat bobbed. "But he already threatened to remove Stoneridge from his protection. Our pack is small, and with all the rogues out there, we need Crescent Hollow. If we take Samantha back, then we'll all be doomed."

"Then send me in her place. If he really wants an heir, I can give birth to his child instead," Serena straightened with a cool smile, even though her mind was racing.

Serena's parents' eyes went wide. "No, honey, you can't—" her mother began, but Serena cut her off with an award-winning grin. The same grin that always got her whatever she wanted.

"I'll be fine, Mom. Kade told us the slave punishment is over. Besides," she assured her, "you know I've always had more charm than Samantha ever had. I'll win Kade over in no time and you won't need to worry about me. Plus you can bring Samantha home and get the care for her that she needs."

Margaret and Jack exchanged wary looks. But finally, after a long moment, Jack nodded. "I think it's worth a try. Besides, Samantha has always been a fuck-up. This pregnancy will only make matters worse."

Margaret wrung her hands, considering. "I just won't want her or her child to be unsafe…" She glanced at Serena. "But I don't want you to get hurt, either, darling."

"Like I said, I'll be alright. In fact, I'll have Kade wrapped around my little finger before you know it. Just let me talk to him."

Margaret still looked uncertain, but finally agreed. When they opened the door, Kade was still standing on the front steps with his arms folded over his chest. Just the sight of those enormous biceps bulging beneath his shirt was enough to make Serena's mouth water.

To think that soon, he would be hers… All she had to do was play her cards right.

"Margaret just told me something," Jack began hesitantly, glancing at his wife. "I wasn't aware of this, but apparently Samantha told Margaret this morning that she was pregnant with another male's child—that she's been seeing someone in Crescent Hollow for some time."

Kade's face blackened.

"Due to her betrayal, we think it's best if we take her back," Margaret said.

Serena beamed and stepped forward. "But if you're willing, Alpha Kade, I'll take her place. Let me become your Luna—your mate. And I swear I'll bear as many children as you desire…"

But Kade wasn't listening. He was already turning and bolting down the stairs and back to his car, ignoring Serena and her family's words.

All Serena and her parents could do was stare in shock as he peeled out of the driveway with a screech of tires.

Samantha's POV

"Looks like you're pregnant for about seven months," the doctor said, removing the ultrasound wand from my belly and tossing a paper towel at me to clean myself up.

I sat up slowly and wiped the gel off of my skin. Seven months. Exactly as Ava predicted.

"And how… How is my baby doing?" I asked, although I hardly dared to hear the answer. I had been malnourished, beaten by the household staff, and emotionally abused for so long that I was almost certain my child was going to be underdeveloped.

Or perhaps worse.

I didn't want to consider what I might do if I found out my baby wasn't going to survive. Ava reassured me as best she could, but until I heard the doctor say it out loud, I refused to hold onto hope. Hope had never served me well before, and it certainly wouldn't serve me now.

To my surprise and relief, the doctor shrugged and said, "It's fine. Healthy."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. My baby was alive. "Good. That's good."

"Good?" the doctor echoed with a sneer. "So you want to keep this baby?"

Truthfully, I still hadn't decided if I wanted to keep the baby after birth—I'd always figured that taking it to a church or an orphanage would be better than bringing it into the horrible life I'd been thrust into—but now I supposed plans had changed.

Kade knew about it now. And considering how much he loathed me, I wasn't sure what he would do to our child.

But I was still happy that my baby was alive and healthy.

"Well, yes," I admitted. "I was hoping to—"

"I figured." The doctor scoffed as she began to gather her medical supplies. "Typical breeder, only trying to gain the Alpha's favor through pregnancy."

I blinked. "What?"

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Everyone knows that you've been scheming to gain Alpha Kade's affection. And now you got what you wanted, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're—"

"Kade is going to keep you around forever now. Care for you and that child when you don't deserve it. And that bastard child of yours is the reason for it."

For a moment, I just stared at the doctor in silence. I hadn't schemed in the slightest; I didn't even want this child to begin with. It wasn't as if I'd asked to become pregnant with the pup of a man who hated my guts.

But the doctor had also said that Kade planned to keep me around. Did that mean that he was going to actually care for me and my child, or was he just going to continue my torment?

"Hope is a fool's game," Ava chided me gently. "Even if he's your mate, you mustn't let your emotions get the best of you. Kade doesn't love you, and he never will. It's best if you're not entangled with him anymore."

Once again, Ava was correct. She always was.

Sometimes, during those strange nights of passion and humiliation, I had let myself believe that Kade might feel something for me. That the mate bond transcended everything and that he could change.

But he never did. And he never would. I was just being driven by pregnancy hormones and a mate bond that neither of us ever wanted; I wasn't foolish enough to think that he might actually care now.

As if summoned by my very thoughts, Kade suddenly barged into the hospital room.

"A-Alpha Kade," the doctor said, bowing her head respectfully, "I was just finishing up Samantha's exam—"

But Kade wasn't listening to her. He practically flew across the room, and before I knew it, he was gripping my shoulders and shaking me.

"Tell me the truth!" he snarled. "Who is the father of your child?!"

"What? It's you!" I replied.

"Don't fucking lie to me, Samantha. I talked to your parents already. They told me everything."

I didn't know what he was talking about, but it didn't matter. Because before I could respond, Serena and my parents swept into the room after him, their faces red with fear.

"Tell him the truth, Samantha!" Serena cried out. "Using a normal wolf's child to impersonate the child of an Alpha is a capital offense, but you might be spared if you tell the truth!"

My heart stuttered, then cracked.

Oh.

So this was another one of their lies. Just like everything else they had ever said to me.

I wasn't sure why they had done it, but I knew now that my family was lying to Kade about me. They had told him that my baby belonged to another man.

"Whatever they told you was a lie," I said, looking at Kade. "The baby is yours. I haven't slept with—"

"It's true!" Serena was nearly frantic by now. "Kade, it's not your baby! You have to do something!"

"Kade," I went on, "don't listen—"

"Samantha." Kade straightened, his face going cold and dark as if the stars themselves had winked out of the night sky. He fixed his gray eyes on me, and in that moment, I knew. The dread that hung over my head was too great to ignore.

His eyes nearly went black. "I reject you as my mate. I never wanted you before, and I especially don't now."

The pain was immediate and intense. It began as a snapping sensation in my chest, as if an invisible thread had been cut with a knife. Then, it radiated outward, filling every cell in my body until each fiber of my being was pulsing with the agony of our mate bond severing.

I might have cried out, although I wasn't sure. The sound of the blood rushing through my ears drowned out all else—even my mother's screams.

My world narrowed down to nothing but pain.

And then the blood came. Red liquid spilled forth from between my legs, immediately soaking the hospital gown. I gasped, clutching at my belly, but it was too late.

"Ava!" I cried out, seeking inward for her presence. I shut my eyes and retreated to that sunlit meadow, but it was empty and cold. A chill wind blew through it like the coldest winter's day.

My wolf was gone. Dead. I knew it as deeply as I knew that the mate bond had severed and my baby was miscarrying.

When I opened my eyes again, I found that someone had laid me back down on the hospital bed. Above me, figures moved around frantically, silhouetted by the fluorescent lights overhead.

"She's not going to make it," I heard a voice say. The doctor's voice. "We can save the baby, but not her. She's already dying."

I was… dying? If I'd had the strength, I might have cried out to tell them that I was still here, but I couldn't. I felt myself start to go numb. Tired. And as the world began to darken around the edges, I heard another voice.

"You must do something!" Kade's voice, deep and gruff, was filled with more panic than I'd ever heard from him before. "You can't let my mate die. Do something. NOW!"

In life, the sound of that booming command might have made me flinch. But now it felt so far away and insignificant. I knew I would never hear it again. I was slipping away now, so close to death that I could almost taste it.

"There is nothing we can do, Alpha. Only the child might be saved."

My child. At least my child would live—but what fate did it have in the arms of a man like Kade? I would never be there to hold it, to protect it—

"No," another voice whispered. A nurse stepped into view with a furrowed brow. "Not even the baby will make it…"

As the room began to darken, my eyes fluttering closed for the last time, the final thought on my mind was a single curse. If this was my fate, then I cursed every inch of it. I'd lost my life years ago, but my baby… My baby deserved to live.

And yet it would never even get that. The universe had played a sick game all this time.

Finally, I shut my eyes and let death take hold of me.

The world went black.

But not for long—because a moment later, I opened my eyes again, finding myself in an unfamiliar place.

"Samantha…" A cool hand gently pressed against my forehead. "You will be reborn."