My claws threatened to break through my fingernails as I gripped my communication stone, pressing my lips together in silence.

"Selene, are you feeling okay? Your scent is off—something's wrong."

The pack carriage rolled to a stop before the healer-den entrance. I reached out and grasped Kael's sleeve.

"Can we go to a different healer-den? I don't want the examination done here."

Kael shot me a suspicious look, his amber eyes narrowing. "Selene, we've done all your pup expectation monitoring here since we registered with the Blood-Scribes. Why would you want to switch now?"

"You chose Healer Frostvein yourself. It's too late to change healers."

He took my hand, his palm warm against mine, the mate bond humming faintly between us.

"Have you been too anxious lately? That's my fault—I've been working so hard, trying to secure a larger territory allocation from the Pack Council, to give you and the pup a better life."

Before, I would have melted at his dedication.

But now, that pack-net mark-thread was a thorn buried deep in my heart.

"Selene, every other healer-den in the territory is fully claimed. Let's just do the examination today, okay?"

The cold sensing crystal pressed against my swollen belly. I couldn't stop trembling.

Kael held my hand tightly, his thumb smoothing the furrow between my brows.

"The patient needs to rest lying down. Bloodline results will be ready in forty-eight hours."

Maybe the tension had exhausted me—I actually fell asleep.

When I woke, Kael was gone.

The main corridor was crowded with wolves of all ranks. I braced one hand against my belly and took the back passage down.

At the landing between floors, I caught his scent before I saw him.

Kael had his arms around a she-wolf younger than me, her Omega scent cloying and sweet.

"What are you doing at the healer-den? There are so many sicknesses spreading through the lower dens."

He pulled out a scent-mask, his face creased with concern, and fitted it over her delicate features.

"I was worried about the pup. When do the bloodline results come out?"

She pressed her body against his chest, her fingers curling into his tunic.

"Don't worry. I've got everything arranged—the results will show what we need. You'll get to be a mother, just like you wanted."

"Now you—it's freezing. Go back to your den before you make me worry."

The she-wolf stamped her foot, pouting. "No, no, I want to stay with you. She's asleep anyway."

"I'm hungry. Will you take me to hunt?"

Kael looked at her with helpless affection, brushing the loose dark hair from her forehead.

"Whatever you want. Anything you want. What are you craving?"

The tenderness in his eyes—I had never seen it once in five years of our mating bond.

She whispered something against his ear, her breath warm on his neck. He scooped her up by the waist.

They headed down the passage together.

A sharp pain tore through my abdomen. I clutched my belly, slid down the stone wall, and crumpled to the floor.

I activated the bond-link to reach Kael. Heavy breathing filled the connection.

"Selene, you're awake? Something came up with pack business at the central den. Rest at the healer-den—I'll come for you when you're done."

"Kael, my belly hurts. Can you skip the den and stay with me? Please?"

"Don't be difficult, Selene. It's almost the Midwinter Council gathering. I can't let anything affect my standing with the Elders. Be good."

The she-wolf's voice, low and urgent: "Hurry up, hurry up. My paws are cold. End the link."

The connection went dead.

The pain ebbed.

I pulled myself upright and walked to the healer's receiving chamber.

I requested another audience with Healer Frostvein.

"Selene, you want a termination?"

Healer Elena Frostvein stared at me, disbelief etched across her weathered face.

"Do you understand what you're saying? You're seven moons along. Your womb's condition is fragile—after a termination, you may never carry another pup again."

I met her worried gaze and nodded.

"I've made up my mind. I want the termination. Please schedule the ritual for tomorrow."

She opened her mouth to argue. I pulled up the mark-thread I'd seen that morning and handed her my communication stone.

Her jaw dropped. She stared at the glowing runes, speechless.

"That's impossible. Absolutely impossible. This mark-thread has to be lies. Selene—this is a life. A pup of your blood."

Healer Frostvein was my pack-sister Lyra's den-neighbor. I trusted her completely.

Before I had pleaded with Kael to undergo the bloodline rite alongside me, it never crossed my mind that something could go wrong within the healer-den.

But the moment I caught sight of that she-wolf in the shadowed corridor, her lips grazing against his ear, her body pressed close enough to mingle their scents—

My trust shattered like ice beneath a heavy paw.

"Try to keep your heart steady. Let us wait for the bloodline results before making any decisions, yes?"

Once I had gathered myself, Healer Elena worked to calm my racing pulse. She began compiling a record of every wolf who could have accessed the specimens—from the initial harvest during my heat cycle to the sacred conception rite itself.

"Selene, I give you my word—if this breach occurred within our healer-den, we will treat it with the utmost gravity."

"I have already pushed for the bloodline results. Rushed under moon-seal authority. You will have them by nightfall at the latest. I will send word the moment they arrive."

Kael, meanwhile, kept playing the role of devoted mate.

The pack escort he had arranged for me was already waiting outside the healer-den gates.

"Selene, I will be working through the night at the central den. I arranged for fresh-caught game to be delivered—make certain you eat."

He rushed through the words, eager to sever our mind-link.

"Kael, I truly feel unwell. Can you return to our den and stay with me? Forget the territory negotiations. I just want you here."

His voice turned sharp with impatience. "Selene, do not be difficult. Those negotiations mean better resources for our pup."

When I sensed no softening through our weakened bond, I cleared my throat. "Kael, let me ask you something. Did you ever undergo the phantom-labor trial—with someone else?"

A beat of silence stretched between us like a hunter's snare.

"Selene, I know I should have gone with you. But honestly, I would rather spend that time securing our territory's future than waste it on something without practical purpose."

A female voice carried through in the background, urging him to hurry with a familiar ease that made my fur want to rise.

Kael's words came faster. "Selene, my pack liaison is calling. I must go."

I set the communication crystal face-down on the fur-draped couch and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

A message arrived through the pack-net from Dorian Stormhart.

He had found her.

Her name was Raven Duskthorn. Kael's first love.

Her broken bloodline and rogue-touched family had never met the Ironclaw Pack's standards for a Beta's mate. The season they came of age, under pressure from the pack elders, Kael had been forced to sever their bond-courtship.

But after he mated with me, they had never truly let go.

Raven loved documenting her life. She was a moderately popular howl-caller on the pack-net.

On her mark-thread, I discovered a different Kael.

He smiled. He posed for memory-captures. He prepared meals with his own hands.

Nothing like the Kael I knew—the one who did nothing but work himself to exhaustion for pack standing.

It turned out that during our bonding journey, they had already reconnected.

For all ten nights of our mating celebration travels, she had stayed in the den chamber next to ours.

That was her very first pack-net mark.

In the captured image, Kael wore the bonding band I had selected for him myself—silver etched with our intertwined house symbols.

He was holding Raven on the moonlit shore, kissing her.

And in that moment, it finally made sense.

The scarred marking on his left ring finger—the one he had been so desperate to burn away with silver salve.

It was the initial runes of her name.

Like a wolf drawn to her own wounds, I scrolled through all 349 of her posts.

Then I opened her latest update.

A modest waystation den near the healer-territory.

Kael's rumpled clothing and leather belt draped over a carved chair.

That belt. The one I had given him for our first mating anniversary, tooled with protective wards.

Raven had marked beneath the image: "My wolf's hunting skills are impressive. I am well-fed tonight."

I replied to her mark: "That belt belongs to my bonded mate."

I attached the memory-capture of Kael examining that same belt the night I had gifted it.

The howl-stream erupted.

Wolves flooded in from across the territory networks, calling Raven a bond-breaker, a shadow-mate, a disgrace to Omega-kind.

My communication crystal hummed. Healer Elena's voice came through, low and steady as a winter stream.

"Selene. Tomorrow morning, first light. I have secured you the earliest ritual time for the termination."