He Let Our Pup Die for His Childhood Love

Six months heavy with pup, and Kael Stormbane's childhood companion led the rogue pack into the Crescent Hall, hoping to see me torn apart in the chaos.

I didn't sound the bond-call signal horn his Shadow Fangs had left me. Instead I gathered the Moon Queen and her court Omegas, and we slipped into a side hall to wait for the Court Enforcers.

Because in my last life, after the rogues breached the Crescent Hall gates, they set the place ablaze under the Blood Moon and slaughtered everyone inside. Kael tracked me down by the trail his Shadow Fangs left and dragged me out alive.

But his childhood companion, Seris Ravenmoor, was hauled off by the rogues. Defiled until she died.

Kael soothed me with gentle words, told me it wasn't my fault, and carried me off to the Hot Springs Den to rest out the remainder of my term.

Yet on the very night my body broke into labor, he walked into my chamber with ten rogue captives at his heels, every one of them reeking of filth and old blood.

I watched, helpless, as the pup about to come into the world was reduced to pulp.

Before I died, Kael raged at me like a man gone mad, his eyes flooding to a feral gold:

"If you hadn't let the rogues into the Crescent Hall, Seris would never have come to harm! You venomous woman, you nearly fooled even me!"

"Since you love the company of rogues so much, I'll let you taste them properly!"

I died with hatred choking my throat. But the Moon Goddess took pity, and threw me back to the very moment the Crescent Hall gates were breached.

The rogues' excited howls crept closer, carrying that sour reek of strange wolves on the wind, and the leftover terror of my death sent me shaking before I could stop it. Deep beneath my ribs, my wolf pressed low, ears flat, a thin whine she couldn't swallow.

But one glance at the Moon Queen and the court Omegas beside me, every face white with fear, and I bit through the tip of my tongue, forcing myself steady. The taste of iron grounded me.

I threw away the Shadow Fang's signal horn Kael had left me, and shielded the Moon Queen and her party as we slipped into the side hall of the cold palace wing.

The Moon Queen clutched the little prince to her chest and looked at me through tears. Her scent, silver birch and cold amber, trembled with the rest of her. "Lyra Frostvale, if not for you, I'm afraid today I would have"

I swallowed the pain twisting through my belly and tried to calm them.

I don't know how long we held out before, at last, the familiar clatter of armor reached us through the walls.

Kael's Beta's voice came through, muffled. "The Luna must have gone this way."

Kael didn't act on it. He only said, cold as the iron in his own scent: "But Seris is hurt."

So they'd found Seris Ravenmoor. I rushed to light the Stormbane pack's signal flare, my hands clumsy with hope.

But no rescue came. Only Kael's icy voice drifted in on the wind. "She's putting on an act. Ignore her."

I plunged into ice. The mate-mark at my neck had long gone cold, but it was nothing to the cold that filled me now. The Omega consort, Rowan Ashbrook, hadn't caught those last words, and in her excitement she ran to the door, calling out Kael's name.

She was six moons along, same as me, and had just taken a hard fall. Red was already seeping faintly through her skirts.

Before her voice had even faded, the side hall door was kicked open with brutal force.

Two rogues, drenched in blood, burst in. Their stench hit first, rot and copper, hackles rising on the back of my neck.

Several of the Omegas shrieked, screaming Kael's name, begging him to come save them.

But Kael was long gone.

My nails dug hard into my palms, sharpening to points before I caught myself, a dull ache spreading through my chest where the bond should have been.

When no one answered, the two rogues broke into vicious grins, teeth long and yellow.

"That she-wolf wasn't lying after all. The great War-Alpha's Luna really is hiding in here."

"Not just her. Look over there. Those must be the Moon Queen's own."

"Hahaha, finally our turn to enjoy ourselves."

The cold shot through me head to foot. They hadn't stumbled in by accident at all.

It had to be Seris Ravenmoor's doing.

I steeled myself, snatched up the blade I'd picked up on the way in, and planted myself in front of the Omegas.

Watching the rogues' mocking grins, I clenched my teeth, swung the blade, and charged. My wolf surged up under my skin, fury burning through the fear.

The Moon Queen let out a sharp cry, her Alpha aura flaring out across the room like a sudden drop in the air. "Retreat for what! Do as Lyra taught us. There are only two of them. Even one strike each and we'll turn them to pulp!"

Thank the Goddess there were many of us. The rogues went down fast, hacked to the floor.

The Omegas' faces were streaked with tears, several of them so terrified their limbs gave out and they crumpled to the ground.

The Moon Queen was just stepping forward to check my wound when I saw the rogue behind her grip his blade.

I pulled the Moon Queen behind me and took the strike full on.

Thank the Goddess the Omega consort beside us saw the danger and smashed a stone urn down hard on the rogue's skull.

Both rogues were dead, dead beyond any doubt.

The little prince pointed at me and burst into tears. "The Luna's bleeding so much."

Only then did I feel the pain tearing through my belly. My face went bloodless, and I sank to the floor. Somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf lurched and went silent, as if she too had felt the wound open.

While the court omegas stood frozen, not knowing what to do, Kael's Beta finally arrived. Too late.

And he'd brought barely more than a dozen wolves.

The Moon Queen saw it and struck him hard across the face, her Alpha aura cracking through the smoke like a whip. "Where is your War-Alpha Stormbane?"

Garran Thornfield stammered, unable to speak. The Moon Queen understood at once. "So that is the kind of wolf Kael Stormbane is. He left his own Luna to die and went chasing after another."

"Once we are out of this, I will see to it that he pays."

The fire was already creeping toward us, its heat singing the air. I caught the Moon Queen's arm and pleaded with her through her fury.

Only then did she let Garran lead us out.

There were too many highborn she-wolves and too few of Garran's fighters. The protection barely held, so I bit down on the agony, took up a fallen blade, and guarded the rear of our line.

Garran sounded the bond-call signal horn, once and then again, the note rising desperate into the Blood Moon dark. Nothing answered.

The Moon Queen's face grew colder by the moment. "War-Alpha Stormbane certainly keeps a disciplined pack."

Garran flinched, then scrambled to explain. "Alpha. The Alpha went to find Her Majesty. The fighting on that side may be deadlocked."

But before he could finish, Kael stepped out of the hall across from us, Seris Ravenmoor cradled in his arms. Even through the reek of blood and ash, her scent reached me, crushed jasmine over something faintly rotting, sweet honey laced with copper.

Garran opened his mouth and called to him. Kael didn't spare him a single glance.

The Enforcer at his side sneered. "Only Beta Thornfield is soft enough to swallow that female's lies."

"She must have faked another injury and forced the Beta to come fetch you."

The thick brush hid our group from where they stood.

The court omegas went white with rage, a low chorus of growls building in their throats. The Moon Queen was about to erupt when a wave of rogues charged in, fangs bared, eyes flashing feral gold.

I shouted for Garran to cover them and go first, and ended up cut off alone.

Fleeing through the chaos, I somehow ran straight into Kael's party again.

Seeing Seris without a scratch on her, without so much as a tear in the fall of her gown, I clung to one last sliver of hope and begged.

"Kael, I'm begging you. The pup inside me is yours too."

Kael saw me drenched in blood, and the ice in his eyes thawed a little. His nostrils flared as my scent reached him, frostbitten birch and clean snow gone thick with iron. "Didn't I send wolves to find you? How did you end up in such a state?"

Beside him, Seris spoke as though it were nothing. "That's right. Beta Thornfield was with her just now. He called you over."

"How strange that he's nowhere to be seen. Oh. Surely my dear pack-sister didn't harm Beta Thornfield just to win sympathy?"

Kael's face went black as ink in an instant, his aura slamming down over me like a weight that wanted my throat bared. He slapped me hard. "Lyra Frostvale, you'd stoop to something this vicious just to put on a show."

The blow knocked me to the ground, my head ringing.

The accusations from Kael's Enforcer came crashing down on me.

"What a vicious female. Luring the rogue packs into the Crescent Hall to fight for favor wasn't enough. Now you've gone and harmed Beta Thornfield."

"If not for the Alpha's sake, I'd kill you right now to avenge him."

I coughed up a mouthful of blood. "No. I didn't."

Kael's eyes turned colder still, and he kicked me hard. "You still won't admit it."

I slammed into the wall and curled into a ball, the pain wringing me hollow. Deep inside, my wolf pressed herself flat against my bones, too wounded even to whine.

The agony in my belly grew sharper and sharper. As they turned to leave, I forced the words out through gritted teeth.

"The pup. The pup."

Kael didn't waver. At his signal, his Enforcer stepped forward and drove his foot hard into my stomach.

"Still trying to use the pup to threaten the Alpha. A poisonous female like you, who would ever want the cursed thing you'd whelp into the world?"

A wail tore out of me, and beneath it, far below where any voice could reach, my wolf made a sound she had never made before. The blood beneath me gushed faster.

My mind blurred. The small flutter of breath inside my belly grew fainter and fainter, and the warm new-snow trace of him began to thin into nothing.

The tears spilled out of me, and I couldn't stop them. I didn't know I was weeping until I tasted salt and ash on my lips.

Why. Why. This life, I'd given up fighting Seris for anything, and still Kael wouldn't let me go.

My Eron Stormbane. Mama is useless. In the end, I couldn't keep you safe.

Through the blur of my vision, Kael's boots appeared in front of me again.

He hauled me up by the collar and forced something bitter between my lips. "It's to save the pup. Once it's born, our bond breaks."

The bitterness flooded my mouth, and only then did I remember. Eron was the name Kael had chosen.

Back when he first scented the pup growing inside me, he'd been so happy he called three nights of open hunts beneath the moon, every wolf in the pack welcome at his fire.

Every day he ran the long miles back from the border territories, just to press his ear to my belly and murmur to the pup the way only a father could.

The name itself he'd chosen from a thousand, combing through the old bloodline ledgers to find it.

So how had we ever come to this?

Kael tucked me into a corner and turned to leave.

But I caught the mocking curl of Seris's smile.

I strained to read the shape of her lips. She seemed to be saying.

Wolfsbane.

The pain dragged me under, and when I woke I was already in the Moon Queen's chambers, the cold amber and night-blooming moonflower of her scent close around me.

Her Majesty looked at me, eyes rimmed red. "Lyra, the Shadow Fangs I sent didn't reach you in time. Your pup."

With Seris's poison inside me, the pup could never have been saved.

I gave a bitter smile and signaled to the Moon Queen that I was all right. Deep beneath my ribs, my wolf had gone silent in a way I had never known her to be, curled around an emptiness that would not fill.

"Lyra, you risked your life to shield the consorts and the young of the court. The Crescent Hall owes you a great debt."

"Is there anything you want? That Ravenmoor she-wolf"

I cut her off quickly. "Your Majesty, all I want is a Bond-Severance Decree."

Seeing the grief in my eyes, the Moon Queen agreed, and left me alone to rest.

Garran Thornfield came to see me, his scent of warm oak and clove carrying his worry before he spoke. "My Luna, your pup. I'll have the War-Alpha summoned to the Crescent Hall for you at once."

Before I could refuse, he'd already sent a runner off.

But a day passed, then two, and Kael never came.

The Moon Queen told me to rest easy, yet the maids' chattering still drifted into my ears.

"War-Alpha Stormbane truly does love his Luna. The rogue siege is barely put down, and already he's riding through the Moon Court with his Enforcers, calling on every moon-healer, den to den."

"True. They say he won't even use the silver-safe salve the Moon Queen granted him. He gave all of it to his Luna."

The Crescent Hall had been in chaos, and I'd been found alone and dragged from the fire; fearing for my standing, the Moon Queen had not named me as Kael's Luna.

Listening to the maids' envy, Garran came in awkwardly to give his report.

"My Luna, there's been no word from the War-Alpha."

I gave a soft sound of acknowledgment, pressing down the dull ache in my chest. "He's busy."

Too busy tending Seris. How could there still be room in his heart for me? The mate-mark at the junction of my neck had gone cold long ago, and it did not warm now.

After half a moon, it was no longer fitting for the Crescent Hall to shelter an Alpha's Luna.

The Moon Queen sent word for Kael to take me home.

But all that came was one shabby obsidian carriage, and the very Enforcer who had once stamped on my belly.

Dorn's face was full of resentment, a low growl threading under his words. "The War-Alpha hasn't had a moment's rest, and you actually dared to stir trouble before the Moon Queen herself."

"The messenger who carried her order tore into the War-Alpha. If he weren't honoring your old companion-bond, he'd have cast you out with a Bond-Severance Decree long ago, you vicious she-wolf."

"It's Beta Thornfield I pity"

His words broke off the moment he caught Garran's scent of warm oak a step behind.

Garran gave him a puzzled look. "Why do you look like you've scented a wraith? See the Luna home with care. The moon-healer was clear. She can't take the cold right now."

I said nothing, and climbed into the carriage.

Outside, once Dorn had heard the truth from Garran, he came to the front of the carriage and struck himself hard across the face, the blow loud enough that even his wolf flinched beneath it.

I spoke up to stop him from begging forgiveness.

If Kael hadn't allowed it, his own Enforcer would never have dared treat me so brazenly.

In the end, I simply didn't measure up to Seris.

When we reached the War-Alpha's estate, the carriage was carried around to the back gate.

Dorn's face went grim. "I'll go call for the War-Alpha right now."

Before he could move, the back gate creaked open, and Kael came storming out, the air thickening with the cold iron and ozone of his fury, and yanked me down onto the ground.

"I spared you out of mercy, and you actually go and slander Seris!"

Lyra Frostvale, you led the rogue pack into the Crescent Hall, left countless dead in your wake, tore out Beta Thornfield's throat. Wasn't that enough?

And now you have the gall to smear Seris too. I think you've got a death wish.

The Enforcer stared, dumbfounded, and started toward me to help me up. War-Alpha, it isn't like that...

Kael kicked him aside, hard, his Alpha aura flaring so sharp the air itself went thin. Has she addled your mind too?

Dorn winced through the pain. The pack healer said...

Before he could finish, Seris came rushing out, her crushed-jasmine scent curdling sweet over something faintly rotting. Kael, what do we do? Those Court Enforcers have forced their way in.

Kael shot me a vicious glare, hauled me up by the arm, and dragged me inside.

Go and set the Court Enforcers straight. Tell them it was all your false accusation, that none of it had anything to do with Seris.

Otherwise, you can forget about keeping that pup of yours.

He strode off so fast the Enforcer behind him couldn't catch up, only shout from a distance.

War-Alpha, War-Alpha, stop.

But Kael was frantic, and not a single word reached him.

Ignoring my struggling, he flung me down hard in front of the Court Enforcers. Here is the traitor you came for.

I cried out in pain. One of the Enforcers gave a cold snort and clapped silver-laced chains around my wrists. The metal hissed against my skin, burning where it touched. Venomous bitch, save the act.

Nearby, a servant of the War-Alpha's estate caught sight of my face and gasped. My Luna...

The Enforcer's eyes sharpened. Who exactly is she?

I spoke up quickly. I'm not...

Before I could finish, Kael stepped forward and seized me by the throat. His scent hit me first, woodsmoke and cold iron and the ozone tang before a storm breaks, the scent that had once meant home, now wrapped around the hand that crushed my windpipe.

She's the guilty one.

He leaned close to my ear, his voice a threat. You go quietly to the Silver Cells in Seris's place, or I'll put an end to your pup this instant.

I couldn't break free. All I could do was look at him through my tears. Somewhere beneath my skin, my wolf had gone utterly silent, the way a hunted thing goes still when there is nowhere left to run.

Without a shred of mercy, Kael handed me over to the Court Enforcers.

I was dragged out of the War-Alpha's estate.

A thin layer of snow lay over the ground, and the melt soaked through my skirts.

The cold cut to the bone, yet it was nothing beside what I felt inside.

Kael watched, unmoved, as I was hauled past the gate.

The Enforcer caught up, gasping for breath. War-Alpha, Beta Thornfield...

The gates of the estate swung open. Beta Thornfield's family, in mourning grey, knelt in the snow beside a bier. The wind carried the fading thread of his scent off the body, warm oak and clove going cold.

I beg you, War-Alpha, see justice done for my son.

Seris hurried over to help Thornfield's old mother up. Please, don't kneel. The War-Alpha will make this right for you.

Kael looked at the grey muzzle of Thornfield's mother, awash with guilt.

But seeing how wretched I looked, he pulled back the eyes that had wanted me torn apart on the spot.

I failed Beta Thornfield. I'll see that there's an answer for this.

But Seris shrieked. Kael, you're still going to shield...

Kael cut her off coldly. She's my Luna, when all's said and done. It was my own indulgence that let her commit such a grave wrong.

Seris walked over, fixing her eyes on me, a dark hatred flashing through them.

She leaned to my ear and whispered, her honeyed voice laced with copper. I never imagined Kael could be so loyal and devoted. Even now he won't bring himself to punish you.

I gave a cold laugh and spat at her. Seris Ravenmoor, have you never heard the saying? The Moon Goddess has eyes.

Kael caught sight of it and moved to pull Seris away.

But the Enforcer pressed forward again, trying to explain.

Kael shoved him off, impatient. I know you and Beta Thornfield were like brothers. Rest assured, I won't let her off.

The Enforcer stamped his feet in desperation. That's not it, War-Alpha...

But Seris let out a sharp cry, clutched her arm, and collapsed beside me.

Sister, I only meant to help you up, and you hid a claw-and-fang to murder me.

The Court Enforcers, who had been watching the spectacle, struck me across the head with a hilt at her words.

Guilty bitch, you dare run wild right in front of us.

I lost my balance and tumbled down the steps, slamming to a stop in front of Beta Thornfield's bier.

Seris wept against Kael's chest. If I hadn't moved quickly, that strike would have gone straight into my heart.

Kael, you've defended this poisonous woman every way you can, and yet she actually...

It's nothing for me to suffer a little. I only grieve for Beta Thornfield, brave all his life.

The Thornfield pack around me understood in an instant.

Fists and feet rained down on me. I curled around the hollow of my belly out of an instinct that no longer had anything to protect, and still my wolf did not stir, did not snarl, did not rise. There was nothing left in there to fight for.

The Enforcer rushed down and threw himself in front of me. Don't do this, don't do this.

But the Thornfield pack had gone mad, past hearing any explanation.

Kael noticed his Enforcer's strange behavior and turned, frowning, to look this way.

The heavy cloak that had been wrapped around me was torn open by someone, baring my flat belly.

Kael's pupils contracted, gold flashing through them in a single, violent pulse. Lyra Frostvale! Where's the pup?