A False Mate, A False Pregnancy, A Broken Pack

After four years as Luna of the Ironhowl Pack, I still had not given Garrick an heir.

I thought we had exhausted every remedy known to our kind. Pack healers had brewed fertility tonics beneath the full moon, elder witches had blessed moonstones for my womb, and I had spent countless nights kneeling before the Moon Goddess, praying for a miracle. Yet no pup ever came.

In the end, Garrick convinced me to accept another path.

"My mate," he would murmur, brushing my hair from my face, "your body is too delicate for pregnancy. Let another she-wolf carry our heir. The pup will still be ours."

I believed him.

I always believed him.

The she-wolf carrying our future Alpha was already eight moons along, and I spent my days preparing for the pup's arrival. Every tiny blanket, every carved wooden toy, every corner of the nursery filled me with happiness.

Then one evening, everything changed.

I was passing Garrick's study when voices drifted through the half-open door.

"You've been slipping those herbs into Lyanna's tonics all these years?" Roy asked in disbelief. Through the bond of blood, I recognized his scent immediately. "Garrick, that's madness."

"It was necessary," Garrick replied calmly.

My steps froze.

"She never needed to conceive. I made certain of that."

My breath caught in my throat.

"You altered her medicines?" Roy asked.

"Of course. The healers only knew what I allowed them to know. Lyanna believed her body was failing, but I was simply keeping matters under control."

Silence rang in my ears.

"She wanted to adopt an orphaned pup," Roy said quietly.

"The Ironhowl heir must carry my blood," Garrick snapped. "I needed my own offspring. Not another wolf's."

"And Lyanna?"

"She was never meant to carry a pregnancy. She's too fragile."

I pressed a trembling hand against my mouth.

Every tear I had shed. Every prayer. Every night spent blaming myself.

All lies.

Then Garrick spoke again.

"She'll never discover the truth. She's obedient. She trusts me. Besides, Virella's nearly due. Everything is already settled."

Virella.

The she-wolf carrying the pup.

My adopted sister.

My world shattered.

I remembered the night I had broken down before him after another failed blessing ritual. I had buried my face against his chest and sobbed until dawn.

"Perhaps the Moon Goddess doesn't wish me to be a mother," I had whispered.

Garrick had held me tighter.

"You are my mate," he had murmured. "Pups or no pups, that will never change."

Now I understood.

Those weren't words of love.

They were chains.

I left the manor without thinking, the cold wind cutting through my dress as I walked beneath the moonlit sky.

When my shaking fingers finally found my communication crystal, I contacted the healer overseeing Virella's pregnancy.

"I wish to revoke my authorization," I said.

The elderly healer sounded confused. "Luna Lyanna?"

"The arrangement is over."

A long silence followed.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes."

If Garrick wanted to build his future on deception, then he could watch it crumble.

The connection ended.

"Lyanna!"

Garrick's voice thundered across the mind-link before I even turned around.

Moments later he was striding toward me, fury darkening his face.

"You contacted the healer?"

I met his gaze.

"I know everything."

For the first time, something flickered in his eyes.

"You lied to me," I said. "You poisoned my remedies. You made me believe I could never have pups."

"I did it for your own good."

There wasn't a trace of remorse in his voice.

"You never gave me a choice."

"I protected you." He stepped closer. "You are too weak to survive childbirth. I refused to lose my mate."

"You protected yourself."

"No." His jaw tightened. "And now you would condemn an innocent pup because you're angry?"

The words struck deep.

Because despite everything, I had already loved that child.

Garrick must have seen my hesitation.

His expression softened instantly.

"There you are," he said gently, wrapping his arms around me. "You're upset. That's all. Let me take care of everything."

The familiar warmth of his embrace once would have comforted me.

Now it felt like a cage.

Then the manor doors opened.

I looked up.

Virella stepped inside as though she belonged there, one hand resting possessively on her swollen belly.

She was wearing one of my gowns.

My stomach twisted.

"What is she doing here?"

Garrick released me.

Virella smiled sweetly, her eyes gleaming with triumph.

"Oh," she said, "didn't Garrick tell you?"

She laid a hand on her stomach.

"This is my home now."

My stomach sank.

Virella walked past me as though I were nothing more than another piece of furniture in the Alpha Manor.

"To be honest," she said with a careless shrug, "this place was always too large for only one Luna."

I turned to Garrick.

"Tell me she's lying."

He said nothing.

That silence shattered something inside me.

I didn't argue when Garrick announced that Virella would be staying in the manor.

"She's carrying the future heir of the Ironhowl Pack," he said, as though that explained everything. "The pack healers need to monitor her closely. It's safer if she remains here."

Safer.

As if my opinion still mattered.

He claimed she had no family nearby and that the manor offered the best protection for both her and the pup. I simply nodded.

What else could I do?

Tell the entire pack that my mate had manipulated me for years and stolen my chance to become a mother?

No.

I remained silent.

During the following days, I kept my distance. Virella spent most of her time in the sunroom overlooking the training grounds, reading old pup-rearing scrolls and sipping herbal tonics prepared by the healers. Garrick had arranged chambers for her directly across from ours.

Far too close.

At first, I convinced myself I was imagining things. Perhaps grief and anger were clouding my judgment.

But the feeling wouldn't leave.

Virella wasn't here because of the pup.

She was here because of Garrick.

He hovered around her constantly. Every evening, they sat together before the fireplace while I watched from across the room. If she complained of discomfort, he was already at her side. If she mentioned a craving, he ordered the kitchen to prepare it immediately.

And somehow, every task became mine.

"Lyanna, could you bring Virella her evening tonic?"

"Lyanna, the healers recommended a different blend of herbs. See that she gets it."

"Lyanna, Virella needs fresh blankets."

Each request felt less like a favor and more like an order.

I was the Luna of the pack.

Yet somehow I had become a servant in my own home.

The worst part was that Garrick made no effort to hide it.

Then I found the portrait.

I had gone into his study searching for sealing wax when I discovered a small sketch tucked among old documents.

Garrick and Virella.

Younger.

Smiling.

His arm resting comfortably around her shoulders.

I stared at it for a long time.

That evening, I placed the portrait before him.

"How long?" I asked quietly.

Garrick barely looked surprised.

"It was years ago."

"You knew her before me?"

He sighed.

"It was nothing serious."

"I thought she was Roy's friend."

"So she was." He crossed his arms. "You're reading too much into this."

Again.

As though every concern I had was simply another foolish suspicion.

I walked away before I said something I would regret.

That night, sleep refused to come.

Garrick never joined me.

Through the mate bond, I sensed only a faint awareness from him before he shut the connection down entirely.

An important meeting, he had said.

Pack business.

I believed him.

Just as I always had.

Hours passed.

The manor had long since fallen silent when I finally rose from bed and stepped into the corridor.

As I passed Virella's chambers, I noticed light spilling beneath the door.

The door itself was slightly ajar.

I wasn't trying to eavesdrop.

I wasn't searching for proof.

But the moment I glanced inside, my world stopped.

Garrick was there.

Not in a council meeting.

Not handling pack affairs.

He sat beside Virella on her bed, his hand resting on her swollen stomach as they laughed together.

The intimacy between them was unmistakable.

The look in his eyes was one I hadn't seen directed at me in years.

I remained frozen outside the doorway as their voices drifted into the corridor.

Virella smiled and leaned into him.

"When are you finally going to tell her?"

Garrick's expression hardened.

"Soon."

"You've been saying that for years."

Years.

The word struck me harder than any physical blow.

Years.

Not months.

Not a mistake.

Years.

Suddenly everything made sense.

The unexplained absences.

The emergency pack business.

The trips to neighboring territories.

The conversations that ended whenever I entered a room.

The distance growing between us while I desperately tried to save our marriage.

Three years.

For three of the four years we had been mated, Garrick had been building another life.

A life that never included me.

I wasn't his Luna.

I wasn't his future.

I was merely a mask he wore before the pack while his true heart belonged to someone else.

That night, I didn't confront them.

I didn't storm into Virella's chambers or demand answers from Garrick. I simply returned to my room like a ghost retreating to its tomb and closed the door behind me.

For a long time, I sat on the floor beside the bed, staring at nothing.

Their voices refused to leave me.

Three years.

For three years, they had deceived me while I stood faithfully beside my mate, believing every lie he fed me. I had spent countless nights praying to the Moon Goddess for a pup, blaming myself for every failure, while Garrick had already given his heartand his futureto another she-wolf.

Eventually, I reached for my moonstone communicator.

There was only one person I trusted.

"Lyanna?" Healer Elira's sleepy voice answered through the connection. "What's wrong?"

I swallowed against the lump in my throat.

"I need your help."

The concern in her voice sharpened immediately.

"What happened?"

"I need you to investigate Virella's records. Quietly. Please."

A pause followed.

"Are you hurt?"

"No," I whispered. "But if I don't learn the truth, I think I might break."

The next morning, Elira contacted me through the mind-link.

I was tending the moon roses in the garden while Garrick and Virella shared breakfast inside the manor.

"What did you find?" I asked.

Elira hesitated.

"Lyanna... there was never a fertility ritual involving your bloodline."

My hands froze.

"What?"

"There are no records of egg blessings, no moonstone transfer ceremonies, no contracts witnessed by pack elders. Nothing."

I gripped the edge of the stone planter.

"What does that mean?"

"It means Virella was never carrying your pup."

The world seemed to fall silent.

"The child belongs to Garrick and Virella," Elira said gently. "It always did."

I ended the connection before she could say anything else.

The truth hurt more than any blade.

That evening, after Virella retired to her chambers and Garrick lingered beside her longer than any Alpha should, I found him alone in his study.

His expression darkened the moment he saw me.

"I spoke with Elira."

He said nothing.

"She found no records. No rituals. No agreements before the elders."

Still silence.

"You lied to me."

"I protected you."

The words struck me like a slap.

"No," I said, my voice shaking. "You used me."

His expression remained cold.

"I needed a strong heir for the Ironhowl bloodline. You couldn't provide one."

There it was.

The truth.

Simple. Cruel. Unapologetic.

"You stole years of my life."

"You were never strong enough to survive carrying a pup."

My hand connected with his cheek before I could stop myself.

The crack echoed through the study.

Garrick barely reacted.

"I gave you everything," I whispered. "My loyalty. My heart. My wolf. And all you ever gave me were lies."

His jaw tightened.

"You are Luna of the Ironhowl Pack. You have status, wealth, protection. Most she-wolves would be grateful."

"It's not enough."

For the first time, genuine irritation flashed in his eyes.

"What do you want, Lyanna?"

I lifted my chin.

"I want the mate bond severed."

The room went still.

Garrick laughed once.

A low, dangerous sound.

"No."

My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin.

"You don't get to decide that."

"I do," he replied. "And you're not leaving."

From that moment forward, the manor became a prison.

Pack warriors watched every entrance. My movements were monitored. Messages sent through moonstones never reached their destination without passing through Garrick's hands first.

To the pack, he claimed I was unwell.

"The Luna is overwhelmed," he told anyone who asked. "She needs rest."

Every day, the walls seemed to close in further.

Yet while my body remained trapped inside the Alpha Manor, my heart had already escaped.

And with every passing day, I swore the same thing to myself.

If Garrick believed he had broken me, he was about to discover how dangerous a wounded Luna could become.

The following morning, the familiar ache in my chest greeted me the moment I woke.

The manor no longer felt like home.

It felt like a monument to everything I had lost.

The servants avoided my gaze. Some looked at me with pity. Others with uncertainty.

The day before, I had even overheard one of them refer to Virella as the future Luna.

I hadn't corrected them.

What was the point?

Virella moved through the manor as though it already belonged to her. She wore my robes, sat in my favorite chair beside the fire, and carried herself with the confidence of someone who believed victory was already hers.

Perhaps it was.

I found her in the kitchen that morning, basking in a patch of sunlight streaming through the window.

She was drinking tea from one of my favorite cups.

When she saw me, a slow smile curved her lips.

"Did you enjoy what you discovered the other night?"

My stomach tightened.

"What?"

She tilted her head innocently.

"Oh, don't pretend. You finally learned the truth about Garrick and me."

I couldn't breathe.

The satisfaction in her eyes told me everything.

She had never been sorry.

Not once.

Her smile widened, sharp and satisfied, as though she had been waiting for this moment all along.

You poor thing, Virella said softly, almost pitying. Clinging to hope like it ever meant anything in this world of wolves and bloodlines.

My voice trembled despite my effort to steady it. How did you do it? You and Garrick all this time, pretending you were the surrogate, letting me believe every lie. How long were you both laughing behind my back?

She gave a light, careless shrug, one hand resting possessively over her swollen belly. Oh, sweetheart, you should ask your mate. Garrick is the one who fed you every dream you were foolish enough to believe.

Then she leaned in, her voice dropping into something poisonous and intimate.

But if you truly want the truth between us, it was almost laughably easy to play you.

You lied to me, I said, though it came out weaker than I intended.

No, she replied with a faint smile. I simply played my role. You were the one who chose to believe it because you were desperate enough to hold onto him.

My wolf stirred beneath my skin, restless, but I could not move. I could only stand there as something inside me slowly unraveled.

Her fingers traced her belly with slow satisfaction. This child was never yours, Lyanna. He was always ours. Conceived in truth, in desire, in everything Garrick never needed to pretend with you.

Grief rose before rage could fully form, heavy and suffocating.

You think he stayed for duty? she continued, her eyes gleaming. Garrick has always belonged to blood and lineage, not broken vows or a mate who cannot give him an heir.

I turned away before my restraint failed me, before I did something the pack would never forgive.

That afternoon, the atmosphere within the manor shifted, as though even the wind carried anticipation. I felt it long before I saw anything.

Virellas voice rang out through the hall, pitched loud enough for every servant and guard to hear. Garrick, your wife is staring again. It is becoming unsettling. She looks at my belly as though she wishes harm upon the pup.

I stopped walking.

Do not begin, I said evenly.

She tilted her head, smiling faintly. Perhaps she is simply bitter. After all, I do wear your garments better than you ever did.

My hands curled into fists at my sides. You are imagining things that do not exist.

She stepped closer, her smile widening into something deliberately cruel. You should be grateful he kept you at all. Most Alphas discard broken mates long before the second year passes.

Something inside me finally snapped, though I did not touch her. I did not raise a hand.

I do not expect you to understand loyalty or truth, I said quietly. So there is no point in

Before I could finish, she let out a sharp breath and staggered backward as though struck by invisible force. She fell to her knees, clutching her belly, her voice breaking into a sob that filled the hall.

Garrick! she cried. She pushed me. The pupsomething is wrong!

No, I whispered, stepping forward instinctively. That is not true. I did not

The air shifted violently as the front doors slammed open.

Garrick entered like a storm given form.

His eyes found Virella on the floor, trembling and broken, and then they found me standing over her.

The bond between us shuddered, but it did not soften him.

What have you done? His voice was low, dangerous, unrecognizable.

I did not touch her, I said quickly. Garrick, you must listen

Enough, he roared, the sound shaking the very beams of the hall. You cannot endure seeing another carry my heir. You could not bear it, so you lashed out.

Tears stung my eyes. I swear to you, I never touched her.

But he no longer heard me.

Virella clung to him as though she had been waiting for his arms all along, whispering through sobs that I had threatened the pup, that I had spoken words no Luna should ever speak.

Then Garrick looked at me.

Really looked at me.

For the first time in days, there was no warmth left in his gaze.

Only judgment.

His hand struck without warning.

The force of it snapped my head sideways, pain exploding through bone and skin. The taste of iron filled my mouth as I staggered, barely keeping myself upright. The world tilted violently, sound collapsing into a dull ringing.

I touched my lip and felt blood.

Virella gasped behind him, her voice trembling in false horror. Garrick, please do not let this become worse. She is not herself. Perhaps she should be removed before she harms anyone else.

He did not even glance at her when he answered.

She will be removed.

The guards entered at once.

This time, there was no hesitation, no escort. Only force.

I was dragged through the hallways of the manor I once ruled as Luna. My fingers scraped against stone as I tried to steady myself, but there was nothing left to hold onto.

Outside, the night had turned cruel. Snow had begun to fall, thick and silent beneath a wounded sky.

They threw me out without cloak or protection. The great doors shut behind me like the closing of a tomb.

Cold struck immediately, sharp enough to steal breath from lungs already breaking.

Still, I walked.

Step by unsteady step through the snow, through the darkness that seemed to swallow even my name. Blood warmed my lips only briefly before the cold stole it away again.

Once, I fell. Then I rose. Then I fell again.

But I kept moving.

In the distance, the manors light blurred through the storm like something belonging to another life.

A life that no longer claimed me.

My vision faltered.

Headlights cut through the snow, too fast, too sudden, too merciless.

I turned too late.

Impact came like thunder made of iron and bone.

My body lifted from the ground, weightless for a breathless moment, before the world shattered beneath me.

Then silence.

Snow fell gently over what remained, as though trying to erase the truth.

From the manors window, Garrick turned just in time to see.

For a heartbeat, he stood frozen.

Then his voice tore through the night. Lyanna!

He moved toward the doors.

But before he could reach them, Virellas scream pierced the air, sharp and desperate.

She doubled over, clutching her belly.

Garrick, she cried, the pup something is wrong. I think I am going into labor.