Sable POV
The pregnancy test in my pocket feels like it's burning a hole through my jeans.
I press my hand against my stomach—still flat, still normal—and can't stop smiling. Three months. Three whole months of carrying Corvin's pup, and I finally have proof. The pack doctor confirmed it this morning during my secret visit to the next town over.
I wanted to surprise him.
My boots crunch on the gravel path leading to our house. It's barely noon. Corvin thinks I'm gone all day on the supply run to Millbrook, but I finished early. Raced back home with the test results clutched in my sweaty hand and hope bursting in my chest.
Maybe this will finally make him look at me the way he used to.
Maybe a pup will make him forget that I'm wolfless. Broken. The mate who can't shift, can't hunt, can't do anything a proper Luna should do.
But I can give him a child. That has to count for something.
I push open our front door, already rehearsing the words. Corvin, I have news. You're going to be a father. My cheeks hurt from smiling. The house is quiet. He's probably in his office doing Alpha work like always.
Then I hear it.
A laugh. High and bright. Coming from upstairs.
From our bedroom.
My feet freeze on the bottom step. That's not Corvin's laugh. That's... that's a woman.
"She'll never know," the woman says, voice dripping with amusement. "Sable's too stupid to figure it out."
Ice floods my veins.
I know that voice.
My hand grips the stair railing so hard my knuckles turn white. One step. Two. Three. Each one feels like walking through mud. My heart hammers against my ribs. There's a reason for this. There has to be. Maybe it's pack business. Maybe—
The bedroom door is cracked open.
Through the gap, I see our bed. The bed where Corvin promised to love me forever five years ago. The bed where he held me on bad nights when pack members whispered about the "worthless wolfless Luna."
And on that bed right now is my mate.
With my stepsister, Ondine.
They're not just talking.
The pregnancy test slips from my numb fingers and hits the floor.
Corvin's head snaps toward the sound. His eyes meet mine through the doorway. For one heartbeat, I think I see guilt flash across his face.
Then it's gone.
He climbs off Ondine slowly. Doesn't even bother covering himself. Just stares at me with those emerald eyes that used to make my stomach flip.
"Sable." My name sounds flat in his mouth. "You're back early."
That's it? That's all he has to say?
Ondine sits up, her silver-blonde hair tumbling over her bare shoulders. She's glowing. Literally glowing with that perfect she-wolf radiance I'll never have. And she's smiling.
"Oh good," Ondine purrs. "We can finally stop sneaking around."
The world tilts sideways.
"What?" The word scrapes out of my throat.
Corvin pulls on his pants like this is normal. Like I didn't just catch him destroying everything. "We need to talk."
"Talk?" I'm shaking now. "You're in bed with my sister and you want to talk?"
"Stepsister," Ondine corrects, examining her nails. "Not like we're actually related, Sable. Don't be dramatic."
Corvin steps toward me. I stumble backward into the hallway. My back hits the wall.
"This isn't how I wanted you to find out," he says.
"Find out what?" My voice cracks. "That you're a cheater? That you're—"
"That I'm done pretending." His words cut like knives. "You're wolfless, Sable. You've been wolfless for twenty-four years. Did you really think I'd stay with you forever?"
The floor drops out from under me.
"You... you chose me. You mated me."
"I made a mistake." He says it so simply. Like our five years together mean nothing. "I thought you might develop a late wolf. Some females do. But you're defective. Broken."
Each word is a punch to the gut.
Ondine appears in the doorway now, wrapped in my bathrobe. She places one hand on her stomach—a stomach that's slightly rounded.
No.
No, no, no.
"I'm twelve weeks along," Ondine announces, her smile vicious. "Corvin's pup is already growing strong. I can feel my wolf singing to it."
Twelve weeks.
Three months.
The same as me.
"You see," Corvin continues, voice cold and clinical, "I need a proper heir. A strong pup from a strong mother. Ondine is everything a Luna should be. Beautiful. Powerful. Fertile."
"I'm fertile!" The words burst out of me. "I'm pregnant too! That's why I came home—to tell you—"
Corvin's expression doesn't change. "A wolfless mother produces weak offspring. Everyone knows that. Even if you're pregnant, which I doubt, that pup will be as broken as you."
The cruelty steals my breath.
"The pack deserves better," he says. "I deserve better. Tomorrow at the pack meeting, I'm announcing Ondine as my new chosen mate. She'll be my Luna."
"You can't." Tears blur my vision. "We're mated. The bond—"
"Can be broken." He cuts me off. "I already spoke to the council. They agree this is best for the pack."
The council knew. Everyone knew except me.
"Honestly, Sable." Ondine's voice drips with fake sympathy. "Did you really believe Corvin loved you? You were always just the pathetic charity case he took pity on."
Something inside me splinters.
"Get out," Corvin says. "Pack your things. I want you gone before tonight."
"This is my home—"
"This is the Alpha's house. And you're not the Luna anymore."
He turns his back on me. Just turns around and walks back into the bedroom. Back to Ondine. She blows me a kiss before shutting the door in my face.
I stand there in the hallway, one hand pressed against my stomach where my pup is growing. The pup Corvin just called broken.
Footsteps echo from downstairs.
My stepmother Maris glides into view, pack enforcers flanking her. Her smile is ice-cold.
"Perfect timing, Sable dear." Her voice is sugar-sweet poison. "We need to have a very serious conversation about the missing Moonstone Tears from the sacred vault."
My blood turns to ice.
"And about the evidence we found in your bedroom."