Cassian's POV
She storms into my office without knocking.
I'm reviewing engagement venue options with my Beta when Elowen bursts through the door, her eyes wild and her face flushed with rage. I've never seen her like this—she's always so quiet, so submissive, so... broken.
Not today.
"Get out," she tells my Beta, her voice shaking but firm.
Marcus looks at me for confirmation. I nod, curious despite myself. What could possibly make the timid little omega act this way?
The door closes. We're alone.
"You said you'd claim me eventually," Elowen says, and her voice cracks on the words. "Six months, Cassian. Six months of sneaking around, of you using me, of promises whispered in the dark. You said you were working on a solution. You said you cared about me!"
"Elowen—"
"LIAR!" She screams it so loud I actually flinch. "You got engaged! To her! After everything you said, everything we—" She chokes on a sob. "How could you?"
The mate bond flares with her pain, sending sharp stabs through my chest. But I force myself to stay cold, detached. This confrontation was inevitable. Better to end it cleanly.
"You're right," I say calmly. "I lied."
She stops mid-breath, like I just slapped her.
"What?"
"I lied," I repeat, standing up and walking around my desk. "About finding a solution. About making this work. About caring. I told you what you needed to hear to keep you compliant."
"You... you didn't mean any of it?" Her voice is barely a whisper now.
"Think about it, Elowen. Did you really believe an Alpha would choose an omega over a strong beta female? Did you actually think I'd make you my Luna?" I force a laugh, cruel and cold. "You were useful for satisfying the mate bond's physical needs. That's all."
"But you said—"
"I said what was necessary to keep you quiet and willing." I circle her slowly, watching her crumble with each word. Some part of me—the part connected to the mate bond—screams at me to stop. But I can't. She needs to understand reality. "Seraphine is who I'll actually marry. She's strong, beautiful, respected. Worthy of being Luna."
"And I'm not," Elowen finishes, her voice hollow.
"No. You're not." I stop in front of her, forcing her to look up at me. "You're just an omega, Elowen. Accept your place. Some wolves are born to lead. Others are born to serve. That's just how the world works."
Tears stream down her face, but she's not sobbing anymore. She's just... staring at me. Like she's seeing me clearly for the first time.
"I believed you," she whispers. "Every promise. Every gentle touch. Every time you held me after and said it meant something. I actually believed you cared."
The mate bond twists like a knife in my gut. My wolf howls with rage, demanding I take it back, apologize, fix this.
But I don't.
Because Elowen needs to stop hoping. Needs to accept that we can never be what the Moon Goddess intended. This is mercy, really. Quick, brutal honesty instead of prolonged false hope.
"I'm sorry you misunderstood," I say, not sorry at all. "But the arrangement was always clear. You serve me in private. I marry Seraphine in public. That's how it has to be."
"Had to be," Elowen corrects quietly. "Past tense."
"What?"
"I'm done, Cassian." She straightens her spine, wiping her tears away. "I won't come when you summon me anymore. I won't be your dirty secret. Find someone else to use."
Panic flares through me. "The bond—"
"I'll suffer through the bond pain. It's better than this." She turns toward the door.
"Elowen, wait—"
"No." She spins back, and there's something different in her eyes now. Not submission. Not fear. Something harder. "You made your choice. Seraphine is your future. I'm nothing. You said it yourself. So I'm done pretending otherwise."
She's actually leaving. Actually standing up to me. Part of me is impressed. Part of me is terrified.
Because the bond won't accept this. Without Elowen, the mate bond will drive me insane. I've researched it extensively—separated fated mates suffer physically and mentally. I need her, even if I don't want to need her.
"You can't just walk away," I say, my voice harder now. "The bond won't let you."
"Then I'll learn to live with the pain. Anything is better than this."
She reaches for the door handle.
The words burst out before I can stop them: "I'll exile you."
Elowen freezes. Slowly, she turns back.
"What?"
"If you refuse to serve me, you're refusing a direct Alpha command. That's grounds for exile." The threat is cruel, and I hate myself for making it. But desperation makes monsters of us all. "Is that what you want? To be thrown out of the pack with nothing? No home, no protection, no—"
"I'm pregnant."
The words hit me like a physical blow.
Time stops.
My brain can't process what she just said. Pregnant. She's pregnant.
"What did you say?" I barely recognize my own voice.
Elowen's hand moves to her stomach—a protective gesture I didn't notice before. "I'm pregnant, Cassian. About two months along. I found out a few weeks ago, but I didn't tell you because I knew..." She laughs bitterly. "I knew you'd react exactly like you're about to react."
Pregnant. With my child. An omega carrying the future Alpha's heir.
My carefully constructed world collapses in an instant.
"You can't be," I say stupidly. "We were careful—"
"Not careful enough, apparently." She's not crying anymore. Just watching me with those devastating gray eyes. "So here we are. I'm carrying your baby. You're engaged to someone else. What happens now, Alpha?"
My mind races through implications at lightning speed. If anyone finds out an omega is pregnant with my child, the engagement to Seraphine is over. My reputation is destroyed. The pack will revolt. My parents will disown me.
Everything I've worked for, gone because of one mistake.
"Get rid of it," I hear myself say.
Elowen's face goes completely white. "What?"
"The pregnancy. Terminate it. I'll pay for everything, give you whatever you need to recover, but you cannot have this baby."
"It's your child—"
"It's a problem!" I slam my hand on the desk, and she jumps. "Don't you understand? An omega's baby cannot be my heir. The pack would never accept it. This ruins everything!"
"So I should just kill our baby to protect your reputation?" Her voice shakes with rage and disbelief.
"It's not a baby yet. It's barely even formed. This is practical, Elowen. Think clearly."
"I am thinking clearly," she says, her hand still protective over her stomach. "And I'm not killing my child to make your life easier."
"Then leave." The words come out cold and final. "Take money for the termination and leave the pack. Go somewhere far away where no one knows you. I won't acknowledge this child as mine. I won't let you destroy my future."
Elowen stares at me like I'm a stranger. Maybe I am. Maybe I've always been the monster, and she's just finally seeing it.
"You have three days," I continue, opening my desk drawer and pulling out a stack of bills. I throw them on the desk between us. "Get rid of the pregnancy, or get out of Shadowpine Pack. Those are your only options."
"What if I refuse both?" she asks quietly. "What if I stay here, pregnant, and tell everyone the truth?"
The threat sends ice through my veins. "Then I'll exile you anyway and claim you're lying. It'll be your word against mine—an omega against an Alpha. Who do you think the pack will believe?"
She flinches like I struck her.
For a long moment, neither of us speaks. The mate bond screams between us, furious at what I'm doing, at what I'm saying. But I can't back down now.
"Three days," I repeat. "Decide."
Elowen picks up the money with shaking hands. She looks at it, then at me, then at her stomach.
"I loved you," she whispers. "Despite everything—the cruelty, the shame, the lies—I loved you. Because you're my mate and I'm an idiot who believed in the Moon Goddess's plan."
"Elowen—"
"But you're right about one thing. Some wolves are born to lead, and others are born to serve. I was born to serve, and you were born to be a coward who destroys anything that threatens his perfect image."
The insult stings more than it should.
"Get out of my office," I say coldly.
She walks to the door, money clutched in her hand. But she pauses at the threshold, looking back one last time.
"I hope Seraphine makes you happy," she says. "I hope your perfect future is worth everything you just destroyed. And I hope someday, when you're old and dying surrounded by all your power and success, you remember this moment. Remember the day you told your fated mate to kill your child."
"Three days, Elowen."
She leaves without another word.
The door clicks shut.
I stand alone in my office, staring at the closed door, waiting to feel relief or satisfaction or anything besides this hollow ache in my chest.
The mate bond writhes in agony. My wolf howls with rage and grief.
And somewhere deep down, beneath the pride and fear and desperation, a tiny voice whispers:
You just made the worst mistake of your life.
I silence it and pour myself a drink instead.
Three days until this problem disappears.
Three days until I can marry Seraphine and forget the pregnant omega I'm forcing away.
Three days until I'm free.
Or so I think.