Chapter 7

My knees came down in the pool of blood.

I bowed my head and drove my forehead hard against the stone floor.

Once.

"Please, call a healer."

Twice.

"Please, save my child."

Three times.

"As long as he lives, I'll do anything you want."

I threw away every shred of a Luna's dignity, and I forgot everything Selena had ever done to me.

In that moment, I was only a mother trying to keep her child.

He was more than the heir the North had awaited for ten years.

He was the child I had carried eight months, whose heartbeat and kicks and breath I had felt more times than I could count.

Before Caius left, he had pressed his face to my belly and murmured to him,

"Wait for me to come back, and I'll teach you how to become the strongest wolf of all."

He had promised he would welcome our child into the world with his own hands.

And I had promised Caius I would keep him safe.

As long as the child could live, I was willing to give up everything.

My forehead struck the stone again and again.

Blood ran down over my brow.

Only when my vision began to blur did Selena finally smile, satisfied.

"So you really do care about this bastard."

Weakly, I lifted my head.

"I've done everything you asked."

"Now call the healer."

"Of course."

Selena turned and walked toward the tool rack of the Punishment Grounds.

I thought she was going for the communication crystal that could reach a healer.

But her hand passed over the crystal and closed around a silver blade used for cutting hides.

The edge flashed a piercing, icy light in the sun.

My breath stopped dead.

"What are you doing?"

Selena came toward me, step by step, the silver blade in her hand.

"Since you want so badly to save him, let me do you a favor."

"I'll let him be born early."

"That way everyone can see for themselves whose lowborn guard's blood he really inherited."

Terror swallowed me whole.

I scrambled backward, but two guards clamped down on my shoulders.

"No…"

"Selena, the child is innocent."

"Don't you want Caius's favor? If you hurt his only heir, he'll never forgive you!"

Her steps didn't stop.

"Even now, you still think you can threaten me with the Alpha King?"

"Hold her down."

The two guards pinned me to the ground.

I thrashed wildly, my nails clawing streaks of blood across the stone.

But the silver seal crushed my wolf strength, and my broken body couldn't fight them at all.

"Don't touch my child!"

"Caius—"

The silver blade in Selena's hand came down.

A cold light flashed before my eyes.

Then a pain beyond words swallowed me whole.

I screamed, a raw and terrible cry.

The whole Punishment Grounds seemed to fall away from me in that instant.

Through my fading consciousness, I saw Selena take a piece of white cloth from the healer's emergency kit.

The cloth was soaked through with blood in moments.

She lifted a tiny shape into her arms.

My child was terribly quiet.

No cry.

No heartbeat.

That breath tied to my very blood vanished completely in that instant.

My wolf let out one anguished wail and then collapsed deep in my consciousness.

Tears kept sliding from the corners of my eyes.

"Give him to me…"

I reached out a hand covered in blood.

"Please…"

"Give me back my child…"

Selena glanced down at the child in her arms and suddenly cried out in excitement,

"It's a boy!"

The male heir the North had waited ten years for.

Caius's only son.

But she quickly shook her head with regret.

"What a shame. He's already stopped breathing."

She held the child up before me, as though showing off a trophy she had just claimed.

"Do you see?"

"You're the one who killed him."

"If you hadn't betrayed the Alpha King, he never would have come into this world."

The noble ladies around her broke into applause.

"An unknown bastard—better off dead, cleaner that way!"

"Miss Selena has protected the purity of the royal bloodline for the Alpha King."

"When His Majesty learns the truth, he's sure to reward you."

"That's the kind of strength a future Luna should have!"

Even the keepers of the Punishment Grounds began scrambling to flatter her.

"Miss Selena is wise."

"You've rid us of the bastard who impersonated the royal heir, and protected the dignity of the whole North."

"Only you deserve to stand at the Alpha King's side."

Amid all the praise, Selena gazed down at the breathless child with satisfaction.

The corners of her lips curled, as if she were admiring her most perfect work.

"Little bastard, don't be impatient."

"I'll find your father soon enough."

"When I do, I'll send your whole family off to be reunited in the same place."

The words had barely left her mouth when heavy, measured footsteps sounded outside the Punishment Grounds.

A pressure fierce enough to make every wolf's soul tremble swept across the entire square in an instant.

Everyone who had been cheering a moment before froze where they stood.

Then the Captain's ringing announcement rang out through Silvermoon Keep,

"Kneel for the ruler of the North—"

"His Majesty, Alpha King Caius, has arrived!"