chapter 5

Lucas saw the blood spreading beneath me, his brow snapping into a hard knot as he stepped forward. “Aeliana! What the—”

“Oh my god, Aeliana, sister!” Lillian’s panicked voice slid in perfectly on cue.

She clutched Lucas’s arm and tugged him back half a step.

“Is it… is it your period? Why is there so much blood… that’s disgusting…”

She even flinched like the sight of me was “unclean.”

The cramps were like knives twisting. The warm flood didn’t stop—taking more than blood. Taking the wolf pup inside me, piece by piece.

I bit my lip until I tasted iron, eyes blurred as I looked at Lucas and forced the words out: “No… it’s… the pup… ours…”

“Uncle Lucas, my head is spinning. My chest feels tight…”

Lillian’s voice turned weaker, and she sagged into him like dead weight.

“Maybe it’s… the scents in here. It’s too chaotic. I feel awful… can you carry me out? Please?”

A flash of doubt and struggle crossed Lucas’s eyes—then Lillian’s heavy breathing and needy clinginess snapped his focus back like a leash.

He wrapped an arm around her, urgent. “Is your Omega heat about to spiral? Hang on!”

“Mmh… it hurts… Uncle… only your scent calms me down…”

Lillian buried her face in his neck, voice shaking with tears.

And I had no strength left. Darkness crept in at the edges. All I could do was watch Lucas scoop Lillian up in his arms.

Before he rushed out, he glanced back once, frowning hard. “Aeliana, you… call a nurse. Handle it. Lillian’s not well. I need to take care of her.”

In his mind, this was probably just an awkward “female issue”—nothing compared to Lillian’s supposed Omega heat crisis.

He didn’t spare a second glance for that bright, brutal red—our wolf pup’s blood—spreading across the floor.

When I woke again, I was in another room—empty, cold, sterile.

The air reeked of disinfectant. My lower belly throbbed with a dense, dull ache, and a hollow chill sat inside me like a dead thing.

I stared at the white ceiling, and my mother’s words finally sharpened in my head.

Contacts… Linus…

I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the very bottom of my contacts, finding a number with no name.

My mother had saved it on my phone before she was hospitalized.

She’d said, “If one day Lucas betrays you, call this man. He’ll help you—in your father’s name.”

With my heart already ash, I dialed. Calm in the way only the broken can be.

It rang for a long time before someone picked up. I barely got the first line out—“Hello, I’m Aeliana Black. My mother—”

A cold male voice cut in: “Sir is busy. Do not disturb.”

Then the call ended.

My heart sank through the floor.

And right then, the door slammed open.

Several guards wearing Oakpelt Pack insignia stormed in.

They didn’t ask. They just grabbed me and yanked me off the bed—ripping the IV needle out of my hand so blood sprayed across my skin.

A nurse on rounds screamed, “What are you doing?! She needs treatment!”

One guard answered without blinking. “Move. Black Alpha’s order. She’s going to the press conference.”

They dragged me, and I fought until my muscles gave out.

As they hauled me toward the doorway, a low, calm, commanding voice came from the hall—one that froze every person in the room on the spot:

"Anyone who dares to move her even an inch, that person's wolf paw will be kept as a souvenir."