I should have waited. Should have guarded the precious secret growing within me like a dragon hoarding gold, letting it flourish in the hidden chambers of my heart where no cruelty could reach it. But the moment Ysolde's whispered confirmation had left her lips, hope had ignited in my chest like wildfire—reckless, consuming, impossible to contain.
A child.
Our child.
The words had echoed in my mind through every step as I'd made my way through the winding corridors of Ironfang Keep. The pack's whispers of barrenness would crumble to ash. Serenya's honeyed venom would choke in her throat. Even Jasper—surely even my cold, distant husband—could not deny what Selene's silver threads had blessed us with.
So I went to him, armed with nothing but hope and the fierce protectiveness already blooming in my chest.
The council chamber reeked of old parchment and weapon oil, the air thick with smoke from braziers that cast dancing shadows across walls lined with maps. Ancient banners hung from the vaulted ceiling like sleeping ghosts, each one marking another victory in the Drevyn pack's bloody rise to power.
Jasper stood at the massive oak table that dominated the center of the room, his broad shoulders bent over tactical maps, storm-gray eyes sharp with focused intensity. Even in profile, he was devastatingly beautiful—all sharp angles and predatory grace, carved from marble and winter storms.
My husband. The father of my child. The male who had claimed me with such brutal efficiency and then abandoned me to face the pack's cruelty alone.
"Jasper." My voice emerged barely above a whisper, unsteady with nerves and desperate hope.
His head lifted with lazy arrogance, storm-gray gaze cutting to me with surgical precision. Through the mate bond, I felt his immediate irritation at being disturbed, his complete lack of interest in whatever I might have to say.
"What do you want?" The words were clipped, dismissive, delivered without even the pretense of courtesy.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a caged bird, but I forced myself to step deeper into the chamber. My hands trembled against the silk of my skirts, and I pressed them flat to still their shaking.
"I need to speak with you," I said, my voice gaining strength with each word. "Alone."
His eyebrows rose in mock surprise, and through our connection I felt his amusement at my presumption—cold, cutting, designed to remind me exactly how little my wants mattered.
"We are alone." He gestured around the empty chamber with one elegant hand. "Speak."
I swallowed hard, tasting copper and fear on my tongue. The mate bond pulsed faintly in my chest, carrying his emotions like poison through my veins—impatience, disdain, the bone-deep wish that I would simply disappear and stop complicating his perfectly ordered existence.
But I had something precious to protect now. Something that changed everything.
My hand drifted to my stomach, fingers splaying protectively over the place where new life grew in defiance of everything they'd tried to make me believe about myself.
"I'm with child."
The words left my lips in a rush of desperate hope, filling the chamber like incense smoke, heavy and impossible to ignore. For one perfect, crystalline moment, I allowed myself to believe that this would be the turning point. That finally I would see something other than contempt in my husband's eyes.
Silence stretched between us, taut as a bowstring ready to snap.
Then Jasper laughed.
Not the warm, joyful sound that should greet such news. Not relief or wonder or even surprise. A bitter, sharp-edged laugh that scraped across the ancient stones like claws on slate, each note designed to flay skin from bone.
"With child?" His lips curved in something that might have been a smile if smiles could kill. "You actually expect me to believe that pathetic fiction?"
My stomach plummeted toward my feet, hope curdling into something cold and sick in my chest. "It's true. Healer Ysolde confirmed it herself not an hour ago."
His eyes narrowed to slits, storm clouds gathering with the promise of devastation. Through the bond, I felt his rage building like pressure before an explosion—not the protective fury of a male learning he would be a father, but something far more dangerous.
"Or perhaps," he said, his voice dropping to a register that bypassed my ears and spoke directly to the most primitive parts of my brain, "you found another man's bed to warm you while I was occupied with pack business. Is that it, dear wife?"
The accusation hit me like a physical blow, driving the air from my lungs in a sharp gasp. Heat scorched my cheeks, but this time it wasn't shame—it was pure, incandescent fury at the injustice of his words.
"No!" My voice cracked like a whip, raw with disbelief and wounded pride. "You're my mate, bound to me by forces older than this keep. I would never—could never—"
"Don't lie to me." His voice rose to fill every corner of the vast chamber, power lashing through the air like invisible claws. "You think I don't know your kind? Weak, wolf-less, desperate for any scrap of power or position that might elevate you above the nothing you were born to be."
Each word was a dagger between my ribs, precisely aimed and expertly delivered. The mate bond screamed with his contempt, his absolute certainty that I was capable of any betrayal, any deception that might benefit me.
"You'll spread your legs for anyone if you think it might gain you something," he continued, circling me now like a predator stalking wounded prey. "A child—any child—would give you leverage, wouldn't it? A reason for the pack to tolerate your continued existence."
Tears blurred my vision, but I blinked them back with fierce determination. I would not let him see me break. Not when I had something infinitely more precious than my own dignity to protect.
"Jasper, please." My voice emerged steady despite the chaos in my chest, strengthened by the maternal instincts already surging through my blood. "This is your child. Created from our bond, blessed by Selene herself. How can you deny what we both know to be true?"
He stepped closer, using every inch of his considerable height and the crushing weight of his Alpha presence to loom over me. The scent of him filled my lungs—storm and steel and something darker that spoke of violence barely contained. Through the bond, I felt his wolf stirring, predatory interest focused on me with the kind of attention that made prey animals freeze in terror.
"Because," he snarled, his face twisted with disgust, "I know exactly what I put inside you that night. And it wasn't enough to create life."
The crude dismissal of our joining—brutal as it had been—sent fresh pain lancing through my chest. But it was nothing compared to what came next.
"No," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried more menace than any shout. "That bastard growing in your belly will never be mine. I'll see you both cast out before I claim another man's spawn as my heir."
The world tilted sideways. My knees nearly buckled as the full weight of his rejection crashed over me like an avalanche of ice and stone. Through the mate bond, I felt his absolute conviction, his unshakeable belief that I had betrayed him in the most fundamental way possible.
"You can't mean that," I whispered, my hand pressing protectively over my stomach. "The bond—Selene's threads—they don't lie. You have to know this child is yours."
His laugh was even crueler than before. "The only thing I know is that my wolf feels nothing for the bastard you carry. Nothing but revulsion at the thought of my name being attached to another man's mistake."
Power exploded outward from him like a shockwave, slamming into me with enough force to drive me back several steps. The ancient stones of Ironfang Keep trembled under the assault, and somewhere in the distance I heard guards stirring, responding to their Alpha's rage.
But it wasn't distress, I realized with dawning horror. It was rage—pure, focused, absolutely murderous rage directed at the idea that I might force him to acknowledge a child he believed wasn't his.
"Get out," he commanded, his voice carrying the kind of absolute authority that could bring entire armies to their knees. "Get out before I do something we'll both regret."
I stared at him—this male who wore my husband's face, this Alpha who commanded absolute loyalty from everyone around him, this stranger who had just disowned his own blood without a moment's hesitation—and felt something precious die inside my chest.
Not hope. That had been murdered the moment he'd laughed at my announcement. Something deeper. The part of me that had still believed, despite everything, that the mate bond meant something. That Selene's silver threads carried weight beyond mere politics and convenience.
"Fine," I said, my voice steady as mountain stone. "But know this, Jasper Drevyn—when this child is born with your eyes and your stubborn pride, when every wolf in Drevalon can see your bloodline written in their face, you'll remember this moment. You'll remember the day you chose cruelty over truth."
I turned toward the door, spine straight with wounded dignity, carrying our child and the shattered remains of our marriage toward whatever uncertain future awaited us both.
Behind me, his voice followed like a curse.
"That child will never be mine."