Elle
I sat on the cold examination table in the sleek upper city clinic, the paper sheet crinkling under my thighs, and stared at the holographic scan floating in front of me. The doctor's voice droned on like he was reading the weather report.
"Luna Decay, Stage Four," he said, not even looking up from his tablet. "In the werewolf world, it's untreatable. Your body is rejecting the mate bond at a cellular level. The only viable option is experimental gene therapy in the human Lower City. Even then, the success rate is under thirty percent."
My mouth went dry. "And if I stay here?"
He finally met my eyes. There was no sympathy in them, just clinical detachment. "Then you have maybe four to six months. The passage to the Lower City opens in thirty days. After that… well, crossing back becomes nearly impossible. Pack security protocols."
I nodded slowly, like the words made sense. They didn't. Not really.
I nodded slowly, the motion mechanical. My throat felt tight. Six years. Six years of being Glen White's secret human wife, of smiling through the cold shoulders and late nights, of raising our son Kai while pretending the growing distance between us was normal.
I still loved them both so much it hurt. Despite everything, the way Glen sometimes looked at me like I was a burden he tolerated, the way Kai had started echoing the pack's quiet disdain for humans but yet, I loved them.
I didn't want to leave. I wanted to spend whatever time I had left with my family. I wanted them to hold me, to tell me we would face this together.
And now my body was shutting down because of it.
I swallowed hard. "Thank you, Doctor."
He handed me a slim data chip with my records. "I suggest you inform your mate immediately. Time is not on your side, Mrs. Bellarie."
I didn't correct him about the last name. I never used White. That privilege was reserved for public appearances and pack records that didn't include me.
The Upper City streets were alive with neon and hover traffic when I stepped out of the clinic. Towering glass buildings reflected the evening sky, and somewhere far below, the Lower City hummed with its own desperate rhythm—the place I came from. The place I might have to return to alone.
I should have gone straight home. Instead, I found myself standing in front of a high-end bakery that charged more for one cake than I used to make back in the slums. Kai loved their triple chocolate fudge. Even if everything was falling apart, I could still give him that small moment of normalcy. I wanted to soften the blow when I told them. I needed them to hold me, to tell me we'd fight this together.
The cake box felt heavy in my arms as I rode the private elevator up to our penthouse. My heart fluttered with nervous hope. Maybe tonight I could sit them down, tell them about the diagnosis, and we could face it as a family. Glen might pull me close the way he used to in the early days. Kai might hug me and say he needed his mom.
The elevator doors opened. The familiar scent of polished wood and faint metallic mindlink residue greeted me. I kicked off my shoes quietly and walked toward the study, forcing a small smile onto my face even though my chest ached.
That was when it happened.
A sharp, electric buzz exploded behind my eyes, so sudden I gasped and grabbed the wall for support. The cake box tilted in my grip. Blue text flashed across my vision, crisp and glowing like augmented reality, but inside my head.
[ECHO SYSTEM AWAKENED]
[Welcome rare user]
[Latent Ability: Mindlink Interface – Level 1]
[Side effect of failed Luna Decay treatment. Host compatibility: 87%. Do you wish to activate? Michelle Bellarie]
What the hell?
The words floated in my vision, crisp and blue. I blinked hard, trying to clear it. The text stayed.
Before I could process anything, voices…clear, intimate voices flooded my mind. Not spoken. Not heard through my ears. Directly into my thoughts.
"Dad, can we go to the Skyfall Resort next month? Just us and Toria? She said she'd teach me advanced illusion tracking."
Kai's voice. My nine-year-old son's voice. But he wasn't talking to me.
Glen's deeper tone answered, laced with that tired affection he reserved for pack business.
"Sounds good, kid. Your mother doesn't need to know the details. She'll just get emotional and make it complicated. Humans always do."
My feet stopped moving. The cake box slipped a little more in my grip.
"She's been so clingy lately," Kai continued. "Always trying to act like she belongs here. It's embarrassing when the other kids ask why my mom is… you know. Wolfless. Human."
Glen chuckled, low and dismissive. "She means well. But let's be honest, she's been dead weight for a while now. Toria understands our world. She's frail, yeah, but her bloodline is strong. The pack respects her. Once we handle this quietly—"
"Hurry up and get me a new mom, Dad. A real one this time. One who doesn't make us look weak."
The words slammed into me like physical blows. My hands started trembling violently. The love I had carried home with me shattered in an instant, replaced by a cold, crushing pain that made my chest tighten until I could barely breathe.
Useless human.
Dead weight.
A new mom. A strong one.
Tears blurred my vision. I had spent years swallowing every slight, every late night, every subtle rejection, telling myself it was worth it because I loved them. I had hidden my own skills and dreams to be the perfect quiet wife. I had nearly died bringing Kai into the world. And this was how they saw me when they thought I couldn't hear.
My fingers lost their grip. The cake box slipped.
It hit the marble floor with a loud, wet crash. Chocolate and fudge splattered across the pristine white tiles like dark blood.
The study door swung open.
Glen stood there, tall and imposing in his black tactical shirt, scars visible on his arms. His steel-gray eyes locked onto me with cold disdain. Kai peeked out from behind him, his small face flashing with momentary guilt before he quickly masked it, looking away.
For the first time, they realized something had changed.
I stood frozen in the middle of the mess, cake smeared on my shoes, tears stinging my eyes, heart breaking in ways I never knew it could. I said nothing about what I had heard. I couldn't bring myself to speak the words out loud yet.
"Elle?" His voice was rough. "What the hell are you doing?"
Kai peeked from behind him, his small face pale for a second before that familiar mask slid into place. "Mom? Why are you just standing there? And what's with the mess?"
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out at first. My hands were shaking so badly I had to clench them into fists.
I had spent years telling myself the distance between us was normal. That Glen's long "work nights" were necessary. That Kai's cold little comments were just him growing up in a world that looked down on humans. I had swallowed every insult, every late night, every time he pulled away when I tried to be close.
But hearing it like this… raw, unfiltered, in their own private world I was never meant to enter, shattered something deep inside me.
"You…" My voice cracked.
Glen's expression froze completely. The annoyance vanished, replaced by raw shock. His eyes widened and he took a sharp step forward, gripping the doorframe so hard his knuckles turned white.
The cake was ruined. My shoes were covered in chocolate. My heart felt like it had been stomped into the same mess on the floor.
The pain was written all over my face instead…trembling hands, pale cheeks, the way my shoulders curled inward like I was trying to hold myself together.
Glen's cold gaze stayed fixed on me. Kai shifted uncomfortably beside him.
And in that heavy silence, I felt the last fragile pieces of the life I had fought so hard to keep finally begin to crack.
I was dying.
And they had already started mourning me in the worst way possible — by living as if I was already gone.