Chapter 7

They took the Thorne Pack heirloom — the Alpha's Pendant, kept for the firstborn and his mate — and placed it in Rhys's and my hands. "Thorne Pack rests on you two now. The heirloom — it's yours."

When Adrian heard, his eyes went red. He looked at Rose, still weeping in her wing of the Manor, and felt his stomach turn. For her he'd lost his claim as Heir. For her he'd lost his shot at a high-Pack Luna. One wrong step, and every step after it was wrong.

On the day of Adrian's Marking, just as he and Sable were about to drink the Bonding goblet, an Omega maid came running. "Alpha Heir — Miss Rose says Caleb has a fever. He won't stop crying. Will you come see?"

Sable smashed her cup. "Is my mate a Pack Healer? Tell the consort to save her little ploys. A sick pup calls for a Healer, not the groom."

Rose heard Adrian wasn't coming. She stripped Caleb's clothes off and left him in the cold draft, muttering, "Caleb, your father doesn't care about us. Only if you get bad enough will he come."

Late that night Caleb spiked a high fever. Rose carried him to pound on Adrian's doors, where Sable's personal Omega attendant clamped a hand over her mouth and threw her out. "Tonight is the Luna's Marking night. You come here making a scene — someone, slap her."

Rose came back with her face swollen, holding Caleb, sobbing. When the servants sent word and Margaret arrived with a Pack Healer, Caleb was convulsing from the fever. Rose was still crying. "Adrian is so cruel. Caleb really was sick."

I slapped her. "You would hurt your own son for a wolf. You snake."

The Healer took the pulse and wrote a remedy fast. "The pup is burning too hot. He's too small. Whether he can hold the remedy down is one question. If the fever isn't down by dawn…"

Rose collapsed onto the floor, crying to nothing. "Caleb, I didn't mean it. Mother didn't mean it."

Morning came. Adrian and Sable woke to crying outside their door. A servant reported, "Alpha Heir — the little pup — he's gone."

When Adrian reached them, Rose was clutching the pup's still body, whispering, "Mother didn't mean it. Mother only wanted you to be your father's trueborn heir."

Her mind had broken.

After Caleb was buried in the Pack Mourning Hall, Rose vanished. They searched the Manor, the Territory — nothing. From that day Thorne Pack had no one called Rose.

After the Marking, Sable didn't carry. When the Pack Healer checked Adrian's pulse, he found the problem wasn't her. It was him. Adrian could no longer sire.

Adrian screamed. "Impossible. It's impossible. Rose gave me a son."

An Omega found a packet of powder in Rose's old chamber — a wolfsbane-laced barrenness potion. I think, in Rose's last clear moment after Caleb died, she had slipped it into Adrian.

Sable didn't wait. She Severed the Bond on the grounds that he could no longer sire. Adrian sat alone in his wing, muttering, "How did this happen? I was the Heir. I had everything. How did this happen?"

Adrian had gone mad.

To hide the Pack's shame, Thorne Pack sent him to an abandoned Moon Shrine outpost at the edge of their Territory. Two old Omega servants would tend him until the end.

Rhys and I were named Alpha and Luna of Thorne Pack. I placed a hand on my belly, where our pup was growing. One day Thorne Pack would belong to him too.

THE END