Chapter 6

Damon's face went blank with confusion.

"Mother? Your mother?"

"Didn't you tell me you had no parents? You grew up in a rogue orphanage?"

The look in his eyes shifted into disgust.

He ignored Seraphine's begging and finished the call.

"So from the beginning—you never told me a single true thing."

"If you hadn't cried that I was your first male, how would I have ever betrayed Elara and taken you as Luna?"

"You kept whispering that Elara was jealous and a liar. Turns out the jealous liar is you."

Seraphine dropped to her knees and clung to his legs, sobbing.

"Alpha, I didn't mean it, I just wanted to be with you."

"Let my mother go. Let's go home. I swear I'll never lie again."

Damon kicked her off, repulsed. He laughed a hollow laugh.

"So this is what it feels like to be lied to. That day Elara found out I was taking you as Luna—how much pain did she carry, and she never blamed me!"

"Elara is kind. Even after all of this, she didn't blame me."

His eyes were cold on Seraphine.

"Nothing you say matters now. You live with what you've done."

"You and your mother—you're not getting out of this!"

He pushed the door open and walked out without looking back.

Behind him Seraphine kept begging.

But he knew—Seraphine wasn't sorry she'd hurt Elara.

She was sorry she'd been sloppy enough to get caught.

Nothing more.

Damon made it back to the emergency chamber just as a healer called out.

"Family of Elara Voss? Who's family for Elara Voss?"

Damon ran forward. "I am. I'm her mate."

"The patient is stable for now. She needs close monitoring. Keep her calm. Any emotional distress could trigger massive bleeding—"

When I opened my eyes again, my body felt hollowed out.

I looked down at my flat stomach.

"The pup. Male or female?"

The healers who'd been hovering around me, relieved I was alive, went still.

Something painful passed across their faces. "Miss Voss. Brace yourself. It was a female pup."

The senior healer paused. "She was cut off from air in the womb too long. She's gone. I'm so sorry."

A ringing filled my ears, like the sky had cracked.

I'd been so close to holding my pup.

One more day, and she would have seen the world.

Why...

When the healer wasn't looking, I ripped out the line in my arm and ran.

The pain between my legs was like I was being torn open.

I didn't care. Losing my pup outweighed any of it.

I shoved past healers and charged out of the room.

Damon caught me at the door, wrapping his arms around me, his face tight with alarm but his tone sliding back into its old habit.

"Elara, what are you doing?"

"Do you not know the state of your own body? You're going to ruin yourself!"

His voice was like a curse. He'd always put me down like this.

When I had morning sickness and couldn't eat—

He said, "Elara, what are you doing? You're a mother now. Take responsibility for the pup!"

When my thighs cramped in the middle trimester and I couldn't sleep—

He said, "Elara, if you don't sleep, how is the pup supposed to grow?"

When he told me he was taking another female as Luna—

He still opened with, "Elara, what are you doing. Don't contact me—"

Damon was good to me.

But the good had never once been asked, do you want it.

And I had never once asked myself either.

Now, I knew. I didn't want it.

I pushed him off.

"Get away. Let me see my pup. She's so small. She'll be scared alone in the moon chamber."

The tears poured out. I was begging Damon.

"Let me see her. Please..."

Since I'd been with Damon, I'd never begged him like this.

I'd never even shown weakness in front of him.

For the two days of labor, I'd pleaded with him over and over.

I'd thrown away every piece of pride I had, and the result was my pup, dead.

Damon held me, hurting.

He signaled to his Beta to bring a wheelchair. "Come on. I'll take you."

In the moon chamber, the pup was so small, curled on the stone table, skin blue.

I broke into open sobs. Behind me, Damon started to cry too.

"Elara, I failed. I failed to protect you and our daughter."

"I swear from now on I'll take care of you properly."

His voice was full of guilt.

I knew, right then, he was hurting as much as I was.

But I also knew he wouldn't change.

I had given him too many chances. He'd never changed.

The only person Damon had ever loved was himself.

I cried until I was dry. Then I just sat there like a numb doll.

"Leave."

Damon scrambled to explain. I didn't give him a chance.

"Leave. Don't appear in front of me anymore. When I see you, I see everything my pup and I suffered."

Damon panicked. He dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.

"Elara, I'm not leaving. I can't leave you."

"Give me one more chance. I know I was wrong."

I laughed, bitter.

"Your apology isn't worth that much. My pup is dead. She isn't coming back."

Damon kept begging. "I was wrong. I'll take you as Luna right now. It's only ever been you."

My eyes were steady.

"It's pointless."

"Damon, I used to think that ceremony was just ceremony. That the three of us together was all that mattered."

"I was wrong. So the goddess took my pup to punish me."

"But we'll have more pups. Three, ten—"

A sharp slap cut him off.

"Bastard! Get out! Get out now!"

"That was my daughter. No one can replace her, and you are the last male in the world who gets to say something like that!"