Chapter 2

He looked at me with a mocking smile, like he enjoyed getting it out.

"And you didn't even make it out. Someone got to you."

I froze. A cold weight settled over me.

Five years ago in that Rogue war, it was Serena who gave our location to the Rogues to save herself.

I was the one who ran thirty kilometers barefoot to push a signal to Damon's Pack.

My feet were shredded. My arm was blown out of its socket. My back was marked with burn scars that never fully healed.

I finally made it to the relay tower — and the Rogues found me there and dragged me into hell.

When I came out, Damon's face was stone. He said nothing.

I tried to explain. He shouted, eyes red.

"No one speaks of this again!"

And all this time he thought it was Serena.

A chill hit my heart. "If you thought I was a coward who ran for her life, why the fake Marking? Why drag it out five years?"

Damon scoffed softly and wiped the blood off my arm.

His eyes softened toward Serena, laughing at the door.

"Serena can never bear pups because of what she did saving me. I owe her a pup."

"And you — you owe me."

He paused. His face hardened.

"I tried to forget it. Forget that you were already ruined. But every time I think of you running out there, I feel sick. I hate the thought of you."

I laughed. I laughed until tears poured down, until I couldn't breathe.

All because of a rescue that never happened, Damon made me spend five years carrying the pup Serena owed him.

Five years of needles, herbs, fertility treatments.

New scars stacked on old scars. There was nothing left of me.

And everything I'd sacrificed for love had been given to a lie.

Damon wiped my tears, rough about it.

"What are you crying for? I didn't say I'd stop supporting you or loving you."

"Just give the pup to Serena to raise. You're still the Luna of Thorne Pack."

That sentence broke whatever was left in me.

My lips cracked open. I shouted.

"Dream on! This is fraud! Damon, aren't you afraid I'll report you to Pack Enforcement?"

Damon watched me rage, then said calmly, "Go ahead. Report. But you'll never get custody of the pup."

My ears rang.

I didn't believe it. I grabbed my phone and started calling every Pack lawyer I knew. Damon smiled cruelly.

"Call away. But Ivy, remember this. Without me, you're nothing."

After Damon left, I kept calling lawyers, hoping someone would take it.

In the end, some said they were busy. Some said they didn't dare.

By the afternoon, I was pushed out of the private ward and into the crowded hallway.

I knew Damon had arranged it.

I could take it. The pup couldn't.

In one hour he cried fifteen times.

The noise of the hallway made the pup wail. Strangers got annoyed and cursed at me.

Seeing me easy to bully, some of them threw paper cups at my bed and told me to get out.

When Damon came back, he saw me slumped face-down on the bed, half the sheet soaked in blood.

"Ivy. See? This is your so-called independence."

The mocking cut into me.

When he lifted the pup to feed him, my strength drained out. I collapsed back.

I was a She-Wolf from a small outer Pack. Damon was the most prized Alpha Heir of the High Pack Circle.

To Mark me, he'd taken ninety-nine lashes from the Pack Elders, enough to break more than ten of his ribs.

To keep people from looking down on me, he built a brand around my name, took me to the Moonlight Gala, introduced me at every high-society gathering.

The year they wrongly thought I had cancer, he cried every day and went to the Moon Temple Sanctuary to pray.

Before, his Pack brothers fell over themselves to please me.

Even his mother once said she wanted to take me as her own daughter.

But five years — all of it was a lie they'd built together.

Damon seemed to want more of me struggling. He handed the pup back fast.

I clenched my teeth. For the pup's custody, I decided to sell my design atelier.

I called. The atelier had been locked into a long contract with Thorne Pack and leased out to Serena, who had just won a Pack fashion award.

The pup cried again. I rushed to call the Pack Nurse I'd booked.

A cold voice answered.

"Madam, your price isn't a tenth of what your Alpha pays. I can't come."

I held the pup and tried to reach the Postpartum Sanctuary. A coordinator called back.

"Miss Fairfax, your Alpha has refunded your deposit. If you want to stay you'll have to pay again."

My face went white. My account was already frozen.

Legs shaking, my body still raw from birth, I carried the pup home step by step.

The door was half open. My stomach dropped. I thought someone had broken in.

From inside came the sharp sounds of two bodies together.

"Damon — I can't hold on anymore!"

My legs went heavy as lead. I threw the door open.

Damon had Serena pinned under him, his hips moving hard.

When he saw me standing there, pale, he rolled Serena over and smirked.

"What? Watching this long — you want to join?"