Chapter 2

The drive back to the pack house felt like a funeral procession, each mile stretching the fragile thread of our mate bond thinner. My hands trembled on the steering wheel as Lyra paced restlessly in my mind, her distress bleeding into every nerve ending.

James's car pulled into the driveway ahead of mine, his movements sharp and agitated as he slammed the door. I struggled out of my own vehicle, my swollen belly making every motion awkward, and followed him into the pack house where several members had gathered in the main living area.

"James." My voice cut through the casual chatter, silencing the room. "We need to talk. Now."

He turned, his jaw already set in that stubborn line I'd come to know too well. "Not here, Sylvia."

"Yes, here." The words came out stronger than I felt, fueled by Lyra's anguish and my own desperate need for answers. "I want to know who Kennedy Barnes really is to you."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Beta Marcus shifted uncomfortably on the couch while Gamma Sarah suddenly found her phone fascinating. But I didn't care about their discomfort anymore. I was tired of pretending everything was fine.

"She's the daughter of a neighboring Alpha," James said carefully, his Alpha aura beginning to press against the room like a warning. "You know this."

"I know what you've told me." My voice cracked slightly. "But I also know what I saw at that cemetery. The way you held her, James. The way you looked at her. Like she was—"

"Enough." The Alpha command hit me like a physical blow, forcing my wolf to submit against her will. Lyra whimpered and cowered, but something deeper in me—something human and furious—refused to back down.

"Don't you dare use your Alpha tone on me," I snarled, my own voice taking on an edge I didn't know I possessed. "I'm your mate, not some pack member you can silence when the truth becomes inconvenient."

James's eyes flashed dangerously. "You're being hysterical. Pregnancy hormones—"

"This isn't about hormones!" The words exploded from me, echoing off the walls. "This is about the fact that you've never once looked at me the way you looked at her today. Never held me like I was something precious. Never called me by a nickname that made it sound like I was the center of your world."

The silence that followed was deafening. I could hear my own heartbeat, could feel the shocked stares of the pack members who'd witnessed our private pain laid bare. But what hurt most was the look on James's face—not denial, not confusion, but guilt so raw it confirmed every terrible suspicion.

That's when Lyra broke completely.

The howl that tore from my throat wasn't entirely human. It was pure wolf—anguish and betrayal and the devastating realization that the mate bond I'd believed in so completely had never truly existed. The sound filled the pack house, a keening wail that spoke of broken promises and shattered dreams.

Everyone in the room flinched. Even James stepped back, his face pale as he felt the echo of Lyra's pain through our weakened connection.

"Oh, Goddess," whispered Gamma Sarah, her hand pressed to her chest. "Her wolf... she's in agony."

James reached toward me, but I stumbled backward, my hands instinctively protecting my belly. "Don't touch me," I gasped, tears streaming down my face. "Don't you dare touch me when you smell like her."

Because I could smell it now—Kennedy's scent clinging to his clothes, his skin. Rain and wild roses, a fragrance that spoke of intimacy and comfort and everything I'd never been to him.

"Sylvia, please—" James started, but his words were cut off by a new voice.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Daisy burst through the front door, her Beta aura crackling with protective fury. She must have felt my distress through our sibling bond, because she went straight for James with the kind of righteous anger that made grown Alphas step back.

"How dare you use your Alpha command on a pregnant she-wolf?" she snarled, positioning herself between us. "On your own mate?"

"Stand down, Beta," James warned, his voice dropping to that dangerous octave that demanded submission.

But Daisy had inherited the same stubborn streak that ran in our family. "I will not stand down while you—"

"I said stand down!" The Alpha command this time was absolute, backed by the full weight of his authority. Daisy's knees buckled, her wolf forced into submission even as her human consciousness raged against it.

The sight of my sister—strong, fierce Daisy—being forced to her knees broke something fundamental inside me. This wasn't the mate bond I'd dreamed of. This wasn't the partnership I'd believed the Moon Goddess had blessed me with.

Before anyone could stop me, I turned and fled toward the stairs, Lyra's broken whimpers echoing in my mind as whispers followed in my wake.

"Did you hear that howl?"

"Something's wrong with their bond."

"I've never heard a wolf sound so... broken."

As I reached the top of the stairs, I caught sight of Luna Miller emerging from her private study, her cold eyes taking in the chaos below with calculating interest. When her gaze met mine, there was no sympathy, no maternal concern—only the cool assessment of a woman who viewed everything through the lens of pack politics and power.

Somehow, that look told me everything I needed to know about how much support I could expect from the Miller family in the days to come.