I couldn't sleep. Something was wrong with Cody, I felt it deep in my bones, the way only a mother could sense her child's distress across any distance. The bond between us hummed with unease, keeping me awake through the long hours of darkness.
I paced my small apartment in the pack's residential district, my wolf restless beneath my skin. Cody had never spent a full night away from me. Not once in his three years of life. Nonna had assured me he was fine, that he was with Richard, but every instinct I possessed screamed otherwise.
When dawn finally broke through my windows, I couldn't wait any longer. I grabbed my phone and called Nonna.
"Nonna, where is Cody?" I asked the moment she answered. I didn't bother with pleasantries. My heart was racing too fast for small talk.
There was a pause on the other end. Too long of a pause.
"Nonna, where is my son?" My voice cracked, tears already streaming down my face. The mother's bond never lied. Something was terribly wrong.
"Actually, Cody is..." Nonna started, but I interrupted her.
"Cody is what, Nonna? Where is Cody? Where is my son?" I was shouting now, my wolf pushing forward, demanding answers.
"We are together here, in the Spring White Healing Center," Nonna said quietly.
I hung up immediately. The Spring White Healing Center was the royal pack's private medical facility. Why would they take Cody there? What had happened to my baby?
I looked at myself in the mirror as I grabbed my bag. My eyes were puffy and swollen from crying all night. Dark circles shadowed my face. My head pounded worse than my aching heart, but none of that mattered. Only Cody mattered.
I rushed out of my apartment and flagged down the first taxi I saw. The driver started to ask for my destination, but I just gave him the address and stared out the window, my leg bouncing anxiously. Every red light felt like torture. Every slow driver made me want to shift and run there myself.
What I didn't know was that while I'd been awake all night worrying, Jack Hudson, the Alpha King himself, had been with my son.
Nonna told me later what had happened. How Jack had stood in Cody's temporary room at the royal estate, dressed in his sleeping clothes, staring down at my sleeping child. How he'd touched Cody's chubby chin and watched him smile in his sleep.
"Mummy," Cody had mumbled in his dreams.
"No, it's Uncle," Jack had whispered, kissing his forehead.
The Alpha King had stayed there longer than anyone expected, just watching Cody sleep. He'd been trying to reach his younger brother John all evening, but John hadn't answered a single call. Jack had finally left a message through John's assistant, demanding his presence at the healing center the next morning.
Because tomorrow, they would perform the DNA test. Tomorrow, they would confirm what Jack suspected. Tomorrow, they would find Cody's mother and change everything.
Jack had dreamed that night. He'd seen himself in cowboy attire, preparing to ride his favorite stallion. Cody had called out to him, wanting to ride along. Then Cody had asked about his mother, and when Jack turned to call her over, her face had been blurred in the dream. He'd woken with a strange feeling in his chest, one he couldn't quite name.
But I knew none of this as my taxi pulled up to the Spring White Healing Center. I only knew that my son was inside, and I needed to get to him immediately.
The healing center was pristine white stone, a building that served only the highest ranking members of the kingdom. Royal wolves, visiting alphas, important diplomats. Not single mothers like me who worked double shifts just to afford our small apartment.
I burst through the entrance and headed straight for the reception desk.
"I'm looking for my son, Cody," I said breathlessly. "He's three years old, he was brought here."
The receptionist looked at me with thinly veiled judgment, taking in my disheveled appearance, my tear-stained face, my obvious lower rank. But before she could respond, I spotted Nonna through the glass windows of a waiting area.
I abandoned the desk and ran toward her.
"Nonna, where is he? Where is my son?" I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her perhaps harder than I should have. I didn't care. I needed answers. I needed Cody.
Nonna had tears in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, she just looked toward the window of a nearby office.
I followed her gaze and froze.
Through the window, I could see them. Richard stood holding Cody in my arms, my baby looking small and sleepy against his chest. But that wasn't what made my blood run cold.
Two men stood with them. One I vaguely recognized from pack gossip and television appearances. John Hudson, the younger prince, the playboy brother known for his conquests and charm. But it was the other man who held my attention.
Jack Hudson. The Alpha King himself.
He sat in an exquisite leather chair, legs crossed, his presence radiating power even through the glass. His expression was cold and calculating. Bodyguards flanked him, all wearing dark suits and darker sunglasses, looking like death itself stood at the king's shoulders.
"What's going on?" I whispered.
John turned slightly, and through the window, I saw his eyes widen as he looked at me. He said something to his brother, and I watched Jack's expression shift ever so slightly.
Richard spoke then, his voice carrying through the door someone had just opened.
"She's Cody's mother."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence. John Hudson stared at me with an expression I couldn't read. Recognition? Shock? Anger?
And suddenly, I understood. The DNA test. The royal healing center. The Alpha King's personal involvement.
They thought Cody was John's son.
My world tilted sideways, and the last thing I saw before everything changed forever was Jack Hudson standing from his chair, his eyes locked on me with an intensity that made my wolf whimper in submission.