Voices pulled me from the darkness. Male voices, angry and desperate.
"I apologize for what the Alpha King did." The first voice was familiar, smooth like river stones. "He did not mean to push Aurora to this point."
"Did not mean to?" The second voice cracked like thunder. Richard. The royal healer. "He issued an alpha decree preventing her from seeing her own pup. He used his authority to separate mother from child. What did he think would happen?"
I wanted to open my eyes, to tell Richard I could hear him, but my body would not respond. The wolfsbane they had given me to calm my wolf kept me trapped between waking and sleep.
"Beta John, your brother is the most powerful alpha in the kingdom. He commands armies. He rules territories. Yet he chose to wage war against a she-wolf who only wanted to love her son."
"Richard, please." John's voice dropped lower. "I will make this right. I swear it on my rank. I will fix what Jack broke."
Their footsteps retreated. I drifted again.
When awareness returned, I heard different voices. Softer ones.
"She is recovering faster than expected." Richard sounded closer now, directly above me. "Her wolf is strong despite everything. She should wake before dawn."
"Thank the Moon Goddess." Nonna. My friend Nonna. Her hand found mine, warm and steady. "Thank you, Richard. For saving her."
"Come to my chambers for a few hours," Richard said. "Rest. You can return to check on her after."
"I should stay."
"Nonna." His tone held command, the natural dominance of an alpha wolf. "You will come. Do not argue."
Their voices faded. I was alone with the darkness again.
Somewhere in the royal mansion, the Alpha King arrived home with our son. I could not see it, but I knew it the way all wolves know things about their blood. Cody's presence hummed in my bones even when separated by distance and decree.
Jack Hudson carried him inside. The boy was silent, exhausted from whatever games or lessons filled his days now. Days I was not permitted to witness. The Alpha King's guard took Cody to his chambers, to the nursery I had never seen.
Jack climbed the stairs to his private rooms. He sank into the leather furniture that cost more than my entire childhood home. Everything in his world was power and wealth. He ruled the strongest pack in the kingdom. His territory stretched across three provinces. Other alphas bent knee to him.
And I had lived in the lower district, in a cramped apartment that smelled like old pipes and desperate dreams.
He reached for his phone. Dialed his brother.
"Jack." John's voice came through sharp and cold.
"How is she?" The Alpha King's voice was barely audible. "How is Aurora?"
The silence stretched long enough that I imagined John pacing, deciding how much venom to inject into his response.
"What do you care?" John finally said. "When Luna Clara died, did she take your heart to the grave? Why do you hate Aurora so viciously? From the moment you discovered she was the she-wolf from that night, you have done nothing but hurt her."
I heard every word as if I stood between them.
"You accused her of lies. You used your alpha authority to intimidate her. Then you went further. You got a decree from the council preventing her from approaching her own pup. Her pup, Jack. The son she raised alone for three years while you lived in your mansion, ignorant of his existence."
"John, I—"
"She built her entire life around that boy. Every choice, every sacrifice, everything was for Cody. How could you rip him away? How could you push her until she broke?"
The heart monitor beside my bed beeped steadily. My wolf stirred beneath my skin, responding to the emotion in John's voice even through the phone connection.
"I know you, Jack. We were raised in the same pack. You were kind once. What happened? Was it Clara? Did losing your mate turn you into this?"
"You think I wanted this?" Jack's voice rose. "You think I am pleased that Cody's mother tried to end her life?"
"Then why? Why destroy her?"
"I wanted him to have everything. He is my heir. The future Alpha King. How could I let him grow up in the slums?"
"He was not in the slums. He was with his mother, who loved him."
"I thought she would understand," Jack said quietly. "I thought if I took him, she would see reason. Would accept that I could give him a better life."
"Instead, you drove her to stand on a bridge."
Silence. Long and heavy.
"For Cody's sake, let Aurora live in peace," John said. "This is your only warning. If you hurt her again, I will not stand aside. Richard will not stand aside. He may work at the royal healing center, but his father commands the northern armies. You do not want that enemy."
The call ended. I imagined Jack staring at his phone, then looking up at the portrait on his wall. Luna Clara. Beautiful and golden and dead. The perfect mate he could never replace.
In another part of the kingdom, in the house I grew up in, my parents argued.
"Where is that worthless daughter of yours?" My stepmother's voice could strip paint from walls. "This house is all we have left. If Aurora does not agree to marry the Keyamo alpha's eldest son, we will lose everything."
"You should have thought of that before gambling away our savings," my father snapped.
"Do not lecture me. You promised to convince her."
"I will not trade my daughter's happiness for your debts."
"Your daughter? She is not even your blood."
"She is mine by choice," my father said. "I made a promise to her mother. I will keep it."
I heard all of this from the darkness. Every conversation, every confession, every threat. My wolf carried the words to me through bonds I did not understand.
When I finally opened my eyes, dawn light filtered through the windows of the healing center.
Nonna sat beside my bed, asleep in her chair.
And standing in the doorway, watching me with an expression I could not read, was the Alpha King himself.