Sorry, Alpha. I'm Carrying Your Rival's Baby

Sage’s POV

On Alpha Damon's 26th birthday party, our pack was ambushed by rogues.

And instead of accepting my help, my mate shoved me so hard that my back slammed into the wall.

“Go away. I don’t need your treatment!"

I looked around, aware of the shame. When I stared back at him, I said, “You are in critical condition. Please. For once, Damon. Let me treat you.”

Among everyone in the Moonridge Pack, I was the only one who could handle silver without collapsing from it.

So if Damon needed anyone right now, it was me.

But instead of letting me save him, he looked at me as though I were the real poison in his body.

Damon gave a bitter chuckle, though it was strained with pain.

“If you think treating me will make me fall for you suddenly, you are wrong. Nothing will make me sleep with you and touch you the way you want me to.”

Maybe even while dying, he would still find enough strength to mock me.

“I’m just trying to keep the alpha of Moonridge Pack alive," I whispered.

Damon laughed again. “You are disgusting. Even when you know I feel nothing for you except hatred, you are still desperately obsessed with me.”

He then turned to the nearest male healer. “You. Treat me.”

The healer faltered and glanced at me as though waiting for my permission.

I nodded once and gestured toward Damon.

"Attend to your alpha."

He swallowed and moved to him quickly.

No one stopped me as I turned and walked out of the healer’s den.

—

In my room, I stepped into the washroom, shut the door, and turned the shower on.

I slid down the wall, knees pulling to my chest, and cried with my forehead pressed against the damp stone.

Water ran over my hair, my face, my shoulders, carrying streaks of blood down my arms and legs and into the drain.

Damon’s blood.

I scrubbed at my skin until it hurt, but it was not the blood I wanted gone.

I wished agony could wash away the same way.

A voice suddenly entered my mind through the mind link.

‘Sage?’

My eyes flew open.

It was Matron Vivian, the one who raised me and whom I called mother.

I quickly wiped my face even though she could not see me.

‘Yes, Mother’

‘I need you to prepare more supplements for Nova.’ Her voice came crisp and controlled. ‘I do not need to remind you what basic vitamins your sister needs, right? You know her condition. I trust you will make them immediately.’

I stared at the stream of water hitting the floor.

My body still shook from crying, but I forced my voice to be steady. ‘But that will be difficult in a short amount of time. I have a project in the healer’s den. We are currently formulating a new set of pills, and the trials are in a delicate stage.’

‘What is more important than your sister’s welfare?’ Mother exhaled, then continued. ‘Enough. I will not argue about this. I expect them to be ready, and you will deliver them in five days.’

I opened my mouth to respond, but she cut the mind link before I could say another word.

I stayed silent while water kept streaming down my face.

It took me a few seconds to realize that some of the heat on my cheeks was not from the shower.

I was still crying.

Nova was my younger sister, but we were not related by blood.

I was the daughter of one of the Reed family’s servants. My mother died when I was two.

The Reed family had once had a daughter of their own, but she had been abducted by rogues as a pup.

The loss nearly broke Matron Vivian. Her grief was so deep that people whispered she walked the halls at night hearing a child who was no longer there.

In the end, former Beta, Tomas, chose to adopt me to fill the emptiness that had taken root in their home.

For a while, I was enough.

I had clothes. Tutors. Warm meals. A room of my own. Matron Vivian brushed my hair with her own hands and kissed my forehead when I went to bed.

Beta Tomas Reed brought me small gifts when he returned from border meetings. The pack treated me as the Reed daughter, even if some still remembered whose blood actually ran in my veins.

Then years later, Nova was found and brought home by Damon’s father then, the former alpha.

I thought her return would make my life fuller and I would finally have a sister for real.

Instead, the moment Nova came back, I learned exactly how temporary love could be.

Matron Vivian’s hand no longer lingered on my hair. Her smiles became thinner. Her praise became instructions.

'You are the eldest, so you must understand.'

'Why did you not do as she asked?'

'What if she is taken again because you were careless?'

'You must watch over her wherever she goes.'

Every time I hesitated, Mother had the same answer ready.

'If not for our kindness, you would be long gone.'

So I obeyed.

I convinced myself that love required sacrifice.

But worse things came when I reached nineteen and Nova was eighteen.

My childhood friends left me, especially Damon, and all started to get close with Nova.

And on Damon’s 23rd birthday, someone got me so drunk and I almost didn’t know what I was doing.

But I had heard someone whisper in my ears saying, ‘If you really love Damon, go tell him. He also loves you and is just waiting for you to confess it.’

My foggy brain believed it.

So I told him what I felt in front of everyone, screaming to the world how much I have loved him since we were pups.

Only when everyone got silent that I noticed Damon was holding Nova’s hand. And my being sober slowly vanished when he told me, ‘But Nova and I are mates.’

I was ready to back out, but then Nova suddenly cried and said, ‘I’m rejecting you, Damon. I can’t be mated to you while my sister loves you.’

The next morning, Nova cut her ties with our pack.

But she left a note in her room, saying, ‘I need to leave for Sage’s happiness.’

Mother collapsed to her knees.

Pack members began to make rumors about me.

'What did Sage do to drive her away?'

'Poor Nova. She gave up everything for her.'

Mother cornered me again and again, demanding answers I did not have.

“What did you do to her?”

“How long have you been cruel to her?”

“Why would she leave like that if you had not pushed her?”

I told her over and over that I did not know.

I mind linked Nova, begging her to come back and tell them the truth, whatever truth she meant. She never answered me.

Then, one week later, Damon formally asked for my hand to be his chosen mate.

He was alpha by then.

The whole pack saw it as an honor.

Mother warned me to think carefully, but I had been too foolish.

So I said yes.

But after the marking ceremony, I heard him speaking to his friends.

“Love her? No! I will never love Sage."

I had stopped outside the half-open door when I heard my name.

Then I heard the rest.

“I only asked her to be my chosen mate so the rest of her life would be miserable. She may become Luna, but my love will not be part of that privilege.”

I had gone cold all over.

Not long after that, I discovered our common friends hated me too.

“How can Sage be so selfish?”

“She was already the lucky child. Even adopted, Matron Vivian loved her like her own.”

“And Nova was left with nothing.”

“No wonder she left. Sage was too greedy. She shut Nova out so she could keep everything for herself, and now she even got the alpha.”

I confronted them that day, defending myself.

But they looked at me as though my speaking only proved my guilt.

The worst torture began after I moved into Damon’s packhouse.

We slept in the same room, but he never touched me.

At first, I thought it was anger.

Then I understood he was doing it on purpose, especially that I had learned that their connection had been restored.

He would call Nova at night, never through a mind link, always by phone, so I could hear every word.

—

I turned off the shower and stood.

After dressing up in one of my plain house dresses, I left my room and headed toward the medicine library.

If I could not control my life, I could at least control my work.

Then a mind link brushed against my thoughts.

‘Hello, Sage. How are you?’

I froze. 'Nova?'

She laughed softly. 'Hey, I just want to say you do not need to create those vitamin supplements for me. I told Mother I can just buy them from the human boutiques.'

I was about to answer when she continued.

‘By the way, sister, how are you and Damon?’

For a moment, I said nothing.

I simply stood in the middle of the medicine library.

Maybe before, I had never had the courage to even form the thought I was having now.

But after everything Damon had done, the truth stood so clearly in front of me that I could no longer turn away from it.

I inhaled slowly.

Then I said, ‘Nova, I’m finally rejecting Damon.’

Damon’s POV

I had been inside the meeting hall for less than twenty minutes.

My father, Elder Conrad Kingsley, sat beside me.

Capital Pack had recently inaugurated its new Territorial Alpha, Nikolai Voss.

Since he now sat on the throne, my father and I had been granted an appointment to present ourselves and discuss Moonridge’s standing.

If I wanted our benefits to continue, I needed to make a good impression on the new benefactor.

I adjusted my tie and glanced again at the huge carved doors at the end of the hall.

Then a familiar voice cut through my mind.

'Damon?'

My focus cracked so hard it felt physical.

'Nova?'

Even through the mindlink, her voice had that same soft pull.

'Damon, can I talk to you for a second? It’s very urgent. Please?'

Before I could answer, my father turned his head sharply. He had noticed the shift in my expression.

“Who the hell is speaking to you?” he muttered. “I told you to block your link to everyone while we’re here. Is that as important as this matter?”

I clenched my jaw.

The carved doors opened before I could answer him.

Two men entered.

The first one wore a dark business suit cut so perfectly it made every other suit I had seen in my life look cheap. Tall. Broad shoulders. Lean in the way dangerous men were lean.

Behind him walked a huge man who had to be his beta. The guy looked like he could snap a spine with one hand and go back to checking his watch after.

I spoke into the link fast.

'I’ll get back to you later, Nova. I'm sorry.'

Then I cut the connection and fixed my necktie as I watched the suited man murmur something to his beta in a low voice.

This was my first time seeing Nikolai Voss in person.

My father was technically his distant uncle, which made Nikolai my distant cousin. It meant absolutely nothing at that moment.

When Nikolai turned in our direction, there was no sign on his face that he saw us as family. Not even as relatives he merely tolerated. To him, we were an allied pack.

He did not even nod.

And I would be lying if I said I did not feel a stab of envy.

We looked close in age, but he was already a territorial alpha while I was still only the alpha of a single pack, depending on favors from men like him.

Nikolai finally approached us.

“My apologies for the delay. I trust you understand how leadership goes. There is always a problem somewhere, and unfortunately, problems rarely care about schedules.”

My father stood first. I followed.

“Alpha Nikolai,” Father said with a respectful incline of his head.

Nikolai gestured for us to sit. “Please. Let’s not waste the morning.”

We sat around a long dark table that looked carved from a single piece of obsidian.

Nikolai folded his hands in front of him. His beta remained standing a short distance away, silent as a damn wall.

“For decades, Capital Pack has extended substantial material support to Moonridge Pack. I reviewed the records personally before this meeting.”

My father smiled carefully. “And Moonridge has always been grateful.”

Nikolai’s expression did not change.

“I’m sure,” he said.

Then his eyes moved to me.

“Can you tell me why I should continue giving such generous benefits to your pack? Because as I studied it, it seemed excessive.”

I blinked.

He continued. “Since I’m now sitting on the throne, I want equal attention given to the packs. We are one territory, after all. Benefits should be distributed fairly.”

I had not expected the meeting to go in this direction. I had walked in prepared to smile, reassure, and maintain old terms.

Instead, it felt like I had stepped into a High Council trial with better furniture.

Still, I kept my face steady.

“Moonridge is one of the border packs,” I said. “Our position matters. We take the first hit when rogue movement rises from the eastern side. We also secure one of the busiest trade routes in the region, and if that line falls unstable, it affects more than just us.”

Nikolai listened without interrupting.

I continued. “The support given to Moonridge has never been charity. It has been an investment. If you reduce what we receive, our efficiency drops. And if our efficiency drops, the whole eastern line gets weaker.”

Nikolai’s brows raised. “Are you demanding special treatment because your pack likes comfort?"

I shook my head. “I’m saying Moonridge has been useful, and we can keep being useful if we stay equipped to do the job.”

Nikolai gave one slow nod.

“Well, I will study this thoroughly.”

That was it?

Nikolai rose from his chair.

“I’m cutting this meeting short since I have other matters to attend to.” He glanced toward his beta. “But I do want to give you this.”

His beta stepped forward with an envelope.

Nikolai took it himself, then slid it across the table toward me.

“I’m expecting the present Alpha of Moonridge to be there.”

I took the envelope and opened it.

Inside was a black card.

My eyes widened.

The Iron Moon Trials.

It was an invitation-only event attended by the wealthiest and most feared packs.

I looked up at him.

“Thank you for this honorable invitation, Alpha Nikolai. I’ll be there.”

“Just Nikolai,” he said.

I smiled politely.

Of course. We’re equals now. Sure as hell.

“Right,” I said. “Nikolai.”

And I would not pretend the thought didn’t come fast and ugly after that.

This would be a damn good excuse to get away from my marriage for a while.

Then Nikolai added, “By the way, you must bring your Luna. I only invited those who are already mated and seated with their Lunas, so I expect both of you to attend.”

"Bring my Luna?" I was caught off guard.

Of all the things I had expected him to say, that wasn’t one of them.

Even if inside I was already rejecting the idea so hard it made my teeth grind.

“Yes, Nikolai. My Luna will be there with me.”

“Excellent.”

He gave a brief farewell, then left with his beta.

Only when the door shut behind them did I realize I had been holding my breath. I let it out slowly and pushed back my chair.

“Now where are you going?” my father asked.

I was already walking.

“I need to talk to her.”

He knew exactly who I meant.

I headed straight for the washroom, shoved the door open, and stepped inside.

'Nova? Are you there? Sorry. I just had a meeting. How are you?'

When she answered, her voice sounded pale.

'Damon, what’s happening? Why does Sage want rejection?'

My brow furrowed, then irritation crawled up my spine.

Not at Nova. Never at Nova.

'What do you mean?'

'I just talked to her, and she was very upset. She said she wants a rejection ceremony as soon as possible. So why, Damon? Why are you making her that upset? Why are you disappointing me like this?'

I stared at my reflection in the mirror and saw the darkness that came over my own face.

'Listen, Nova, I didn’t make her upset. Maybe her mood came from the recent rogue attack, and she got too emotional. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, and maybe she thinks I’m neglecting her.'

'Okay. Then you two need to make things clear. This is all I asked from you, Damon. Just take care of my sister, and you and I will be fine. I will maintain my connection to you if you treat her right. If not, I’ll cut my ties to you.'

Panic hit so fast it made me step back from the sink.

'Oh no. No, Nova, please don’t do that. Okay? I’ll talk to her. We’re not separating through rejection. In fact, I’m attending an event, and she’s coming with me.'

I heard her sniff.

Was she crying?

She was this upset over Sage?

That bitch Sage!

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt.

'I will hold on to your promise, Damon. Okay, I need to go now. Talk to you soon.'

The link cut.

I stayed there for a second, then slammed my fist against the counter and rested my weight against the wall.

---

I left the Capital Pack and drove back to Moonridge with the anger still boiling under my skin.

The nerve of Sage asking for rejection, as if she had the right to act first.

I shoved through the front door hard enough to make it swing back.

A servant looked up in alarm.

“Where is Sage?” I barked.

The maid trembled. “She’s in the library, Alpha.”

I stalked down the hallway, ready to tear into her the second I stepped inside.

Then I entered the library and stopped.

Sage sat by the long side table near the window, completely focused on a book spread open in front of her. Several notebooks lay around her, filled with her neat writing.

For one stupid second, all my anger stalled.

She was beautiful without trying.

If fate had not screwed all of us over, I might have seen our bond as a gift from above. I might have called myself the luckiest bastard alive.

And I had lost count of how many times I had fought the urge to touch her.

I jerked my thoughts back into line.

Disgusted with myself, I strode toward the table and slammed my palm down hard enough to make Sage jump.

“How dare you say that to her!”

Sage’s POV

I stared down at the books and notebooks scattered across the floor.

Then I glared up at him, still on my chair.

“What’s your problem, Damon? Don’t you see? I’m working.”

I bent to pick up one of my notebooks.

But Damon snatched it from my hand.

He ripped it apart and threw the pieces away.

“Now can we talk?” he said.

Unknown to Damon, the notes he had just destroyed were the formulas I had been drafting for Nova’s supplements. Even if I had never promised to finish the pills quickly, I had still made them my priority. I did not want Matron Vivian saying again that if not for their family, I would not have even survived childhood.

Damon grabbed my wrist before I could move.

“Tell me, Sage. Did you play the victim again? Are you intentionally trying to make Nova’s health deteriorate because of you?"

I stared at him in disbelief.

“What are you saying?”

I wiped at my tears with my free hand and yanked my arm from his grip.

He stepped closer and shouted right at my face.

“You told Nova that you want me to reject you. How could you do that?”

I blinked back more tears.

For a second, his words pulled me straight back to the conversation I had with Nova just hours ago.

'Sage, are you out of your mind? You want to cut your bond with Damon? No. That’s not possible.'

Nova’s voice had been full of shock, almost like I had announced something shameful and obscene.

'You know Damon never loved me,' I had told her. ‘And this whole arrangement is only punishment for me. I need to be released from his grip. I can’t do this anymore.'

'Sage, no. Maybe you’re only misunderstanding him. I know there are some problems in the pack. If you can no longer handle the responsibility of being Luna, it’s not right to let go of a bond blessed by the Moon Goddess.'

That stunned me for a moment.

How could Nova lecture me about a bond blessed by the Moon Goddess when she herself had rejected Damon? They had been fated mates to begin with.

But I had not argued.

Then Nova had gone on.

'Okay, just think of our parents. Do you really believe rejecting the Alpha will not backfire on our family? People will talk, Sage. They will laugh at us behind our backs. They will say our family failed to raise a proper Luna. Instead of pride, you’ll only bring shame. Do you want that? Do you want everyone looking at our family with pity and disgrace?'

Those words had stayed with me.

If Nova truly cared so much about the Reed family’s reputation, why had she never thought about it before when everything centered around her? We both knew Matron Vivian and Beta Tomas Reed valued their name like it was oxygen itself.

The thought made me sick, because I did not want to see her that way. But I was not stupid. I could see the pattern now.

I had never been jealous of Nova. I had told myself she deserved the love and attention after everything that happened to her in the rogues’ hands. I swallowed my hurt and stayed quiet.

But now her words and her actions no longer matched. She spoke to me like a concerned sister, yet somehow my life kept narrowing while hers stayed untouched. Why?

Still, I had stayed silent then too.

I had not had the strength for another argument.

And now, I understand that my greatest regret was confessing my feelings to him on his twenty-third birthday three years ago.

I could not even understand why I had said it.

“What’s the point of our union if love isn’t in it? I know you’re only punishing me, Damon. But don’t you realize you’re punishing yourself too? So why are you still not letting go?”

His hand curled at his side like he wanted to grab something, break something, maybe break me.

“Then you should never have confessed your feelings three years ago!” he snapped. “You should have kept that shit to yourself and let it die. Maybe if Nova had been the one standing where you are now, I would have given her the kind of love you can’t even imagine.”

It hurt even though I had already known it.

Maybe that was the cruelest part of all. Hearing a truth you had lived with for years could still cut fresh.

“You’re right, Damon,” I said quietly. “For once, we agree on the same thing. I should never have said those words. Maybe I would have been happier. Maybe I would have been free somewhere else already, with the mate truly meant for me, loving me the way I deserved.”

For the first time since he entered the room, Damon looked caught off guard.

But he recovered fast and let out a bitter chuckle.

“So now your true colors are finally showing. Just because you’re unhappy in this union, you’re already desperate to find another man to love you, or at least someone willing to fuck you? No one would ever touch someone this pathetic and desperate.”

My fingers tightened around the edge of the table.

I looked at him steadily, even though my chest was shaking.

“Don’t accuse me of what you’ve been doing since our mating ritual, Damon.”

I rose from my chair.

My legs felt weak, but I forced myself to stand straight and met his gaze.

He stepped into my space, wild anger burning in his eyes.

“If it wasn’t for you, I might have been with Nova by now!”

My patience had been thinning for years. I had swallowed insult after insult, humiliation after humiliation, pain after pain.

But I was so tired of being the easiest person to blame.

I stared back at him, and I knew my face was no longer soft.

“Why are you putting all the blame on me, Damon? Haven’t you realized it yet? Nova didn’t love you enough. If she did, she would not have rejected you just because I confessed my feelings first.”

His hand shot out and gripped my jaw.

Pain burst across my face.

“Take it back,” he said through clenched teeth. “Or you’ll regret those words.”

“No,” I said. “Because you’re delusional, Damon, and you need to wake up so we can both get out of this mess. Nova never loved you. Even if I had never confessed, the two of you still would not have ended up together forever.”

I wanted to say more.

But what I had already said was enough.

Nova had never wanted him as a mate.

But why let him marry me? She could have kept him obsessed with her as a backup if she wanted.

Unless she had another reason.

Before I could follow that thought any further, Damon shoved me back.

I stumbled into the chair and nearly fell with it.

Then he turned, grabbed the rest of my notes from the table, and threw them into the fire burning in the hearth.

My whole body went cold.

“No!”

I rushed toward the hearth without thinking. I dropped to my knees and reached for the papers, but the flames had already caught them.

My formulas disappeared right in front of me.

I looked up at him, horrified.

“Just so you know, those were the formulas for my project in the healer’s den. Your pack’s healer’s den. And Nova’s own supplements!"

For a moment, Damon went quiet.

But instead of guilt, his face hardened further.

“Then make another one!” he said.

And with that, he stormed out of the room.

I stayed there on the floor, staring at the fire as the last of my work turned to ash.

Sage’s POV

One moment, I was on the floor in front of the hearth, watching the last pieces of my work burn into black, curling ash.

The next, I was already moving.

Damon had humiliated me too many times for me to count.

But he had destroyed my work.

That was the part I could not forgive.

My vision blurred as I followed him out of the library.

Hot tears slipped down my cheeks, but they were not the helpless tears I had cried in the shower.

“Damon!” I shouted.

He kept walking.

“Damon!”

This time, my voice cracked through the lobby.

He stopped near the foot of the grand staircase. His shoulders lifted once with irritation before he turned around.

“What?” he snapped. “You already ruined my day, Sage. What else do you want to say?”

For a second, I could only stare at him.

What else did I want to say?

There were years inside my chest. Years of words I had buried because I did not want to make things worse. Years of swallowing insult after insult because I had believed there was still something worth protecting.

My hands trembled at my sides, and I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand.

“I, Sage Reed, reject you, Damon Kingsley, as my mate.”

The words rang through the lobby.

Damon blinked.

For the first time in a long while, he looked caught off guard.

He even took half a step back, and that small movement gave me a bitter kind of satisfaction.

But then he chuckled.

I gasped when his large hand closed around my jaw and forced my face up.

“You really think you have that right? Who are you to decide anything about this shitty bond?”

I slapped his hand away and stepped back.

“Just accept the rejection, Damon,” I said, breathing hard. “You already called this bond shitty. So accept it!"

His eyes darkened.

“No. Never. You and I are bonded forever.”

I pushed at his chest, but he barely moved. I was the one who stumbled back.

My chest heaved.

I could not understand him.

He had made sure I knew he did not want me in his bed, in his heart, or in his life. He should have been relieved.

Instead, he looked furious.

If rejection tampered with the blessing of the Moon Goddess, then so be it.

What blessing was this? What kind of sacred bond left one mate bleeding and the other full of hatred?

I swallowed the pain in my throat.

“What would make you agree, then?” I asked. “Tell me what you want so we can end this.”

Damon’s anger shifted.

A devilish smile touched his mouth, and something cold ran down my spine.

“Give me a pup,” he said. “Give me my heir, and I’ll arrange the rejection ceremony at once.”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“Are you joking? How is that even possible? Even in the human world, it takes two people to conceive a child. We sleep in the same bed, Damon, but you do not touch me. You made sure of that.”

He laughed as though I had amused him.

“Don’t play games with me, Sage. You don’t really want rejection. You’re only saying it because you think I’ll chase after you.”

I simply stared.

After all this, he thought I was begging for attention?

“My intention is clear,” I said slowly. “I want us separated. I want this bond severed so we can both live our lives. What game are you talking about?”

His jaw tightened.

“Oh, so you want to cut our ties and what? Find another wolf to scratch your heat because I won’t do it? Dream on, Sage. You will never be with anyone else.”

My face burned.

I had been insulted before, but there was something especially cruel about hearing him reduce my pain to desire, as if I were only a body that had been denied.

“You are the most difficult creature I have ever known. I hate you with all my heart.”

Damon grabbed my wrist.

“And I don’t fucking care,” he said.

His eyes burned into mine, and his grip tightened again as if he wanted the pain to carve his words into my skin.

“If you hate me, then you have no idea how much I despise even the idea of you as my mate. You are nothing to me, Sage. Nothing. You could never compare to Nova.”

He released me suddenly, and because I had been pulling against him, I lost my balance.

I fell back and hit the edge of a nearby console table before collapsing to the floor.

Pain shot through my back, bright and deep, but it was nothing compared to the ache spreading through my chest.

My wolf growled low inside me.

Then the growl broke into a whimper.

I pressed a hand to the floor and tried to breathe through the pain.

I looked up at him.

For a moment, Damon only stared.

His gaze moved from my face to where my hand braced against the floor. His fingers twitched at his side. He took one step forward, almost as if he was going to help me stand.

Then he stopped.

“Playing the poor bullied wife again?” he said harshly. “You can’t fool me, Sage. You will never get what you want from me as long as we’re bonded.”

He turned away.

Then he paused by the door and looked back at me with cold eyes.

“Get up. You’re not crippled.”

He stormed out of the packhouse, his voice cutting through the hallway as he shouted, “Pete, get the car ready!”

The door slammed.

Then footsteps hurried toward me.

“Luna.”

A maid knelt beside me, slipping an arm around me.

“Please, let me help you.”

I wanted to say I was fine, but the lie felt too heavy now.

So I let her help me stand. My back protested, and I held my breath until the worst of the pain passed.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

She looked at me with worry she was trying to hide. “Luna, I can take you back to your room and prepare something for you. What would you like to eat?”

The question should have been simple.

Instead, it almost broke me again.

Because at least here, among the people who had the least power, someone still asked what I wanted. Not what Nova needed. Not what Damon demanded. Not what my mother expected. Just what I wanted.

I looked toward the staircase.

“No,” I said softly. “I’m tired of resting.”

The truth was much bigger than that.

I was tired of being here.

I looked back at the maid.

“Can you get my bag and keys from my room?”

She hesitated. “Luna?”

“Please,” I said. “I need to go somewhere.”

Her worry deepened, but she did not argue. “Yes, Luna.”

An hour later, I stepped into the Silverroot Exchange.

It stood at the edge of the neutral market, between pack territory and the human road that led into the city.

Usually, I came here with the healer team.

We bought ingredients that did not grow well in Moonridge soil. Some plants needed colder mountain air. Some needed salt-heavy wind from the coast. Some herbs only survived in human greenhouses where magic did not disturb their growth cycle.

For months, I had been cultivating a few of those plants in the pack’s medicinal garden. I wanted Moonridge to rely less on outside suppliers. I wanted to build something useful enough that no one could say I was only Damon’s unwanted Luna.

If there was still a future for me in that pack, I had tried to prepare for it.

Now I was no longer sure.

I moved through the aisles quietly, choosing what I needed with hands that still trembled.

I bought enough to recreate part of what Damon had burned.

The shopkeeper packed my items into a brown paper bag and tied the top with twine.

“Careful with the ferrum bark, Luna,” she said. “It stains.”

I nodded and paid.

The moment I turned, I collided with something solid.

No.

Not something.

Someone.

The impact knocked the bag from my arms.

The twine snapped, and glass vials, folded packets, and small wrapped bundles scattered across the floor.

I stumbled backward, already bracing myself for the fall.

But strong arms caught me.

One arm wrapped around my waist, the other steadied my shoulder.

My breath caught as my palms landed against a hard chest beneath a dark shirt.

He smelled like pine woods after rain, warm skin, and a strong alpha scent that made my wolf go still.

“Are you okay?”

Sage's POV

My eyes widened.

The man holding me had bluish green eyes.

They were not soft eyes. There was too much awareness in them, too much command.

He looked at me as if he noticed everything I was trying to hide.

His chest was hard under my hands.

My wolf went strangely quiet, then she leaned forward inside me.

I warned her silently. 'No, don't surface.'

The man’s gaze moved over my face, slow and careful.

Not the way Damon looked at me when he wanted to accuse me.

This man looked as if he was trying to know whether I was hurt.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

His voice was lower this time.

I blinked.

“Yes,” I said quickly.

Then I remembered where we were.

My face warmed, and I pulled away from him at once.

“I’m sorry,” I said, dropping to my knees. “My ingredients.”

I reached for the nearest packet, but my hand stopped.

The ferrum bark had spilled across the floor. The silverleaf shavings had mixed with dust. One vial of binding oil had cracked open, spreading a dark stain over the paper wrapping.

My throat tightened.

I could not use any of it now.

A healer could not gamble with contamination.

My hands hovered above the mess, useless and shaking.

“No,” I whispered.

The man knelt beside me.

“Don’t mind those,” he said.

I looked at him, already fighting tears again. “What? I need those ingredients.”

He closed his hand gently around my arm and helped me stand.

Once I was steady on my feet, he turned to the shopkeeper.

“Healer June. Replace everything this lady purchased.”

Then he pulled a card from his wallet and placed it on the counter.

The shopkeeper’s eyes widened, but only for a second. Then she nodded at once.

“Right away, Alpha Nikolai.”

Alpha Nikolai.

I looked at him again.

Nikolai.

The name moved through my mind slowly, then landed with meaning.

This was Alpha Nikolai Voss.

The new Territorial Alpha of the Capital Pack.

The man Damon had gone to meet that morning.

I studied him before I could stop myself.

He was dressed casually, in a dark shirt, fitted jacket, and simple trousers, but nothing about him looked ordinary.

Even now that he was not standing too straight, he seemed to own the space around him.

“You do not need to pay for those,” I said quickly. “I can pay for them myself.”

He looked at me. “It was my fault.”

He did not blame me, unlike Damon, who always made every pain feel like it was my fault.

June returned with a basket and began placing fresh items inside it.

“Oh, Luna,” she said with a small laugh, “let Alpha Nikolai do it. He really has a big heart. In fact, he is the benefactor of this store. Without his help, this place might have closed a long time ago.”

Nikolai turned his head slightly.

“June, please stop telling that information to every customer who walks into this shop.”

June laughed. “But it is true, and I will announce it to the world if I have to.”

Nikolai only shook his head.

He turned back to me.

“Are you sure you are okay?” he asked. “Are you hurt?”

The question caught me off guard.

My lips parted, but no answer came out.

When was the last time someone had asked me that and meant it?

I tried to remember.

Damon had asked what I wanted only when he wanted to mock me. Mother asked about my work only when Nova needed something.

But this man was a stranger.

And somehow, he had asked twice.

My wolf leaned forward again, closer this time, as if she wanted to press her nose against his neck.

I clenched my fingers around the strap of my bag.

'Stop it already,' I told her inwardly.

She gave a low sound, almost a complaint.

June returned with Nikolai’s card and handed it back to him. Her eyes moved between us, and her smile turned knowing.

“Oh, Alpha, I forgot to say. She is Sage Kingsley, Luna of...”

“Moonridge Pack,” Nikolai supplied.

I froze.

My eyes widened. “How did you know?”

He did not answer at once.

His gaze stayed on mine, steady and unreadable.

Then he gave June a small nod before looking back at me.

“I have to go.”

The words were polite.

Still, something in my chest tightened as if he had pulled away too soon.

He stepped toward the door, then paused with his hand near the handle.

“Luna Sage.”

My name sounded different in his voice.

I looked at him.

His eyes moved once over my face.

“Until we meet again, Luna Sage,” he said.

Then he left.

The small bell above the door rang after him.

I stood there with my new basket of ingredients in my hands, staring at the door longer than I should have.

My wolf gave one soft, restless sound.

And I knew that she wanted me to follow him.