The Pack's Rejected Healer

Empress

Perfect.

That is the only word that comes to mind as I light the very last candle, stepping back to admire the perfectly set dining table and the dinner I spent all afternoon preparing.

A small, hopeful smile curves my lips. I turn toward the table clock, and just as slowly, the smile fades.

Nathan and Leo were supposed to be home by now. My husband and my mate of ten years, and Leo, our son.

Tonight, of all nights. Had he truly forgotten that this is our ten-year anniversary?

I walk over to my cellphone, fingers trembling slightly as I dial his number. It rings once, twice… he doesn’t pick up. I redial, heart thudding louder with each unanswered tone, until finally, on the very last ring, he answers.

“Nathan, honey, you’re running late,” I say, trying to keep my voice light and teasing. “The dinner is ready. You should come home with Leo so we can…”

“I’m not coming home tonight.” His words slice through mine before I can finish. “Leo will have dinner in his classmate's home.”

“But tonight is our…”

The line goes dead with a flat beep. He had already hung up.

My heart plummets. I stare at the darkened screen, blinking in disbelief. He has barely been home these past months, always buried in work, always distant but I begged him for this one night. This special night. Our anniversary. Our Mate bond. And he simply… disconnected?

I bite my lower lip hard enough to taste the faint metallic tang of blood.

My thumb hovers over the redial button when a deafening bang suddenly erupts, shaking the entire building.

A violent wave of heat blasts through the window, slamming me backward against the wall with brutal force.

Flames erupt instantly. They lick up the walls, race across the floor, devouring everything in greedy orange tongues. Fire. The apartment is on fire.

In pure horror, I try to scramble to my feet but the dining table, jolted by the explosion, had toppled sideways.

Its heavy edge crashes down across my ankle. Pain explodes through my leg, sharp and blinding. My vision blurs; I collapse back to the floor, head cracking against the hardwood with a sickening thud.

Dazed, numb, overwhelmed by agony, I can barely move. Then through the roaring in my ears, I hear distant shouts, pounding footsteps, the chaotic symphony of firefighters storming the building.

The front door bursts open. Two firefighters rush inside, spot me, and hurry over. Strong hands lift me carefully.

“Stay awake, ma’am. We’re getting you out. Hospital is on the way,” one of them says urgently as they carry me toward the stairs.

Outside, paramedics are already waiting. They transfer me to the stretcher, voices overlapping in a frantic blur.

“She’s got a broken foot, looks like the left ankle and her head is bleeding badly. It’s serious. We need to move fast…”

Their words fade into a hazy drone. Then, cutting through everything, a raw, desperate yell pierces the night.

“Help! Help me! My wife needs help. She’s dying!”

Nathaniel?

I would recognize my husband’s voice, my mate’s voice anywhere, in any lifetime. Despite the pain gnawing at my skull and throbbing in my leg, I force myself up slightly on my elbows. Through the chaos of flashing lights and rushing people, I see him.

Nathaniel is clutching Liora tightly, his face pale with terror. Leo stands beside them, eyes wide and panicked.

“Help my mommy!” Leo cries.

In ten years of marriage, I have never seen Nathan his frightened, this undone. He sprints toward the nearest paramedic, the one still tending to me and grabs his arm.

“Check her right now! She isn’t breathing. Do it now!”

He freezes for a split second when his gaze lands on me, sprawled on the stretcher, blood trickling from my temple. But then his jaw tightens, resolve hardening his features. Without another glance, he drags the paramedic away toward Liora.

I lie there, stunned, watching in numb disbelief. Leo looks my way for one heart-stopping moment. I wait, aching, hoping for him to run to me, to reach for his mother.

Instead, he climbs into the ambulance beside Liora and Nathan. The doors slam shut. The vehicle speeds away toward the hospital.

But… wasn’t Nathan supposed to be at work? Wasn’t Leo supposed to be with his classmate? Why were they here, together with her?

***

“I can’t believe he threw such a fit over nothing. She only has a scratch on her arm, and he’s acting like she’s at death’s door.”

The nurse’s voice drifts into my consciousness, pulling me awake. My eyelids flutter open. I’m in the hospital. In one of the Emergency Room. Two nurses are tending to other patients nearby, chatting casually.

“We don’t really have the right to complain, do we? You know who he is. That’s Nathaniel Claw, the next candidate to the Alpha’s seat of Claw Pack.”

“Exactly. And Liora isn’t even his wife so why is he so frantic over her?”

“That’s the puzzle no one can figure out. Anyway, I’ve got to get back to work.” One nurse walks away, leaving the words hanging in the air.

I lie still, blinking slowly, trying to process. My gaze drops to my leg. My left foot is now encased in a heavy cast. A wheelchair waits beside the bed, silently announcing that it belongs to me.

Nathaniel saw me last night bleeding, broken, lying on that stretcher and he walked away. Even Leo, my own son, turned his back on me. How…?

Gripping the wheelchair, I drag myself out of bed, ignoring the sharp protests from my ankle and skull. I follow the unmistakable scent of my mate through the corridors, up to the VIP floor. He had dared to place Liora in luxury while I lay in the chaos of the ER?

I reach the door of her private ward. My hand trembles on the handle. Through the slight gap where the door hasn’t fully closed, the scene inside freezes me in place.

Nathaniel sits beside the bed, leaning close. Liora lies there, fragile yet radiant, their eyes locked as though no one else exists in the world.

“Shouldn’t you go check on her?” Liora asks softly, voice gentle.

Nathan brushes a strand of hair from her face with aching tenderness.

“She can manage on her own. You’re the one I’m worried about. I was so scared, Liora. Terrified.” His voice cracks. “What would have happened to me if you had died? Or if our son had died?”

A cold, sick chill races down my spine, spreading through my arms like frost. Our son?

“I’m not going anywhere, Nathan,” Liora whispers, covering his hand with hers. “Not when my own son still calls that witch ‘Mom.’” She exhales shakily, gazing deeply into his eyes. “I still can’t believe you sacrificed so much for me… making sure her daughter didn’t survive so my son could live with you. I love you, Nathan.”

My shoulders sag. The strength drains from my body. I stumble back in my seat, nearly collapsing. What did I just hear?

“I love you too, Liora. It’s always been you. Only you.”

“And I thought it was your wife,” she teases with a small pout.

He scoffs at my name.

“I only married Empress because of my mother. She’s useless, you know that. Why would I ever love her when you exist?”

The world tilts.

Leo… is not my son?

What…?

Empress

Shock beyond words, beyond anything I can name, I wheel myself away from that cracked-open door, the scene of Nathan and Liora seared behind my eyelids like a brand.

My hands shake on the chair’s grips as I navigate the quiet hallway until I reach an exclusive floor that opens onto a bright veranda.

Golden sunlight spills across polished tiles and potted ferns, the space designed to cradle fragile hearts in calm.

But peace eludes me entirely.

The warmth feels cruel, almost taunting. I still can’t fathom it. The betrayal refuses to settle into anything resembling understanding.

Ten years ago, on a night that seemed just as deceptively serene, I met Nathaniel Rexor Claw.

I was trudging back toward the city after an exhausting week spent sobbing at my mother’s funeral.

Grief had carved me hollow; the world felt muted and gray. Then I found him in a shadowed alley, slumped, bleeding out from a silver bullet wound. His breaths were shallow, his skin already cooling.

I had only moments to decide.

To save him, I knelt and channeled every fragment of my healing power into his dying body.

The gift passed down from my mother, the most revered healer Aurex had ever known, poured out of me in a blinding, irreversible wave.

When the light dimmed, the silver poison was purged from his veins… and my ability to heal was gone forever. The price was absolute.

I called an ambulance once he stabilized. Days later, the news reported his miraculous recovery. Life stumbled forward until it shattered again.

Barely a month after my mother’s burial, my father declared he would remarry. Not a stranger. My mother’s closest friend.

The treachery sliced deeper than grief ever could. Drowning in sorrow, I sought oblivion in a club one night, drowning shot after shot until memory blurred.

I woke alone in a strange bedroom, body aching, virginity stolen. I knew what had happened, but the man’s face remained a void. I never learned his identity.

I forced myself to move forward, to accept fate’s cruelty. Then the test confirmed it. I was pregnant.

For one dark instant, abortion whispered through my thoughts. But I couldn’t. I was a healer, my mother’s daughter. I could never stain my hands with innocent blood.

Telling my father would mean death; his fury would be merciless. So I kept silent. One desperate afternoon, I wandered into a quiet temple, seeking any sign, any guidance. That was the day Nathan and I crossed paths again.

As though the Moon Goddess herself had woven the moment, the mate bond ignited the instant our eyes met. Fierce, undeniable, electric.

Our relationship spun into a whirlwind. When he proposed, I was already lost in love, utterly devoted.

I confessed everything. The pregnancy, the night I couldn’t remember, the unknown man who had taken what wasn’t his to take.

Nathan never once questioned paternity. He never hinted the child is not be his.

He married me in a small, private ceremony witnessed only by his family. I withdrew from the world, becoming his secluded wife, content to build our quiet life together.

I left my father’s pack behind forever. I became the homemaker, the patient wife waiting for her mate.

Nathan was almost never home, always working, always chasing success for our future, he claimed. I told myself it was for Leo. For our son’s security.

When he was born, I cradled his tiny body and felt an emotion too vast for the word “love.” He was my miracle. My anchor. My everything.

Until now.

The infant I held that day, the mate and husband I believed Nathan to be, the love I poured into our life, every moment of those ten long years stands revealed as a towering edifice of lies and deceit.

Tears burn my eyes as shame floods in. How utterly foolish I’ve been. The thought of my biological child, a daughter, my true daughter dying before she could draw breath twists like glass in my chest. And worse… I raised his mistress’s child as my own. I loved him fiercely. I gave him my heart.

Nathan always described Liora as “like a sister.” Jealousy had pricked at me, sharp and persistent, but I forced it down. I convinced myself it was paranoia. I chose trust.

All of it are lies. They have been entwined from the very beginning. They still are.

I blink the miserable tears away, swallowing the ache. Then I feel it. Eyes on me.

Slowly I turn.

A little girl stands just ahead on the veranda, watching me with unnerving stillness.

Her gaze seems to pierce straight through my pain, as though she feels its echo. For one suspended heartbeat, I think I might shatter, might wail right there in front of her.

But then she collapses.

Her small frame crumples to the floor, chest heaving in frantic, failing gasps. Awe and instinct surge through me at once.

I forget the cast, the betrayal, everything. I push out of the wheelchair and half-run, half-hop the few steps to her side, dropping to my knees. Her eyes have turned a deep, ominous red; dark veins spider across her pale skin.

Dusk Syndrome.

The knowledge rises unbidden, sharp and certain. I yank the hairpin from my hair, freeing the slender silver needle I’ve carried for years. A quiet remnant of the healer I once was. With practiced calm, I locate the vein in her neck and draw out the thick, inky blood poisoning her system.

I rip a strip from the hem of my shirt and press it firmly to stop the flow.

“My dear, look at me. Can you breathe now?”

She coughs once, harshly clinging to my arm with tiny, trembling fingers. Fear blurs my vision until she blinks once… twice… and slowly pushes herself upright. She nods, shaky but steady.

Only then do I exhale, trembling with relief.

“My goodness,” I murmur. “What is your name? Where are your parents? You’re supposed to be in a hospital bed, not wandering…”

My voice cuts off.

Movement ahead demands silence. Slowly I raise my eyes and go utterly still.

Red Almighty Dynasty.

The Alpha of Aurex’s most powerful pack stands there, his presence filling the space like gravity.

For a heartbeat, I wonder why those intense eyes are locked on me. Then they shift to the girl, and the truth clicks into place.

She is his daughter.

Pain flares in my leg, reminding me of my injury. I sink back to the floor with a wince, suddenly aware of how vulnerable I must look.

The little girl grabs my hand instantly, worry creasing her brow.

“Daddy, can you help? She has a cast on her leg.”

Daddy.

Before the realization fully lands, Red Dynasty steps forward. Without a word, without hesitation, he bends, lifts me effortlessly, as though I weigh nothing and settles me gently back into the wheelchair. He straightens, calm and composed.

“I apologize, Mrs. Claws.”

His voice rolls over me, deep and measured, pulling me momentarily out of my spiraling thoughts. Wait, he knows exactly who I am. Nathan’s wife.

“I should thank you,” he continues. “For saving my daughter. None of the doctors here reacted quickly enough to heal her the way you just did.”

Standing face-to-face with him for the first time, I realize the rumors I’ve heard, arrogant, ruthless, dangerously unhinged, feel distant, almost false.

He is striking in a way that steals breath. The Alpha tribal rune marks his left arm in bold, ancient lines.

A simple ring pierces his nose. His long, wavy hair and full bangs fall forward, partially veiling his eyes, yet those intense amber depths pierce straight through the curtain, impossible to ignore.

How can one man be granted so much beauty? Does the Moon Goddess have no sense of fairness, bestowing such perfection without restraint?

“You’re welcome,” I manage, voice quieter than I intend. “She’s a bright girl. You should ensure she’s properly admitted. She needs serious, ongoing care.” My gaze drops to the beautiful child now clinging to her father’s thumb. “Don’t let the syndrome take her. She’s too beautiful for that fate.”

I swallow the bitter lump rising in my throat, turn the wheelchair, and roll away.

I fight to hold myself together, not to crumble in front of a stranger, an Alpha, and his innocent daughter. Not to reveal how utterly broken, how pathetic I feel in this moment.

He called me Mrs. Claws.

Perhaps it’s finally time to let that name fall away.

Empress

I open the door to my ward and immediately pause the wheelchair at the threshold.

Nathan stands there, hospital results clutched in his hand, waiting. For a long moment, I simply sit, staring at him, wondering how a man can carry such cruelty behind those familiar eyes. What had he done to my baby girl?

“You shouldn’t be wheeling yourself around,” he says, voice calm, almost gentle. “The doctor said you need rest.”

I remain still, gaze fixed on his face until a bitter scoff escapes me. I can’t help it.

“Rest?” I echo, wheeling slowly into the room. “Don’t let anyone hear you say that. They might actually believe you care about me.”

His eyes track my movement. When I turn to face him fully, confusion flickers across his features. To stop him from probing, from trying to unravel whatever shift he senses, I murmur,

“You should go to Liora. Don’t keep her waiting.”

“That’s why you sound so upset?” he repeats, as though I’ve just done something foolish and childish.

I give him a silent, steady glare.

“Upset?” I say, voice low. “Is that all you have to say to me, Nathan?”

I wait. He sighs, steps closer, and reaches out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. A gesture that once felt tender, now feels rehearsed.

“Listen,” he says. “I’ve told you before that Liora is like a sister to me. You don’t need to worry about her.” He straightens. “I’ll have the doctor discharge you. We’re going home soon.”

He turns toward the door, delivers those few familiar words, and expects me to accept them the way I always have, quietly, obediently, swallowing every doubt.

“Let’s break the mate bond,” I declare, voice quiet but steady.

His fingers freeze around the doorknob, suspended mid-turn. He goes utterly still.

“I don’t want to be… your nanny anymore.”

He pivots slowly. Horror widens his eyes. In all the years we’ve been bound, never once has he imagined I would ask for rejection. He stares at me as though I’ve lost my mind.

“You have any idea what that means?” His voice drops, heavy and low.

I pause for one heart-stopping second. Of course I do. The severance would tear through both of us, leave scars no healer could mend. Pain. Weakness. A hollow where the bond once lived.

“Yes,” I answer simply.

He scoffs, shaking his head.

“Just because I rode with Liora to the hospital doesn’t mean you get to demand our marriage be severed…”

“You have an apartment for her,” I cut in, voice trembling but clear, “directly below ours. In the same building, Nathan. You’ve had her living there, and you never told me.”

“That was…”

“You told me you were at work for a week straight, even yesterday, on our ten-year anniversary. But that was a lie. You and Leo were in her house.”

The words snap out sharper than I intend, my body shivering with the raw weight of the deceit. At that exact moment, the door flies wide open.

Leo stands in the doorway. His face tells me everything. He’s heard every word, every accusation. He marches in, seizes Nathan’s hand, and glares at me with a fierceness I’ve never seen in him before.

“Don’t blame Daddy for that,” He says, voice high and defiant. “He knew you’d throw a fit like this. That’s why he kept it a secret! The building belongs to my daddy. You have no right to tell him who can live there.

“You’re so mean, always trying to control me and Dad. Liora lets me do whatever I want, but you have too many restrictions. Go to bed early, eat this, don’t eat that, use this, don’t use that. You’re mean, Mommy! I wish you weren’t my mom. I prefer Liora over you.”

The words land like blows. For one suspended heartbeat, the room thickens with tension.

Leo. Ten years. I never hired a nanny, never asked for help. I raised him myself, every sleepless night, every fever, every small triumph. Motherhood was my joy, my pride. I did everything for him, for our family.

At a very young age, I discovered his allergies, his syndromes, illnesses that could never be cured, only managed.

The same conditions Nathan carries. I built routines around them. No cold water in the house, it triggered flare-ups. Warm water only.

Food prepared in precise ways. No chocolate, it weakened him breathing, amplified the syndrome’s grip. I denied him those treats, and he whined, pouted, but I held firm because I loved him more than anything.

Now, hearing his venom, I swallow the pain down deep. For ten years, while I believed I was the devoted mother, the faithful wife, I was nothing more than a nanny in their eyes.

I blink away the last tears that escape. Nathan sees them, steps closer.

“You’re upset right now, Empress,” he says, almost soothing. “You should rest. Once you’ve calmed down, we’ll go home and talk things out.”

With that, he takes Leo’s hand. Together they walk out, leaving the door to click softly shut behind them.

Silence envelops the room. I exhale shakily, trembling in the quiet.

Home? No. There is no home left with Nathaniel. The apartment that burned to ash… perhaps it was the Moon Goddess’s mercy. A final, cleansing fire. A sign that I have endured enough rot, enough pretense. Maybe it’s time I stop being the nanny and finally become myself again.

I wheel the chair to the bedside table, reach for my cellphone. My finger hovers over the screen for what feels like an eternity. Then, with a breath I didn’t know I was holding, I dial the contact I haven’t touched in ten years.

Lukaris Solis.

The ring sounds once. Twice. On the third, the call connects. No one speaks. Neither do I. My heart hammers against my ribs.

What will he think? What will they all think, after ten years of silence, of me walking away from everything?

“Hello?” My voice comes out small, fragile. “It’s Empress Ocean. Biological daughter of Alpha Gareth. Please… I’d like to speak with Lukaris Solis.”

Another stretch of silence. Then that voice, deep, familiar, carrying the same quiet authority that once gave me goosebumps, comfort, answers.

“You’re speaking to him.”

Empress

The car stops before a private suite, isolated and far from the hospital’s chaos.

Alone at the doorstep of the silent building, I sit motionless for one heart-stopping moment, torn between two impulses.

I wonder if I should wheel away now while I still have the chance, or roll forward and face whatever waits inside.

I set my jaw, grip the wheels, and push myself in.

The interior is dimly lit, shadows pooling in the corners. A soft, melancholic song drifts from hidden speakers, barely audible beneath the quiet clink of ice and the slow pour of liquid into glass. No staff in sight. But I know he is here.

Lukaris Solis.

I stop wheeling when I reach the open living area. There he is, seated at the sleek bar counter, one leg crossed over the other, sipping his drink with measured calm. A folded newspaper rests beside his elbow.

He turns slowly. His gaze settles on me.

The air rushes out of my lungs.

“Lu… Luka…” I breathe.

He doesn’t move for a long moment. Then, deliberately, he sets the glass down with a soft clink.

His eyes travel over me unhurried, thorough, as though cataloging every change the decade has carved into my face, my body, my soul.

He rises, steps away from the stool, and approaches. His pace slows until he stops a few careful feet away.

“Luka,” I whisper again, the name trembling because I still can’t quite believe he is real, standing here after all this time.

He closes the distance. Drops to one knee before my wheelchair. Takes my hand in both of his, reverently, as though I might vanish if he grips too hard.

When he feels the warmth of my skin, the solid reality of me, he surges forward and pulls me into a fierce, protective embrace.

His arms wrap around me like a shield, holding so tightly it feels as though he means to ward off every evil the world has thrown at me.

When he finally draws back, he cups my cheek, thumb brushing the line of my jaw, searching my eyes with an intensity that steals my breath.

“Empress,” he says, voice rough with something unspoken. “Is this really you?”

I swallow hard. Nod.

“It’s me, Luka. Your childhood best friend.”

He exhales. A heavy, shuddering sound, then straightens. He wheels me gently toward the deep leather couch and sits across from me. The tension between us thickens into something almost tangible. Awkward silence stretches.

I know I have no right to summon him after ten years of silence. But he is the only person left who might listen without judgment, without condemnation.

“How is… how is Dad?” I ask quietly.

He swallows hard. The hesitation tells me everything before the words do.

“You disappeared from the Oceanic Pack for ten years,” he says, voice low and steady. “No word. No glance back. Alpha Gareth was devastated.

“For a while he couldn’t function. But eventually he moved on, at least on the surface. He issued the decree that you are banished.

“As we speak, your stepmother rules as Luna. Her daughter, the one she brought into the marriage has taken over every piece of inheritance that should have been yours.

“Your stepmother is now the Celestial Guardian. She lives in your mother’s bedroom. Five years ago she removed your mother’s urn from its place of honor… and scattered the ashes among the rest of the dead. No regard. No ceremony.”

My blood turns to ice. I look away sharply, blinking against the sudden sting.

My mother’s urn taken from the sanctuary of her own room? My stepmother wearing the title my mother earned through blood and sacrifice? Her daughter claiming everything that was meant for me? Banished?

“He was fair,” Luka says quietly, delivering the cold truth without flinching. “Disowning you. You left us all cold… for ten years. I loved you with everything I had, Empress, but even I still can’t understand how you could walk away like that.”

“Because I was pregnant,” I murmur, dropping the bombshell into the silence.

Luka goes utterly still.

“You know how my father is,” I continue, voice cracking. “You know who my mother was. Image above all, above parenthood, above grief. I got pregnant, Luka. I didn’t know the father. My mother had just died. My father remarried her best friend. I was breaking apart. Then I got mated. He acted kind. He proposed. I fell in love. That’s why I disappeared.”

I brush the tears away roughly, exhaling a hot, trembling breath.

“I thought I’d made the right choice. Until yesterday, when I learned it was all a lie. For ten years I lived with Nathan with my whole heart. Until I overheard the truth. He was never faithful. The son I thought was mine… isn’t. He’s his mistress’s child. I was a fool. Deceived from the very beginning.”

Luka’s expression shifts, confusion giving way to dawning horror. He reaches for my hand again, silently demanding the full story. I give it to him. Every word I overheard at the hospital door. The explosion. The way Nathan clutched Liora and left me bleeding on the stretcher. Everything.

By the time I finish, Luka’s face is flushed with barely contained rage. He falls back against the couch, gripping the armrest so hard his knuckles bleach white.

“Ten years,” he murmurs, almost in awe of the devastation. “A whole decade flushed away. And now you have nothing left in Oceanic to return to. What are you going to do, Empress?”

The question lands like a stone in my chest, heavy, immovable. I am at the bleakest point of my life. No home. No pack. No future I can see. But I finally know the truth, and right now that feels like the most precious thing I possess.

“I have no job,” I say softly. “No skills. I never finished my healer training, the one thing my mother and father always expected of me. I have no roof over my head. I never get to see my baby girl. And I am still bound to Nathan Claw as his mate.”

I meet Luka’s eyes with sudden, certain determination.

“I have to sever the mate bond first.”

He studies me. “He’ll agree?”

I swallow. Shake my head.

“Nathan rushed me into marriage, Luka, even though he never loved me. Do you know why?”

Silence stretches until understanding flickers in his gaze.

“The Claws are known as one of the most respected families in Aurex, right alongside the Dynasty. Just like Oceanic Pack, the Claw Pack obsesses over image. Liora Land is the daughter of an Omega. Low caste. A permanent stain on any future Alpha of the Claw Pack.”

“Yes,” I agree quietly. “Nathan’s mother understood exactly what it would take for him to inherit the title from his grandfather. No blemishes allowed. To keep his affair hidden… he needed a puppet wife. And he chose me.”

Luka swallows hard, raking furious fingers through his hair.

“I will kill him,” he growls. “That pup-killing bastard. I’ll do it myself.”

He starts to rise. I grab his arm, holding him fast.

“The Solis Clan have never been known as murderers,” I say firmly. “I won’t let you become one for my sake, Luka.” I exhale shakily. “I know what I have to do to reclaim everything I’ve lost. But first I need a roof over my head. Then I go after the rejection.”

He sits back down, visibly troubled, then steadies himself and looks at me.

“After you left, your father claimed every property your mother left behind except one. The old seaside house. It was registered solely in your name. He couldn’t touch it. It’s been abandoned for ten years.”

He pauses.

“How about that place?”

I exhale shakily, swallowing the lump in my throat.

My first step.

My mother’s home.

I have to reclaim myself. And then I will make every one of them pay.

Nathaniel

“How do you mean she left without your knowledge?” I demanded of the doctor who had treated Empress.

He shuddered, bowing his head low, but I only glared harder before turning on my heel and striding out into the hallway. I exhaled shakily, leaning against the wall for a moment.

That woman had gotten under my skin far too quickly today. A rejection? Out of nowhere? No. She was just fishing for attention. Fine. She had it now.

I pulled my cellphone from my pocket and started typing.

‘Stop acting childish, Empress, and come home. I’ll send you the address…’

I paused. No, that sounded too commanding, too cold. I deleted it and tried again.

‘We’re relocating to my villa, Empress. I’ll send you the address. Love you.’

I hit send before I could second-guess it, then looked up. Liora was already waiting at the end of the corridor, Leo’s small hand clasped tightly in hers. Slowly, I lowered the phone and took them in.

My heart softened instantly. Yes. This was how it was always supposed to be. How I was supposed to feel. Liora Land, my Liora with our son.

I walked over. Liora smiled brightly at first, then the expression gradually faded.

“Nathan… our house burned down. Where will we go?”

“You don’t need to worry,” I said smoothly. “I have a villa ready, just near the old one. The crew will fix the burned building soon enough.”

I guided them both toward the car.

“Daddy, I want to sit in the backseat with Liora,” Leo announced, grinning wide. He didn’t even ask about Empress.

I nodded, watching as Liora helped him climb in and settle comfortably. With a small smile, I slid behind the wheel and pulled away from the hospital.

The chatter from the back seat was bright and gleeful, innocent laughter that filled the car and pushed everything else to the edges of my mind. For a while, I even forgot I was married to another woman.

Until the villa came into view. I eased the car into the driveway and stopped.

She wasn’t here. Empress.

Ten years ago, I had met her in that quiet temple. The mate bond had snapped into place unexpectedly, pulling at us both with undeniable force. At the time, I had been backed into a corner.

My mother was the most exacting, image-obsessed person I had ever known, but I had always understood her reasons.

To inherit the Alpha title of the Claw Pack after my father’s death, to keep it out of the hands of my cousin Uriah, who was also a contender I had to live without fault. My grandfather would never tolerate a single misstep.

And Uriah had been watching, waiting for me to slip. That was why he had ambushed me ten years ago with a silver bullet. If Liora hadn’t rushed me to the hospital and saved my life, I would have died right there in the alley.

That was the exact moment I knew I could never lose her.

But my love for Liora. an Omega, could never be acknowledged openly. The instant my mother learned of us, it would be over.

Liora was already carrying my pup, though no one else knew yet. My mother, oblivious to the pregnancy, had broken every boundary to sever our connection. She threatened to have Liora imprisoned if I didn’t end it.

I knew my mother never bluffed.

I had to act smart. I needed an alternative. That was when I met Empress. It felt as though the Moon Goddess herself had reached down to offer me a lifeline.

Empress carried the aura of someone far above Omega status. As my fated mate, she was acceptable, grudgingly to my mother, even if she hated that Empress was an orphan with no powerful lineage.

Our wedding had been private, discreet. I never brought Empress into the spotlight. She stayed exactly where I wanted her. At home, playing the perfect, invisible wife while I lied about business trips and spent my nights with Liora.

For ten years I had kept the balance perfectly. Until now, until she dared to speak the word “rejection.”

Never.

“Wow… Moon Goddess, this is huge,” Liora’s voice pulled me back to the present.

She had stepped out with Liora, jaw slack as she stared up at the villa gleaming under the burning afternoon sun.

She turned to me, eyes wide and sparkling.

“Nathan, this is so beautiful. Am I… going to live here?”

“Of course.”

“But what about… her?”

Her. Empress.

“She’ll come around,” I said easily. “I’ll make it clear you’re only staying here temporarily.”

Liora chuckled happily, then sighed with visible exhaustion.

“I feel so tired. I can’t wait to take a cold bath and just relax.” She glanced at me, then down at Leo with a playful smile, as though the question were for him. “Hmm, Leo, what do you say? Should I help you bath?”

“Uh…” I hesitated, the words feeling strange even as they left my mouth. “Empress always said we can’t use cold water. She said it’s bad for our allergies and…”

I was still speaking when Leo shook his head fiercely.

“That’s not true. She just likes being controlling. I want Liora to help me bath, and I want chocolate. Mommy’s always been against me eating it. I want it, Daddy. I want it.”

He whined, stomping his small foot until I nodded softly.

Of course. Leo was right. Empress had always been too bossy, always playing the healer when she wasn’t even skilled.

“Come on, then. Let’s go inside.”

We entered together. The butler and maid greeted us warmly, already prepared for our arrival. I watched Leo giggle and skip ahead with Liora while I lingered in the grand living room, taking in the space.

A strange feeling crawled into my chest, something almost like amusement at the absurdity of it. Empress.

In ten years, this was the first time I had entered a home without feeling her quiet presence lingering in every corner. And somehow… it almost felt like I missed her.

Where was she, anyway?

The thought had barely formed when a piercing scream echoed from upstairs.

Panic slammed through me. I bolted up the stairs, heart lodged in my throat, and shoved the bathroom door open.

Leo sat crumpled on the tiled floor, barely breathing. His hair and body were dripping wet; angry red welts were already blooming across his skin, spreading fast.

Liora stood frozen, showerhead dangling uselessly in her hand.

I nearly lost it. Empress had been right. The cold water was poison to Leo.

I rushed forward, scooped my son into my arms, and carried him to the nearest bedroom. I laid him on the bed, frantically drying him with a towel, but Leo had started to cry, high, piercing wails that cut straight through me.

I stood there, helpless. I didn’t know how to soothe him. I didn’t know what to do to stop the pain. In ten years, I had never once paid attention to the routines Empress followed so carefully.

With no other choice, I pulled out my cellphone and dialed her number.

Fine. If this was what she wanted, she had won. She wanted me begging, wanted me to feel miserable for keeping Liora in the apartment below ours.

As the call rang, my heart thudded painfully. And in the deepest part of me, a new, unwelcome truth settled in.

I had always seen Empress as worthless.

Until now.

She was useful.

At least in moments like this.