Chapter 5
When I woke up again, I was no longer in that hellish storage room.
I had been moved to the Bloodmoon Pack’s private hospital.
–
Landon stood beside the bed, his expression stormy as he spoke with the pack doctor in a low, tense
voice.
“The uterus is completely necrotic,” the doctor said grimly. “It has to be removed. She’ll never be able to carry children again.”
“And with the infection this advanced… if she doesn’t rest, she might not survive at all.”
Landon’s jaw clenched. His face darkened even further.
Then he noticed I was awake..
He didn’t yell. Didn’t scold. He just forced the words out through gritted teeth.
(( …Are you hungry?”
Such a simple question. So gentle. But it shattered me.
All the fear, the humiliation, the despair I had buried inside came flooding out in that moment.
I broke down completely–sobbing like a child, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Since our parents died, Landon had raised me on his own. I was his baby sister, the center of his world. He’d treated me like something precious, something fragile to protect.
And yet… I had chosen Carter.
I thought Carter was my fated mate, I insisted on sealing the mate bond with him even after his car
accident left him paralyzed.
I even threatened to cut ties with him if he didn’t approve.
He’d been so angry, so betrayed, that he stopped speaking to me.
And I… in my pride and stubbornness, had done the same.
Now, looking at him, all I could think was. I nearly died without ever making things right.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out, the words barely audible. “Landon, I was wrong. I didn’t see him clearly. I’m so sorry…”
Chapter 5
BS SHE
The fury in his eyes melted into something else–something infinitely softer.
He wrapped an arm around me, pulled me close, and stroked my back in silence. His eyes were red, glistening.
“It’s okay now,” he murmured. “I’m here.”
He kept smoothing my hair, his voice low but fierce as he spoke into the quiet.
“All these years… because of you, I gave Carter’s pack and company special treatment. I helped him build that empire.”
“I never thought he’d use that power to torture you.”
His voice shook with fury. “I’ll make him pay for every drop of blood he made you shed.”
I gripped his shirt and cried harder, my sobs turning into hiccups.
The surgery went well, but the recovery was brutal.
Every time the nurses changed my dressings, the pain sent cold sweat pouring down my back.
Landon never left my side.
He slept in a chair next to my bed, fed me, cleaned me, spoke softly to me when the nightmares came. His eyes were red–rimmed from exhaustion, his face visibly thinner.
One night, I overheard him on the phone outside my room, his voice lowered to a whisper.
“Keep looking. I want every piece of global research on artificial wombs, no matter how
experimental.”
“Landon,” I called weakly.
He rushed in like he’d been caught doing something wrong. “Did I wake you?”
I shook my head. He looked so guilty. So worried. My heart clenched.
“You idiot,” he scolded, eyes blazing, “What the hell did you ever see in Carter? Was he really worth all this pain?”
I didn’t answer right away,
Instead, my thoughts drifted to a summer many years ago.
I was twelve. My aunt had been visiting a northern pack, and I had begged to tag along.
Chapter 5
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Somewhere along the way, I got snatched by a rogue involved in a trafficking ring,
They threw me into a cold, filthy underground cell, and I cried nonstop for hours, terrified out of my mind.
There was one other kid in that cell.
Carter.
He was only a year older than me, but he took my hand and whispered, “Don’t be scared. If they try to sell us, I’ll make sure we’re sold together. Then I can protect you.”
That moment stayed with me for years. That boy–scraped up, trembling, but brave–was burned into my soul.
Eventually, we were rescued. But we were from different packs.
Still, I never forgot him.
When I learned which tèrritory he belonged to, I did everything I could to attend that region’s mate gathering.
That’s when I found out… he was already with Mila. His childhood sweetheart.
Itold myself it didn’t matter. That I’d be happy for him from afar.
But fate had other plans.
Somehow–miraculously–I became his Luna.
Only, Carter wasn’t that boy anymore.
The one who once held my hand in the dark… was gone.
