After My Mate Denied Our Unborn Pup

The summons came three days after I signed the preliminary transfer papers. A young Delta wolf knocked on my basement door, his expression a mixture of pity and discomfort.

"Luna Victoria requests your presence in the great hall immediately," he said, avoiding my eyes.

I nodded, smoothing down my oversized sweater. The pregnancy wasn't visible anymore—not since I'd given up my pup—but the emptiness remained, a hollow ache that never subsided.

The great hall was eerily quiet when I entered. Victoria sat alone on her new throne—a gaudy thing with silver inlays that Ethan had commissioned for her. She wore a crimson dress that accentuated her slender figure, her dark hair cascading over one shoulder in perfect waves.

"There you are," she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "I was beginning to think you were ignoring my summons."

"I came as quickly as I could," I replied softly, keeping my eyes downcast.

Victoria rose from her throne, circling me slowly like a predator assessing its prey. "I've been thinking about your... situation."

My heart stuttered in my chest. "My situation?"

"Don't play dumb, Olivia. It doesn't suit you." Her perfectly manicured nails traced a line across my shoulders, making me flinch. "Your little secret. The pup. The adoption."

I froze, my breath catching painfully in my throat. "How did you—"

"I'm the Luna now," Victoria cut in, her smile sharp as a blade. "Nothing happens in this pack without my knowledge."

She moved to stand directly in front of me, forcing me to look into her cold eyes. "I wonder what the neighboring packs would think if they knew. An omega so desperate she tried to trap an Alpha with a pregnancy, then abandoned her own pup when it didn't work."

"Please," I whispered, my voice breaking. "No one needs to know."

"You're right," Victoria agreed, her tone suddenly businesslike. "No one needs to know—as long as you make yourself useful to me."

"Useful?"

"As my personal omega servant." Her smile widened at my shocked expression. "You'll attend to my needs, serve at my gatherings, and make yourself invisible unless I require your presence. In return, your pathetic little secret stays between us."

The walls seemed to close in around me. This was worse than I'd imagined—not just humiliation, but prolonged servitude to the woman who had stolen everything from me.

"Do we have an agreement?" Victoria prompted, her eyes glittering with triumph.

What choice did I have? If word spread about the adoption, no pack would ever accept me. I'd be cast out, a rogue with no protection, no home.

"Yes," I whispered, the word tasting like ash in my mouth.

"Excellent," Victoria purred. "You can start tonight. We're hosting the neighboring Alphas for dinner."

* * *

The formal dinner was a nightmare brought to life. I stood behind Victoria's chair, dressed in the plain gray uniform of a serving omega, my hair pulled back severely from my face. The visiting Alphas barely spared me a glance as I moved silently around the table, refilling wine glasses and removing empty plates.

"More wine, Alpha Jensen?" I asked quietly, approaching a burly man with a salt-and-pepper beard.

"Yes," he grunted, not bothering to look up.

As I poured, Victoria's voice cut through the dinner conversation. "It's truly sad, isn't it, how some omegas can't even claim their own mates?"

My hand trembled, nearly spilling the wine.

"They throw themselves at Alphas, desperate for attention," Victoria continued, her eyes fixed on me as she spoke to her dinner guests. "As if an Alpha would ever choose such a pathetic creature for a Luna."

Laughter rippled around the table. My cheeks burned with humiliation as I carefully set down the wine bottle and stepped back into the shadows.

"Some are so delusional they actually believe they're loved," Victoria added, her voice carrying clearly across the room. "When they're nothing more than a convenient distraction."

Ethan, seated at the head of the table, said nothing to stop her. He merely sipped his wine, his expression unreadable as his fiancée publicly tormented me.

I caught my mother's eye across the room. For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of something—concern, perhaps, or regret—but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. She turned away, engaging Alpha Jensen's mate in conversation as if I didn't exist.

By the time the dinner ended, my legs ached from standing and my soul felt bruised from Victoria's relentless barbs. I retreated to my basement room, collapsing onto my thin mattress as tears threatened to spill.

I couldn't do this. I couldn't survive a lifetime of serving Victoria, of enduring her cruelty while Ethan looked on in silence.

With shaking hands, I reached for the one comfort I had left—my mind-link with NightWolf.

*NightWolf?* I called silently, desperately. *Are you there?*

The response came immediately, warm and concerned. *I'm here, little one. What's wrong?*

And then the dam broke. Through our mental connection, I poured out everything—Victoria's threats, the dinner, the endless humiliation. I told NightWolf about the adoption papers, about the hollow ache in my chest where my pup should be.

*I can't do this anymore,* I sobbed mentally. *I'm not strong enough.*

There was a long pause, and when NightWolf's voice returned, it carried a new edge—something dangerous and determined.

*You won't have to endure this much longer, little one. I promise you that.*

*How?* I asked, desperation coloring my thoughts. *There's no escape for me.*

*There is,* came the reply, firm and certain. *And I'm going to help you find it.*

I didn't understand what NightWolf meant, but for the first time in months, I felt something other than despair—a tiny flicker of hope, fragile but persistent.

What I didn't know was that miles away, in a palace I'd never seen, the Lycan King was already setting a plan in motion that would change everything.