Five Years a Placeholder, Now Fated to the Lycan King

I opened my eyes slowly. The ceiling swam into focus. I was in a hospital room. My whole body felt like it had been run through a wood chipper and put back together wrong.

“You’re awake.” A pack nurse leaned over me, her voice gentle. “Nova, I need you to stay calm.”

“Where—” My voice came out as a rasp. “Where’s Darren?”

She didn’t answer right away. That silence was answer enough.

“You were in a car accident,” she said instead. “You lost a lot of blood. We managed to stabilize you, but…” She paused, choosing her next words carefully. “I’m so sorry. You lost the pregnancy.”

The words hit me like a second crash.

Pregnant.

I hadn’t known. There had been no signs I recognized, no morning sickness, no shift in my scent that I had noticed. One moment I was a woman who had just discovered her mate never registered their marriage and was already replacing her. Now, I was a woman who lost a child she had no idea about, after years of miscarriages.

I didn’t cry. I had used up every tear on that sidewalk. Now there was only a cold, expanding emptiness where something I never even knew existed had been taken.

“Can I have my phone?” I questioned.

The pack nurse hesitated, then handed it over. My hands shook so badly I could barely unlock it. I called Darren. It rang and rang and went to voicemail. I called again. Voicemail. I called my dad. Nothing. My mom. Nothing.

“I can’t get through to either of them,” I whispered, more to myself than to her.

The nurse’s face filled with a kind that showed she knew more than she should.

“A doctor brought you in himself last night,” she said, changing the subject. “He’s the reason you’re alive. You lost so much blood on a back road in the dark, you shouldn’t have made it.”

“A doctor?”

“He didn’t leave a name. Just said he’d come back to check on you. One thing is for sure, he’s not from any neighboring pack.”

I didn’t have the energy to ask more. My mind stayed locked on one question—why wasn’t anyone answering? Even if Darren had already chosen Briar, even if the whole family had decided I was disposable, wouldn’t someone at least check whether I was still breathing after an accident?

I scrolled through the pack’s shared social feed with hands that wouldn’t stop trembling.

And there, I found a photo that had been taken at a lake somewhere upstate. Four familiar faces squeezed together, grinning at the camera. Darren’s arm around Briar’s shoulders. My father mid-laugh and my mom holding up a fish she clearly hadn’t caught.

The caption read: *Family trip. First one in five years!!*

The photo had been posted six hours ago, while I was fighting for my life.

I carefully set the phone down on the blanket, because if I didn’t, I might throw it through the window.

I didn’t know how long I lay there staring at the ceiling, letting that image burn itself into the back of my eyes. Long enough that the door finally burst open and the room filled with noise.

“Nova! Oh my god, are you okay?” Briar rushed in first, her face a perfect mask of worry, hands pressed to her mouth like she was about to faint from concern.

Darren came right behind her. Mom and Dad trailed in after, all wearing the exact expressions I now recognized for what they were; a performance.

“We came as soon as we heard,” Darren said, taking my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Baby, I’m so sorry. If I’d known—”

If I’d known. As if he hadn’t stood on the Pack Registry steps less than a day ago promising to “deal with Nova soon.”

I knew everything now. I knew about the marriage that was never registered. I knew my own parents had laughed about selling me off before I could make a scene.

I knew all of that, but I didn’t say anything. Something told me to wait, watch, and learn exactly how far they would go.

“I’m tired,” I said instead, pulling my hand back gently. “Can someone help me to the bathroom?”

Briar practically shoved Darren out of the way to do it herself—all soft concern and gentle hands guiding me up, playing the devoted sister so well that if I hadn’t already known the truth, I might have believed it.

She walked me halfway down the hall, chattering about how worried she had been, how she had come the second she heard.

Then my knees buckled, just a small stumble as my body was still weak from the blood loss. I needed one more second of support before I could stand steady again, but Briar let go instantly and stepped back like I was contagious.

I felt myself start to fall.

“Oh—I think I hear Darren calling me,” she said, already turning away, already walking back toward the room. “You’ve got this, right? You’re basically fine.”

I caught myself against the railing, breathing hard. Humiliation and fury mixed low in my chest with the fresh, sharp grief of a loss I hadn’t even known was possible until an hour ago.

This was who they were. This was who they had always been, and I had been too in love to see it.

“Easy.”

A hand caught my elbow before I could go down all the way.

I looked up. It took me a second to place him, but it was Callum, a face I hadn’t seen in years. He looked at me carefully, like he was checking for damage no scan could find.

“Callum?” I breathed.

He gave me a small, tired smile. “Yes. It’s me, Nova.”

The nurse’s words from earlier came back all at once—a doctor had brought me in himself and said he would come back to check on me.

Of course it was him.

Before I could say another word, footsteps echoed down the hall behind us. Darren’s voice called my name possessively, like he still had any right to sound that way.

Callum didn’t let go of my arm. If anything, his grip tightened, as if he already knew exactly who was coming and exactly what he thought of him.

“We need to talk,” he said quietly.

I didn’t get the chance to answer before Darren rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the two of us like he was seeing a ghost.