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Freya Ashwolf

"She is the only omega in the whole Nightfall Haven who can carry your pup," Caelan Nightbane said.

"Bring her in," Lucien Nightbane replied.

I could not open my eyes. My body burned with heat. My omega wolf whimpered inside me, trapped and helpless. I clawed at my clothes because my skin felt like fire. "Please, it is too hot," I whined.

The heavy door of the den shut with a loud thud. A tall, strong male walked toward the bed. I tried to see him, but my vision stayed dark and blurry. Even with my sight gone, his scent hit me hard. He smelled like power and wild ash. His alpha presence pressed down on the room so heavy that I could not catch my breath.

He stepped onto the bed. His weight pushed me into the mattress. The moment his cold skin touched mine, the burning heat inside my chest calmed down. I needed that coldness. I arched my back and pressed myself against his hard chest. "More," I mumbled, pulling him closer.

Lucien took off his clear-lens glasses. He folded the arms closed, one side at a time, setting them on the small table. His eyes went dark. "Do not move," he growled. His voice was low and smooth like velvet.

The Nightbane royal bloodline had rare wolf blood. No ordinary female could bear their young, but my omega body matched his alpha core. He did not come to this den for love. Elder Viktor Nightbane had ordered him to get an heir for the pack. But when my small hands rubbed over his arms, his pack restraint snapped.

He grabbed my waist with strong hands and flipped me onto my stomach. "You asked for this, female," he growled into my neck.

A sharp pain sliced through me as he claimed me. I screamed into the pillow. My mind cleared for a single second. Who is this alpha? What am I doing here?

I remembered going to the Ashwolf Moon Hall to get my mother’s ring back from my stepmother, Moira Ashwolf. But Moira had spiked my drink with wolfsbane and locked me away. When I woke up, I was trapped in this dark room.

Lucien thrust into me hard, cutting off my thoughts. "Ow! Stop!" I cried out, but he did not slow down. He held me tight by my hips. Sweat dropped from his forehead onto my back. He moved over me like a wild beast, using his strength to hold me down while my cries filled the room.

When the mate heat exploded inside us, I threw my head back and gasped for air. My body went weak, and everything turned black. My long black hair fell over my shoulder, exposing the dark mark on my neck shaped like a butterfly.

Ten months later, inside the cold room at the Moonfang Healing Sanctuary, I gripped the side rails of the bed. My knuckles turned white. My body was ripped in two. "Argh! It hurts!" I screamed.

"Keep pushing, Freya," the Moon Healer said. "The pup is coming."

A loud cry echoed through the room. A baby boy.

"Your duty is done," a cold blood physician said, stepping close. "You have no right to this child."

I lay on the blood-stained sheet, too weak to lift my arm. Tears rolled down my face as I watched them wrap my baby in a white cloth. "My pup... give me my baby..." I sobbed, but no one listened.

After that night with the unknown alpha, the Nightbane sentinels had locked me in a house guarded by Rogue Blood Hunters. They told me if I gave them the child, my brother, Rowan Ashwolf, would get the rare herbs needed to heal his frozen legs and weak heart.

Our stepmother, Moira, had kicked us out of the Ashwolf Pack and stopped all healing care for Rowan. I had no choice. I had to save my brother’s life. But after holding that pup inside my belly for ten months, feeling his little kicks, my heart broke into pieces.

Outside the sanctuary, a dark carriage waited under the trees. Elder Viktor Nightbane sat in the back. His gray hair shone in the moonlight.

A blood physician ran out with the crying pup. "High Elder, it is a healthy alpha boy!"

Elder Viktor took the baby into his arms, his face breaking into a cruel smile. "The Nightbane bloodline continues." Then his face turned hard as iron. He looked at the sentinel beside him. "Tell Lucien that the omega took ten million pack coins and ran into the night."