Dead Mate, Living Nightmare

Kevin swallowed hard, mustering his courage. “Mrs. Martha… she’s not breathing anymore…”

Frank’s own breathing grew ragged. I thought I heard a flicker of panic in the sound, but then he spoke, his voice cold and utterly ruthless.

“She’s still acting! Fine! We’ll see how long she can keep up this charade!”

“She’s a survival expert. She can hold her breath underwater for over ten minutes! She’s just trying to scare you fools who don’t know any better! Get the pack healer. I’ll expose her lies myself!”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “Alpha Frank, her pups are already—”

“Who do you take orders from?!” Frank cut him off impatiently. “Does she pay your salary, or do I?”

“Understood… I’ll go get the healer…” Kevin sighed in defeat and turned to leave.

Zerra walked over. “Calm down, Frank. If you get too angry, your wolf will become unstable.”

“Martha is quite the manipulator, isn’t she? In just a few years, she’s managed to make the entire pack see her as their Luna!”

Frank’s words were a poison-tipped dagger in my heart.

And in just three years, he had forgotten all his promises.

At our bonding ceremony, Frank had looked at me with so much love. “This is your home,” he had said. “You will be the only Luna here.”

Tears I could no longer shed streamed down my face.

I had foolishly hoped that when Frank learned I had died in childbirth, he might feel a sliver of guilt, a hint of regret.

What a joke. I was a complete and utter fool.

I had actually believed Frank could truly love me.

Frank and Zerra were childhood sweethearts, engaged since they were young. But during a medical check-up, Zerra discovered a genetic defect in her wolf that made her unable to bear children.

So she got on a plane to another country and cut off all contact with him. At the time, she claimed that Frank was the sole heir of the Shadow Moon pack, and she couldn’t bear to let his line end because of her.

To forget the pain of being abandoned, Frank joined an underground cave exploration team. I was the leader of that team.

When he proposed, he told me that my decisiveness and calm were the embodiment of all that was good in the world. He said that when he was lost in the darkness, I was the one who gave him direction. In that moment, he knew I was his fated mate.

After we became mates, he said caving was too dangerous. So I quit my job to focus on preparing my body to give him an heir. After Zerra left him, Frank’s lifestyle of drinking and late nights had taken its toll, weakening both him and his wolf.

Facing pressure from his parents to produce an heir, I helped him get healthy while preparing myself. Finally, in our third year as mates, I became pregnant with twin pups.

His parents, the former Alpha and Luna, were overjoyed. They called a pack assembly to announce that my pups would be the sole heirs of the Shadow Moon pack.

And that’s when Zerra came back. “I have no interest in the pack’s power,” she’d said. “As long as I can be with Frank, I’m happy.”

After that, Frank started staying out more. I’d find the scent of other she-wolves on his white shirts. I demanded we sever the mate bond, but he refused, saying my pups were the pack’s heirs. He said Zerra was sick and needed someone to look after her, so he brought her home.

Zerra couldn’t have children, so the sight of a pregnant she-wolf made her miserable. And so, even as I neared my due date, he locked me in the basement.

The person who deserved to die was Frank!

The healer, Dr. Nathan, arrived quickly. As a friend of Frank’s, he had always managed his health.

Frank stood with his arms crossed, impatiently following Dr. Nathan. “Let’s see how long you can keep up this act, Martha!”