"Have you completely lost your mind, Kaleb? I am your Luna!" Kat shot back.

"Have you lost your loyalty to this pack?" Kaleb countered, his hand grabbing her chin, forcing her to look into his feral, amber stare. "After all, Rhea is your own blood. For all I know, you were just trying to get back into her good graces now that she’s sleeping in Thorne’s bed!"

Kat opened her mouth to spit a denial, but Kaleb’s grip tightened, his fangs pushing hard against his bottom lip.

"You have exactly one chance to tell me the absolute truth before I drag you down to the cells myself," Kaleb growled, his voice vibrating with absolute ruin as he pointed a clawed finger toward the door. "Did you sell my pack out to the enemy?"

"You are losing your mind, Kaleb!" Kat snapped, her voice shaking as she tried to wrench her chin from his bruising grip. "How can you even think that I would sabotage our own lines? I am the mother of your heirs!"

"Then why the hell did you cross the border to see her?" Kaleb demanded, his voice a low tremor that rattled the perfume bottles on the vanity. The metallic tang of his rage filled her nose, thick and suffocating.

"I did not betray you, and I did not betray this pack!" Kat shot back, tapping into her own alpha-blood defiance, though her heart drummed a panicked rhythm against her ribs. "I only want my son back! I will not let you trap me inside your obsessive quest for vengeance. You already showed me exactly how little your children mean to you."

Kaleb flinched as if struck, his golden eyes widening before narrowing into slits. "How dare you?" he hissed, his fangs lengthening. "You were the one who planned everything, Kat. You, not me!"

"And what did you do to stop me? What did you do to protect him?" Kat pressed, stepping directly into his suffocating heat, tears streaming down her face. "He was your firstborn son, Kaleb. Your pup. But you never truly cared. You never lifted a single finger to track the boy down after they took him. And that tells me everything I need to know. I have to fight for my son, or he will share the exact same fate as Eli!"

Kaleb’s chest rose and fell in sharp bursts, his shoulders tightening. "If I find out that you sold us out," he whispered, the words sounding like an ancient, binding vow that sent a freezing shiver straight down Kat’s spine, "Rhea’s punishment will look like a mercy compared to what you will suffer."

He whirled around to storm from the room, his heavy boots thudding against the carpet. Driven by a desperate need to have the last word, Kat threw open the bedroom door and followed him straight out into the grand hallway.

Daniel and a half-dozen elite enforcers were standing there in the torchlight, their sharp ears twitched, completely silent as they listened to the royal marriage fracture. Kat faltered for a fraction of a second under their judging stares, and then she locked her gaze onto Kaleb’s retreating back.

"You should know that Rhea now knows the truth about Eli!" she blurted into the corridor.

Kaleb froze in his tracks. He didn’t turn around immediately, but his large hands curled into tight, clawed fists at his sides. A tense, uneasy murmur broke out among the enforcers.

Then, Kaleb snapped around. His eyes were blazing a dark, unstable amber, his oppressive Alpha aura exploding outward with such force that two lower-ranking servants nearby instinctively dropped to their knees.

He charged down the hall, grabbed Kat ruthlessly by the arm, and dragged her back into the main living space, slamming the double doors shut behind them.

"How could you reveal such information to her?" he barked, his feral wolf voice bleeding heavily into his human vocal cords, vibrating the stone hearth.

Kat violently yanked her wrist from his hold, cradling her swollen stomach. "I only wanted to save my child, Kaleb! And I am willing to tear this entire world apart to do it!"

"Then where is he? Where is the boy?" Kaleb demanded, gesturing wildly to the empty room. "Where is the result of your treasonous effort?"

"She must have traded our military secrets in exchange for her safety, Alpha," one of the war elders muttered from the corner, his scent sour with disgust. "The Luna can no longer be trusted."

Kat whirled on the old wolf, her eyes flashing a dangerous gold. "You have never fathered a pup, old man, so you will never know the lengths a mother—"

"Enough!" Kaleb roared, his voice cutting through the bickering like a thunderclap. He turned to his Beta, his expression completely hollowed out by rage. "Daniel, lock her in the cell of the northern dungeon. Until we have absolute proof that she did not sell us out, she remains in the dark."

"I am pregnant with your heir, Kaleb! How can you even utter those words?" Kat gasped, shock ripping through her voice as she took a step back, her hands trembling against her belly.

Kaleb didn’t answer. He simply turned his back on her and began to walk away toward the strategy war room.

"If you lock me in those cells, you will never find out the bargain I just struck with Rhea!" Kat screamed after him, her chest hammering so violently she could barely draw breath. "A bargain to get back our son, and give you exactly what you want to restore your pride. Her!"

Kaleb whirled back around with supernatural speed, his boots skidding on the stone as his amber eyes flashed violently. "Wait!" he commanded the guards who had stepped forward to seize her. He charged back into her space, his breathing ragged. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Kat lifted her chin, her inner wolf standing attentive and sharp as she locked eyes with her mate. "Tell your men to take their hands off me first."

Kaleb stared down at her, his fangs fully bared, a low growl rattling in his throat. "You are in no position to negotiate with me, woman. Speak, or I will make you disappear forever."

"If you dare touch me, Kaleb, the entire pack council will know exactly what we did," Kat threatened, her voice dropping into a quiet purr. "They will find out exactly how that silver arrow managed to hit the exact target it was meant for that night at Blackridge."

A terrified murmur tore through the surrounding enforcers.

Kaleb lunged, moving his face until his nose almost brushed hers. The scent of copper and old lies sparked between them. "And who is going to tell them, Kat?" he whispered, a terrifyingly calm smile touching his lips. "I will rip your tongue from your throat before you can utter a single word, and then I will grant you a death far worse than the one we gave her."

"Then do it." Kat laughed shakily. "Because the time you tried to kill her, you failed."

Kaleb’s hand blurred to his belt. Before she could even finish the sentence, the cold, blood-stained edge of his knife was pressed hard against the soft flesh of her throat. "Do you truly want to test my resolve tonight?" he growled, pressing the metal just deep enough to bead a single drop of crimson against her skin. "Now, answer the goddamn question before I forget you carry my bloodline." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Kat’s heart stuttered inside her chest. She searched the dark amber of his eyes and found nothing but an unstable, fractured void. He wasn’t bluffing. He looked completely possessed by his own ruin, and he would cut her throat if she pushed him another inch.

She swallowed hard against the sharp silver edge. "She is waiting for you," Kat whispered, her voice finally breaking. "By the boy’s empty grave at the border."

Kaleb’s eyes widened, his rigid grip on the knife loosening by a fraction of an inch as his mind reeled.

"And she is bringing our son."