The clinical lights were a harsh, sterile white, bleaching the color from my face until I looked like a ghost.

I sat perched on the edge of the examination table, my fingers white-knuckled as I gripped the hem of my dress. A metal detection chip lay in a stainless steel tray before me. A faint ring of silver light shimmered at its center, resembling a star caught in a thick, stagnant fog.

Evander Barrington stared at that silver glow for a long time, his silence stretching until it felt like a physical weight.

I finally broke. "Is the baby still there?"

He looked up from the chip, his expression even more somber than before.

"Yes."

"Then why aren't you saying anything?"

"Because I need to confirm something else."

He picked up a lancet and pricked my finger. When he touched the drop of blood to the edge of the chip, the silver light was instantly devoured by a murky gray. It spread like ink dropped into clear water, blooming through the delicate circuits.

My heart plummeted.

"What is that?"

"It isn't a typical pregnancy reaction." Evander held the chip up to the light, his brow furrowing deeply. "There are traces of an abnormal contract in your blood. They run deep—already woven into the fetus's own bloodline."

"A contract?"

"A Mate Bond."

I instinctively reached up to touch the skin just below my collarbone.

There was no visible mark, only a patch of skin slightly paler than the rest. It had been there since I came of age, quiet as a birthmark until Rhydian Taylor drew near. Then, it would burn.

It was the fated link between us.

Everyone in the Blackthorn Pack knew of it, and they loathed me for it. To them, a Wolfless woman chosen by fate to be an Alpha's mate wasn't a miracle; it was a cosmic error.

"What do you mean when you say the traces are deep?" I asked.

Evander didn't answer. Instead, he took my wrist and turned my palm upward. His thumb pressed against my pulse, his focus cold and clinical.

"You were born without a Wolf Soul?"

"I've been Wolfless since the day I was born."

"Did no one ever tell you where your soul went?"

I gave a small, brittle laugh.

"I don't have one, Evander. It didn't go anywhere."

"I'm asking if anyone ever truly looked."

"The birth priests of the Blackthorn Pack checked. The physicians of House Edge checked. Everyone says my soul is empty."

"They told you the result, Vesper. Not the process."

I looked at him. He was a half-wolf, the son of a northern exile and a human mother. He could sense the pack's aura, yet he remained untethered by their laws. It was why he had been cast out, and why he had eventually opened this unregistered clinic in the borderlands.

I had come here because I didn't want the pack to know I was pregnant.

But the way he was looking at me now sparked a new, sharper anxiety. It felt as if he could see something inside me that I couldn't.

"Your body isn't showing typical werewolf pregnancy symptoms," he said. "There is no soul resonance, no guidance from your partner's aura. You haven't even experienced the sensory shifts common in our kind."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"For a normal child, perhaps. But the child you are carrying is different."

He tapped the chip, and the gray veins within it flickered.

"The heartbeat is far stronger than a normal fetus, and it is perfectly synchronized with your Mate Bond. You have no Wolf Soul, yet you are sustaining a child of the Blackthorn bloodline. That is beyond rare."

I stared at him, stunned. "Is he in danger?"

"Not as long as you stay away from the Blackthorn territory."

"For now?"

"Vesper, you have to understand. Once they know this child exists, he will stop being a child to them."

His voice was calm, but the words hit me like nails.

"He is Rhydian's son."

"That is exactly why he is in danger."

I placed my hand over my stomach. It was still flat, showing no outward change. But at the moment my palm touched the fabric of my dress, I felt a faint, rhythmic flutter deep within me—like a tiny hand brushing against my soul.

I froze.

Evander saw it. His eyes shifted instantly.

"Did you feel that?"

"It felt like a heartbeat."

"It wasn't yours."

I looked down at my abdomen, my breathing quickening. The fear that had been crushing my chest was suddenly shoved aside by something far more primal. It wasn't just joy; it was a mixture of terror, disbelief, and a sense of responsibility I had never known.

I wasn't alone anymore.

Even if the world called me Wolfless, even if Rhydian had never truly accepted me, even if this bond felt more like a chain than a blessing, my body was nurturing a life. A life that belonged to me, and to him.

"I want to tell him," I said.

Evander's face darkened.

"Tell who?"

"Rhydian."

"You didn't hear a word I just said."

"I heard you." I met his gaze. "I know they will see the child as a resource. I know they might lock me away. But he is the father. I can't take away his right to know."

"Will he protect you?"

The question silenced me.

Rhydian wouldn't protect me.

He had never protected me the way he protected my sister, Solenne. In the Blackthorn Pack, he would lock down the entire Northlands if Solenne suffered a scratch. He would execute a warrior on her word alone. But when the pack pushed me down the stairs, when they mocked me for being Wolfless, or when the Mate Mark burned so fiercely I couldn't stand, he only told me to endure it.

I knew all this, and yet I still clung to the news.

Perhaps people always hold on to the illusions they aren't ready to lose.

"Maybe if he knows he's going to be a father, he'll change," I whispered.

Evander looked at me without pity, his gaze painfully direct.

"Do you want the child to change him, or do you want the child to prove you were worth choosing?"

I bit my lip, unable to answer. He had cut straight to the bone.

I told myself I wanted Rhydian to step up as a father, but deep down, I was still desperate for a single word of validation. I wanted him to look at me—not as a Wolfless burden, not as the mistake occupying Solenne's rightful place, but as someone worth keeping.

Just once.

Evander pulled off his gloves and tucked the detection chip into a metal box.

"Don't use a child as a bargaining chip to keep a man."

"I'm not doing that."

"You already are." His tone was light, but it left no room for argument. "You are terrified that telling him will cost you the child, yet you are still betting your future on the hope that he has a shred of conscience left."

I climbed down from the table. My knees felt weak from sitting still for so long.

"Then what am I supposed to do? Hide? Raise the child alone until he hears about it from someone else?"

"If that's what it takes for both of you to survive? Yes."

"He'll hunt me down."

"Then you'd better learn how to run."

I looked up at him.

Evander walked to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of anti-nausea pills. Then, he placed a short blade on the table. The hilt was wrapped in dark leather, sized perfectly to be hidden in a sleeve or a boot.

"Your body isn't ready for a long journey yet, but you can't stay in Blackthorn territory either," he said. "You need a plan. You need an identity. And you need a way to protect yourself without a wolf."

I looked at the cold steel of the blade.

"I don't know how to use that."

"Then I will teach you."

"Why are you helping me?"

Evander didn't answer immediately. He pushed the medicine toward me, his gaze lingering on my stomach.

"Because you aren't powerless, Vesper. You've just been taught never to trust your own body."

His words pierced the fragile calm I was trying to maintain.

My entire life, I had been told I was broken. That my blood was incomplete. I couldn't shift, I couldn't fight, and I could never be a Luna. I was conditioned to accept my place at the bottom.

I reached for the medicine, then the knife.

"I'm still going to tell Rhydian."

Evander didn't try to stop me. He only offered a warning. "If he asks you to return, don't agree immediately. If he asks you to sign anything, don't touch the pen. And if Solenne is there, don't believe a single kind word she says."

I tucked the knife into my coat, feeling its icy weight against my skin.

"You know Solenne?"

"I know her reputation. I've treated the wounded she leaves behind in these borderlands."

"She's saved a lot of people."

"She's also sent many to their graves."

I didn't respond. No matter what others said, Solenne was my sister. She had taken the blame for my mistakes when we were young. She had held my hand when the pack laughed at me. She was proud and powerful, but I couldn't believe she would ever truly hurt me.

Suddenly, there were three sharp knocks on the clinic door. Even, disciplined, and heavy.

Evander's hand went to his own blade, moving to stand in front of me.

"Who is it?"

A low voice rumbled from the other side. "Guards of the Blackthorn Alpha."

My heart seized.

Rhydian had found me.

Evander glanced back at me, signaling for me to stay quiet, but the man outside continued. "Vesper Edge, the Alpha commands your immediate return to the territory for tonight's Mate Ritual."

I touched the mark on my collarbone. It was throbbing now, a rhythmic heat waking up beneath my skin.

I started toward the door, but Evander blocked my path.

"Don't go."

"I have to."

"You don't even know what kind of ritual this is."

The guard spoke again, his voice colder this time.

"Vesper. The Alpha will not offer a second invitation."

I looked at the closed door, trying to swallow the dread rising in my throat.

"If it's just a ritual, why did he send so many men?"

Evander looked out the small window, his face hardening. At the end of the street, three more Blackthorn guards were waiting. They weren't carrying ceremonial staves. They were in full combat armor, with heavy restraint chains hanging from their belts.

The guard at the door stopped pretending to be polite.

"Remember this, Vesper,"

he whispered through the wood.

"Tonight isn't a ceremony. It's a trial to re-evaluate your worth."

The Wolfless Queen: The Alpha's Unwanted Mate — Chapter 1: Ten Weeks Prior

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