“So,” Mira said casually, swirling her wine, “how are you going to explain to the elders that your marriage to her was never real?”
My fingers tightened around my spoon.
Adrian leaned back, calm as ever. “I’m the Alpha. I don’t answer to anyone. And that arrangement with her? Just repayment. I allowed her to stay as Luna for years—that should be enough.”
My stomach dropped.
Fake?
My marriage… fake?
Suddenly everything made sense. The missing ceremony. The incomplete bond. The absence of elders.
I thought it was because I was deaf.
I thought it was care.
It was neither.
It was a lie I had been living in.
My grip tightened on the table just to stay upright.
I forced myself to finish dinner in silence, the food tasting like nothing at all. Every laugh between them felt distant—like it was coming from another world.
When it finally ended, I rushed back to my room.
But the moment I opened the door—
Empty.
My heart stopped.
“Ezra?!” I ran inside, checking everywhere. “Baby?! Where are you?!”
Nothing.
Panic swallowed me whole. I ran down the hall, grabbing the nearest maid.
“Where is my son?!”
She shook her head in fear.
Then I saw her.
Mira, standing at the end of the hallway like she had been waiting.