---
Vanished....
Damian stood by the window, staring at the empty driveway.
The bed was cold when he woke.
Her scent lingered on the pillow.
The note she left behind sat on the nightstand—polite, brief, distant. "Thank you for everything. I needed to remember what it felt like to be human. Please don't look for me."
But he was already looking.
By noon, he'd spoken to three different managers across his company's cleaning contracts. No one had seen her. She hadn't checked in. No calls. No trace.
By evening, he was pacing like a caged beast in his office, a thousand dark thoughts spiraling in his mind.
"She was supposed to be safe here," he growled.
Caleb, his beta and closest ally, stood by the doorway. "She's not like the others, Damian. She's human. She panicked."
"She didn't panic," Damian snapped. "She ran."
"Then maybe you scared her," Caleb said carefully. "Or maybe you made her feel too much."
Damian's fist slammed into the desk, cracking the wood.
The silence was deafening.
"She's not just a girl," he said finally. "She's… something else. I felt it."
He didn't understand what she had awakened in him, but it was primal. Unrelenting. Like an old part of him—buried for years—had clawed its way back to life.
---
Elsewhere — Luna
The new house was bigger. Brighter. Her room had windows and a lock on the door. For the first time in years, no one screamed at her. Her stepmother even faked politeness around Uncle Raymond.
She should've been relieved.
But her body still remembered his touch. Her lips still tingled from his kiss. And her heart…
Her heart was unraveling.
Each day, she kept expecting to see his black car outside.
But it never came.
And she told herself it was for the best. That it was only one night.
Except… something was off.
She felt nauseous.
Her chest was tight. Her skin hypersensitive.
Something inside her was changing.
And deep down, she already knew why.
---
---
(Continued): The Seed of Truth
Luna sat on the cold tiled floor of the bathroom, her trembling fingers clutching the plastic stick.
Two pink lines.
Her vision blurred.
She blinked rapidly, but the lines didn't disappear. The silence of the house rang in her ears, heavier than ever before.
Pregnant.
The word shattered everything.
She wasn't just scared—she was terrified. Not because she didn't know who the father was. She knew. Without a doubt. It was Damian.
But how could she tell anyone that?
He was a billionaire. A secretive, powerful man who disappeared behind glass towers and bodyguards. And she? She was the girl who cleaned his floors. The girl who once had to pick scraps just to eat.
A knock slammed against the bathroom door.
"Luna! You've been in there too long!" Miranda's voice barked.
Luna quickly shoved the test into her hoodie pocket and flushed the toilet, pretending everything was fine. But as soon as she opened the door, her pale face and glassy eyes gave her away.
"What's wrong with you?" her stepmother snapped.
"Nothing," Luna whispered, trying to brush past.
But Miranda grabbed her arm. "You're hiding something."
Luna didn't respond.
Then, Miranda's gaze dropped to the barely concealed test in her pocket.
Her eyes widened. "You're pregnant?"
Luna's breath caught.
She didn't deny it.
Miranda reeled back like she'd been slapped, fury flooding her face. "You little slut! You go missing for a few nights and come back with a bastard in your belly?! Who is it? Huh? Some street punk? A janitor?"
Luna said nothing. Her silence was louder than any answer.
Miranda's voice rose to a shriek. "Do you realize what you've done? How this ruins everything?! What do I tell Raymond, huh? That my husband's daughter got herself knocked up like some gutter girl?"
Luna's hands curled into fists. "You don't have to tell him anything."
Miranda slapped her.
The sting tore through her skin and soul, but Luna didn't cry.
Not this time.
Instead, she raised her head, her voice calm and cold. "Hit me again, and I'll tell Uncle Raymond everything you've done to me over the years. Every bruise. Every day I went hungry. Try me."
Miranda's face twisted in shock.
Luna stepped back, heart racing, hand cradling her belly instinctively.
She wasn't just surviving anymore.
She was protecting someone.
--
---
Elsewhere — Deep in the Forest
The moon hung low, casting silver light across the ancient stones of the hidden shrine. Damian stood before the Seer, cloaked in shadow. Her eyes were milky white, her skin cracked like old bark, and yet her voice was sharp as glass.
"You sense it, don't you?" she rasped.
Damian's jaw clenched. "I don't have time for riddles."
The Seer stepped forward, her long fingers brushing over his chest—right above his heart. He stiffened, growling, but she didn't flinch.
"It's begun. The bloodline has been awakened. You have sown a seed that was never meant to grow."
His heart stuttered.
"What did you say?"
She tilted her head. "You, born of darkness. She, born of pain. From your union comes the Alpha who will break the chains of fate."
Damian's eyes burned gold for a split second. "That's impossible."
"The child," she hissed. "Will be unlike any wolf born before. Not bound by blood or moon. A ruler of two worlds. And your enemies will hunt it… even in the womb."
Silence dropped like a stone between them.
Damian took a step back, every breath suddenly heavy.
He didn't need to ask who the Seer meant.
Luna.
She was pregnant.
With his child.
And she had no idea what that meant.
---
Back in Crestwood — Luna
Luna stood by the window, arms wrapped tightly around herself. The street was quiet, but her world was anything but.
The moment she'd stood up to Miranda, everything shifted. She no longer felt like a frightened girl. She felt like something was growing inside her—something strong, wild, ancient.
She didn't know what it meant.
But somewhere deep in her gut, she knew this child wasn't ordinary.
And neither was she anymore.
---