Aria's POV
The moment my eyes landed on her, my heart shattered into a million pieces.
My knees buckled, but I grabbed the wall for support before I could collapse.
It was truly her.
Vivienne—the only woman Alpha Kael craved for.
When did he find her?
I knew he was desperately searching every nook and cranny for her, but I never realized he had already found her.
Was that why he had been at the pack house for the past two weeks?
Though three years had passed, nothing seemed to have changed about her. Her beauty that made men drool over her, her smile that could melt the most irate man—everything was still intact.
Kael's hands rested on her hips, grabbing them possessively as though he was trying to show the whole world she was his.
He smiled brightly, his eyes looking at her the way they had never stared at me before—not now, not ever.
Truly, Vivienne was the only one that could make the almighty Alpha show his soft side.
I watched him tickle her, and she burst into laughter.
'Stop it, Kael..." Her giggle echoed through the walls as her hand playfully hit his chest.
My stomach twisted in jealousy.
Why couldn't that be me? I could have been the one seated on his lap and the one he tickled.
It could have been me he looked at so lovingly—so obsessively. But it wasn't.
I knew I was just a replacement. I knew I stole the spot that wasn't meant to be mine, but that wasn't my fault entirely.
If he hadn't gotten drunk and forcefully had his way with me that night, whatever happened wouldn't have. So, why was I the only one taking the heat? Why couldn't he just forgive me and move on from the past?
I am a human too and I deserved to be loved!
"Baby," Kael called in a low voice, his hand moving away from her hip and sliding underneath her top.
"I want you," he whispered, biting his lower lip seductively.
"Hmm.." Vivienne moaned softly as his hand wandered lower.
"I'm all yours, my Alpha," she teased.
In no time, their lips locked, moving in perfect sync as if the world around them didn't exist. Before I knew it, their clothes were scattered across the floor.
My breath hitched, my vision blurred as tears welled up in my eyes.
I couldn't move—couldn't breathe. Though my heart bled, I couldn't look away.
The way he touched her like she was something precious, the way he ran his hands through her body, the way he moaned her name as though it was sacred... he had never done that with me.
A shaky breath escaped my lips, my grip on my bag tightened as I fought back the urge to burst into the room.
I couldn't keep watching—not when every second felt like a knife was being twisted deeper into my heart.
I turned around to leave. But just then, her voice came.
"Kael," Vivienne called.
"Yes, baby?" he replied.
"I have a question for you."
"Babe, can the question wait? Let's finish what we started. Please," he begged.
"Nope, it can't."
Kael groaned softly, his hand running through his hair. "Vivienne..."
"Answer me first," she insisted, her arms wrapped around her chest.
"Fine. What is it?"
"Well, I have been hearing some rumors since I returned. So, I just want to get a confirmation from you."
"And what's that?"
"It's about your 'supposed' Luna," she laid emphasis on the word 'supposed', her voice dripping of sarcasm.
His brows furrowed. "What about her?"
"I heard you both have been trying hard to conceive. Is that true?"
There was a brief silence.
Then his voice came.
"Yes, it's true. Just that she has been the one trying and not we," he responded, rolling his eyes in disgust.
A soft chuckle escaped Vivienne's lips.
"She has been trying?" she smirked. "And has there been any success?"
The way they subjected me to an object of ridicule made my skin crawl.
Kael let out a cruel laugh.
"Success you say? You and I know she can never conceive. Not in this world, not in the next!"
My breath caught.
What did I just hear? For a second, I thought I misheard. But then, Vivienne laughed—soft and mocking.
"Poor thing. She doesn't even know she can never bear a child again?"
"Yeah. She has no idea. After what happened to her womb three years ago, her doctor friend already concluded she can never conceive again," Kael said without hesitation.
The world spun around me. I felt the walls closing in on me. My grip on the wall tightened as dizziness washed over me.
No, that couldn't be true.
Lea never mentioned anything like that—not even once.
"How did you manage to keep her little doctor friend quiet?" Vivienne asked, running her hand through his chest.
"That was quite simple. I tossed some bundles of cash her way and threatened to exile her family from the city if she dared breathe a word."
Lea knew?
"That was quite easy," she shrugged. "But what if she mysteriously gets pregnant again?"
"That's not possible."
"Just what if. What are you going to do?" she stared at him keenly.
He shrugged.
"Well, the company that manufactures the drug we fed her back then hasn't gone into extinction. She will simply lose it like she lost the first..."
My mind went blank.
The rest of his words faded into thin air.
She will simply lose it like she lost the first—my mind replayed his words over and over.
Drug?
Didn't I lose my baby back then because of stress? That was what Lea told me.
The drug we fed her...
A shaky breath escaped my lips, but I quickly clamped my hand over my mouth.
No…
That couldn't be true.
That night—the pain I felt, the blood that gushed out of my body, it wasn't because my body was tired.
It was them.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, quiet sobs escaping my lips.
My legs trembled violently, this time, not from heartbreak. But from rage, despair, and anguish.
"You're cruel," Vivienne teased lightly, and Kael chuckled.
"Only when it comes to things I don't want," he muttered.
Things he didn't want?
My child... his blood... was something he didn't want?
At that moment, my body suddenly went rigid. It felt like a veil had been lifted from my eyes, and everything snapped back into focus.
My tears stopped and so did my trembling.
For three years, I blamed myself for the death of my child. They made me guilt-trip myself for a crime they committed.
And there they were, laughing over an incident that cost my child's life as if it were nothing.
How ironic it was. The man I once looked at like he was my whole world, was the very person who turned it into ashes.
My hand instinctively went to my belly, rubbing it protectively.
They might have killed my first child, but this one, I would protect with every ounce of breath in me.
I looked at them one last time, my hand curled into a fist.
That smile on their faces, I vowed to turn it into sadness. Every tear I shed, every pain they made me feel, I would make sure they experience it a thousandfold.
I was done being the obedient Luna who longed for his affection.
For the first time, I accepted the truth.
I was indeed his mistake.
A mistake... that would burn his empire to the ground and watch the almighty Alpha Kael crumble.