Chapter 90

DEREK

I was twelve the first time I thought I might die.

The rogues had come out of nowhere—snarling, vicious, too fast to outrun. I didn’t know then that most of them were older wolves who’d lost their pack bonds. All I knew was that I couldn’t shift, and that my cousins had dared me into the woods alone, knowing it would take me longer to get back than them.

I remember the cold bite of teeth, the sting of claws slicing their way into my scalp, the taste of blood in my mouth as I hit the ground.

And then I remember her.

Cassandra.

She wasn’t much older than me—fourteen, maybe fifteen—but after she’d saved me, when I was bleeding and terrified, after I’d vowed that my father would help her pack and that I’d always protect her, somehow, she got me up.

Got me moving. Helped me hobble through the forest, one arm slung around her shoulders as she dragged me toward the clearing where I said my cousins would be.

She was quiet at first, focused. Her hand trembled a little, but her jaw was set like stone.

“Thanks,” I mumbled after a while, embarrassed at how slow I was moving, at the limp in my leg and the tears I couldn’t quite hide. “You didn’t have to help me.”

“Of course I did,” she said, like it was obvious.

I stared at the ground as we walked. “My cousins are gonna laugh when they see me. They think I’m a joke ’cause they can shift already. Said I’d never catch up.”

Cassandra stopped walking and looked at me. “That’s not funny.”

I shrugged, trying to pretend it didn’t sting as much as it did.

She reached out and adjusted the collar of my torn shirt, smoothing it down like I was something fragile. “Your cousins may make fun of you now,” she said, “but you’ll be able to shift someday soon. And they’ll be sorry.”

I blinked at her. She wasn’t just saying it. She meant it.

That was the first time I really saw her—not just the girl who was the daughter to the Alpha of a small, middling pack, or the girl who always stood a little apart—but someone who understood something about being left behind.

She glanced away. “Your parents might say you shouldn’t have gone off alone. That you were reckless. But don’t let them make you feel small for surviving.”

The words stuck.

Maybe because I’d never heard anything like that from anyone in my family. Maybe because I could tell—deep down—she knew a little something about surviving, too.

When she helped me into the clearing and my cousins came running with wide eyes and excuses, I remember glancing back at her.

And I remember thinking: She saw me.

I stood at the edge of the Silverclaw estate’s hallway now, the memory echoing so clearly in my mind I could still feel the sting in my shoulder. It had taken years for the scar to fade—but not that moment.

It had shaped so much of how I saw Cassandra back then.

Kind. Loyal. Fierce in her own way.

And even now, after everything, I could still feel the ghost of that boy. Still wanted to believe she was capable of that same kind of care.

I wasn’t in love with her. But I couldn’t pretend she hadn’t mattered to me once.

Maybe it was time to try. To stop holding her at arm’s length. To be better than I had been before.

If she was really pregnant with my child, I needed to be there. No matter what happened with Elena.

Even if it hurt.

I found her in one of the sitting rooms, perched near the window with a book open in her lap that she clearly wasn’t reading.

She looked up when I entered, surprised but not unpleasantly so. “Hey.”

I nodded. “Can we talk?”

She closed the book. “Of course.”

I walked closer, rubbed the back of my neck, then sat in the chair across from her. “I’ve been… distant. I know that. And I know it’s not fair. Especially with everything going on.”

She didn’t interrupt. Just watched me, patient, eyes wide.

“I want to do better. Be present,” I said. “For you. For the baby.”

Her breath caught slightly, but she masked it with a smile.

“I’d like to come to your next sonogram appointment,” I added. “If that’s okay.”

For the first time since I’d started speaking, her expression shifted. Just slightly.

A flicker of something.

“Oh,” she said. “You—you want to come?”

“I think I should,” I replied, trying to sound certain. “It’s my child too.”

She nodded quickly. “Yes. Absolutely. That would be… that would be great.”

But her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

And for the first time in a long time, I couldn’t quite tell what she was thinking.

CASSANDRA

Oh. Shit.

I smiled. I nodded. I even managed to thank him without my voice cracking.

But the second Derek left the room, I dropped the act and buried my face in my hands.

He wanted to come to the sonogram.

Which would’ve been fine—if there was one.

Except there wasn’t.

Because I wasn’t pregnant.

Because the whole thing was a lie.

At first, I thought it would only need to last a few days. Maybe a week. Just long enough to push Derek into proposing, into choosing the safe, predictable life with the woman who’d always been there for him. The one who saved him. Who stood by him when everyone else walked away.

I had the perfect timing. Right after Elena kicked him out. When he looked lost. Torn. When he needed something—someone—solid.

But then he didn’t propose.

He didn’t even seem to consider it.

And now?

Now he wanted to come to a fake appointment.

Which meant I had about 48 hours to either get pregnant for real—not happening—or come up with the most convincing excuse of my life.

I paced the room, running through every option in my head.

Could I say I had to reschedule? No, that only bought time.

Say I lost the baby? That had been the plan initially, but only after I’d secured my future and had a ring on my finger.

A cold shiver went through me. Saying I lost the baby now was dangerous. It could backfire—it could make him pull away completely.

No. I needed him to believe. To feel responsible. Attached.

Maybe I could fake it. Find a private clinic, bribe a nurse, fudge the paperwork. It wouldn’t be the first time someone like me used power and charm to bend the world into the shape she needed.

But it had to be believable.

It had to look real.

And the clock was ticking.

Worse, I’d seen the shift in him. The guilt was there, yes—but there was something else. A softening.

A choice forming.

And I didn’t know whether it was about me… or if he’d just decided Elena was a lost cause.

Either way, I had to move fast.

I pulled out my phone and opened the encrypted contact list my father gave me years ago.

There was one name that might help. One favor I could call in from someone who owed me.

And if I played this right, by the time Derek showed up for that sonogram?

There’d be a monitor. A room. A fake technician with just enough medical knowledge to bluff her way through it.

And there’d be a heartbeat.

Or something close enough to one.