Chapter 5: The Heir He Never Knew

Caden POV

When the Moon Council barrier severed the mate-link, Caden's fingers crushed the pregnancy report into a ridge of creases.

He called Evelyn three times, but the sealed wall returned every summons. The Council envoy gathered the dissolution papers and told him that Evelyn had completed her mate-contract dissolution, pack withdrawal, and bloodline severance before crossing the northern border. An emergency protection order now barred Blackridge from tracking her or the unborn pup until the Council completed its review.

Caden stared at him as though he had spoken another language.

"You're saying Evelyn is pregnant?"

"Twelve weeks," the envoy replied. "The medical report was verified before she left."

Twelve weeks.

Caden's mind went completely blank.

He remembered the night Evelyn had returned from Westvale. She had stood outside Moon Hall, asking him why he wasn't with her. He had accused her of being insecure and suffocating.

She had been carrying their pup.

His gaze dropped to the crumpled report in his hand.

For months, he had imagined what it would be like to have a child with Evelyn. He had simply never imagined that the news would arrive after she had already decided to leave him.

"Where did she go?"

The envoy's expression did not change.

"The declaration does not disclose her route. Frost River Pack has accepted her transfer as chief investigator."

Caden's head snapped up.

"Frost River?"

He remembered the name.

Three years ago, Evelyn had received an offer from Frost River Pack. She had told him about it with excitement, explaining that their security division needed an investigator with her experience.

He had kissed her forehead and told her she didn't need to chase a career so far from home.

She had stayed.

For him.

Now she had gone there without even saying goodbye.

"She wouldn't do this," Caden whispered.

The envoy looked at him calmly.

"She already has."

The words struck harder than any accusation.

Behind him, Lydia began coughing.

Caden turned automatically.

She was sitting beside the altar, pale and trembling. My ring was still on her finger, and the Luna mantle still covered her shoulders.

"Caden," she whispered, "what happened?"

He looked at her.

For the first time that night, he noticed how perfectly she had settled into the place that had once belonged to Evelyn.

His chest tightened.

"You knew," he said.

Lydia's face changed.

"Knew what?"

"That Evelyn was pregnant."

The hall fell silent.

My mother immediately stepped forward.

"Lydia couldn't have known that."

Caden ignored her.

He walked toward Lydia and held up the report.

"Did you know?"

Lydia's eyes filled with tears.

"I only knew that Evelyn was acting strangely. She never told me about a pregnancy."

Her answer should have comforted him.

Instead, something felt wrong.

The healer who had diagnosed Lydia with terminal wolfsbane poisoning had also been the one treating her for months. And now, according to the Council, that diagnosis had been falsified.

Caden looked toward the Moon Council envoy.

"You said her healer confessed to taking payment for a false diagnosis."

"Yes."

"Who paid her?"

The envoy glanced toward Lydia.

Everyone followed his gaze.

Lydia's face went white.

"That's impossible," my mother said quickly. "Lydia is dying. Why would anyone fabricate her illness?"

"That is precisely what the Council is investigating," the envoy replied.

Caden's hands began to shake.

Three months to live.

A final wish to become Luna.

A ceremony he had believed was an act of kindness.

And Evelyn leaving with his child.

Suddenly, every piece of the night felt connected.

"Lydia," he said quietly, "where did you get the medical report that showed you had three months left?"

She looked at him without answering.

"Answer me."

Her lips trembled.

"The healer gave it to me."

"And who recommended that healer?"

Silence.

Noah stepped forward.

"Enough. Lydia is sick. This interrogation is cruel."

Caden turned on him.

"And Evelyn?"

Noah froze.

"She was injured in front of us," Caden continued. "She was trapped under the rubble, and we left her there. She was pregnant, and none of us knew because none of us cared enough to ask."

Noah's face drained of color.

Caden remembered the moment the wall collapsed.

He remembered releasing Evelyn's wrist.

He remembered seeing the stone trap her leg.

And he remembered choosing Lydia.

He had told himself that Lydia was dying.

He had told himself Evelyn was strong enough to survive.

Now he wondered whether that excuse would ever stop haunting him.

His father-in-law's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Caden, the ceremony can still be repaired. Evelyn is angry. Once she realizes what she's done, she'll return."

Caden slowly turned toward him.

"She crossed the northern border."

"Then send someone after her."

"The Council protection order prevents us from tracking her."

No one answered.

For the first time, Caden understood that Evelyn had not threatened to leave.

She had planned it.

She had completed every document.

She had secured another position.

She had protected her child from him.

And she had done all of it while he was standing beside another woman wearing her Luna mantle.

Caden looked at Lydia's hand.

The ring he had personally chosen suddenly felt unbearably heavy.

"Take it off," he said.

Lydia stared at him.

"What?"

"The ring."

Her eyes filled with tears.

"Caden, I thought you promised me tonight would be mine."

"It was never yours."

The words came out colder than he expected.

Lydia covered the ring with her other hand.

"But you said—"

"I was wrong."

He turned toward the Moon Council envoy.

"What happens to the Luna registry?"

"The Council will investigate the legitimacy of the ceremony. Until then, the entry remains suspended."

Caden closed his eyes.

Evelyn's name had been erased from that registry by his own command.

He had watched Noah replace it with Lydia's name.

He had watched his mother place Evelyn's mantle on another woman.

And he had stood there believing Evelyn would forgive him because she always had before.

But there would be no forgiveness this time.

Across the northern border, Evelyn was already gone.

And inside her womb was the child he had never known he was about to lose.

Caden looked at the closed doors of Moon Hall.

For the first time in his life, he was terrified of a future he could no longer control.