Chapter 1Eight months pregnant,I went to Roland's office to deliver pack territory documents.
The office was a sweltering 115°F. The AC unit for this wing was broken, and the summer heat was brutal. I was already lightheaded, my swollen ankles aching with every step.
I reached for the backup cooling switch. His beta, Kallie, stepped in front of me.
"Oh, Lyra, I'm on my period right now and I get really cold easily. Could you maybe not turn that on?"
I stared at her.
Pregnant she-wolves overheat dangerously fast. Everyone in the pack knew that. Our core temperatures run higher than humans, and in the third trimester, heatstroke can kill both mother and pup in under an hour.
I flipped the switch anyway.
That evening, Roland stormed through the door.
"Thirty-eight minutes and nineteen seconds of cold air," he snarled. "Kallie's been in the ICU for hours because of you."
"Are you serious right now, Roland?" I struggled to my feet, one hand pressed against my lower back. "You think I don't know how periods work? If I'd gotten heatstroke, that would've been two deaths, not one."
Roland gave me a tight smile.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "You're right. My bad."
He held me until I fell asleep that night. His arm around my belly, his breath warm against my neck, just like always.
When I woke up, I was inside a glass freezer unit.
A crowd of pack warriors and their friends stood outside, laughing and pointing at me through the glass. Like I was entertainment. Like I wasn't carrying the future Alpha heir.
Roland stood center, his arm wrapped around Kallie's tiny waist. She was shivering theatrically in one of his oversized pack hoodies, her eyes wide and innocent.
Both of them were grinning.
"Afraid of heatstroke?" Roland called out. "Don't worry, sweetheart. We're gonna make sure you stay nice and cool."
My stomach dropped.
But I kept my face calm. I pulled out my phone - still tucked in my dress pocket - and snapped photos of every single face watching me.
Then I dialed.
"Father? I want to destroy them all."
...
The line went dead. Everyone outside just stared for a second, then burst out laughing.
"Lyra, your father got torn apart by rogues six months ago! Did the cold freeze what's left of your brain?"
"Yeah, right! Still playing Lycan Princess? Girl, even your dreams aren't that delusional!"
Roland's eyes lit up with satisfaction as his pack members mocked me.
He gently wrapped his jacket around Kallie's shoulders, pulled her close, and strolled over to the glass containment unit they'd shoved me into.
He tapped on the glass right in front of my face.
"Getting chilly in there, Lyra? Ready to apologize?"
The digital display showed they'd cranked this thing down to -58°F.
I was shaking violently in my thin nightgown, my skin going blue and numb wherever it pressed against the frozen floor. Every breath felt like claws raking through my lungs.
My wolf was too weak from the pregnancy to surface and warm me.
I stumbled over to where they stood and pounded on the glass.
"What did I even do wrong?! I turned on the cooling for thirty minutes when it was scorching! Pregnant she-wolves overheat - if I'd passed out, my pup and I could've died!"
The rage sent a sharp cramp through my belly. I doubled over, clutching my swollen stomach, and looked up at him through tears.
"Let me out, Roland! You know what we went through for this pup - I can't lose him!"
Something flickered in his expression. He knew exactly what this pregnancy had cost me.
An old hunting injury had left Roland nearly sterile.
I'd spent eight years consulting healers, drinking foul tonics, undergoing brutal procedures, just to conceive a single pup.
This baby was everything. Eight months of walking on eggshells.
He'd once shattered a servant's arm because the bathwater was lukewarm. Now he was freezing his own mate to death over Kallie's cramps.
I opened my mouth to say more, but Kallie suddenly threw off the fur coat, tears streaming down her delicate face.
"Roland, just let her out. She's not tough like me - she can't endure this. I'm used to hardship, you know? Growing up an omega, I'd shiver through cold nights and never once complain..."
Endure? I'd had the cooling on for thirty damn minutes!
When I'd left his office earlier, she was texting pack members about bar-hopping.
I opened my mouth to expose her lies, but Roland's face went dark.
"Someone get in there and strip her! She thinks she's so fragile? Let her find out what real suffering is!"
He snatched up the coat and wrapped it around Kallie as if she were spun glass, then fixed his glare on me, pure hatred burning in his eyes.
"You stay in there until you admit you were wrong! The pack healer said the pup is perfectly healthy - don't you dare use him as an excuse!"
Then he scooped Kallie into his arms, his voice dropping to something soft and tender.
"Baby, you can't get cold during your cycle. Just stay right here in my arms."
Chapter 2
Roland had barely settled back onto the couch with Kallie curled against his chest when a few of his pack warriors started walking toward me.
These nasty grins spread across their faces.
I grabbed my torn nightgown and pressed myself back into the corner. But what was I gonna do against five wolf-shifters?
Riiiiip...
The flimsy fabric split right down the middle. Freezing air hit every inch of my skin at once.
They yanked off what was left of my clothes, laughing the whole time. When they walked out, they were grinning at Roland like idiots.
"Damn, Alpha. You've been eating good. Your Luna's got a killer body."
"Thanks for letting us help out."
I curled up in just my bra and panties. My bare skin stuck to the frozen floor. Every time I tried to shift position, it tore off chunks of flesh.
The pain was blinding.
Blood streamed from the torn skin. Bright red against the white freezer floor. Even my wolf stirred weakly inside me, whimpering.
Roland definitely saw it. He set Kallie aside and walked over. He stared at the blood dripping toward his boots.
His jaw tightened. For a second, just a second, he looked like he might stop this.
Then Kallie came running up behind him.
She pressed her hand against the glass right where my blood was smeared. Her voice came out all shaky and sweet.
"Lyra, just apologize. All his pack brothers are watching. He can't be embarrassed in front of them now."
I glared at her through the frost-covered glass.
"Apologize for what? You looked pretty damn happy when I turned that AC on. You were texting your friends about - "
Roland shot Kallie a sharp look. Something flickered across his face. Doubt.
But before I could finish, Kallie smacked herself hard across the face.
She dropped to her knees right there on the cold floor.
"Roland!" She grabbed his hand, her whole body shaking. "I can't stand seeing her like this. If she won't apologize, I'll just kneel out here until she does."
The second her knees hit the ground, every trace of doubt vanished from his face.
He yanked her up fast. Then he turned to me like I was something stuck to his shoe.
"Lyra, you're so fucking spoiled. Kallie's been putting up with your attitude for years. You're wrong, everyone knows you're wrong, and she's still willing to suffer just to save me from embarrassment." His voice dropped, cold. "You don't deserve her."
He straightened up.
"Time to teach you some real pack discipline. You're not coming out until you apologize."
He waved at his warriors.
"Get ice blocks. Surround her. Pour water over everything. Let her freeze into it."
One of the she-wolves tugged on his sleeve.
"Roland, ice and water together... that's like cement. It'll bond to her skin. If she tries to move, it'll rip the flesh clean off. She's about to give birth. The pack healer said - "
Roland's hand stopped mid-wave.
He was thinking. Actually thinking.
Then Kallie made this soft little sound behind him.
"Roland... the ICU really wasn't that bad."
Something inside him snapped shut.
His face went stone cold. He dropped his hand.
"Do exactly what I told you." His Alpha command cracked through the room. "Now."
Chapter 3
Kallie looked like she wanted to say more. Roland just waved her off.
"This is nothing compared to what Kallie went through. I've got a pack medic waiting outside. What could possibly happen?"
After that, Kallie shut up real quick.
With their Alpha's command, those same bastards came back into the freezer. Ice blocks in their arms.
One grabbed me by the hair. They packed the ice all around me. Then someone dumped a full bucket of freezing water over my head.
The next second, my skin bonded to the ice. Like superglue. Like my flesh had become part of the frozen floor.
The cold shot straight through my pores. Into my bones. Into my wolf. She was barely stirring now, curling deeper inside me, trying to survive.
I'd been locked in this freezer for at least five hours. My arms and legs were already turning black and purple. The frostbite was setting in deep.
I tried to shift my body. To angle my belly away from the ice. Every tiny movement ripped off pieces of skin.
The pup's kicks were getting weaker.
I didn't care about the pain anymore. I kept moving. Kept shifting. Trying to keep my belly warm. Trying to keep him alive.
The clear ice turned red beneath me. By the time I found a halfway better position, everything around me was smeared bright crimson.
Even the jerks outside went dead silent.
I screamed at Roland through the blood-streaked glass.
"Roland! If anything happens to this pup, you killed your own son! I will curse your bloodline every single day until your last breath!"
Roland didn't look so confident anymore. He stepped closer to the glass, squinting. Trying to see through the red streaks.
In the dead silence, someone suddenly shouted.
"Roland! My father says there's a plane on the Lambert bloodline's private airstrip!"
Roland's face went white. Sheet white. He punched the glass so hard it vibrated.
"What the fuck are you trying to pull, Lyra?! You think you can keep using your dead bloodline to threaten me?!"
Before I could answer, Kallie rushed over. She started rubbing his back in slow circles.
She looked at me with these big, wounded eyes. So hurt. So accusatory.
"Why are you doing this to him? You know how much shit he took when your father was alive. Now that he's dead and your bloodline is broken, what's the point of this act?"
She took Roland's hand. Her voice went soft.
"Just let her out, baby. What if something really happens to the pup? Then we'd be the monsters. She's never seen us as anything but trash anyway."
That made Roland even more furious. He swore under his breath. Then he yelled at the warrior by the temperature controls.
"Crank it down to -148! Do it now!"
His guys saw the rage burning in his eyes. Nobody dared argue. The display flickered. -148°F.
Bone-crushing cold blasted from the vents above me. I was shaking so violently I couldn't form words anymore. My jaw locked. My wolf went completely silent.
Then, through the fog in my head, I felt it.
A sharp, stabbing pain. Deep in my belly.
I forced myself to look down.
Bright red blood was pouring out of me. Steaming. Hissing where it hit the frozen floor. The hot blood melted the ice around my thighs, carving red rivers through the frost.
That's when I understood what was happening.
I clutched my belly and screamed.
"Roland! Let me out! Right now! The pup - please - save our pup!"
Roland had been staring at me with nothing but rage. But when he saw the blood pooling past his boots, his face completely collapsed.
He grabbed the warrior next to him.
"Get the goddamn key! The pack healer said this would be fine! How the hell is this happening?!"
