Beneath the Waning Moon

Seraphine, heavily pregnant, is caught in a rockslide in the high passes and sends ninety-nine summons through the mate-bond to her Alpha, Leon. The hundredth time, he answers only to dismiss her cries as whining while another she-wolf, Lysandra, murmurs at his side.

She wakes in a healing den to hear Leon confess he triggered the rockslide to harvest their pup's marrow for Lysandra's blood-sickness, and that he means to keep her dreaming until Lysandra births his heir. When Lysandra taunts her with a viewing-crystal showing the pup had drawn breath before it was taken, Seraphine lunges, and Leon casts her aside, blaming her violence for the death.

Marked, betrayed, and stripped of her place, Seraphine calls for a severance scroll and vows to make him regret every breath he stole from their pup's lungs.