Isla's POV
"Dante knew."
I can't stop saying it. The words keep spilling out like poison. "He knew Serena killed our baby and he did nothing."
Moira's hand is steady on my shoulder. "I know, child. I know."
"I almost died from that miscarriage." My voice breaks. "I bled for days. The pack doctor said it was just bad luck. And all that time, Dante watched me suffer, knowing his mistress murdered our child."
"He'll pay for it," Moira promises. "They both will. But first, you need to understand something important." She stands, pulls me to my feet. "Come with me. There's something you need to see."
I don't want to see anything. I want to scream. Want to shift and run until my paws bleed. Want to go back in time and never meet Dante Blackthorn.
But Lyra is sleeping upstairs, safe and warm. And I'm pregnant with another baby who needs me strong. So I follow.
Moira leads me through the mansion to a massive office. She unlocks a drawer and pulls out folders. Dozens of them.
"Your mother was Catherine Morven," she begins. "Heir to everything you see around you. But she fell in love with a human—your father, James. My husband wanted to disown her. I refused." Her voice softens. "I told her to follow her heart. That love was worth any sacrifice."
"And it killed them," I whisper.
"No. Duty killed them." Moira opens the first folder. "Your parents weren't just running away when they crashed. They were protecting something. Information about shifter genetics that would have exposed our entire world to human scientists. They died making sure those secrets stayed buried."
She shows me newspaper clippings. Photos of the crash. Police reports that don't quite add up.
"The drunk driver was actually a hired assassin from the Volkov Pack. They wanted the information your parents protected." Moira's eyes flash with old rage. "I destroyed the Volkov Pack for that. Every. Single. Member."
A chill runs through me. This elegant woman committed genocide and feels no guilt about it.
"After your parents died, I searched everywhere for you," Moira continues. "But you'd been placed in foster care under a false name. By the time I found you, you were already eighteen. Already choosing to marry Dante." She sighs. "I could have revealed myself then. Stopped the wedding. Brought you home."
"Why didn't you?" Anger surges through me. "I suffered for seven years! I had children with a man who never loved me! You could have saved me!"
"You wouldn't have believed me." Moira's voice is firm. "You were so in love with him. So sure the mate bond meant something sacred. If I'd tried to take you away, you would have run back to him." She touches my face gently. "You had to learn the hard way that not all mate bonds are blessings. Some are curses we must break ourselves."
I want to argue. But she's right. Seven years ago, I would have chosen Dante over anything. Even a grandmother I never knew. Even wealth and power beyond imagining.
"So I waited," Moira says. "And watched. And the moment you finally chose yourself over him? I was there." She smiles. "You passed the test, Isla. You proved you were strong enough to walk away from a mate bond. Strong enough to protect your child. Strong enough to be a Morven."
She opens more folders. My hands shake as I flip through them.
Bank statements showing millions of dollars. Property deeds to estates across the country. Business contracts with every major shifter pack in North America.
"This is all yours," Moira says quietly. "Your inheritance. Your birthright. Morven Industries. The pack territories. The political connections. Everything your mother would have had."
I stare at numbers I can't even comprehend. "This... this is impossible."
"This is power." Moira corrects. "Real power. Not the fake dominance Dante pretends at. You're from the first family, Isla. The original bloodline. Every Alpha in this country will bow to you if you claim it."
My mind spins. A week ago I was a rejected mate with nothing but a daughter and heartbreak. Now I'm an heiress to an empire.
"I don't know how to be this," I whisper. "How to be powerful. Rich. Important."
"You already are." Moira squeezes my hand. "You survived seven years with a man who treated you like garbage. You raised two children mostly alone. You threw yourself in front of a silver blade to save someone who didn't deserve it." Her voice fills with pride. "That's not weakness, child. That's strength beyond anything Dante could comprehend."
Tears blur my vision. "He made me Luna. Serena. He actually made that murderer Luna of his pack."
"I know. My spies informed me an hour ago." Moira's smile turns cold. "Let him. Let him keep his poisonous Luna and his dying pack. You have something better now."
"What?"
"Choice." She gestures to the folders. "You can take this power and build your own empire. Raise your children as Morven heirs. Never depend on a man again." She pauses. "Or you can reject it all. Walk away like your mother did. I won't stop you."
I look at the documents. At the life being offered to me. At the chance to be more than Dante's discarded mate.
"What about the baby?" I touch my stomach. "Dante's child. They'll have Blackthorn blood and Morven blood."
"They'll have YOUR blood," Moira corrects firmly. "And that's all that matters. You'll raise them to be strong. Proud. Loved unconditionally." She tilts my chin up. "Everything you never got from their father."
Something inside me shifts. Hardens. "I want it. All of it. The money, the power, the empire. I want everything."
"Good." Moira's smile is fierce. "Then tomorrow we begin your training. By the full moon, you'll be ready to perform the bond severing ritual." She hands me one more folder. "And this is the guest list for the Morven Legacy Gala happening in three months. Every major Alpha will attend. Including Dante."
I flip it open. My breath catches.
"You're hosting a gala?"
"You're hosting a gala," Moira corrects. "As the revealed Morven heir. As my official granddaughter and successor. You'll stand before every pack that ever pitied you as Dante's pathetic mate, and you'll show them who you really are."
The idea terrifies and excites me. Facing Dante as his equal—no, his superior. Showing him exactly what he threw away.
"What if I'm not ready?" My voice wavers.
"You'll be ready. I promise." Moira starts to close the folders, then stops. "Oh. There's one more thing you should know."
"What?"
"Your mother left you a letter. To be given when you claimed your heritage." She pulls out an envelope, yellowed with age. "I haven't read it. But she asked me to tell you one thing first."
"What did she say?"
Moira's eyes shine with unshed tears. "She said, 'Tell my daughter that loving the wrong person doesn't make her foolish. It makes her brave. And now that she knows better, she can do better.'"
The words break something inside me. I take the letter with shaking hands.
Before I can open it, alarms blare through the mansion.
Moira's face goes hard. "He's here. Dante's at the gates with twenty warriors. He came for you after all."
My heart pounds. "What do we do?"
"We give him what he deserves." Moira's smile is terrible. "Your first lesson as a Morven heir: how to break an Alpha who thought he could own you."
She heads for the door. I follow, clutching my mother's letter.
Through the window, I see them. Dante standing at the gates, looking like death itself. His warriors spread out behind him. He's really here. Really came.
But he's too late.
"Isla!" His voice carries over the alarm. "Please! I need to talk to you! I need to explain!"
Moira looks at me. "Do you want to see him?"
I think about seven years of coldness. About Kieran calling Serena Mommy. About my murdered baby. About him making that witch his Luna four days after I left.
"Yes," I say quietly. "Let him in."
Moira's eyebrow rises. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." Steel enters my voice. "Because I want him to see what he lost. I want him to understand exactly what kind of mistake he made." I touch my stomach. "And I want him to know about this baby before I sever the bond forever."
Moira's smile is proud. "That's my granddaughter."
She opens the gates. Dante stumbles through, falling to his knees the moment he crosses the threshold. The Morven power in the ground itself rejects him.
"Isla," he gasps, looking up at me standing on the mansion steps. "Please. We need to talk. About Serena. About the magic. About everything."
I walk down the steps slowly. Every eye is on me. His warriors. Moira's pack. The moon overhead.
I stop five feet away from him. Close enough to see his gray eyes full of desperate hope. Close enough to smell his familiar scent and feel nothing.
"You're right," I say calmly. "We do need to talk. About a lot of things." I place my hand on my stomach. "Starting with the fact that I'm pregnant. Six weeks. It's yours."
Dante's face transforms. Hope. Joy. Love. All the emotions he never showed me before.
"That's... that's amazing. Isla, I—"
"And tomorrow at midnight, I'm severing our mate bond permanently," I continue. "You'll have no connection to me or this child ever again."
The hope dies in his eyes. "No. No, please—"
"But before I do that, there's something you need to know." I lean close, whisper in his ear. "Your new Luna? Serena? She's pregnant too. And she's telling everyone it's yours."
I pull back to see his face go white.
"That's impossible. I never—we never—"
"I know," I say softly. "Which means she's lying. Or it's someone else's baby. Either way..." I smile without warmth. "You chose a really interesting replacement for me."
Dante stands there, broken, realizing he's been trapped perfectly.
And I turn my back on him, walking toward my new life without looking back once.