Seraphina’s Pov

I knew something had shifted the morning I could no longer stand the scent of spiced meat.

The nausea came in waves, then lingered like a scent trail. I tried to ignore it, thinking it was the castle’s damp chill, or the nerves coiled tight beneath my ribs but the second time I woke clutching my belly, sweat-soaked and dizzy, I knew.

I didn’t need a healer’s confirmation. My body told me the truth in the quiet way it always had.

“Already”, I was carrying a child. Lucien’s child.

It happened faster than expected.

This realization was not soft. It did not bloom like a flower or hum with joy. It landed like a stone in water, sinking fast, dragging everything with it.

“ I'm not ready yet”, I stood before the mirror that morning, pale and bare, fingers trembling as I touched my lower abdomen. The place that now held a human.

“ Maybe now, he would see”, hope clawed at my throat.

“ Maybe now he’d reach for me with warmth in his eyes, something other than cold necessity”, my mind traveled through everything we could be if we truly opened up to each other, maybe we could love.

I waited for him that night. Brushed my hair until it shone, even though his hands had never tangled in it.

“ He will this time”, my lips curled a little . My mind told me I was something more.

“ Make me pretty”, I told one of the maid.

Although surprised, she obeyed.

She handpicked a silk robe that smelled faintly of jasmine, she adorned me, gave me a perfume that screamed seduction like she could read my mind.

“ It's done”, she said with a smile and I nodded staring at myself in the mirror. She did a damn good job, I could feel myself shining than usual.

“ Tell the King I seek his presence”, I said and dismissed her.

I was all smiles, I waited, seconds turned minutes, minutes turned into hours, he didn't come.

“ Did you inform that I wished to see him”, I asked the maid who did my head and she nodded in confirmation and dashed away to do the laundry.

“ Why isn't he coming?”, I thought and went for him

“ Is the king in”, I asked the guard at his chamber.

“ The king is asleep, am afraid I cannot wake him”, he said.

“ That's okay, let him know I came when he awakes”, I said and left.

I waited all day but he didn't come, not the next night either. Or the one after.

“ What's is going on”, there was no one to asked. The castle whispered louder in his absence. Servants paused when I entered a room, maids exchanged glances when I passed by. I was no longer invisible I was curious.

The discarded Luna. The quiet wife. The woman the Alpha King had married but never touched again.

By the end of the week, the rumors turned bold.

“Do you think she cast a spell on him?”, I heard one ask in the corridor.

“She must have. Why else would he choose her?”

“She’s not even from a noble bloodline”, another hissed.

I couldn't understand what was amiss. I walked past them like I didn’t hear, spine straight, face blank but their words followed me into every room Into my bath, into my sleep, it chased me everywhere.

Then one afternoon, as I passed the great hall, I heard my name. Not the one I’d been given my title.

“The Luna’s with child”, I froze.

The voice belonged to one of the council advisors. Old, bitter. The kind of man who measured value by bloodlines and obedience.

“Once the heir is born,” he continued

“She’ll be discarded, she's all but a vessel, nothing more. The King will have no use for her then”.

The laughter that followed was sharp and piercing. My breathe hutched. My feet glued to the ground, I didn’t move until they were gone.

“ Discarded”, the word echoed in my head

“ I will be discarded”, I thought of my mother, how she used to warn me that love inside court walls was nothing but an illusion.

“Pretty things don’t last here,” she’d said once, her voice heavy with the weight of her own story.

“They get torn apart, rewritten and destroyed”.

I forgot her words, I should have known better, I was foolish to hope.

Lucien hadn’t looked at me differently. He hadn't touched me, hadn’t even learned, he hadn't ever said he loved me yet I was brazen to think that we could be something more.

I was still the same to him, a body, a transaction off a bargain,a living sacrifice.

That night, I sat in darkness, opened the wardrobe and stared at the gowns I never wore, the silks and velvets meant for a Queen I had never become. Then I pulled down the travel cloak. The dark one, my mother’s.

It still smelled of pine and ash. I folded it gently and placed it on the bed. Then I began to pack.

I didn’t take much. Just what I’d needed.

The moment the sun disappeared behind the trees, I slipped into the cloak and drew the hood low. My heartbeat thrummed like a warning drum in my chest, but my hands didn’t shake. Not this time, I will wait for a man to save me, I'd save myself.

I made it to the edge of the estate before I paused.

The wind was sharp, the moon was full. Behind me, the castle loomed in silence, its tall spires catching the silver light

I thought of Lucien then. Where he might be. What he might say if he noticed I was gone, would he care and then I thought of the child. The small, little human forming beneath my skin.

They would not grow up where whispers outnumbered warmth. Where survival was mistaken for affection.

“No”, my voice determined. I turned my back to the castle and I ran.