Chapter 4

- Raven -

The phone call came during breakfast.

"Alpha," James's voice was strange. Tight. "You need to hear this."

"What is it?" I pushed my plate away, suddenly not hungry.

"There was an accident on Route 89. Elena's car was found at the bottom of Skeleton Cliff."

The coffee mug slipped from my hand, shattering on the floor.

"What?"

"She's dead, Alpha. The car exploded on impact. The forensics team found... they found evidence she was pregnant. About eight weeks."

The world tilted. I gripped the table so hard the wood cracked.

Eight weeks.

Eight weeks ago, I'd come home bloodied from a challenge. Elena had been there, like always. Waiting in the dark house I'd trapped her in. She'd cleaned my wounds with those gentle hands. Made me tea. Held me when the pain got too bad.

And I'd...

God, I'd taken her that night. Rough and desperate, using her body to forget my pain. She'd whispered she loved me, and I'd pretended not to hear.

"Alpha? Are you there?"

"How?" My voice came out broken. "How did she crash?"

"Looks like she lost control on the mountain turn. She was driving fast, probably upset. The divorce papers were finalized yesterday, and she left your house around 4 AM with suitcases."

She was running. Running from me. Running from the nothing I'd made her feel like.

And she'd died carrying my child.

"Alpha, there's more. The coroner said she was about eight weeks pregnant, like I mentioned, but... the baby had a strong wolf gene. Even with a wolfless mother, this child would have shifted."

My heir. My actual heir had died with her at the bottom of a cliff while I was in bed with Scarlett.

"Have you found her body?"

"No. The explosion... there's nothing left. We only know about the pregnancy from blood samples on surviving car fragments."

I hung up. My whole body shook.

Elena was dead.

The woman who'd waited for me for three years. Who'd cooked meals I never ate. Who'd slept alone in our bed while I stayed at the pack house. Who'd loved me even when I gave her nothing back.

Dead.

Pregnant with my child.

Dead.

My wolf howled inside me. He'd been restless since yesterday, but I'd ignored him. Now he was tearing at my insides, screaming one word over and over in my head, 'Mate. Mate. MATE.'

"That's impossible," I said out loud. "Scarlett is our mate."

"Raven?" Scarlett walked in, perfect as always in a white sundress. "What's wrong? You look pale."

"Elena's dead."

Something flickered in her eyes. Satisfaction? No, I must have imagined it.

"Oh my god," she gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "What happened?"

"Car accident. She drove off Skeleton Cliff." I couldn't say the rest. Couldn't say she died carrying my baby.

That pull I'd felt toward Elena from the beginning. The way her scent made me crazy. The way I couldn't stay away even when I tried. The way being near her felt like home, even though I fought it every day.

What if my wolf was right? What if Elena had been my true mate, but because she was wolfless, I couldn't recognize the bond properly?

What if I'd just let my real mate die?

"Raven!" Scarlett's sharp voice cut through my thoughts. "Are you even listening to me?"

"She's dead, Scarlett. She's dead with my child. Can you please just..."

"Just what? Feel sorry for the woman who trapped you?"

"Don't." My voice came out as a growl.

"It's true! She was obsessed with you. Following you around, trying to force herself into pack life. Maybe this is for the best."

I stood so fast my chair fell over. "For the best? An innocent woman is dead. My child is dead."

I finally let it out but I was surprised she did not react as I thought she would, like she knew.

"A halfling child with a wolfless mother," Scarlett said coldly. "It would have been weak. Useless to the pack. I'll give you real heirs, Raven. Strong heirs. Full-blooded wolves who can lead."

I stared at her, seeing her clearly for the first time. When had she become so cold? Or had she always been this way, and I just didn't want to see it?

"I need air," I said, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To the crash site."

"Why? There's nothing there!"

"How'd you know?" My eyes narrowed at her, but I have no time for this.

I walked out, shifting into Storm the moment I hit the trees. We ran hard and fast, following Elena's scent trail from the house. Three years of her scent soaked into my territory, and I'd tried to ignore it. Now it was fading, and I wanted to howl.

The crash site was swarming with investigators. The guardrail was smashed. Skid marks showed where she'd tried to stop. At the bottom of the cliff, black smoke still rose from the wreckage.

"Alpha," the lead investigator bowed. "I'm sorry for your loss."

My loss. They all knew. The whole pack would know soon. That I'd kept a secret wife. That she'd died carrying my secret child.

"Was she..." I had to swallow hard. "Did she suffer?"

"The evidence suggests the car flipped multiple times before going over. She probably died on impact with the bottom."

Flipped multiple times. Elena, alone and terrified, knowing she was going to die. Knowing our baby was going to die.

Did she think of me in those last moments? Did she hate me?

God, I hoped she hated me. It would be easier than thinking she died still loving me.

I shifted back and stood at the cliff's edge. The sun was setting, painting the sky red like blood.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to the wind. "Elena, I'm so sorry."

Scarlett. My supposed true mate. But what if the Moon Goddess hadn't chosen her for me? What if I'd chosen her myself because she was everything an Alpha's mate should be? Strong, beautiful, from a good family.

Everything Elena wasn't.

Everything Elena wasn't supposed to be.

But Elena had loved me. Real love, not the political arrangement Scarlett offered. Elena had waited in that empty house for three years. She'd never complained. Never asked for more. Just loved me quietly, faithfully, even when I gave her nothing back.

Now she's gone. Like the smoke rising from the clifftop. Like the child who would never be born. Like the woman who'd deserved so much more than I'd given her.

My wolf howled again, and this time I let him. Our voices joined together in grief for the mate I'd never claimed, the child I'd never know, and the love I'd killed with my own cruelty.

Somewhere in the darkness, I swore I smelled Elena's scent.

But that was impossible.

The dead don't come back.

And some sins can't be forgiven.