Violet's POV
The castle was never truly silent at night.
Even in the deepest hours, there were distant footsteps of patrols, the low murmur of guards changing shifts, the occasional howl of a wolf in the surrounding forest. I had grown used to those sounds. They had become part of the strange new rhythm of my life as Luna.
But tonight, sleep refused to come. I lay in my grand four-poster bed, staring at the canopy above me, one hand resting lightly over my still-flat stomach. The news from Old Mother Elara echoed in my mind like a drumbeat that wouldn't stop.
Mark's child.
The words had settled into my bones, heavy and inescapable. Part of me wanted to scream. Part of me wanted to laugh at the cruel irony of it all. The man who had dragged me into this world of power and violence had now planted his seed inside me. The very Alpha whose mark I had fought so hard to escape now had a biological claim that no council ruling could easily undo.
