Chapter 5 The Breeding Lie

Lyra POV

I stumbled away from the window, my heart hammering against my ribs like a caged animal. The forest around me blurred as I ran, my feet finding the path back to Alpha house on instinct alone. The image of that woman—that other me—burned in my mind with terrifying clarity.

"Run faster. Get away," my wolf urged, her panic feeding mine.

My lungs burned as I burst from the treeline. Alpha house loomed before me, no longer the prison it had felt like moments ago but now a sanctuary from the impossible truth I'd just witnessed. I crashed through the back door, barely making it to the kitchen sink before violent heaves wracked my body.

Nothing came up. I hadn't eaten since morning.

I gripped the counter's edge, my knuckles white as bone, and tried to make sense of what I'd seen. A woman with my face. Unconscious. In a cabin Dominic had forbidden me from approaching with an Alpha command.

Isabella. It had to be.

But how? Why did she look exactly like me? Or did I look exactly like her?

The revelation struck me with such force that my knees buckled. I sank to the kitchen floor, cold tile against my palms.

"He married me because I look like her," I whispered to the empty room.

"He never wanted us," my wolf growled, bristling with hurt and rage. "We were just a replacement."

Two years of rejection. Two years of sleeping alone while my supposed mate visited a woman who wore my face. No—while he visited the woman whose face I wore. The distinction felt crucial somehow.

The mate bond between us throbbed like an open wound. Had that even been real? The Moon Goddess wouldn't make such a mistake... would she? I pressed my hand against my chest where the sensation of recognition had first bloomed when we locked eyes back in the day.

"I need answers," I finally said, hours later, pushing myself up from the floor. "I deserve the truth."

"He'll punish us for entering the forbidden area," my wolf cautioned.

"I don't care." My voice sounded stronger than I felt. "I'm his mate. I have the right to know."

Decision made, I forced myself to eat a small meal and crawled into bed. Tomorrow, I would confront Dominic with what I knew. Whatever happened after that... well, I'd face it when it came.

Sleep eluded me. I tossed restlessly, rehearsing what I would say, how I would demand explanations. By dawn, exhaustion had given way to grim determination.

I showered and dressed with particular care, choosing a simple blue blouse and jeans that made me feel like myself—whoever that was now. Then I made my way to the pack hall, where he typically handled pack business in the morning hours.

My hand was raised to knock when voices from within stopped me cold.

"—showing promising signs, though there's still a significant risk of cervical cancer," a male voice filtered through the heavy oak door. The pack doctor. "Her brain activity increased during your last visit. The new treatment appears to be working."

"How much longer?" Dominic's voice carried a tension I'd never heard him direct at me.

"Impossible to say. Could be days, could be weeks. But I've never seen better indicators. She's fighting to come back to you."

I pressed my ear closer to the door, hardly daring to breathe. Isabella's in coma? My competition is a woman who couldn't even wake up?

"And the infertility?" Dominic asked.

"Sorry, Alpha. There's nothing I can do for now."

"Keep working on it. If it really comes to that, I still have Lyra."

My blood turned to ice. Infertility? Isabella's infertility? And what did he mean by "still having me"?

"Alpha, I doubt Luna will agree to this..." The doctor's tone was hesitant.

"Let me be clear one more time." Dominic's voice hardened to steel. "My Luna is Isabella, not Lyra. She's just my breeding vessel. If Isabella truly can't bear children, then I'll have Lyra carry my child. We're mates—she won't question it. Got it?"

"Yes, Alpha..." The doctor's voice was barely audible over the roaring in my ears.

"Therefore," Dominic continued, "we need to move quickly. Isabella is showing signs of waking..."

The world fell dead quiet around me. Breeding vessel. That's all I was to him—a convenient body to house his children when his precious Isabella couldn't.

The room spun around me as I heard Dominic's voice again: "Marcus, keep a close watch on her. Don't let her get away or get suspicious. She still doesn't know about Isabella, and I need to keep it that way until I decide what to do with her."

"Yes, Alpha..." Marcus's reply confirmed my suspicions. My husband and his Beta were conspiring against me.

"We need to run, my wolf snarled," hackles raised. "Now."

I backed away from the door, careful not to make a sound. Panic clawed at my throat. How many people were involved in this deception? Marcus, the pack doctor, certainly. What about Serena? Had her kindness been genuine, or just another layer of surveillance? Who in this pack could I possibly trust?

I fled back to my room, locking the door behind me. My stomach heaved again, and I barely made it to the bathroom in time. This was the third morning in a row I'd been sick.

"Something's wrong," my wolf whined, pacing anxiously beneath my skin. This isn't just fear.

A terrible suspicion bloomed in my mind. Nearly two weeks ago, Dominic had come home drunk and taken me to his bed. Called me by another woman's name. And now...

I remembered the small package tucked away in my dresser drawer—a pregnancy test from a women's health fair at the community college. I'd taken it as a joke, never thinking I'd need it. Wolves could sense pregnancy almost immediately, but with everything happening, I hadn't been paying attention to my body's signals.

With shaking hands, I retrieved the test and locked myself in the bathroom. Three minutes later, I stared at the result with a numb sort of detachment.

"What does it say?" my wolf asked, though she already knew.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I slid down against the bathroom wall.

"I'm pregnant," I whispered.

Carrying the child of a man who sees me as nothing but a breeding vessel.