Chapter 3
The moment Damian left, I went to the only thing that had survived the explosion: the bottom of a wicker trunk from the cabin.
From the hidden layer inside, I pried out an oil-paper envelope.
Ten years ago, on the second day after Damian and I completed our Imprint, the pack doctor had secretly pressed that envelope into my hand.
I opened it.
Inside were two sheets of parchment.
The first was Damian’s medical report from the bloodline examination we had taken before our Imprint.
It read:
Subject: Damian Ashford.
Bloodline analysis: The ancient male line of the Ashford bloodline has been affected by the Moon
Goddess’s curse. All paternal fertility is inactive.
Conclusion: This subject is permanently infertile.
The second sheet was a note the pack doctor had added to my own report.
Subject: Selena Lane.
Bloodline analysis: Holder of the rare Silver Moon bloodline. The energy of her womb can
temporarily activate the seed of any cursed Alpha. Registered holders of this constitution in all of
North America: one, the tested subject herself.
Note: This subject is the only mate in Damian Ashford’s lifetime capable of bearing his biological
child.
The day I received that report, my heart had been a mess of emotions.
Damian Ashford was proud. He was the new Alpha who would inherit the entire Ashford Pack. How
could he accept that he was a male wolf who could never leave behind his own bloodline?
The Moon Goddess’s curse was a bloodline scandal. If it leaked, rival packs would seize that weakness and tear him apart.
Chapter 3
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So I buried the secret deep in my heart for him.
For ten years, I said nothing.
The pack doctor did not dare speak either. He wanted me to tell Damian myself.
Each time I became pregnant, Damian found some excuse to make me lose the child. Each time he
told me, “This is fate,” I smiled and nodded, because I knew that only I could give him a biological child who would truly survive.
But I never imagined that one day, I would be the one to expose that secret to the world.
I took the last few dollars of loose change from my pocket and went to a human print shop in town. I made more than a dozen copies.
On each copy, I attached a note.
This report is a modest parting gift from the Luna of the Ashford Pack. Please accept it.
I packed them into more than a dozen mail pouches and wrote down the private addresses of the
rival Pack Leaders who had been trampled beneath Damian’s feet over the years, the powerful Alphas across North America who hated him to the bone.
Then I smiled at the boy who ran the town’s only night delivery service.
“Please deliver these as quickly as possible, and make sure they arrive at the same time. Just tell
them this is a gift from the Luna of the Ashford Pack. They will tip you well.”
Damian, this is the last gift I will give you before I leave.
I hope you like it.
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