Freya
“I’m sorry to say this, but you won’t be able to bear a child again because your womb has been severely damaged.”
My lips parted in shock as the doctor's words echoed through my mind. Time seemed to slow down, and it felt like the whole room was spinning with her words fading in the background.
No! My hearing must have betrayed me... or maybe this was just a nightmare, viciously vivid, clawing its way into my waking mind.
The pack’s doctor snapped me out of my thoughts. “Luna Freya, are you even listening?”
Staring deep into her eyes, the reality of what was happening weighed on me once again, causing dread to settle in the pit of my stomach. Tears blurred my vision before I could stop them, and my trembling hands instinctively clamped over my mouth.
“No!” A sharp scream escaped from my lips — a scream I could no longer swallow.
Today was supposed to be my discharge day from the hospital. I'd come to ask when I could try for a child again - after losing my baby for the fourth time, another stillborn.
I wiped off my tears with the back of my hands, shaking my head slowly. “Five years of trying for a child, and you are telling me this? How can you be so heartless? I've done everything right - organic meals prepared by nutritionists, fertility teas at dawn, temperature charts by my bedside. I've swallowed every vitamin, endured every test. And now you're telling me—”
She cut in softly. “Freya.”
“Dr. Ann, you can’t do this to me.”My words tumbled out in a rush. “If I don’t give the pack an heir soon, then I will be kicked out of the pack house and someone else is going to take my place!”I said, my voice frantic.
My head shook uncontrollably, my lips trembling. “Please...there must be some mistake. My womb can’t be damaged. I don’t want another woman replacing me. Please, can't you re-examine it?”
Dr Ann let out an exasperated sigh, reaching for my hands as tears burned behind my eyelids. “Let us drop formalities. Now, as your friend, I need to tell you something.”
She squeezed my hands gently. “Freya, if I don’t tell you the truth, no one will. Look behind you. Can you please glance behind you and tell me what you see?”
With a trembling head, I turned to glance behind me before darting my eyes back to her. “No one...”
As soon as I uttered those words, my heart sank into my stomach and the tears that had glinted in my eyes cascaded down my cheeks.
“Yes. ‘No one,’ Freya," Her voice softened. "You're killing yourself for a pack that doesn't care. Ever since you have been admitted into the hospital, no one has come to visit you. No one has bothered to ask about your health. Not your parents. Not your siblings. You are sacrificing everything for people who wouldn't even spit on you if you were on fire.”
The pain in my chest became physical, like a vise squeezing my heart.
I wiped at my tears, forcing down the lump in my throat. The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. The idea of Tyson loving me was nothing but a facade.
Yet I clung to it desperately — maybe he didn't love me yet, but with time... with patience...
Things would change.
As the Lycan princess, my life should have been perfect. Instead, I was powerless, weak, useless, and no different from a human. I was despised by many, including my father, who hid me away like a shameful secret.
At first, my mum was the one who would always protect me from the harsh and condescending words of my father. But ever since she died, my life went from bad to worse, and it spiraled into complete disarray when my father took another wife a few years after my mum’s death.
Ever since my father married my stepmother, I was pushed aside and neglected. Every passing day, I would see my father choose his stepdaughter, Ariel over me because she was everything that he wanted me to be.
Everything I owned, even my inheritance, went to them. Their taunts became my daily bread.
When my father grew tired of seeing me around, he forced me into a contract marriage that I initially objected to. when I found out that the marriage was with my long-time crush, Alpha Tyson, I consented, thinking that he was going to change my life for the better and give me the love that soul yearned for.
But, I had no idea that was the beginning of my misery.
At first, Tyson pretended to be in love with me, causing me to hand over the only inheritance that my mother and late grandparents had left for me. He didn’t allow me to work and would blatantly tell me that my only duty was to serve him and remain as his Luna.
Despite the way he acted harshly towards me, subjecting me to years of emotional abuse and mistreatment, I convinced myself that it was all out of love. For years, I endured his cruelty, hoping that things would eventually change.
But now, standing here, staring at the empty hospital room behind me... I...
I sprang up, smoothing my hair and dress. “Tyson isn’t here because he is on a business trip. He loves me and that is all that matters…” My words trailed as I avoided the gaze of Ann who looked at me pathetically.
I struck my chest, trying to steady myself. "About my womb-"
“It is true!” Ann cut in, her voice firm.
Those words shattered my heart into pieces, and tears rushed into my eyes again, threatening to fall. “Please...don't tell Tyson...”
The drive home passed in a blur of tears, my hands repeatedly resting on my barren stomach. The fact that I would never give birth was truly suffocating.
When I arrived at our mansion, I exchanged pleasantries with the servants while masking my sadness with a forced smile.
That was how I lived all my life — masking my hurt with a smile.
Their startled expressions puzzled me. Was I imagining their shock at my return?
I pushed the door open, walking towards the vestibule while slipping off my shoes and at the same time, thinking about a way to confront Tyson about the reason why he didn't visit me in a way that wouldn't make him mad at me.
The other time, he almost hurled his phone at me because I asked to know about his whereabouts and the reason why he had been coming late.
Climbing up the stairs, I muttered to myself. “I am just going to talk to him sweetly and how do I…” I stopped in my tracks when the sound of something took me aback.
Did I just hear a moan?
Fear gnawed at me at that moment and I ran my hands through my hair before an awkward laughter rippled from my mouth. “Tyson might be everything but he is not a cheater. On our wedding, he made the vow to only have his eyes on me.” I assured myself, walking forward, each step syncing with the church bells still ringing in my ears—just like on our wedding day. But back then, my heart had been racing with happiness as I walked toward him. Now, it hammered with dread.
And then I heard it again—that moaning, louder this time.
At our bedroom door, sweat slicked my palms. My pulse roared in my ears as I pressed my hand on the knob.
Mustering the courage inside of me, I pushed the door open and my heart seemed like it stopped at that moment when my gaze landed on Tyson in bed with another woman.
She sat on his lap, straddling him, her perky boobs bouncing with every up-and-down motion that she made. He gripped her hair and pulled her closer to his face as he kissed her mercilessly.
I couldn't move. Another nightmare?
When Tyson pulled the woman’s hair behind her neck, I froze and my eyes almost bulged out of their sockets in shock.
At first, I had to rub my hands on my eyes to be sure that I was seeing correctly.
It was my stepsister. Ariel.
Anger flared within me at that moment and all the pent-up rage that I had hidden for years surged inside of me as I yelled. “WHAT IS THIS?”
The two of them froze at the same time and in slow motion, they glanced in my direction. Ariel screamed as she slid off Tyson, wrapping herself in the sheets while Tyson stared at me with a face filled with horror.
“W-What are you doing here? You aren't supposed to be here!” He stuttered and my vision blurred with tears as I retracted my step.
Sniffling, my fingers clenched and in a fit of rage, I reached my hands for my phone while I began to record a video as Ariel rushed towards me and Tyson didn't even bother to cover himself.
“What are you doing?!”
“I am showing the world the face of these two cheaters. Your wedding is tomorrow, Ariel, and everyone is going to see you fucking my husband while I fought for my life!”
I wiped off my tears as Tyson barked. “Hand the phone over now!”
Ariel cried. “Sister Freya, you can't do this to me. Why do you want to ruin my wedding when we can talk this out?”
“No! I am going to expose the two of you to the whole world!!!” I glared hard, resisting the urge to break down even if the only thing I wanted to do was cry.
With a final glance, I turned to leave, walking down the hallway when I heard footsteps behind me, and before I could wrap my head around what was happening, Tyson crashed a flower vase on my head, causing blood to trickle down my head, dripping to the floor.
Pain shot through me and my eyesight became fuzzy and at that moment, Ariel rushed towards me, crashing another flower vase on my head as blood trickled down my head.
The world went dark and before I knew what was happening, my eyes shut close and I collapsed to the ground.