“I’m busy, Fiona. Can’t you see that?” Baron didn’t even look up from his glass of bourbon. His eyes were fixed on the door, searching for Lily, the Omega he had been stashing in the servant’s quarters for months.

“Baron, the rehearsal dinner is in ten minutes. Our families, the King… everyone is waiting.” Fiona’s voice was a whisper of fractured dignity.

Baron finally looked at her, his expression one of pure, unadulterated boredom. “What don’t you get? I love Lily. She’s going to be my wife. You? You’re just a Beta with a pedigree. Put your pants on and tell the pack the wedding is off.”

“Our packs need this alliance to survive,” Fiona argued, her knuckles white against the silk of her rehearsal gown.

“I still believe in love, Fiona. Unlike you, who only believes in duty.” Baron stood, towering over her. “I’m coming back later. And if you’re still here, I’ll have the guards drag you out.”

Fiona stood in the freezing silence of the suite after he slammed the door. Her maid, Nina, stepped from the shadows, her eyes brimming with a dangerous kind of pity.

“You wasted all that time saving yourself for a man who doesn’t even want your pulse, Fiona,” Nina said, uncorking a bottle of vintage champagne. “Tonight, you treat yourself. I put something better than bubbles in room 705. A call boy. Professional, handsome, and he doesn’t care about pack politics. Consider it my wedding present.”

Fiona looked at the keycard. The room 705 loomed like a gateway to a life she had never been allowed to live. She was the Luna of the Red Moon Pack, but tonight, she wanted to be no one.

The darkness of room 705 smelled of sandalwood, expensive tobacco, and rain. Fiona didn’t wait for the man to speak. She didn’t want a conversation; she wanted to forget the way Baron had looked through her.

“Hey there, handsome,” she whispered into the shadows.

A man stood by the window, his silhouette massive and imposing. “I believe you have the wrong—”

“No more games,” Fiona cut him off, her hands finding the lapels of his coat. “I’m tired of being the dutiful daughter. Just… make me forget.”

The night was a blur of heat and a scent that felt like destiny—a musk so primal it silenced her inner wolf. She left before dawn, leaving a note signed simply Fiona and a stack of bills she hoped would cover her shame.

Four weeks later, the world tilted. Three pregnancy tests sat on the marble counter of the pack house. All positive.

“Nina, what am I going to do?” Fiona gasped. “I’m carrying a call boy’s child, and my father has rescheduled the wedding to Baron for tomorrow. He says the Red Moon Pack is in debt to the royal family and this is the only way out.”

“Marry him,” Nina hissed. “The timing is close enough. Just make sure Baron puts out on the wedding night so you can pass the heir off as his.”

The royal wedding was a sea of gold and white. Fiona walked down the aisle toward a glowering Baron. But as the King began the rites, a voice tore through the cathedral.

“Stop!” Lily, the Omega, stood at the entrance, her face contorted with malice. “Baron, don’t marry this lying slut! I heard her in the bathroom—she’s already pregnant! And we both know you haven’t touched her!”

The King’s face turned the color of thunder. Fiona’s father, Lionel, recoiled in disgust. “Fiona, tell me she’s lying. Tell me you didn’t risk our future for a fling.”

“I… Father, I apologize,” Fiona whispered, her head bowed.

“She is no daughter of mine!” Lionel roared.

“Let her go.”

A man stepped into the light from the royal gallery. He was dressed in the black and silver of the military elite, a jagged scar running down his forearm. The room went silent. This was Prince Alexander, the Crown Prince, the “Vampire Slayer” who had been missing at the warfront for years.

Alexander walked toward Fiona, his grey eyes boring into hers. He wasn’t the call boy from room 705. He was the heir to the throne.

“The child she is carrying is mine,” Alexander announced, his voice a low-frequency rumble that vibrated in Fiona’s bones. “We spent a night together at the hotel. I mixed up the room numbers, being drunk and newly returned from the front. But as an Alpha, I will marry her and raise my heir.”

Fiona’s jaw dropped. “You… you’re the Prince?”

Alexander leaned in, his scent—sandalwood and ozone—hitting her like a physical weight. “And you’re the woman who paid me in small bills,” he whispered. “We have much to discuss, wife.”

Life in the palace was a minefield. Alexander’s stepmother, Queen Scarlet, viewed Fiona as a “mangy mutt” infiltrating the royal bloodline. She placed Fiona under the “care” of Susan, a maid who was actually a spy.

The tension broke during a high-stakes training session. Fiona, a natural warrior of the Red Moon, couldn’t help but critique Alexander’s stance.

“Your center of gravity is too high,” she called out from the sidelines. “That’s how the vampires destabilize you.”

Alexander laughed, a sharp, dangerous sound. “You think you can do better, Luna?”

He threw her a practice sword. Fiona, despite being two months pregnant, moved like liquid silver. She pinned the Crown Prince to the dirt in under thirty seconds.

“I’m glad I exceeded expectations,” she teased, her blade at his throat.

Alexander looked up at her, and for the first time, the coldness in his eyes melted into genuine admiration. “I noticed Susan gave you the servant’s quarters,” he said, pulling her up. “You’ll be staying with me from now on. I have a strong musk you’ll have to get used to.”

But the shadow of Queen Scarlet loomed. She cornered Fiona in the tea salon, her voice a poisonous honey. “Alexander is working with the vampires, dear. He killed his own mother, Queen Esmeralda, with their toxins. I’m warning you for the sake of your pup.”

Fiona didn’t believe her. She began to investigate, discovering that it was Scarlet who had been seen meeting with a vampire cabal in the woods. Scarlet had used Fiona’s father’s debts to force him into silence about the missing Ruby Brooch—the piece used to pay for the toxin that killed the first Queen.

The truth exploded at the “Homecoming Banquet.” Scarlet had prepared a toast.

“To my son, Alexander,” Scarlet said, raising a glass of dark red wine. “May his return be long and his reign be… brief.”

Fiona caught Alexander’s hand before he could sip. “Your Majesty,” Fiona said, her voice ringing through the silent hall. “If Scarlet is so confident in her love for you, let her drink from your glass first. To prove it isn’t laced with the same vampire toxin that killed Queen Esmeralda.”

Scarlet’s face turned the color of ash. “This is ridiculous! A savage’s fantasy!”

“Drink it, Mother,” Alexander said, his voice cold as a winter grave. He produced the Ruby Brooch from his pocket—the one he had retrieved from the vampire den. “The vampires have long memories, Scarlet. They remember who paid them.”

Reginald, the King, stood up. “Drink, Scarlet. Or I sentence you to the dungeon myself.”

In a fit of madness, Scarlet threw the wine at Fiona. Alexander shielded her, the red liquid staining his white uniform. Scarlet tried to flee, but Fiona’s father, Lionel, blocked her path.

“My daughter was right,” Lionel said, his voice finally reclaiming its Alpha strength. “I was a coward, but I won’t be a traitor.”

Scarlet was dragged away, screaming, to life imprisonment.

Months later, the war talks had finally concluded. Peace had been brokered between the wolves and the vampires, fueled by the revelation of Scarlet’s treachery.

Alexander stood on the balcony of the nursery, looking out over the kingdom. He felt a tug on his sleeve. Fiona stood there, holding a tiny bundle wrapped in silver silk.

“She’s awake,” Fiona whispered.

Alexander took the baby, his massive hands trembling as he held his daughter. She had Fiona’s eyes and his stubborn chin.

“Little Esmeralda,” Alexander murmured. “Named for a Queen, but born of a Luna.”

Fiona leaned against his shoulder, the scent of the pine trees and her husband’s musk finally smelling like home.

“I never would have thought,” Fiona said, a small smile playing on her lips, “that a drunken night with a ‘call boy’ would be the best decision of my life.”

Alexander kissed her forehead. “I told you that night, Fiona… I don’t take complaints. I only take what’s mine. And you? You’re everything.”

The moon hung full and bright over the palace, a silent guardian over a family that had survived the shadows to find the light.