Chapter 17: The Reckoning and the Seed

After Starling left, Wesley remained on the cold hospital floor, his spirit shattered. He felt like a wolf whose mate-bond had been violently severed, leaving behind a raw, bleeding wound in his soul. Was there truly nothing left? No lingering thread of the connection that had once been his entire world? Ping. His comm-unit chimed, a jarring sound in the silence of his despair. It was the final report from his beta. The summary was stark: Tanya Ashwood. No clinical depression. All prior diagnoses fabricated through bribed physicians. Scrolling up, a torrent of evidence flooded his screen. Forged medication records, stolen surveillance footage, paid online mobs… each piece of proof ignited a cold, brutal fury within him, the kind only a betrayed Alpha could feel. Tanya. She was the poison. She had manipulated him, used his sense of pack duty and old loyalty to systematically destroy his fated bond. She had schemed until hi