Claimed by My Ex's Half-Brother

Brett’s POV

I watched Lilith’s retreating figure, feeling a surge of complicated emotions. My wolf, Jacob, growled in my mind, expressing his distrust and wariness of this woman.

"Calm down, Jacob," I soothed him internally. "We don’t know her true intentions yet."

Vanessa entered the study with the tray.I took it from her hands as we sat down together.

"Brett, what did Lilith want? Is she in some kind of trouble? Are she and her daughter alright?" Vanessa asked, her voice tinged with unease.

I didn’t answer her questions directly, only saying, "Don’t worry. No one can interfere with our mating ceremony, no matter who they are."

"I’m just worried about Lilith and her daughter," Vanessa said softly.

I looked out the window again, catching sight of Lilith and her daughter leaving. Under the waning moonlight, their figures appeared particularly desolate.

I turned to Vanessa and said, "They’ll be fine." When I looked back outside, Lilith and her daughter had vanished. Nothing remained but cold moonlight and swaying tree shadows in the courtyard, much like the emptiness in my heart these past years.

Vanessa keenly caught the flash of loss in my eyes, her face immediately darkening.

I looked down at the box in my hands, containing a lock of that little girl’s hair. Could she really be my daughter?

I remembered my mother’s face the night before she died,ashen, yet lit by something strange in her eyes.

"There’s more to our bloodline than strength," she whispered. "The Goddess marked us long ago. Power... and punishment."

"But you said I’d never—"

"FATE MATE," she interrupted, trembling. "Only that can undo it."

I never told anyone this secret: because of my bloodline, males couldn’t get offspring unless they found their true mate.For an Alpha, not being able to have children is very bad for the pack. It affects not only the succession of leadership but threatens the stability of the entire pack.

During my years with Lilith, she never got pregnant. I loved her despite her lack of wolf scent, even though my wolf couldn’t sense if she was my true mate. None of that mattered, for she always brought me comfort when she was near.

Life has a cruel sense of irony. Lilith got pregnant after just one night with Finn. She knelt before me, her face wet with tears, begging me to believe that Clara was my daughter. But I knew too well the curse I carried.

I rejected her.

Those final words from my mother... I hadn’t understood them then. I’m not sure I do now. But since Lilith showed up with that girl, whose eyes looked so much like my own, I’ve started to question everything.

"Alpha, did Lilith leave you that box? What’s inside?" Vanessa asked curiously.

I raised my eyes to look at her.

Vanessa smiled gently, "Never mind, I won’t ask. I know your heart belongs to me, no matter what happens."

"Brett," Vanessa said softly, reaching beneath my collar. Her fingers brushed skin as she pulled out the crimson cord. A small silver charm from the Moon Goddess Church caught the dim light, glinting softly.

"You almost died once," she whispered. "I won’t let it happen again. Please, keep this on... for me."

I nodded, offering her a half-hearted smile. "If it eases your mind, I will."

With other matters on my mind, I casually said, "Go rest in the guest room. I’ll take you home tomorrow. I need to handle some business tonight. There’s pack business and arrangements for the clinical trials of our new drug development."

"Yes, my Alpha," Vanessa reminded me once more not to remove the Moon Goddess pendant before leaving.

After she left, I sat holding the lock of hair, lost in thought. Jacob paced restlessly in my mind, seemingly wrestling with this dilemma too.

"What should we do, Jacob?" I asked internally.

"We need to confirm the truth, Brett. Whatever the outcome, we must face it," Jacob responded.

Lilith’s POV

In the cold wind, I led my daughter out of the luxurious pack house.

Clara and I walked hand in hand under the moon. Usually lively, she remained silent the whole way.

Until she stopped, tilting her little head up to look at my tired face, "Mommy, was that mean Alpha just now... was he my daddy?"

I still had that picture of Brett hidden away. Sometimes, when little Clara was asleep, I’d stare at it.Clara had seen that picture before. The man in that photo,my mate, my greatest heartbreak stood smiling with another woman now.

"Mommy, are you giving me away?"

When I looked down, those big eyes were already filling with tears, her bottom lip trembling.She must have sensed something was wrong, must have caught me thinking about approaching Brett. Children always know more than we think they do.

Before I could answer, she wrapped her tiny arms around my legs, looking up at me with such desperation it shattered what was left of my heart.

"Please don’t leave me, Mommy! I’ll be really good, I promise! I won’t make you mad anymore," she pleaded, her voice getting higher with each word. "I won’t ask for cake or chocolate anymore. I won’t be lazy in the mornings. I’ll listen to everything you say! Please don’t leave me with that man..."

Her little voice broke into sobs that tore through my chest. God, how could I explain to her? I wasn’t abandoning her,I was dying.The pain throbbed in my bones, a constant reminder that my time was running out.

I dropped to my knees and pulled her into my arms, holding her as tightly as my weakening body would allow. We clung to each other, both crying, both afraid.

When I could finally speak, I wiped her tears with my thumbs. "Mommy would never leave you, sweetheart. How could I? You’re everything to me. I love you more than anything in this world."

But I was going to break that promise, wasn’t I? For the first time since she was born, I was going to fail her completely. Leave her in this cold world alone.

I forced myself to smile, looking past her toward the night sky. "Look at the moon, baby. It’s not full tonight, but isn’t it beautiful? Let’s take some pictures together."

I pulled out my phone, wiping away both our tears. We pressed our heads together, forcing smiles that didn’t quite reach our eyes. Click after click, I captured our faces. She was trying so hard to smile,was it to make me happy? Was she still afraid I’d abandon her?

Later that night, after tucking Clara into bed, I printed those photos with my portable printer. I planned to take pictures every day now, creating memories she could hold onto when I was gone.

On the back of tonight’s photo, the one with the crescent moon behind us, I wrote in my neatest handwriting,

"Clara, see how the moon isn’t full tonight? Just half a circle? But it’s still beautiful, isn’t it? Life is like that too. Even when life isn’t perfect, there are still beautiful things to find,like our memories together."

I ended it the way I would end all these notes, "Keep going, baby! Mommy loves you!"

Writing those simple lines broke me. I’d pause between sentences, tears falling onto the paper. But when I finished, I washed my face with water and pressed ice bags against my swollen eyes. I couldn’t let her see I’d been crying when morning came.

The next day, I woke up thirty minutes earlier than usual.

Clara woke up without her usual morning grumpiness. She got up, brushed her teeth, and washed her face after just one call from me. At breakfast, her little hands offered me a peeled boiled egg.

"Mommy, you’re getting skinnier. You should eat this egg," she said, so innocently concerned.

My carefully constructed composure nearly crumbled. Even my four-year-old had noticed my weight loss.

"Thank you, sweetheart," I managed, taking the egg from her.

It should have been the most delicious egg in the world,peeled with love by my daughter’s small fingers. But it felt like swallowing rocks.

Clara must have sensed something wasn’t right. She stopped drinking her milk and looked up at me with worried eyes. "Mommy, I’ll always listen to you from now on. You really won’t leave me, right? You won’t break your promise?"

Those eyes supposed to be filled with childhood innocence were clouded with worry and fear. Had she overcome her morning grumpiness so quickly just because she was afraid I’d abandon her?

I couldn’t answer. Instead, I stroked her hair and changed the subject. "Mommy’s taking you to see your new school today. It has several huge slides and a big sandbox. It’ll be so much fun!"

Clara had long outgrown separation anxiety for school. She’d always adjusted quickly to new environments. But this time, after we finished the registration and her teacher came to take her to class, she kept looking back at me.

Finally, she stopped and turned around completely, her eyes full of worry.

"Mommy, will you come pick me up this afternoon?"

That question squeezed my heart until I could barely breathe. She was still afraid I would abandon her.

I nodded firmly. "Yes, I’ll be the very first one there."