Chapter 45 The Marcus Meeting

Chapter 45 The Marcus Meeting

Luna's POV
I got to the coffee shop fifteen minutes early and picked a table in the back corner where we could talk without being overheard.
The place was deliberately human, no supernatural clientele, just normal people getting their morning coffee before work.
Marcus arrived exactly on time looking worse than I'd ever seen him.
His hair needed cutting, his clothes were wrinkled, and the Alpha confidence that used to define him was completely gone. He looked like a man running on fear and no sleep.
He sat down across from me without ordering anything, just stared at me with desperate eyes.
"Thank you for meeting me," he said.
"I said I'd explain what's happening. So I will." I didn't waste time on pleasantries. "Sarah isn't who you think she is. She was hired to seduce you and get pregnant specifically to hurt me."
Marcus's face went blank like he couldn't process the words. "Hired? By who?"
"Vivienne Kensington. Damien's ex-obsession from sixty years ago." I pulled out the medical reports I'd copied. "Sarah's pregnancy isn't yours. It's a hybrid that was engineered using supernatural genetics that shouldn't be combined."
He took the papers with shaking hands and started reading. I watched his expression cycle through denial, then rage, then horror as he absorbed what the medical records showed.
"This can't be real," he said finally.
"It is. The baby is part wolf and part something else. Without supernatural medical intervention, it will kill Sarah during birth."
"Why would anyone do this? Why target me?"
The question made my chest tight because the answer would hurt him in ways he wasn't prepared for.
"You weren't the target, Marcus. You're just a tool." I kept my voice even. "Vivienne wanted to hurt me and she knew the best way was through my ex-mate and my son. You were chosen because you're weak enough to manipulate and proud enough to not question when good fortune falls in your lap."
The words landed like punches and I watched them hit.
Marcus set down the papers, his hands trembling. "I'm not the target. I'm just convenient."
"Yes."
"Sarah never loved me." He said it flatly, stating a fact. "She was paid to seduce me and get pregnant with some monster baby to hurt you."
"Yes."
He laughed without humor. "And I believed her. I threw away everything, destroyed my relationship with Theo, made myself look like a fool publicly, all for a woman who was acting the entire time."
"Marcus—"
"No, you're right. I'm weak and proud and easy to manipulate." He looked at me with something that might have been self-hatred. "You must be enjoying this. Watching me realize I'm exactly as pathetic as you always thought."
"I'm not enjoying any of this." And I wasn't, surprisingly. "This is a mess for everyone involved."
"What happens to Sarah? And the baby?"
"Without help, they both die. Sarah's body can't support the hybrid through full term." I pulled the papers back. "She needs supernatural medical care from someone with specific abilities."
"What kind of abilities?"
"Blessed Wolf healing. Someone who can stabilize the pregnancy and help Sarah survive the birth."
Marcus looked at me directly. "You. You're a Blessed Wolf."
"Yes."
"So you could save her."
The question I'd been dreading hung in the air between us.
"Technically yes. But saving her means playing into Vivienne's trap. That's why she engineered this whole situation, to force me into a position where I either help my enemy or let an innocent child die."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know yet." The honesty felt heavy. "Every option is terrible."
Marcus was quiet for a long time, staring at his hands on the table. When he spoke again, his voice was different, raw and broken.
"I destroyed everything good in my life for someone who never loved me." Tears filled his eyes. "I had a mate who actually cared about me, a son who looked up to me, a pack that respected me. And I threw it all away because I wanted someone stronger and prettier."
"Marcus—"
"I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me. I know what I did to you was unforgivable." He wiped his eyes roughly. "But I need to ask anyway. I need you to know that I'm sorry. For all of it. For the cheating and the cruelty and turning Theo against you. For everything."
The apology caught me off guard.
In all the years of our marriage and the bitter divorce, Marcus had never once admitted he was wrong about anything.
"I don't forgive you," I said.
"I know."
"What you did to me, to Theo, those scars don't just disappear because you're sorry now."
"I know that too." He looked at me with red eyes. "But I needed to say it anyway. You deserved better than what I gave you."
I sat there looking at him, this man I'd loved and hated and rebuilt myself without.
I didn't forgive him, but I didn't hate him anymore either.
I just saw him clearly now, pathetic and human in ways his Alpha posturing had always hidden.
He was a weak man who'd wanted to feel powerful, and Vivienne had exploited that weakness perfectly.
"What are you going to do about Sarah?" I asked.
"I don't know. Confront her maybe. Or just leave." He stood up, ready to go. "Does she know that you know?"
"I don't think so. Vivienne probably hasn't told her I found out."
Marcus nodded and started to walk away, then stopped at the edge of the table.
"There's something else you should know," he said. "Sarah's been meeting someone regularly. Someone whose scent makes my wolf cower. I tried to follow her once but couldn't get close without my wolf submitting completely."
My blood went cold. "How often?"
"Every week for the past two months. Always the same park, always Tuesday afternoons." He looked back at me. "I think it's Vivienne. I think she's been maintaining direct contact this whole time."
The implications hit me hard.
If Vivienne was meeting with Sarah personally every week, that meant the hybrid pregnancy wasn't just a trap to force my hand.
It was something more, something important enough that Vivienne needed to monitor it directly.
The baby wasn't just leverage, it was crucial to her larger plan in ways I hadn't understood yet.
Marcus left and I sat there with my coffee going cold, trying to piece together what Vivienne was really doing.