Olivia’s POVI practically sprint all the way to the hospital, rushing upstairs to his floor where I round the corner, pressing to the glass of his room only to see it empty now. My stomach knots so tight that I feel ill at the empty bed in his room, the entire place sparkling clean and folded nicely as if waiting for another patient.I grab a passing nurse; her eyes widen at my exterior identity. “The guy in this room, where did he go? Where is Reese?”She peers over my shoulder, into the baren room. “He was moved to another floor. His status went critical and he needed a higher level of care then what we provide on this floor.”“What floor is he on—what happened to him?”“Hey,” Eugene calls out, catching up to me at last. I let the nurse scurry away while Eugene buttons down his white physician coat. “It’s okay, Olivia, he’s been moved to an operation room so we can monitor his blood levels.”I feel my hands shaking at my sides without any intent to stop. “He’s—he will be okay—right

Olivia’s POVNormally, I wouldn’t care so much about this silly gossip column, but it wounds me where I felt hurt in the same way in the past. I was a substitute mate, useless and frivolous, and even at times called a whore as though needing attention from my mate was unreasonable to Alicia. It makes me sick to recall those pains, and I feel them now reading through the news.I feel my hands shiver on the edge of my laptop, my wolf barking for me to get back to work, but I feel deflated by these rumors. If the Queen Luna were to be pregnant, which I am most definitely not, then it would technically be my second pregnancy. The hurt of losing the first one nags at me without relent.“My dear, what’s wrong?” Gabriel asks, standing in the doorway to the library now, his legs crossed at the ankles and his hands stuffed into his front pockets. He looks accentuating lean in this stance, almost hitting his head on the doorway. “You were growling.”“Oh, I didn’t know I was,” I breathe, shaking

Olivia’s POVI aim to make sense of this gala, seeing donations piling out of the boxes along with land deeds and jewelry and checks. Looking up, I feel a sea of eyes on me now, something still so unfamiliar about being seen to be; being truly seen, not as an object or a fill-in wife, but as a Queen Luna, as someone with purpose.Part of me aches with this new found attention but I push those dwelling anxieties away.I am greeted by Alpha’s of such rural packs; I can’t believe I’ve never even heard of their existence. I may not have had much of an interest in politics in my last life, but this life is different and the more arraignments I make with these wealthy agricultural wolves, the more I get to bring awareness and money into the charity.Reese would be so proud of me now. He’s stable for the moment but I dread leaving the palace phones, waiting for someone to rush up, eyes in a panic with labored breathing to tell me the young, male wolf I have been looking after isn’t going to

Third Person POVThe bank has grown used to the sight of the Queen Luna since her account opened a few months ago. The manager recalled her rushed sense of urgency to open an account, to have the top banker manage the finances and send her a report by the week as money flowed seamlessly in and out of her account.Of course the tellers had seen the receipts. Money and checks written out by Alpha Herold, by the King Alpha and by countless other Alphas, only spreading more rumors than the tabloids have been running with lately. She returns to the bank anyways, filing more bills, more gold coins, and stacks of personal checks by Alphas, betas, and common wolves alike.The Royal pack has seen her glide through the palace, walking alone on the sidewalks and making deposits at her bank on the regular, before returning to the hospital to visit a new intake wolf into the pack. If anyone caught a glimpse of her, they would think she is strong-willed and determined.Deep down, she feels mournful

Olivia’s POVEven through the differences in the real Queen Luna and myself, Celine and I have a good time together. We talk as if we’ve been friends for years and I feel relived to have one more person know my deepest secret, a person not gunning for my heart like Eugene. I fill her in on that drama at once, both of us talking through the day and into the early evening.She listens as I spill the gossip over Alpha Herold daring to claim me again, in this form, and the friction it has caused with Gabriel. She speaks of his as cold and callous to her old friend, the stark opposite of how he is with me now. We murmur about his affection for me, about denying me of a divorce, and she speculates he is accommodating for his rejection of his mate for so long, but I think it’s something else.I try not to focus on it too much.“I guess you’ve come to see that my girl Rebecca has very little friendships in her life aside from the long-term sisterhood we have formed through the years,” she say