CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3: Blood Ties

Sandra's hand never made it to my IV line. The syringe clattered to the floor as both of us froze at the sound of shattering glass. Through the broken window, a massive white wolf landed in my hospital room, fangs bared.

"Step away from my daughter."

The words didn't come from the wolf, but from the doorway where a woman stood – elegant, powerful, with eyes exactly like mine. My birth mother. The Rivera Pack Alpha.

But Sandra just smiled.

"Right on time, Elena." She pulled out her phone, showing a live video feed. "Your rescue plan was so predictable. That's why Bryan's already at the council meeting... with your son."

My... what?

"I have a brother?" The monitors spiked with my shock.

Elena's face went ash-white. "How did you—"

"Find your precious heir-in-hiding?" Sandra's laugh was bitter. "Let's just say Bryan's not the only one who's good at keeping secrets. Speaking of secrets..." She turned to me. "Did you know your precious advisor Adam has been working for me the whole time?"

The door opened again. Adam walked in, his face twisted with guilt. "I'm sorry, Jessica. They have my mate."

My head spun. Adam – my most trusted friend, the one person I'd counted on – was a traitor. And I had a brother. And my mother was here. And Bryan...

"The council meeting," I gasped, understanding hitting me. "This was a trap. You wanted to draw out the Rivera Pack leadership."

"Close." Sandra's smile widened. "But not quite. Elena, would you like to tell your daughter why you really gave her up? Or should I?"

My mother's face hardened. "Sandra, don't—"

"Your mother didn't give you up to protect you," Sandra cut in. "She gave you up to protect your twin brother. Because there was a prophecy—"

"Enough!" Elena's power filled the room, making the medical equipment spark. "Jessica, we need to leave. Now."

But I couldn't move. Not just because of my injuries, but because of what I'd just felt. That surge of power... it was exactly like what I'd been suppressing all my life. What Bryan had always told me to hide.

"Why?" I demanded. "Why did you separate us? Why didn't you come for me sooner?"

"Because," a new voice said from the doorway, "she was protecting you from me."

A man stepped into the room – powerful, scarred, with Bryan at his side. My father. The former Rivera Pack Alpha, who everyone thought was dead.

"Hello, princess," he said softly. "I've waited eighteen years to eliminate the only threats to my power. My own flesh and blood."

The monitors screamed as another contraction hit. Through the pain, I saw Sandra's satisfied smile, Adam's tormented face, my mother's fury, and my father's cold calculation.

But they'd all made one crucial mistake.

They'd forgotten about the white wolf – my twin brother – who'd been silently moving into position.

As consciousness started to fade, I saw him launch at our father. Saw Sandra reach for another syringe. Saw my mother's hands begin to glow with power.

And felt something else: my babies, responding to the chaos. Power surged through me, different from anything I'd felt before. Not Rivera power. Not Knox power.

Something new. Something that made every wolf in the room take a step back in shock.

"Impossible," my father whispered. "The triplet gene was lost generations ago."

The last thing I saw before the darkness took me was Bryan's face – not looking at our father, not at the fighting wolves, but at my stomach. At what his political games had almost destroyed.

Through the pain of another contraction, I watched Bryan's face. Not the cold, ambitious Beta who'd rejected me, but the man who'd once held me through three miscarriages. Who'd whispered promises about our future family. His eyes were fixed on the ultrasound monitor still showing our babies' heartbeats.

"Get out." My voice shook. "All of you."

Sandra stepped forward. "You don't give orders here—"

"But I do." My mother's quiet voice cut through the chaos. "My daughter needs medical attention. Everyone out. Now."

The room cleared slowly. Bryan lingered at the door, his face twisted with something that looked like regret. Too little, too late.

When only my mother remained, I finally let the tears fall. "Why didn't you come for me sooner?"

She sat beside my bed, her hand hovering over mine, uncertain. "Because I thought you were safe. Happy. We watched from afar – your mating ceremony, your rise in the pack. Until..."

"Until Bryan rejected me and I almost died with your grandchildren."

The monitors beeped in the heavy silence.

"I'm not going back to either pack," I said finally. "I can't trust any of you. These babies deserve better than political games and power plays."

"Jessica—"

"I had three miscarriages trying to give Bryan an heir." My voice cracked. "Three times, I watched him pull away when we lost them. Three times, I heard whispers about finding a more 'suitable' mate. And now that I'm finally carrying his pups, he's chosen pack status over family. I won't let my children grow up thinking that's normal."

A sharp pain made me gasp. The doctor rushed back in, face grim as she checked the monitors.

"BP's rising. We need to make a decision now." She looked between us. "Either we move her to the Rivera Pack's medical facility, or..."

My mother straightened. "I'll make the arrangements—"

"No." I gripped the bed rails. "I'm going to the human hospital in the city."

"That's three hours away," the doctor protested. "Without pack medical support—"

"Exactly." I met my mother's stunned gaze. "No pack politics. No power plays. Just a mother protecting her children."

Through the window, I could see Bryan in the parking lot, phone pressed to his ear, probably already plotting his next political move. Six years ago, that sight would have broken me.

Now it just made me stronger.

"You want to help?" I asked my mother. "Then let me go. Let me give these babies something neither pack can offer – freedom to choose who they want to be."

The monitors screamed as another contraction hit. But this time, the pain felt different. Urgent.

"They're coming," the doctor announced. "We don't have time to move you anywhere."

My mother gripped my hand as the first real labor pain tore through me. Outside, I heard Bryan's voice rising, demanding to be let back in.

Let him wait. Let them all wait.

Right now, in this moment, I wasn't a Rivera heir or a Knox reject. I was just a mother, fighting for something worth more than any

pack status – my children's future.

And for the first time since Bryan walked away, I knew exactly who I was.