Chapter 4 "It was Mom!" Cora Blackstone cried, tears streaming down her face. "She knew we were allergic, but she gave them to us anyway!" Kai Blackstone nodded hard. "She's horrible!" Luna June Blackstone grabbed the doorframe so tight her knuckles went white. "Kai, Cora, do you understand what you're saying? You better tell the truth right now!" "Enough!" Alpha Nicholas shot up and grabbed her wrist so hard she thought he might break it. "June Blackstone, is this what kind of mother you are? Not only hurting them, but making them lie about it?" "I didn't..." June's voice shook. "So you're saying they're lying?" He looked at her like she was dirt. "They're just pups. If you can't even admit what you did, do you even deserve to be their mother?" The two pups started crying harder, and Nicholas let go of June to comfort them. Their cries got louder and more desperate, their little faces turning red. "Daddy..." Cora sobbed, "we feel so sick..." "What can I do to make you feel better?" Nicholas asked softly, wiping away her tears. Kai glared at June with his eyes all red and puffy. "She's allergic to moonlight grass too-make her eat some! Then she'll know how it feels!" June felt ice cold all over. She looked at Nicholas, and the look in his eyes made her want to run. "Fine." He stood up and snapped his fingers, and two of his enforcers came through the door. "Hold her." Before June could move, they had her pinned in a chair. One of them grabbed her jaw and forced her mouth open. They shoved a concentrated moonlight grass tablet down her throat, the bitter herb making her gag and choke as it burned her throat. Hives started spreading across her skin immediately, her face began to swell up, and she couldn't breathe right. She clawed at her neck, everything going blurry as she stared at Nicholas. He just stood there watching, not doing anything to stop it. The pups had stopped crying and were clapping their hands. "Good! She deserves it! Now she knows how bad it feels!" Right before everything went black, the last thing June saw was the cold look in Alpha Nicholas Blackstone's eyes. ... When June woke up, she was in a hospital bed. Her throat still felt like someone had shoved sandpaper down it, and there were still red welts all over her skin. She could hear voices outside her room-one of them was Megan Silvermoon. "Nick, I had no idea they couldn't have moonlight grass... I just wanted to help them get stronger for their training..." "It's not your fault," Alpha Nicholas said, his voice all gentle. "You were trying to help." "I should have asked first, then this whole mess with June wouldn't have happened." She sounded so sorry. "And Kai, Cora, you shouldn't have covered for me and blamed your mom." The pups' voices came through the door, sounding all sad: "Aunt Megan, we're sorry..." Cora sniffled. "We just... we just don't like Mom..." "Yeah," Kai said, "she's always telling us what to do and never lets us have fun... We want her to go away..." June's fingers grabbed the hospital sheets so hard her knuckles went white again. These were the pups she'd carried for months, almost dying when she gave birth to them. She remembered when Kai was born and nobody was waiting outside the delivery room. A nurse told her that Nicholas was busy with pack business and couldn't come. She'd gone through all that pain by herself. And when Cora was born, it was even worse-there were complications and she almost bled to death, with the doctors saying she might not make it. Nicholas had been in Europe dealing with some territorial dispute. And now these same pups that she'd almost died bringing into the world were the ones hurting her the most!