Knotting His Rejected Breeder

RAMON’S POV

I sat behind my desk with a glass of whiskey in my hand.

I hadn’t touched it.

The ice had already melted, leaving the drink watered down, but I kept staring at it as if the answer to every problem in my life was sitting at the bottom of the glass.

The door opened without a knock.

I looked up, Ivy walked in. Her face was pale. She was holding a folded piece of paper between two fingers like she wanted to throw it at me but had decided against it.

"Ramon."

The way she said my name made me straighten.

"What happened?"

She walked to my desk and dropped the paper in front of me.

"Sonia showed me this."

My eyes fell to the letter. For a second, I didn’t understand what I was looking at.

Then I saw the handwriting. My stomach tightened.

"She said her father gave it to her when she was in Silverpaw," Ivy continued. "She thought it was from you."

I reached for the paper.

The moment I unfolded it, something cold moved through me.

I read the first line. Then the second. By the time I reached the bottom, I could barely breathe.

I can’t tell you how glad I am to finally be able to create life with you.

My fingers tightened around the paper.

I am coming to get Sonia back because I haven’t finished what I started with her father.

I stared at my name at the bottom.

The room seemed to grow smaller. "This isn’t mine."

My voice sounded strange.

Ivy crossed her arms. "I know."

I looked up at her. "How?"

"Because I know you. And I know your handwriting."

She pointed at the letter. "Your letters are heavier. You press too hard when you write. This person was careful. Whoever wrote this wanted it to look like you, but they didn’t know you well enough to copy you properly."

I looked down at the paper again. She was right. The words were mine in name only. I would never have written them.

Not about Sonia. Not about loving Lorena. Not even when I had been angry enough to hate everything connected to her father.

My jaw tightened. "Who gave this to her?"

"Her father."

The room went silent.

I looked at Ivy. "Are you sure?"

"That’s what she told me."

I leaned back in my chair. For a moment, I couldn’t speak. I had spent months believing Sonia had chosen to leave me. Believing she had looked at me, decided she wanted nothing to do with me, and walked away.

But she had left because of this. Because someone had taken my name and used it to destroy the last thing between us.

My hand curled into a fist.

Ivy watched me carefully. "You knew where she was."

It wasn’t a question.

I looked away. "Ivy."

"You knew."

I remained silent.

Her eyes narrowed. "You’ve been going to that house in the woods, haven’t you?"

I slowly lifted my eyes to hers. "How did you know?"

"Blane told me."

My jaw tightened. "That son of a bitch..." I muttered with an eyebrow.

"And Daniel," she added. "They followed you once."

I looked down at the letter.

"How long? How long have you been going there?"

I didn’t answer.

Ivy stepped closer. "Ramon."

"Five months."

Her expression changed. For a moment, I thought she was going to slap me.

"Five months?" She yelled in shock.

"I never went inside."

Her eyes widened. "That is not the part you should be defending."

"I needed to know she was safe."

"You could have knocked on the door."

"I couldn’t."

"Why?"

I looked at her. Because I had been afraid. The words stayed in my throat.

I had faced enemies without hesitation. I had walked into battles knowing I might not walk out alive. But standing in front of Sonia had terrified me.

Because I didn’t know what she would see when she looked at me. The man who had hurt her?

The man she had once loved? The father of her child? Or a stranger?

"I didn’t know if she wanted to see me."

Ivy’s face hardened. "You let her believe you didn’t care."

I looked down.

"You let her believe you were happy with Lorena."

"I wasn’t."

"But she didn’t know that."

I said nothing.

Ivy’s voice rose. "She is pregnant, Ramon. She is carrying your child while believing you had chosen another woman. And I know you know that the child she’s carrying is yours,"

My fingers tightened around the letter. "I know."

"No, you don’t."

"I know!"

The words burst out of me. The room went quiet. I lowered my head. My breathing had become uneven.

"I know," I repeated, quieter this time.

Ivy stared at me.

Then her anger slowly faded. "Then why are you still letting Lorena stay here?"

I looked at her.

Ivy’s eyes were burning. "Ramon, Lorena is not carrying your child. And you know that,"

The room went still.

I stared at her. "What did you say?"

Ivy’s mouth tightened. "She is not carrying your child."

I stood slowly. "How do you know that?"

"I know because you told me."

I frowned. "I never told you that."

"Not directly. And you were drunk that day too," Ivy’s eyes held mine. "You told me what you found."

The memories came back. The graveyard. The cold air. The sight of Lorena standing with Fenris. Her hand against his chest. His hand resting over her stomach. The way they had looked at each other. The way Fenris had kissed her.

I had seen them, I had heard them. And I had still walked away. I had still returned to the castle and allowed Lorena to remain under my protection but I had other plans.

I had told myself I needed proof. That I needed to be certain. But the truth was uglier.

I had been afraid of what would happen when the truth came out.

"She is Fenris’s," I said.

Ivy nodded. "You saw them together."

I looked away. "I saw them."

"And you still kept her here."

My jaw tightened.

Ivy stared at me. "You saw them together."

"I know what I saw."

"Then why did you need more?"

I didn’t answer.

Because Lorena had been the one person I had allowed myself to believe. Because I had convinced myself that the child was mine.

Because accepting the truth meant admitting that I had been fooled by the same woman who had helped destroy Sonia.

My eyes burned.

I looked down at the letter in my hand. The lies were everywhere. Lorena’s lies. Fenris’s lies. The letter. Sonia. The baby.

Everything had been twisted until I couldn’t tell what was real anymore.

"I was a fool."

Ivy’s expression softened. "Yes."

I looked at her.

She sighed. "But you’re my brother."

A bitter laugh escaped me. "That doesn’t make me less of one."

"No. It doesn’t."

She came around the desk. "You have made terrible choices in women, Ramon."

I stared at her. "You’re right."

"And you hurt the people who loved you."

My throat tightened. "I know."

Ivy’s eyes became wet. "Then stop standing there like you’re the only person who has suffered."

The words struck harder than I expected. I looked away. For months, I had been angry. At Sonia. At the world. But beneath all that anger had been something else.

Guilt.

I had simply refused to look at it. A tear slipped down my cheek. I didn’t wipe it away.

Ivy went still.

I hadn’t cried in years. Not when my parents died. Not when I buried people I loved. Not when I thought Sonia had chosen to leave me. But now, one tear became another.

I covered my face with both hands. "I’m sorry."

My voice broke. Ivy didn’t say anything.

"I’m sorry, Ivy."

She walked around the desk and pulled me into her arms. For a moment, I remained stiff. Then something inside me gave way.

I held my sister. My shoulders shook.

"I should have gone to her," I whispered.

"Yes."

"I should have asked her."

"Yes."

"I should have believed her."

Ivy held me tighter. "Yes."

I let out a broken laugh through my tears.

"You could lie to me once."

"No."

I laughed again, but the sound quickly disappeared.

When we finally pulled apart, Ivy wiped her face.

"Now read the letter again."

I looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because this time, don’t read it as the man who lost Sonia."

I frowned.

"Read it as the man who is finally looking at the evidence."

I looked down.

The words were still there. But now I saw what I had missed. The phrasing. The unnatural way the letter spoke. The attempt to sound like me.

The details that only someone close to Sonia would know.

My eyes narrowed. "This wasn’t written by one person."

Ivy’s expression changed. "What?"

I turned the paper around. "Look at the wording."

She leaned closer.

"Some of these phrases sound like someone who knows how I speak. But the rest..."

I traced one sentence with my finger. "This part sounds like someone who knows Sonia."

Ivy’s eyes narrowed. "Someone helped write it. Or someone gave them the information."

The door opened.

Blane walked in. His eyes immediately found Ivy. For one brief second, his expression softened. He blew her a quick kiss.

Ivy’s cheeks flushed. I pretended not to notice.

"What is it, Alpha?" Blane asked.

I handed him the letter. "Read this."

He took it. His expression changed as his eyes moved over the page.

"This isn’t your handwriting."

"No."

He looked up. "Who wrote it? It cruel."

"That’s what we’re going to find out." I walked to the cabinet against the wall and unlocked the bottom drawer.

Inside was a box filled with old documents. I pulled out several letters.

Blane frowned. "What are those?"

"Letters from my father’s private collection."

I placed one beside the letter Sonia had received. Then another. The writing on the first letter was familiar.

Fenris.

I knew it immediately. The sharp strokes. The slight curve beneath certain words.

The way he formed the letter r. I placed it beside Sonia’s letter. Blane leaned over the desk. Ivy went quiet. The room seemed to lose all sound.

I looked at the two pages. Then at the letter again. There it was.

A tiny curve at the bottom of one word. A habit.

A writing pattern. The same one Fenris had used in the old letter.

My blood ran cold.

"Fenris."

Blane’s jaw tightened. "You’re sure?"

"I’ve known his handwriting for years."

I picked up another letter. This one had a second handwriting in the margins.

Lorena’s.

The same careful, neat strokes. The same strange spacing between certain words.

I looked at Ivy.

"They did this together."

Her face hardened. "Fenris and Lorena."

"They wanted Sonia to believe I hated her."

Blane’s eyes darkened. "And they wanted you to believe she had rejected you."

I looked at the letter. My hand trembled. "They succeeded."

The realization hit me all over again. Sonia had been carrying my child. I had been standing outside her home every week. And neither of us had known the truth.

Because two people had decided to destroy us. I slammed my fist onto the desk. The wood cracked beneath my hand.

Ivy flinched.

I stared at the broken surface. "They played me."

My voice was low. "They played Sonia."

Blane’s expression became cold. "And they played all of us."

I picked up the letter. Then Fenris’s old letter.

I folded both carefully and placed them inside my jacket.

Ivy stared at me. "What are you going to do?"

I looked toward the door. "For the first time, I’m going to stop waiting."

Blane straightened. "Ramon."

I turned to him. "Find Fenris."

His eyes narrowed. "And Lorena?"

I thought of the woman carrying another man’s child while allowing me to believe it was mine.

I thought of Sonia. Her tears. Her anger. The letter. The child she had carried without me.

My chest tightened. "Bring her to me."

Ivy’s face changed. "Ramon, don’t do anything stupid."

I looked at her. "I’m not going to kill her."

Blane raised an eyebrow. "That is not reassuring."

"I need answers."

I walked toward the door. Then I stopped. Blane stepped in front of me and placed a firm hand on my shoulder.

"Don’t rush this, Ramon."

I looked at him.

His grip tightened. "We need to plan carefully. You can’t go after Lorena like this. Not when she’s this close to delivery. If she suspects anything, she’ll run. And if she runs, we lose everything. And for Fenris, I advise we wait, because I’m sure that man is planing war against us but we don’t know when or what running through that head of his. Think of Sonia, don’t confront them now,"

Ivy nodded beside him. "Blane is right. We plan this well. We make sure she doesn’t escape and doesn’t suspect a thing. One wrong move and she slips away with all her secrets."

I stared at both of them. The anger still burned in my chest, but their words cut through it.

I took a slow breath. "You’re right."

Blane didn’t let go of my shoulder. "We do this together. No more running in alone."

Ivy looked at me. "And when the time comes, you face Sonia with a clear head. Not like this."

I nodded slowly, as the three of us stood there in silence.