Betrayed luna: daughter stolen by her mate Chapter 09

Dante sent me a video. Hospital room. Maria in the bed, head wrapped in bandages, smiling at him like she’d forgotten how to frown.

And in Dante’s arms—Bella.

I didn’t even change my shoes. I ran straight to the hospital. Mia chased after me and wiped out on the way.

“Layla! Slow down! Dylan’s on his way. Just wait!”

My heart was already in that room. I couldn’t wait another second.

After nearly a year, I finally held my daughter again.

I clutched Bella to my chest and sobbed until I couldn’t breathe.

I’d lost her twice. This tiny girl had lived inside me for nine months. She was all I’d dreamed about. All I’d fought for.

“Bella. Mommy found you.”

This time, only death would take her from me.

Mia kept her arms around me. Dylan finally arrived just before I passed out from crying.

Once I’d calmed down enough, Dante crept closer.

“Layla. Bella’s back. Our Bella’s back. She’s never leaving us again.”

I didn’t acknowledge him. I only had eyes for my daughter.

Then the door crashed open. A woman with wild hair stumbled in, her gaze locked on the pup in my arms. She lunged.

“Bella. Give her back. She’s my daughter. Give her to me!”

Mia and Dylan blocked her immediately. She clawed at them like a caged animal.

“Emily. Emily, calm down. I’m sorry. This is my fault. But I can’t let you keep her anymore.”

Dante wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to pull her back. She spun and slapped him.

“Dante, that’s my pup!”

“Emily, I can’t lose this pup now. Just let me owe you this one. Please. Give her back to me.”

She lunged again. Mia put her down in seconds.

“So you’re Emily. Dante’s first love. I’m Layla’s sister-in-law. Bella is Layla’s daughter. She carried her for nine months. Did anyone ask Layla what she wanted? Dante stole the pup and gave her to you. You disappeared with her. That’s a crime under pack law. You understand that?”

“I don’t care. Dante gave her to me. I’ve raised her all this time. She’s mine. No one can say otherwise. I’m her real mother.”

Emily was unraveling fast. She looked exactly like I had in my previous life. Half out of her mind but still lucid enough.

“Dante. You stole my pup while I wasn’t looking. I’ll call the authorities on all of you. Bella is mine.”

She thrashed and screamed. Dylan watched for a moment, then pulled out his phone and called the pack patrol.

Emily was taken away on charges of pup trafficking. Dante went with her.

As Bella’s mother, I had to go give my statement too.

Before I left, I handed Bella to Mia. Maria struggled to sit up in her hospital bed.

“Bella. You can’t take her. Give Bella to me.”

“No. I’m her mother. She goes where I go.”

That was the last time they saw Bella.

At the pack tribunal, I went straight for the throat. I pressed charges against both of them. Dante and Emily. Neither was walking away.

Dante asked to see me. I thought about it, then agreed.

“Layla. Bella’s back now. Can you just let Emily go?”

He was still in handcuffs. Still living in his own world.

“Will she let me and Bella go?”

She wouldn’t. I knew her state of mind too well. She’d never stop.

“She will. I’ll talk to her. I can convince her.”

“Save your breath. You both ruined my life. You think I’m letting either of you off the hook? Not a chance.”

“But we wer—”

I narrowed my eyes. I had no energy left for this conversation.

He had no idea what I’d been through. How could he?

“Dante. You really think a mother who loses her pup just goes on like nothing happened? You have no idea what a mother’s love is.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means from now on, neither me nor Bella has anything to do with you. You care about Emily so much? Wait for her to get out. Spend the rest of your lives together. Honestly? You two deserve each other.”

In my previous life, I called the patrol too. Dante told them I had postpartum depression. He locked me in the house and dismissed them in two sentences.

When Dylan and Mia came to check on me, Dante drugged me until I was incoherent.

He told everyone I’d lost my mind. Showed them fake medical records. Said I was a danger to the pup. His parents had taken Bella to the countryside for her own safety.

He cut off every lifeline I had. He drove me to my death.

All so his precious first love could have what she wanted.

I would never let them go.

Emily was charged with pup trafficking and diagnosed with intermittent psychosis. She wasn’t sentenced to prison. She was committed to a psychiatric facility instead.

Dante got one year. I broke our mate bond through the proper legal channels.

Bella was granted to me. I requested that all paternal rights be terminated. With his criminal record, the court approved it without hesitation.

I took Bella to a new city. We started a new life.

A year later, Dante was released. Whatever happened to him inside, I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.

He never came looking for me.

Mia told me he visited Emily constantly. Her condition hadn’t improved. She still wandered the halls clutching a pillow, calling it her baby.

Bella grew fast. Kindergarten before I knew it.

Mia and Dylan tried to set me up a few times. I turned them all down.

I had everything I needed. I would raise Bella, and that would be enough.

She might grow up without a father. But she would have double the love from me.

I would protect her for the rest of my life.