Alpha's Regret: Rejected Luna Becomes The Prize

Chapter 04

~SERAPHINA~

I was getting breakfast ready for Kael's arrival when my phone suddenly buzzed on the counter. I smiled for a second, thinking Kael had somehow remembered me while he was away, but the smile vanished the moment I opened it

It was a photo of my mother's healing house sent by Celeste. Her place. The one place that had ever truly belonged to my mother.

While I was still trying to comprehend the meaning of the first photo and why she was at my mother's healing house, another photo came in. A property transfer deed which states Celeste as the new owner of the healing house.

Kael's signature sat at the bottom, bold and unmistakable and my world went strangely quiet at the sight of it. This had to be fake, Kael wouldn't.

A third photo came in. Celeste was standing inside the healing house now, smiling for the camera while the shelves my mother had built with her own hands were being emptied behind her. Dried herbs were scattered across the floor, and it seemed like she was turning everything upside down.

A message came in while I was still staring at the photo,

~Come see for yourself if you don't believe me. Everything your mother left behind belongs to me now, your husband made sure of it.~

I stared at the words until they blurred. The healing house wasn't just a building, it was the last piece of my mother I still had and had fought hard to keep after her death. She had taught me to identify healing herbs before I could read and had once told me I had a special gift for perfect herbs, and now, he had given it away without a single conversation.

Lola whimpered inside me. He's taken the last thing Mother left us.

A sharp pain twisted low in my stomach, and my hand flew to it instinctively. "It's alright," I whispered. "I'm here." The pain eased with slow breathing, but I already knew I wasn't staying home. I grabbed my coat, tucking my phone into it and my keys, and drove out of the building as fast as I could.

The healing house looked exactly as I remembered when I pulled up. Nothing had changed from the outside. My heart didn't believe it for a second.

Lavender and rosemary and chamomile hit me the moment I stepped through the door, and for one fleeting second I was twelve again, following my mother from shelf to shelf. Then another scent cut through it, Celeste's perfume, sweet, heavy and artificial.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't come."

She stood in the middle of my mother's workspace in a cream dress that looked absurd next to the drying herbs, a folded document resting in her hand, wearing that same practiced smile everyone else mistook for kindness.

"What is this?" My voice came out steadier than I felt.

"What does it look like?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

She laughed softly, glancing at the papers. "The transfer? He gave it to me yesterday. I didn't even have to ask twice." She traced a finger over Kael's signature, almost lovingly.

"This place belonged to my mother, and it was left to me after she died. It's mine, Celeste.”

"It belongs to me now. I've never actually wanted this building, Seraphina. I wanted you to know that if I ask Kael for something, he'll always choose me. You've been his wife for three years, and one request from me outweighed all of them."

The words landed harder than I wanted them to, mostly because some part of me already believed they were true.

"You've always enjoyed taking things that weren't yours," I said. "My mother's reputation. You let everyone believe you inherited her gift. You never corrected them. You just accepted the praise."

Her smile faltered for a second. "The pack needed a healer."

"The pack had one. You just weren't her."

Something dark flickered across her face before she smoothed it over. "You should be careful what you accuse people of."

"I'm not accusing you," I said, stepping closer. "I'm reminding you."

She recovered with a colder smile. "You've changed, Seraphina, and I'm quite impressed.”

"I've grown up."

"No. You've grown hopeful. She folded her arms. "You think that one month Kael promised you means something. It doesn't. Do you know where he’s been sleeping all those nights he never came back home? Whose name he's whispered for years?" She leaned in, voice dropping. "Not yours. You've always been convenient, Seraphina. Never loved."

Once, that would have broken me. Instead I just looked at her, and slowly, I smiled — not because I was happy, but because for the first time in years, her words didn't have the power to touch me. “If that's the case, then what are you so afraid of, Celeste? Are you afraid that I might get Kael to fall in love with me soon?”

The smile vanished off her face. "You think you've won?"

"I don't think anything." I glanced around the room one last time. "I just know that no matter how much you steal, you'll never become the woman my mother was."

Her eyes went dark, the sweetness cracking off her completely. "There you are," she whispered. "I've been wondering how long it would take you to stop acting like the helpless little sister." She took a slow step toward me, something almost excited flickering behind her eyes. "Good."

A car door slammed outside. Celeste's head snapped toward the window, and her smile turned real.

"He's here."

"Who?"

She didn't answer. She just glanced toward the staircase behind us. I followed her gaze to the window and saw a black SUV pulling into the driveway and instantly recognized it.

Kael.

My heart lurched, and for one foolish second, relief flooded through me. Maybe he'd come to explain, maybe there'd been a misunderstanding.

Celeste folded the transfer document onto the table. "I told him I had a surprise for him. I suppose you're part of it." She turned to face me fully. "The winning kind."

Footsteps sounded from downstairs, unhurried, and I moved toward the staircase. "I'll ask him myself."

"Oh, you will." Celeste stopped me with her voice alone, then walked to stand at the top of the stairs. I found myself following without thinking.

"What are you doing?"

She didn't answer. She just waited.

"Celeste?" Kael's voice carried up from below.

"I'm upstairs," she called sweetly.

Something about her felt extremely strange in a way that made my skin crawl. She turned to me, smiling. "You know what I've always loved most about you? You never see the knife until it's already in your back."

"What—"

She leaned close enough that her breath touched my ear. "So tell me. When Kael has to choose, who do you think he'll save?"

Her hands hit my shoulders before I could react. My foot slipped, the world tilted, and in the same instant she threw herself backward too.

"No!" I reached for her on instinct, but it was too late as we went down the stairs together. Pain exploded through my back with every step I hit, my head cracked against the railing, and the air left my lungs before the world finally stopped spinning.

For a heartbeat I couldn't hear anything, couldn't breathe. Then a sharp pain twisted through my abdomen, and my hand flew to my stomach.

The baby.

"Celeste!" Kael's voice echoed loudly from outside,

"Kael," I whispered.

I lifted my head enough to see him rush in, and for one impossible second I believed he was coming for me. Then he ran past me and went straight to her.

"Celeste!" He dropped to his knees beside her, gathering her into his arms while she sobbed against him.

"I-I slipped—"

"Hey, easy, I've got you."

I lay a few feet away, unable to move, unable to breathe right, and stretched one trembling hand toward him. "Kael," I called as another wave of pain tore through me.

~Please, please, our baby~ Lola whimpered inside me, and for one flickering second Kael's eyes actually met mine before Celeste cried out again.

"Kael, don't leave me—"

His attention snapped back to her instantly. "We're going to the hospital. I owe her my life from eight years ago." He stood with her in his arms and ran, not once looking back at me. The door slammed behind them.

Silence.

A single tear slid down my cheek as the pain in my stomach sharpened. As my vision darkened at the edges, I reached out to my phone in my pocket and instantly dialed Lily's number. If anything happened to my babies, I would go crazy.

She answered the call on the second ring, and I managed to cry out,

“Lily,... H…help me…”

“Sera? Are you okay? Where are you? What happened…”

I tried to talk, but I was gasping for air as my hands cradled the tiny life growing inside of me. I kept hearing Lily's voice as I was slowly slipping into darkness,

“Sera, please… talk to me, please…”

“H…healing…’

I didn't finish before I closed my eyes and passed out.