ENTWINED IN LACE

RACHEL POV I felt pain. A severe one. It was like my abdomen was set on fire—a raw, throbbing pain in my chest. It wasn't just a twinge. I ignored it at first because I figured it was just those busted ribs acting up again. The ones that never healed after I fell from those stairs. I was experiencing respiratory distress. But then I heard them. Loud Laughter. The kind that gets on your nerves. I recognized it. A male voice. Way too familiar. It was Lucas, my so-called husband and the Alpha. But then I heard another voice interrupt him. Sweet as honey but with a nasty sting. It was obvious that it was the freakin' she-wolf I took in last summer. Alice. I have her food, a roof over her head, and a spacious room of about nine yards. I trusted her, like a total fool. And now she was all giggly on the other side of Lucas's bedroom door. Imagining the entire event was tearing me apart. And me? I was stuck in my wheelchair in the hallway with a pot of freakin' porridge wobbling on my lap. “Seriously,” Alice cooed, “She’s just dead weight now. I mean, look at her all broken and bitter. Wallowing with that fake baby bump. It’s laughable.” “I can't just kick her to the curb,” Lucas mumbled. But you could tell his heart wasn't in it. Whatever. “She’s carrying my heir, supposedly.” I should've bailed right then and there. I wheeled myself back to my room, locked the door, and had myself a good cry like I used to. But that old Rachel-the one who did everything she was told, the Luna who practically begged for a crumb of affection–was long gone. The one who thought suffering would lead to a reward. Nope. This Rachel wasn't budging. “She's probably faking it anyway,” Alice hissed, her voice turning mean. “You said it yourself. She's not your real mate. The Moon lied. That heir could be from anyone. Her bloodline is trash. Useless. She can't even shift.” “True,” Lucas agreed, his voice cold enough to freeze hell over. “Ever since I found out she wasn’t the one for me, she’s been a burden.” My eyes became sore. My throat tightened up. I remembered the staircase incident. I can't forget in a hurry how he watched his pregnant Luna fall. He didn't twitch a muscle. No regrets. No apologies. His hands were clean as a whistle when the paramedics showed up. And he whispered the most awful words I have ever heard as I lay there bleeding out severely at his feet: “You tricked me.” “I frickin' made you Alpha,” I croaked out through busted teeth. I regretted the words as soon as I said them. “I was born to be Alpha, you lunatic,” he hissed. So much for loving memories. And now, here I was, hauling my sorry butt to bring him breakfast. What a joke. “She has to go,” Alice insisted. “Let her croak in that bastard chair. Just let her bleed out when she's in labor. Then make me your Luna, already. I'm the one with the true blood. I'm the one this pack will follow through hell and back.” Silence. Then… “You’ll get what you want, Alice. You always do, don't you..” The pot crashed on the floor. The Porcelain shattered into a million pieces. The oatmeal and porridge splattered all over me and extended to the hardwood. I was prompted to scream, to shout, to rip that door from its position. I wanted to drag them both through heaps of broken glass. Rather, something more severe ripped through me. A snap. A wild gush. The scorching pressure was low in my belly. My water broke. The baby! “Lucas!” I yelled, grabbing the wheelchair for my dear life as pain shot through my hips and back. “Lucas, the baby’s coming!” The door creaked open – slow, lazy. Lucas walked out with no shirt on, and his belt was undone. He looked annoyed like I'd interrupted his afternoon stroll. “Take her to the hospital,” he said to someone behind him. “I’m not leaving Alice.” A guard stepped out of the shadows and grabbed my chair. No questions asked. No sign of concern. Just doing his job. “Lucas – please! Please – stay with me. Our baby…” “My baby,” he corrected, brushing some imaginary lint off his shoulder. “You're worthless now.” I couldn't catch my breath. I was wheeled down the hall like garbage. Past the portraits of these ancestors whose blessings I couldn't feel anymore. Down the marble steps where my bones had cracked. Passed the prying eyes of the pack. Dragged into the frigid metal of a van. The pain hit in waves. And I lost consciousness. *** A hospital bed? I apparently woke up in a hospital bed. The lights above were blurred like those fake halos used in funerals. Blood. The smell of it. The stickiness of it all. My legs were paralytic and painful. My throat was also sore. Maybe I had been screaming, or was my throat operated on? Maybe just praying. Either way, I felt…void. Then I sighted him. Lucas. Standing at the bedside. Not by my side. But holding my hand or smiling at me. He just stood there, arms crossed, a smirk plastered on his face. He held a bundle in his arms. A baby. My baby. Our baby. Mine. A boy. Wrapped in a blue blanket, sleeping so innocently. “You made it,” Lucas said, like he was talking to a stranger. “Barely.” My lips cracked open. “The… the baby? Our baby Lucas.” I tried to smile expecting Lucas to reciprocate. “He’s fine. Healthy. Strong. Just like his father.” He spoke rather angrily. I almost burst into tears. “But then…” his voice shifted. “The doctor said you lost a lot of blood. You need a transfusion. But you’ll have to find someone else. I’m not letting my blood save your useless body.” I blinked. “What?” He laughed. I laughed. “You think I’d give you my blood, after everything? After you deceived me? You were never who I intended to marry, you bastard!” The machines beside me started beeping faster. My chest felt like it was being squeezed. Panic set in. Everything was wrong – my vision went blurry, my skin turned clammy. I was dying. And he just stood there. “Lucas – please” I whispered. “Help me.” “Why should I help you? You are nothing to me.” Then I saw her. Alice. Standing right behind him. In my room. Wearing my Luna cloak. She smiled at me. A smile of pure evil. “Goodbye, Rachel,” She purred. The beeping went faster, then slower. I couldn't breathe. My hands gripped the sheets in vain. I looked at my son–my beautiful son–held in the arms of a monster. “No… please…” The light faded. My soul snapped out of my body. And I saw them. The last thing I saw was his tiny fist curled beside Lucas's arm… and Alice reaching for him. I was wholly consumed by darkness. As the world faded and death took a grasp over me. I thought I was done. But then… The Machines flatlined and the ward went silent. Suddenly, I was standing. My soul was standing, outside my broken body. Tears welling up on my eyes. I screamed in silence and my gaze fell on Lucas who turned to Alice and said, “We did it,” he muttered, brushing a kiss over her cheek.