Fractured Bond: Hiding the Alpha's heir

10: Tainted

Layla POV

The nausea started right after the rejection. I'd told myself that it was the bond severance, the stress and the lack of food.

I'd tried everything I could to hide my illness from my family, but I'd failed. They noticed. They simply believed I deserved to be sick for the shame I might have brought upon the Voss name.

Beta Gordon and his mate kept giving me evil side glances.

I was thankful they hadn't said a word about the incident with George. I was also disturbed by the nagging thought about graduation night.

How the waiter had arrived behind Beta Gordon. How he'd smiled and handed me the wine glass. Was it possible that I was drugged?

Was the nausea a side effect of whatever was in my drink that night? I desperately prayed it was.

Nash had taken a drink from the same server and he'd been fine the next morning.

Maybe my mind was trying very hard to cast blame on someone else for my own errors.

Three days after the recurring sickness started, I'd snuck into the pack's hospital to get checked.

I was back for the results now and sitting across the desk from Doctor Fennis as she placed the paper in front of me.

She pushed it towards me. I stared with pure dread at what was clearly a positive on a pregnancy test.

"Should I say congratulations?" Her voice was gentle.

"I'm guessing not."

I couldn't speak. I was rereading the word Positive. If I read it enough times, maybe it would stop meaning what it meant.

I was seven weeks along. Before graduation, and the party. Before everything had completely fallen apart.

Draven...

"Your hormone levels are consistent with the timeline," Doctor Fennis said quietly. "You're healthy. So is the pregnancy." She paused. "Layla, I know this is a lot."

It was more than a lot.

The end of every plan I had made for the next three years of my life was staring back at me in a single sheet of paper.

"I need to ask you a favor," I managed softly.

"Doctor-patient confidentiality applies to everyone who walks through that door," she said. "Including the Beta's ward. Including this." She nodded at the results. "No one will hear it from me. Not your family. Not anyone."

I exhaled slowly.

"But Layla." She leaned forward slightly. "You need to think carefully about what comes next. Beta Gordon has connections. All you have to do is tell him whose child this is. The father would have no choice but to take responsibility. That is one option."

I thought about Beta Gordon's study. About his wife's face when she had called me all sorts of names. A garbage. Rogue's daughter. Cursed. Wolfless. The names echoed in my head along with visions of the slap. All directed at me by the female I'd called mom for eleven years.

"The father is not from this pack," I replied at last.

She held my gaze for a moment, reading something there that I hadn't fully said.

Then she sat back.

"Then you'll need to go to him. Will he take responsibility?"

I lowered my head. I didn't know the answer. All I knew was what mom and dad… no, the pack… All I knew was what the pack would do to me.

On this side of the Realm, getting pregnant without a mate was a scandal. A stain that would dictate my life and my child's forever.

Getting pregnant for not just any ranked wolf, but the Alpha heir? That was a different matter.

A death sentence.

An orphan with rogue's blood in her veins.

Beta Gordon would first make sure Alpha Reynolds and his Luna didn't find out. He would neutralize the baby. And me.

That was the best case scenario I could imagine.

The male I now suspected of conspiring to put me in bed with George on graduation night in order to permanently end Draven's interest in me. I no longer knew how far Gordon Voss and his mate were willing to go to secure their daughter's place as the future Luna.

No law in the Realm would be on my side.

An orphan. A nobody who should be grateful a pack took her in but instead snuck around with the Alpha heir.

Draven might not even believe the baby was his.

If he doubted me about that night, who was to say he wouldn't doubt he's the child's father. He would subject me to tests to confirm. Or he'd make me wait till he could sense his blood.

Could I bear all of that on top of the pain of a severed bond and all the heartache?

"Layla.” The doctor's voice was gentle.

I lifted my head and looked at her.

“Going away means leaving your family. Leaving the pack." She paused. "What about medical school?"

I didn't answer. I had no answer.

I thanked her, took the results from the desk, folded them carefully, and put them in my pocket.

She wished me luck as I left. I believed she meant it.

✶⋆ ♡ ⋆✶

When I snuck back home later, Carla was leaving with the girls to go shopping. No doubt, for things to take to Luna training and Law school.

She was going shopping for a future that had been arranged and approved and celebrated.

I watched her leave from my cottage window. Julia fussed over her bag and the Beta stood in the garden with his arms crossed and his face full of uncomplicated pride.

Things had been strange between her and me since the morning after our graduation.

Her parents had told her where I ended up, and she hadn't said much to me.

Carla was not the kind of person who said many words when she was disappointed. All she'd said was,

'You've ruined your chances.'

That was all. No anger or accusation.

Her voice had carried the note of someone whose parents had told her what they needed her to believe. And she had given her verdict after hearing their version alone.

I had been seen drunk at a public function. Unconscious in the room with an Alpha heir who did not publicly claim me.

Whatever the truth of that night was, the appearance alone was enough.

I was ruined as a potential mate. I had brought something uncomfortable close to the Beta's name.

Carla hadn't said she believed it. She didn't need to.

Minutes after she left, I went into the main house. Straight to the Beta's study.

I needed to ask him directly rather than keep waiting for him to send for me.

I knocked.

"Come in."