THE ALPHA'S SECRET BABY

--- The pregnancy test was positive. Two pink lines stared back at me from the chipped bathroom counter of Omega Housing Unit 4. Mocking me. Sentencing me. The father was Alpha Kieran Blackwood. The same Alpha who looked me in the eyes six hours ago and said, _“You’re not worthy to bear my pups, omega.”_ If he finds out, he’ll kill me. Or worse — he’ll let his mother do it. My hands shook so hard I dropped the plastic stick. It clattered into the rust-stained sink, landing next to the toothbrush I shared with three other omegas. Cheap. Disposable. Like me. _One night._ That’s all it was supposed to be. The Blood Moon Festival happens once a year. One night when rank dissolves and wolves can choose anyone. Omegas are banned. We’re too weak to survive an Alpha’s rut, they say. We’re supposed to lock ourselves in Housing and pretend we don’t exist. But I was 20, stupid, and tired of being nothing. I snuck to the forest edge. Just to watch. Just to see what it felt like when wolves chose for _want_, not duty. I didn’t expect _him_. Kieran Blackwood wasn’t supposed to be at the tree line. Heirs have their pick of Beta daughters and foreign princesses. They don’t hunt in the dark with omegas. But the Blood Moon makes wolves feral. It makes grief into hunger. His father, King Alaric, died six months ago. The whole pack knew Kieran was drowning. He found me behind the willow tree. My scent must have screamed _unclaimed_ and _terrified_ and _virgin_ straight into his Alpha senses. I should have run. Omegas can run. It’s the one mercy we get. I froze. Because for the first time in my life, someone looked at me like I was _someone_. “You’re not supposed to be here, little omega,” he growled. His voice was already wrecked by the Moon. His eyes weren’t ice-blue anymore. They were black. Wolf. Hungry. “I know,” I whispered. “You should run.” He stepped closer. Pine and storm and Alpha power hit me like a wave. My knees almost gave out. “I know,” I said again. I didn’t move. He should have walked away. An Alpha with his future doesn’t risk it for pack property. But the Moon was full. And I was there. And his wolf had already decided. He caged me against the willow, arms on either side of my head. I disappeared in his shadow. “What’s your name, omega?” “Aria.” No one important had ever asked. “Aria.” He tested it. Tasted it. “Do you know what happens if I touch you, Aria?” “You’ll ruin me.” It wasn’t a question. Omegas who sleep with Alphas without claiming get exiled. Or killed. His thumb dragged across my bottom lip. “Or I’ll ruin myself.” Then his mouth was on mine. I’d never been kissed. Never been touched. Never been _chosen_. Kieran Blackwood did all three like he was starving and I was the only thing left in the world. He wasn’t gentle. Blood Moon Alphas can’t be. He lifted me, wrapped my legs around his waist, and took me against that tree. Bark scraped my back. His teeth found my throat. I screamed his name and didn’t care who heard. For ten minutes, I wasn’t an omega. I was _his_. After, he held me. Forehead to forehead, both of us shaking. The Moon’s haze started to fade and reality came back like a punch. “f**k,” he whispered. Not pleasure. Horror. We both knew what we’d done. He stood first. Fixed his clothes. Became Alpha Blackwood again. Heir. Untouchable. Cold. I stayed on the ground. Dress torn. Legs shaking. Smelling like _him_. He looked down at me. The black was gone from his eyes. Ice-blue again. Royal. Disgusted. “This never happened,” he said. His voice had no heat now. Just command. “If you tell anyone, if you _look_ at me, I will deny it. The pack will call you a lying, c**k-hungry omega and exile you. Or worse.” “I won’t,” I choked out. He glanced at my stomach. Like he could already see it. “You’re not worthy to bear my pups, omega. If there are consequences… handle it. Or I will.” _Handle it._ The healer. The bitter tea. The end. Then he was gone. Left me with pine, s*x, and my own stupidity in the air. I didn’t go to the healer. I told myself it was fear. That showing up asking for the tea would tell everyone what I did. Lie. I didn’t go because for one night, I was _chosen_. And some pathetic part of me wanted to keep it. Now I was staring at two pink lines and realizing I’d chosen death. A pounding on the Housing door made me jump. “Aria! Get out here! Kitchen duty!” Marta, the head omega, shouted. “If you’re late again, Victoria will have you whipped!” Queen Victoria. Kieran’s mother. The woman who demoted me to omega because her husband looked at me with pity once. If she found out I was carrying royal blood, she wouldn’t whip me. She’d gut me and call it tradition. I shoved the test into my pocket, splashed water on my face, and opened the door. My reflection was a ghost — dark hair tangled, hazel eyes red, Kieran’s bite mark already bruising on my neck. I pulled my collar up. “Coming!” I called. I had to work. I had to act normal. I had to figure out how to survive the next nine months with the Lycan King’s pups in my stomach. Because Kieran Blackwood might have rejected me. But his wolves wouldn’t. And twins? Twins only happened to Lunas. To Queens. To bloodlines the Moon favored. An omega carrying royal twins was abomination. Council law: execute the mother, burn the babies. I touched my flat stomach. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to them. “I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know yet that I was carrying boys. That they’d have his eyes. His power. That one day they’d bring him back to me. I only knew I had to run. Tonight. Before the King found out his rejected omega was about to make him a father