The pack did not forget the pregnancy.
If anything, it sharpened them.
Lila felt it everywhere she went—the way conversations paused when she entered a space, the way eyes lingered too long on her stomach as if the future had already marked her skin. Some wolves looked at her with awe. Others with resentment. A few with something colder, calculating.
She learned quickly who stood where.
And she learned even faster that standing beside an Alpha did not mean standing equal.
Not yet.
Caleb walked with her through the inner territory as if the ground itself belonged to him. His presence shifted the air, commanded space without sound. Wolves bowed their heads as they passed, respect and fear tangled together.
But when their gazes slid to Lila, the deference vanished.
She was still being
