AGAIN MY HEART: Her Alphas Regret

PREGNANT

LEILANI

The third time my mate came to me, I was on a job in the capital. It was a shock to see him, and I had asked how he found me. He had grunted something about my scent calling to him before he slipped inside me behind the closed door of the changing room.

Lady Malcolm had gotten a gig at The Dark Owl annual festival happening in the capital, and she needed helpers. I had registered my name without hesitating because this time the pay was three times what she would pay me on a regular cleaning job, and also because I needed to get away from my aunt's pestering gaze and mouth.

For some reason, I had started coming down with a fever, and I didn’t know why. Aunt Nani had noticed the way I kept chugging her cold medicine, and she’d started eying me warily. She never really cared if anything happened to me as long as I didn’t bring trouble to her doorstep, so her persistent gaze was off.

The sixth time he came to me, I had stopped wondering if he’d say more words than how much he loved my body, and how well I fit into his arms. I wanted more, and every time he appeared, every time he handled my body with so much tenderness, hope would come alight within me. And I had thought to myself, if I could keep him coming, perhaps this thing between us could become more.

But that was foolish thinking because two months passed and there was no sign of him. There was a part of me that made excuses, perhaps he was busy, her was the king, afterall. But I knew, deep down, that it was the end.

After the first month of his absence, I had to swallow the hard truth. He had used me, and I let him because I was that desperate to belong, for a connection, to mean something to someone.

Several nights, I found myself curled up in my tiny bed, missing that wish I didn’t have the right to miss. I should have known better, shouldn’t I? But who could blame me for hoping, for wishing to be accepted and loved? It was painful, having to crush that hope, and starving off the part of me that kept wishing he’d show up.

The Alpha KIng ight be my mate, but he was never mine to claim. We were two worlds apart anyway. Having that clarity didn’t stop the truth from aching.

As the days passed, I felt the strain on the mate bond. The silent despair in my heart, my wolf mourning something we never truly had to begin with.

As the days passed, that heartbreak turned into something else. A hollow feeling, a gaping wound in my heart that slowly made me lose the motivation to get out of the bird. I went from mourning the absence of someone that was never mine to being sick and bedridden in a matter of weeks.

“Leilani!” Aunt Nina’s voice bellowed from downstairs, and I flinched from how loud and angry she sounded.

“Leilani, get down here now!” She yelled again, and I scrambled out of bed with much difficulty, groaning and grunting as every joint in my body ached.

Aunt Nina had made me pay for the pack nurse to come check on me a few days ago, and he said he would come back with the result of what was wrong with me. It’s been four days, and there was…

“Leilani!!!” My aunt bellowed again, and I put more springs in my steps despite the protest from my body.

“I’m here, I’m…. Oh, Nurse Delvin,” I paused, noticing the pensive look on his face as I made it into the living room. My gaze panned to my aunt, and while I knew what she looked like angry, I wasn’t sure if that was all right now because she looked…. She looked murderous.

“Come here, Leila,” Aunt Nina beckoned, and for some reason, I felt a stone slide down my throat. She never calls me nicknames, never. We were not that close. My gaze panned to the pack nurse, and he seemed apologetic.

“Come, child,” Aunt Nina called again.

I knew I couldn’t disobey her, so I dragged my heavy feet in her direction. I barely made it two steps away from her when a heavy slap smacked my face sideways, and I felt my vision blur for a split second.

“After everything I have done for you. You filthy, ungrateful rat.” She sneered as she pulled my hair and dragged me to the ground for a beating.

My hands trembled as I stared at the test result Aunt Nina had shoved against my chest after beating the flu out of me.

Every part of my body ached now, but for different reasons. The minute she dragged me down by my hair, all I could do was wail and beg for mercy as she stomped and hit me everywhere she could.

I didn’t understand what I’d done wrong, didn’t know what my offense was, but now the answers were glaring at me in red letters.

I was pregnant.

I felt my whole world sink as I read those angry red letters out loud.

Pregnant.

The pack nurse kept saying he was sorry, but how was this his fault? I should’ve known, shouldn’t I? I wasn’t stupid, naive maybe, but I should’ve known better than to have unprotected s*x with my mate. The same Alpha who has now ghosted me for two whole months.

“Get up!” Aunt Nina muttered.

“Get the f**k up!” She barked as I seemed to move slower than she wanted, and I scrambled up. “I am only going to ask you this one last time. Who did you spread your dirty legs for? Who was the wolf foolish enough to dip his d**k into something as dirty as you?”

I cast my head down in shame at her words. Was I wrong for having s*x with my mate? He was my mate, who else would I have gotten with if not him?

I shook my head. “It was—”

Would she believe me?

“I don’t…. It was dark in the barn. I didn’t get to see his face,” I lied because what else was I supposed to say? That my mate was the Alpha King and I’d let him f**k me multiple times without a care because I was desperate to have any part of him?

Aunt Nina made a sound of disgust, and then she sighed. “Get out of my house.”

My head snapped up at her order.

“Aunty…” I began, but she cut me off.

“Out Now! I will not house you and your bastard child. If you’re big enough to open those dirty legs for just anyone, then you are big enough to take care of it.”

“Please, mum wouldn’t have…”

“Get the hell out of my house, Leilani. Now!” She snarled as she shoved me towards the door and out of the only place I called home without even letting me grab a pair of extra clothes.