Pregnant and Betrayed, I Vanished With the Alpha's Hidden Heir

"You're pregnant." Sera stares at the reading-bowl. For a moment, the words do not connect to her. Mira looks from the bowl to her. She almost smiles, then remembers this is not good news. "Five weeks," Mira says. "Sera... it's his." His. Kai's child. Oh no! Who pregnant? She? She shouldn’t be pregnant! Who would ever look forward to this child being born? Sera keeps both hands flat on the table. The cold hits her so hard she almost forgets how to breathe. Does he even want a child — from her? He barely wants the wife he was made to take. Two years he's turned the world over looking for the girl the prophecy promised him, and everyone in this pack knows it. They are only waiting for the day he finds her and takes back everything Sera was never supposed to have. So how is she supposed to be glad? If Liri comes back, Sera will lose everything, and this baby will only make things worse. Everyone knows Liri's name. She is Kai’s fated mate—only lost for a time. In everyone’s eyes, Sera is the one who took her place. And now Sera is carrying Kai's baby. She almost laughs, but it gets stuck before it can become sound. They had been careful. Kai had been careful enough for both of them. Even when he came to her bed, he treated desire like another duty to manage. But it had happened anyway. She was pregnant, and it had happened at the worst possible time. "Who knows?" she asks. Mira understands at once. "No one. Just us." "Keep it that way." "Sera, this is a baby." "I know what it is," Sera says. "That's why no one can know." But what else is she supposed to do? If Renata finds out, she will use the baby to control Sera. The elders will count the dates, question the bloodline, and decide whether Sera's child has any right to inherit. And Kai? He might accept the child because it is his duty. That does not mean he would want her, or want this life with her. "You don't have to decide everything right now," Mira says gently. "I have to decide the first thing." "Which is?" "This stays between us. Not Renata, not the servants, not the guards, and not Kai." Mira looks like she wants to argue. Then she thinks better of it. Good. Sera cannot handle comfort right now. Comfort makes people say foolish things, like maybe he will be happy, or maybe a baby will make him look at her differently. She is done giving Kai new ways to disappoint her. "How long can I hide it?" she asks. "For now, no one can scent it." Mira lowers her voice. "But not forever." Of course not. In Ravenhold, nothing stays hidden for long. Soon someone will scent the baby, or notice her body changing. "Then it stays secret until I decide what to do." Mira reaches for her hand. "Sera..." "Don't." Mira stops. Sera closes her eyes for one breath and opens them again. "I'm sorry." "Don't be sorry to me." "Then don't make that face." "What face?" "The one where you already feel bad for me." Sera stands before Mira can say anything else. If she stays, she might start crying, and she cannot do that here. "You never read that bowl," she says. Mira nods once. "I never read the bowl." "I was never here." "Routine reading," Mira says. Her voice is steadier now. "Nothing more." Sera picks up her cloak. At the door, Mira catches her wrist with just enough pressure to make her stop. "Do not decide this alone," Mira says. "At least think before you do anything." Sera looks down at her friend's hand. She pulls free and steps into the corridor. The hallway is too bright. Before she reaches the courtyard, Sera makes her face calm. She lowers her hands to her sides and tries to look like nothing has happened. She has almost made it across the stones when the shouting starts. At first she thinks someone is hurt. Then servants drop baskets, guards leave their posts, and half the courtyard rushes toward the eastern gate. A young runner stumbles in, wild with joy. "They found her!" he shouts. Sera stops. Nobody looks for the Luna before they run. The runner throws both hands in the air. "The Alpha found Liri!" The courtyard breaks into celebration. Sera stands in the middle of it, still the only one who knows she is pregnant. Of course it happens today. She is five weeks pregnant with Kai's child, and the woman he never stopped wanting has finally come home.