Alpha lost Luna

The unwanted truth

CHAPTER 3: The Unwanted Truth

Ana's POV

“Ana? Ana!”

The panicked voice cut through the my misery but I didn’t open my eyes. What was the point?

The world had ended. My soul felt like it had been put through a meat grinder and I was pretty sure my heart had actually cracked in two.

Strong hands slid under my shoulders and knees, scooping me up like I weighed nothing.

I caught a familiar scent and my deadened heart gave a pathetic little thump of recognition.

Elena. Of course it was Elena.. My best friend and my protector. The one person in this entire miserable pack who didn’t look at me like I was a stain on the ground.

I let my head loll against her shoulder. She was warm and solid and everything I wasn’t.

I sometimes envied Elena. Okay, I envied her a lot because she wasn’t an Omega. She was strong, capable, beautiful without even trying and no one ever threw her out of feasts for existing wrong.

She carried me without a single grunt of effort with her steps s sure and steady and I kept my eyes squeezed shut, pretending to be unconscious. It was easier than having to form words.

The next thing I knew, I was sinking into something impossibly soft.. a mattress. My mattress.

A cool hand brushed the mess of hair from my forehead.

“Sleep, Ana,” Elena murmured with her voice low and gentle. “We’ll talk when it’s morning light.”

Yeah, right. Sleep… As if my brain would just switch off after my soulmate rejected me because I’m not fancy enough.

My mind kept replaying it. Stefan’s amused smile, the electric shock of his touch, the feel of his lips… and then the ice in his eyes when he said those words.

I must have eventually dozed off, because the next thing I knew, grey morning light was coming through my tiny window and I could hear voices at the front door of Elena’s cottage.

“…just checking, Elena. The Alpha was concerned when she wasn’t in her quarters at daybreak.” A deep male voice was speaking.

“You can tell Alpha Ion his daughter is perfectly safe,” Elena’s voice was smooth and confident. “She had a rough night after the feast so I brought her here to sleep it off. She’s still sleeping now.”

A grunt of acknowledgment.

“He won’t be pleased.”

“I’ll ensure she’s presentable for her chores later. You have my word.”

The door clicked shut and I pushed myself up with my body aching in ways that had nothing to do with sleeping on the ground. Every muscle protested as I shuffled out of the bedroom and into the main living area.

Elena turned from the door with her face softening with relief when she saw me.

“You’re up. And on your feet. That’s a good sign.”

“Thank you,” I whispered with my voice raspy from crying. “For… you know. Covering for me.”

She crossed her arms, leaning back against the door.

“Don’t thank me yet. What the hell happened, Ana? I’ve never seen you like that. You looked… shattered.”

I hugged myself, looking down at the floorboards shamefully. I couldn’t tell her.. I couldn’t say the words out loud.

“I… I was just depressed so after the feast. I went into the forest to… to be alone.” It sounded pathetic even to my own ears.

Elena sighed in a long frustrated sound.

“Ana, cut the crap. How do you think I found you? I saw you.”

My head snapped up.

“What?”

“I saw you,” she repeated with her gaze steady and serious. “I saw you hand-in-hand with Alpha Stefan, walking into the woods like a couple of love-struck pups. I thought I was seeing things so I waited for you to come back but then you didn’t, I got worried and went looking.”

The truth was out.. there was no hiding it!

A sob burst out of me and the whole story came tumbling out in a messy tear-soaked jumble.

I told her everything and when I finished, I was a blubbering mess again. Elena just stared at me with her face full of shock that slowly morrowed into sheer disbelief.

“Oh, Ana,” she finally breathed, striding over and pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. “You beautiful foolish crazy i***t!” She held me at arm’s length with her expression deadly serious. “You are so unbelievably lucky.”

“Lucky?” I choked out. “Elena, he rejected me and it feels like I’m dying!”

“I know it does. And I’m sorry, I really am. But thank the gods it ended there. An Alpha like that? From a rival pack? Do you have any idea the political nightmare that would have caused? Your father would have skinned you alive. Stefan did you a favor.”

The words were like salt in my wounds. A favor?

“You can’t ever tell anyone else about this,” she insisted with her grip on my shoulders tightening. “No one. Not a soul. Promise me, Ana.”

“I promise,” I mumbled because what else could I say?!

***

Days bled into weeks and the world kept turning which felt like a personal insult. How could the sun still rise after what had happened?!

I moved through my life like a ghost. My father true to form, took my listlessness as renewed laziness and eventually stopped assigning me chores altogether.

“Useless,” he’d mutter when he passed me. “A waste of space.”

The worst part wasn’t even the soul-crushing emptiness of the rejected bond. Okay, that was the worst part.. but a very close second was my own treacherous brain.

I kept fantasizing about him.. about Stefan.

My mind would just… go there.. the feel of his hands on my skin.. the scent of him, the way he made me feel, for one blinding moment, powerful and desired and the s*x had been… well, it had been my first and apparently my last but wow. Just… wow!

I was heartbroken and humiliated but my body seemed to have missed the memo, replaying the hottest highlights on a loop. I’d flush bright red in the middle of the day, earning me even weirder looks from the pack.

My health didn’t improve. If anything, it got worse. I was tired all the time and the smell of cooking meat, which usually made my mouth water now made my stomach do rebellious flip-flops. I felt permanently queasy and drained.

It was this finally that made my father grunt in my direction one morning.

“You look like death! You’re embarrassing me just by standing there. Go see Mariana. Get some herbs for whatever sickness you’ve conjured up to get out of work.”

So I went to the pack healer, Mariana.

“Ana! Come in, come in,” she chirped, wiping her hands on her apron. “What brings you to me? Finally caught that spring chill?”

“Something like that,” I said weakly. “Just… tired. And my stomach’s been… off.”

“Hmm, let’s have a look.” She gestured for me to sit and took my hands in hers, turning them over. Her rough fingers pressed against my wrists, feeling for my pulse.

She hummed softly and then her thumbs pressed a little deeper into my palms and her humming stopped. Her head c****d to the side and she stared at my face with her eyes scanning my pale complexion.

A slow wide smile spread across her face and it wasn’t a smile of pity for a sick girl. It was a brilliant beaming joyous smile.

“Oh, my dear child,” she whispered with her eyes sparkling as she squeezed my hands. “This is no sickness.”

I blinked, confused.

“It’s not?”

Her laugh was light and happy.

“Not at all! Oh, this is wonderful news! Ana… you’re not sick.”

She leaned forward with her voice dropping to a thrilled conspiratorial whisper.

“You’re with child..!”