That's Not Possible
1375 Words
Vespera's Pov
I practiced through the night. Learning to extend and retract claws that appeared from beneath my fingernails. Learning to channel the strange energy that let me shatter wood and stone. Learning to move so fast I was barely more than a blur.
By dawn, I was exhausted but exhilarated. My body ached in a good way—muscles pleasantly tired from real use for the first time in my life. I'd caught and eaten two more rabbits during my training, and while the hunger was still there, it was more manageable now.
As I made my way back to the cabin, the sun rising pink and gold through the trees, Nyx spoke again. Her voice carried a weight that made me stop walking.
*Vespera. There's something I need to tell you. Something I've been trying to understand since the bond broke.*
"What is it?"
*I've been analyzing what's wrong with our body. Why we're so hungry all the time. Why our energy is burning so fast. Why the suppression breaking caused such extreme changes so quickly.*
My stomach clenched with sudden dread. "And?"
*A long pause. Then, quietly: We carry the King's pup.*
The world seemed to stop. Birds mid-song. Wind mid-blow. Everything just... stopped.
My hands moved to my stomach before my brain could catch up. "What?"
The child. From the mating with Malachi. It's growing inside you.
"That's not possible." But even as I said it, I knew it could be. The Blood Moon had been less than a week ago. But pregnancy didn't show this fast. Didn't cause symptoms this fast. Did it?
*For normal wolves, no. But we're not normal, Vespera. The baby is growing faster than it should. Much faster. That's why we need so much food—we're supporting two lives now, not one. That's why our energy burns so quickly. That's why everything is changing so fast.*
I stood frozen in the dawn light, both hands pressed against my flat stomach. Pregnant. I was pregnant.
With Malachi Frost's child.
The Alpha King who had rejected me. Who had looked at me the morning after our mating like I was something dirty he needed to wash off. Who had offered me gold and transportation as payment to disappear from his life.
I should have been overjoyed. For three years of marriage to Julian, I'd wanted nothing more than a child. I'd endured fertility tonics that made me violently sick. Rituals that left me weak and bruised for days. Invasive examinations from healers who poked and prodded and whispered about my defective womb. The pitying looks from pack members who knew I was failing at the most basic function of a female wolf.
I'd believed I was broken. Barren. Cursed by the Moon Goddess herself.
And now, after one night with a man who didn't want me, I was pregnant.
The irony would have been funny if it wasn't so devastating.
Rage flooded through me like wildfire. Hot and bright and all-consuming.
Malachi had rejected me. Thrown me away like garbage. He'd looked at me with disgust the morning after, like I'd somehow tricked him into something he didn't want. He'd tried to pay me off, to make me disappear so he wouldn't have to deal with the inconvenience of acknowledging a true mate bond with his nephew's cast-off wife.
And now I was carrying his child.
A child he didn't know about. Would never know about if I had anything to say about it.
*This isn't the child's fault, Nyx said quietly, reading my thoughts. This innocent life didn't choose its father any more than we chose Julian.*
She was right. I knew she was right. But the anger still burned.
"He'll never know," I said out loud, my voice hard. "Malachi will never know about this baby."
*Are you sure that's wise? He's the Alpha King. He has resources that could—*
"Resources he won't share with me." I cut her off. "You heard him that morning, Nyx. You felt what I felt. He wanted nothing to do with me. He called it a curse. A mistake. He couldn't get rid of me fast enough."
*But a child changes things. Surely he would—*
"Would what? Acknowledge the bastard child of his nephew's wife? Start a civil war over a baby he doesn't even want?" I shook my head. "No. He'll either deny it's his, or he'll try to take the baby away from me. Either way, I lose."
Then what will we do?
I reached the cabin and stopped in the doorway, one hand on the sagging frame, the other still pressed protectively against my stomach where new life was growing inside me.
"We survive," I said quietly. "We get stronger. We learn everything we can about what we are, what we're becoming. And we protect this baby with everything we have."
Even from its father?
"Especially from its father."
I walked inside and sank down against the wall, exhausted but oddly calm now that the decision was made. My hand stayed on my stomach, fingers spread protectively over the place where my child was growing. Malachi's child. But he would never be its father. He'd given up that right when he rejected me.
I'd spent three years desperately wanting a baby. Begging for one. Now I had one, and the circumstances could not be worse. Pregnant by a man who rejected me. On the run from my abusive husband. Hiding in an abandoned cabin in the Forbidden Forest with nothing to my name but torn clothes and newfound abilities I barely understood.
But this baby was mine.
*Ours*, Nyx corrected gently.
"Ours," I agreed, and felt her warmth wrap around the word like an embrace.
Outside, the sun continued to rise, painting the forest in shades of gold and green. Somewhere out there, Julian's hunters were still searching for me, frustrated that they couldn't track my scent through the clever disguise I'd created. Somewhere out there, Malachi Frost was probably relieved that his "mistake" had disappeared without causing him any political trouble.
They had no idea what was coming.
Neither did I, really. But I was done being a victim. Done being the weak, wolf-less Luna everyone pitied or scorned. Done letting men decide my worth.
I sat in that ruined cabin, hands cradling my stomach, and made a solemn promise to the tiny life growing inside me.
You will never know rejection. You will never feel unwanted or broken or less-than. You will never question your worth because of who your parents were or weren't or what they did or didn't do.
I will burn this whole world down before I let anyone hurt you the way I've been hurt.
*Our baby,* Nyx murmured, and I could hear the fierce protectiveness in her voice that matched my own.
"Our baby," I whispered to the empty cabin, to the child who couldn't hear me yet but who I already loved with a ferocity that terrified me.
And in that moment, everything changed. I wasn't running anymore. I wasn't hiding. I was preparing. Building strength. Getting ready for whatever came next.
Because I had something worth fighting for now. Someone who needed me to be strong.
The moon would rise again tonight, full and bright.
Somewhere in the distance, Julian's wolves would howl their frustration at losing my trail. Let them howl. Let them search. Let them waste their energy on a ghost.
I was done begging for scraps from men who saw me as property. Done trying to fit into a world that never wanted me. Done being weak.
From now on, they would learn to fear me.
My child would grow up in a world where no one ever made them feel small. Where strength wasn't measured by bloodlines or gender or the ability to shift on command.
I would make sure of it.
Even if I had t tear down every structure, every law, every cruel tradition that had made me suffer.
Even if I had to become the villain in their story to be the hero in my child's.
I would do it.
And nothing—not Julian, not Malachi, not the entire wolf kingdom — would stop me.
- Writer
