Rejected by the Alpha, Loved by a Human

CHAPTER 4

Wren's POV

Everything after that happened too fast to feel like real time.

Delphine hit the enforcer mid-shift, the two of them a blur of fur and teeth rolling across Sawyer's living room floor, knocking the coffee table into splinters. I grabbed the nearest thing I could reach — a lamp, useless, stupid — and Sawyer was suddenly there in front of me, between me and the fight, holding a kitchen knife like it might actually do something against a wolf twice his weight.

"Get behind me," he said, and his voice riddled with fear and confusion.

"You don't understand what that is—"

“Yeah, no s**t. Why are there wolves in my living room? Where is your friend? Is she safe?” He asked, backing up a bit, making me move backwards with him. “I need to call animal control or something, just get into the room and—”

The enforcer broke free of Delphine for half a second, shoulders low, eyes on me, and I felt the exact moment his intent shifted from capture to kill. Whatever he'd been sent for, whatever the Voss pack wanted, someone had decided I wasn't worth bringing back alive.

Delphine's voice tore out of her throat, half-word, half-howl. "Wren, RUN—"

I didn't run. I don't know what came over me — instinct, fury, the ghost-ache of a bond that used to make me stronger than I was alone — but I stepped in front of Sawyer, hand out, and I screamed the only thing I had left.

"I'm carrying an heir of Ashwood!"

The enforcer froze.

It was only a second. A single, suspended second where the whole room went still except for Delphine's ragged breathing and the wind pouring in through the broken window. But it was enough — enough for the enforcer's ears to flatten, enough for something like uncertainty to cross a face that wasn't built for uncertainty, enough for him to take one step back instead of forward.

Pack law is older than politics. Older than alliances. You do not touch a pregnant wolf carrying a claimed Alpha's line, no matter who sent you, no matter what you were promised. Whatever the Voss pack wanted from me, they hadn't wanted this — a witness, a truth spoken out loud in front of a human with a knife and a wolf who'd bleed to protect me.

The enforcer bolted back through the broken window into the dark, and this time nobody chased him.

For a long moment, nobody moved at all. Then Delphine, still in her wolf form, howled at me, and I crouched down to talk to her, gently placing my hand on her brown fur as we mind-linked. She looked at me with an expression I'd never seen on her face before — not fear of the enforcer, but something closer to grief.

"You're pregnant," she said quietly. "Wren. You're pregnant, and you didn't get to tell him before—"

"No." My voice cracked on the word. "I didn't get to tell him anything."

Sawyer hadn't moved from beside me, the knife still in his hand, his eyes going from me to the broken window to Delphine's wolf like he was trying to fit an entire hidden world into the shape of one night. He should have been terrified. He should have been throwing us both out into the cold and calling every authority he knew.

Instead, he lowered the knife slowly and then began to spiral with questions, just like I had expected.

“What the hell is going on, Wren? Where’s your friend—did someone send wolves after you? Why did it look like they understood you? Why does this one look like it understands you?” He looked genuinely terrified, but above all, confused. “Are you some kind of animal communicator? Is that why you were in the woods? Do you—”

“Sawyer, I cannot answer all your questions.” I told him, standing and turning to him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have dragged you into this mess. I should have left the moment I woke up.”

"Okay." His voice was steady, rougher than before, but steady.

Delphine howled again. She had to leave. The pack was probably looking for her; she wasn’t supposed to be here to begin with.

“What’s going to happen now?” she asked.

“I can’t stay here, or around. I am a loose end, and my baby is a threat to whatever it is that the Voss family are planning.”

“You can’t just run away, Wren. You are our Luna. You need to be with Kade and fight this. You need to save the pack.” She howled, but I shook my head. “I am not your Luna. Kade severed our bond. I am nothing to the pack, and even if I wanted to fight, I can’t, at least not now. I have to put my baby first.”

Delphine rubbed herself against my leg, a gentle growl escaping her lips.

“I’m sorry.”

“I will find you again, I promise,” she said, and I reached down and pulled her wolf form into my arms as the tears that had been threatening to escape finally came down.

I had to run. Again.

For the safety of my baby, and for whatever future chance our pack stood against Voss.

After one final hug, I opened the door and let her out. She strutted out of the little cabin, her tail wagging when her paw touched the dirt. She turned to me one last time and let out a final howl before running into the woods.

I walked back inside, trying my best to steady my shaking legs and regulate my breathing. I had never expected my Naming to go. One night had upended everything I thought I had figured out.

Sawyer walked over to me and held me for a moment. He didn’t say anything; he didn’t need to. Just having his arms around me was enough. That was all I needed at that time, a moment of vulnerability before I had to leave everything behind and become as strong as I needed to be for my baby.

“I will tell you everything,” I said quietly, his arms still wrapped around me, “but we need to go somewhere safe. They’ll find me if I'm this close to the pack. I need somewhere I can mask my scent with humans. Take me to the city.”