Pregnant with the Alpha’s Twins, I Stepped Aside

A contraction locked around my middle. I gripped the edge of the birthing bed and followed the breathing count the pack healer had given me. The stone walls blurred, cleared, then blurred again. Before I could finish the count, the pressure returned harder. I bit the inside of my lip and waited for the healer to tell me whether the first pup had turned. Her stool beside the bed was empty. The healer never made it back to my side. The heavy oak door broke off its hinges and hit the floor. Alpha Kaelen filled the doorway. Two of his veteran warriors stood behind him with their hands near the ceremonial daggers at their belts, the ones reserved for blood rituals. Their swords stayed sheathed. They had come for a ritual. One warrior looked at the blood on the bed and shifted his weight; the other kept his eyes on the floor. “Enough, Aria.” Kaelen looked at the wet linens and dismissed them with a curl of his lip. “Selena is weakening, so you choose tonight to fake a delivery?” I was full-term. The pups were already coming, and my mate was calling it a performance. A small cough came from the hall. Selena leaned against her maid, pale and unsteady. The maid wore my moon-grey cloak. Kaelen had used it to wrap me up after winter patrols; it had hung beside my door until this morning. Selena put most of her weight on the maid when Kaelen looked at her. As soon as his attention moved back to me, she stood a little straighter. Her hand remained pressed to her chest. He never looked at it. “Kaelen, darling, please,” Selena said. “The Luna is carrying the pack’s heir. We mustn’t upset her. It’s my fault. I should be stronger.” His jaw tightened at the word *heir*. Kaelen crossed the room and closed one hand around my throat. My shoulders came off the mattress. I dug at his wrist while black spots gathered at the edges of my sight. “Heir?” His face was inches from mine. “Selena saved my life and this pack. Her life is worth more than a thousand of your bastards.” Five years ago, his curse had nearly killed him. Since then, I had drawn heart’s blood in secret to keep it quiet. I hid my pureblood magic even from Kaelen, and he believed Selena’s tonics were saving him. I drew the blood when the curse raged and gave it without telling him what it cost. Selena brought her own tonics, and he credited her whenever the pain passed. Now he had his hand around my throat and had called our children bastards. I stopped fighting him. Kaelen mistook that for surrender. His mouth eased, and the warriors loosened their hold on the daggers. Neither man searched my birthing gown. There was one way to get the twins out of Blackwood, and Kaelen would have to take me to it. “You’re right,” I managed. His grip eased. “The ritual has to be done properly. Pure magic, at the cliffside altar, under the moon’s eye. Otherwise her body will reject my blood.” The old bloodletting law required the altar. Kaelen had sworn to uphold that law when he became Alpha, and he would never break it in front of his warriors. He studied my face, waiting for tears or an argument. I gave him neither. “Fine.” He dropped me onto the wet linens. “Get her up. We go now.” The warriors hauled me to my feet while another contraction tore through me. I put one hand into the pocket of my birthing gown and found the smooth stone my mother had given me. My legs would not straighten at first. One warrior pulled my left arm over his shoulder while the other opened the ruined door. Kaelen went to Selena and offered her his hand. The ancient talisman was warm against my palm. It had enough power for one journey, if I could reach the cliff.