Claimed by my ex mate

Two

CHAPTER TWO

I shut my eyes tightly as I drew in a shuddering breath. My vision swam with tears which I tried to blink back before turning to look at the little white plastic stick clutched in my ashen hand. The two dull pink lines remained, against all my hope.

I'm pregnant.

Whispering the two words to myself did nothing to deduct from it's weight. In fact, it made it seem that much heavier. I slowly slid down, leaning against the bark of the tree I had made my home and pulling my knees up to my chest. I buried my face in the hollow between them and let the tears begin to leak out.

The woods around me were silent save for my loud heaving sobs. For the past two weeks, I'd made my home in the branches or a large oak tree that was somewhere between the borders of my father's pack and Noah's pack. I hadn't come across any rogues yet, but the going had still been tough. I'd wandered into a nearby human town and gotten camping supplies and food, and this morning, when it became clear my incessant throwing up hadn't been because of the hard food, I'd walked back the long distance and gotten a pregnancy test from the nearest drug store I could find. I had gotten looks, of course. Humans didn't know about werewolves, and the sight of a dirty, wild-looking woman raised eyebrows.

I stared again at the unblinkingly lines of the test strip and felt the meager remains of my hope that I would be alright crumble. How was I to handle a pregnancy at this time?

Both Noah and my father had rejected me. I had no pack, no friends. No means to make a living for myself if I decided to venture into the human world and live there. I also had no identity. How would I begin to explain that to them?

My belly rumbled and I shakily reached for a granola bar. That was all I had left. I'd had no money to begin with because my father believed that women shouldn't have more than the men in their lives deemed fit to spare them. With my human food all ran out, I would have to hunt for my own food. I didn't even know how well my pregnancy would react to me trying to shift to my wolf form.

Olivia had been wrong when she'd told me I was in deep s**t then. Now, I was in deep s**t, and it couldn't get much deeper.

I managed to scarf down my food without throwing it up again, then without thinking, began to pack up my belongings scattered around the small fire pit I built to keep animals away. Not that predators would bother me. Most of them knew to stay away from werewolves, even when we weren't in our wolf form. There was something about our aura that signalled them that we were way higher than them on the food chain. Still, I didn't fancy trying to share the tiny spot I'd chosen with wandering animals. My suitcase was wedged between two lower branches of the tree and I'd made a hammock out of a blanket and two pairs of my jeans for hanging it up. I folded up everything and shoved them back into my suitcase after getting it down with minimal incident.

Noah. Noah had to help, I thought as I walked. He hadn't explicitly told me to leave his pack. I'd done that out of spiteful pride and my own volition. That same spiteful pride had also kept me from going back and asking for his help. Now though, things were different. Now, I didn't have just myself to fend for. I had a baby, and I'd be damned if I'd let something as silly as a bruised ego and hurt feelings get in the way of a comfortable childhood for my baby. And that was only if Noah didn't reject me again. For all I knew, he would accuse me of trying to foist another man's kid on him. My going to him was just a giant "if". Still, I walked. I had to be sure.

The wheels of my suitcase rustled the dry, dead leaves on the forest floor as I passed, the sound keeping me company in the eerie silence. The silence was what keyed me in that something was wrong.

My steps faltered as I paused, looking around cautiously. When you've stayed in the forest for a long period of time like I had, you begin to notice that it was never really fully quiet. Little sounds like birds chirping and scuttle of little animals told you all was well. However, at the approach of a predator like myself, everything went silent.

I probably could've passed off the silence as the forest animals reaction to me, but I'd been in a state of constant motion for a while. I knew the sounds were present when I'd made my decision and begun walking towards Noah's pack. Now though, they had completely stopped, leaving me in fearful stillness.

The sound of a deep growl had me whirling around, looking for the source. I found nothing, but that was enough to send me into high alert. Without thinking twice, I let go of my suitcase and broke into a run.

I had my instincts to thank for that because as soon as I did, I heard the pounding of paws on the ground behind me. My speed increased as I veered off the path I was on, leaping over low branches and uneven ground.

Even as I ran, I recognized the futility of my actions. I knew without a doubt that they were rogues wolves chasing me. I quick glance behind me confirmed my suspicions, but it also made me stumble as my foot caught on a branch. The wolves were large, full-grown males with saliva dripping down yellowed canines. Their fur was mangy and missing patches. They were the worst of the worst. If they caught me, there was no telling what would become of me.

As though catalyzed by my thoughts, one of the wolves leaped and landed across my back, making me cry out and sending me sprawling forward. My forehead snapped towards a large flat rock slightly hidden beneath a bed of dry leaves. Pain blossomed across my head and blood tinged my vision red. I heard the telltale snapping of bones that told me the rogue wolves had shifted to their human form.

They began to murmur to themselves lowly so I couldn't hear, but one word stood out, drawing my attention and the last bit of my consciousness.

"...Alpha Black...take her..."

Noah? What business did Noah have with rogues? Did he send them after me?

I was on the verge of unconsciousness when I heard the growls. Deeper ones, not coming from the rogues that surrounded me. Suddenly, a dark wolf leaped out of the bushes in front of me, taking the head of the rogue standing above me in its mouth and ripping it off. The sound of bone breaking was the last thing I heard and the surprised look on the face of the discarded head that landed right in front of me was the last I saw before I slipped finally into unconsciousness.