Lena's POV
The pregnancy announced itself to the packhouse on a Wednesday morning.
I had known it was coming. A body accommodating a growing child does not maintain its previous silhouette indefinitely, and I had been watching mine change with the dispassionate attention of someone monitoring a situation they cannot alter but can at least track accurately. I had dressed in ways that delayed the announcement. Not to deceive, to control the timing, which was a distinction I had made privately and stood by.
The timing, by Wednesday morning, was no longer mine to control.
I was crossing the main hall when I passed three senior wolves from the household staff who went quiet in the particular way that meant they had been speaking before I arrived and were not ready to resume speaking after I
