Chapter two Bailey’s pov
1175 Words
I stepped away from the door to let her in.
Hailey walked inside slowly, her eyes sweeping across the small room with thinly veiled disdain.
“This place is the size of a shoebox,” she said with a small laugh. “How do you even live here?”
“You should know,” I replied quietly, reminding her whose room this had originally been.
Her smile faltered for a second, but she quickly recovered.
She sat down on the only chair in the room while I closed the door behind her and sat across from her on the bed.
“Alright,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
Her face was a strange mix of emotions, but beneath it all I could see something else bubbling to the surface.
Glee.
“I’m pregnant,” she said.
“I know,” I replied calmly. “Everyone knows.”
She placed both hands over her stomach.
“I’m going to be a mom.”
Straw hissed inside my mind.
Bailey, she’s doing it again.
This time I didn’t silence my wolf.
Her anger was justified.
“Hailey…” I said carefully, like someone handling fragile glass. “I understand that you need to call the pup yours in public. But between the two of us, let’s not forget who is actually becoming a mother.”
The words were blunt.
But there was no point pretending.
Just like there was no point ignoring what she had been doing with my mate.
She suddenly clutched her stomach as if I had punched her.
“I don’t understand,” she said quickly, her voice filled with false confusion. “I’m the one carrying the baby. How am I not the mother?”
Straw growled.
My patience thinned, but I forced myself to remain calm.
This had to be a misunderstanding.
We had discussed this arrangement many times before.
“Hailey,” I said slowly, “did you forget our agreement? You were only supposed to be the surrogate.”
She pouted at the word.
“I thought,” she said thoughtfully, crossing her arms, “that after all this time you’d realize how much better things are now.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Her smile slowly widened.
“Life is better for both of us,” she continued. “Now that I’m you… and you’re me.”
For a moment, I thought I had misheard her.
A nervous laugh escaped my throat.
“Hailey… this isn’t funny.”
“Who said I was joking?”
Her voice dropped, soft but steady.
She rubbed her stomach protectively, as if I might suddenly try to steal the baby.
“Hailey…” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said. I won’t even tell Jared. But you need to leave now, and never say something like that again—”
“But this is what he wants.”
My hand froze.
“Bailey,” she continued quietly, “can’t you see how happy he is with me? Happier than he has ever been with you.”
Straw lunged violently inside my mind.
I struggled to hold her back.
“He is pretending, Hailey,” I said firmly. “It’s part of the arrangement.”
She shook her head immediately.
“No.”
My temper was beginning to c***k.
“Did he tell you that?”
Her lips parted slightly.
Then a strange smile curved across her face.
“He doesn’t need to say it,” she whispered. “I can tell. The way he strokes my hair… the way he looks into my eyes…”
My patience finally snapped.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.
Her eyes widened in dramatic horror.
“Bailey! The baby!” she cried.
“The baby is fine,” I said sternly, pulling her toward the door. “Clearly this arrangement has gone too far. I’ll speak with Jared. From now on there will be distance between the two of you—”
Before I could finish, Hailey suddenly stumbled.
I wasn’t pulling her hard enough to make her lose balance.
But she fell anyway.
Then she threw her weight forward so suddenly that I instinctively released her arm.
She crashed onto the floor.
A piercing scream tore from her throat.
Her arm struck the ground hard enough to leave a bruise.
I rushed forward instinctively and offered her my hand.
But instead of accepting it, she screamed even louder.
The sound echoed down the hallway.
My heart dropped.
A second later, Jared appeared in the doorway.
He must have heard everything with his Alpha hearing.
His eyes darted between us.
Before I could explain anything, he shoved me aside and rushed to Hailey.
I fell to the floor as he pulled her into his arms.
His expression softened instantly as he cradled her protectively against his chest.
“…Bailey, can’t you see how happy he is with me?”
Hailey’s earlier words echoed inside my mind like a blade twisting deeper.
Jared held her like she was made of glass.
Like she was something precious.
Something irreplaceable.
And I…
I was nothing.
“I don’t know why she suddenly attacked me,” Hailey sobbed, burying her face in his chest. “I was just telling her we needed to start buying things for the baby. Then she started calling me names and pushed me.”
For a moment I was too stunned to speak.
But when I finally stood up to defend myself, Jared was already walking toward me.
Fire burned in his eyes.
Pak!
The slap landed so hard my head snapped to the side.
Jared had barely held back his Alpha strength.
If I had been a weaker wolf, my jaw would have shattered.
Instead, pain exploded through my face as my jaw partially dislocated.
Tears flooded my eyes instantly.
“Don’t you dare cry now,” he growled.
He turned back to Hailey, lifting her hand.
Only then did I notice the red marks on her wrist.
Finger marks.
She had done that herself.
How far was she willing to go with this lie?
“This,” Jared said coldly, showing the marks to me, “is what you did to her. Your pregnant Luna. Your own sister.”
His voice sounded like ice.
Jared had never been particularly gentle with me.
But the tone he was using now…
That was the tone he reserved for criminals.
For rogues.
Something inside my chest cracked.
I wanted to defend myself.
But my jaw throbbed too painfully to speak.
And deep down, I knew it wouldn’t matter anyway.
Jared wouldn’t listen.
His eyes flashed with Alpha authority.
Within seconds, three guards appeared in the doorway.
He must have summoned them through the mind link.
Then he pointed at me like I was nothing more than dirt beneath his boots.
“She attacked your pregnant Luna,” he said coldly.
“Take her to the Midnight Dungeon.”
- Writer
