Chapter 4
670 Words
That faint but undeniable scent of an Alpha pup hit me square in the nose.
My head spun.
How was this possible?
Seven years ago, just in my first month as Luna, I became pregnant. When I told Kael, ecstatic, he came back with a bowl of abortion herbs in his hands. His face seemed soft, but there was no room in his voice for refusal. "Elara, drink it. Darian and Elowen just lost their birth mother. I don't want them to resent us because of a new pup."
Tearing the pup out of me left my inner wolf wailing for half a month. Kael held me tight on the edge of the bed, his eyes rimmed red, promising me, "Darian and Elowen will be your own flesh and blood from now on. They'll be our children together."
Seven years. I honored that bloody promise. I folded away every sharp edge I had as a wolf, raised those twins like they were my own, and stopped letting myself dream of having a child of my own.
And now Faye was pregnant.
Her smug laugh was tearing at my nerves like claws.
The pain almost knocked me out of my chair. The pressure of my inner wolf surged out of control, and the steaming cup of hot milk on the table flipped over, spilling all of it across the hem of Faye's dress.
She clutched her stomach and screamed, "Elara! You dare hurt my baby!"
The door of the private room was kicked open. A tall man came charging in, the pressure of a Gamma rolling off him. He met my eyes and flinched.
Jace.
In our first year of mating, Kael assigned his most trusted personal guard, Jace, to be my bodyguard. By the fourth year, he was pulled away on the excuse of the war front.
The fourth year. That was the exact year Kael did his rounds at Faye's border.
Every clue snapped together in my head like a dead knot, and a cold dread spread up from somewhere deep inside me.
"What are you standing there for? Rip her apart for me!" Faye shouted, pointing at me.
Jace froze where he was, hesitating. "Miss Faye. This is the Luna. Maybe I should report to the Alpha first..."
"You're not going to listen to me now? Is that it?" Faye let out a cold laugh. "When Kael handed you over to me, what exactly were his orders?"
I stared at Jace. He was Kael's most trusted man. Watching him take so long to bare his claws, I actually let a small, foolish hope flicker inside me.
I grabbed my clutch, lifted my chin, and started to walk past him.
A thick arm shot out and blocked my path.
"I'm sorry, Luna."
The slap came with a vicious gust of force and landed hard across my face. I went down. The corner of my mouth split open and started bleeding. Half my face went numb from the pain.
I covered my face. I couldn't pull myself together.
Not until Faye opened the mind-link and her sweet, sobbing voice came drifting through the room.
"Kael... my stomach hurts so much. She tried to kill our baby..."
Kael, who was supposed to be overseas on an inspection tour, kicked the door open less than ten minutes later, his entire being radiating a wild, domineering Alpha presence.
He walked straight to Faye, didn't even glance at me on the floor.
He held her gently, made sure she and the pup were both fine, and only then did those polished shoes come to a slow stop in front of me.
I tilted my head up and looked at him, searching his eyes for even one trace of guilt.
"You told me other than the twins, you would never let another she-wolf bear your pups."
Kael's lashes lowered. He looked down at me from above.
"I told you to stay in line, Elara. If you act up again, I'll send you to the asylum."
- Writer
