The Alpha King's Unclaimed Queen

Chapter 7: Confirmation

Vivienne POV

Dr. Halloway returned a few minutes later carrying a single sheet of paper. The moment I saw it, my breath caught in my throat.

He closed the door quietly behind him before walking toward us. His expression was calm, but there was a carefulness in his eyes that hadn't been there earlier.

He stopped beside his desk. For the briefest moment, he looked at Killian before turning to me. It wasn't a long glance. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed it.

I did. Somehow, I already knew.

The room felt smaller. The steady ticking of the clock seemed louder than before, each second stretching until it almost hurt.

Dr. Halloway lowered his eyes to the report in his hand.

"The results are conclusive."

My fingers tightened around the armrests of my chair.

He looked up again.

"Congratulations."

The word sounded strangely out of place. Only a few hours ago, that same word would have made me smile. Now it landed in the middle of a room that had felt more like a courtroom than a doctor's office.

"The test is positive."

For a second, I couldn't hear anything. The words seemed to echo around me before finally landing somewhere I couldn't push them away from.

Positive. I was pregnant.

Again, I saw the tiny white stick sitting on my bathroom counter a few weeks earlier. Two pink lines. I remembered staring at them until my eyes blurred, laughing through happy tears because I had thought my life was finally coming together.

I had imagined holding my baby for the first time. I had imagined tiny clothes folded neatly in a nursery. I had imagined late-night feedings, first smiles, and little hands wrapped around my finger. Those dreams felt as though they belonged to someone else now.

The baby I had prayed for was real. Everything else had disappeared.

A slow breath escaped my lips. I wasn't relieved. I wasn't happy. I wasn't even shocked. I simply felt overwhelmed.

The child growing inside me had done nothing wrong. Yet before taking its first breath, it had already become the center of a battle I had never chosen.

Dr. Halloway quietly placed the report on his desk.

"If you'll excuse me," he said gently, "I'll give you both a few moments."

Neither of us answered. He seemed to understand. With a small nod, he walked toward the door. The soft click of it closing left the room wrapped in silence once more.

I looked at Killian. He hadn't moved. He still stood beside the window with one hand resting behind his back.

Only now, I noticed the change. His expression hadn't hardened. If anything, it had become even calmer. Too calm. His face revealed nothing, but there was a stillness about him that felt heavier than before.

It reminded me of the silence outside the motel, the kind that warned something important had already been decided.

He finally turned to face me. Our eyes met. For several long seconds, neither of us spoke.

I couldn't read what he was thinking. Whether he was angry, relieved, or disappointed, nothing reached his face. Someone less observant might have believed the test meant nothing to him.

I knew better. A man like Killian Cross wouldn't allow strangers to see his reactions. Not even me.

"Well," I said quietly, because the silence had become unbearable. "I suppose that answers the question."

"It does."

His voice was as calm as ever. He crossed the room without hurry, every step measured. When he stopped a few feet away, his dark eyes remained fixed on mine.

"Your life changes today."

I let out a slow breath.

"You've already told me that."

"I meant it then." His expression never shifted. "I mean it more now."

The certainty in his voice pulled my arms across my chest before I decided to move them.

"I'm carrying a baby." I forced the words out steadily. "Not the end of the world."

"No." His reply came immediately. "But in my world, it changes everything."

I searched his face, hoping to find even the smallest sign that he was exaggerating. I found none. He wasn't trying to frighten me. He was simply stating what he believed to be true. Somehow, that unsettled me more.

"What happens now?" I asked.

Killian studied me for a moment before answering.

"Now, you go home."

I frowned. "Home?"

"Pack what matters."

My stomach dropped, that same lurch as before, like a step giving out.

"Pack for what?"

"For leaving."

The words were so calm that for a second, I wondered if I had misunderstood him.

"You can't remain where you are."

I stared at him.

"You've been to my apartment once."

"The motel." His correction was immediate. "You aren't staying there either."

The reminder hurt more than I expected.

"And who decided that?"

"I did."

Anger replaced the confusion.

"You don't get to decide my life for me."

His expression didn't change.

"I know that."

"Do you?" My voice sharpened. "Because everything you've done since I met you has been making choices on my behalf."

His eyes remained fixed on mine.

"I am making sure you and my child are safe."

"My child." I repeated the words quietly. "That's what this is about?"

"No." His answer came without hesitation. "It's about responsibility."

I looked away, trying to steady myself.

"You don't know me, Killian."

"No." For once, his answer surprised me. "I don't." The honesty caught me off guard. "But I know enough to understand that the world you were living in is no longer safe."

I looked back at him.

"Why?"

A pause. Then his voice lowered.

"Because there are people who would use you to get to me."

A chill moved through me.

"They won't care that you had no idea what you were stepping into. They won't care that you never asked for this. They'll only see one thing." His gaze dropped briefly to my stomach before returning to mine. "My child."

The silence that followed felt heavier than before.

"So that's all I am now?" The question escaped before I could stop it. "A way to reach you?"

His jaw tightened, a small motion, there and gone.

"No." His voice was quiet. "You are the person carrying my child. Which means I have a responsibility to protect you."

I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him I didn't need him. But the frustrating truth was that he wasn't acting out of arrogance. He genuinely believed there was danger coming. Somehow, that scared me more.

"You'll return to the motel tonight," he said. "I'll arrange everything else."

I shook my head.

"You make it sound like I don't have a choice."

His eyes held mine.

"You have a choice."

The words surprised me.

"Then why does it feel like I don't?"

A long silence passed.

"Because your choices now affect more than just you."

I hated that part of me understood what he meant.

He turned toward the door.

"There are documents you'll need to review. Someone will bring them tonight."

His hand reached for the handle. Then he stopped. Without looking back, he added, "Vivienne."

I waited.

"This is the last time you will be alone in a place where I cannot reach you."

The words sent an unexpected shiver through me. Before I could respond, he walked out. The door closed softly behind him.

I was left alone with the reality of what those two pink lines truly meant.

My eyes drifted to the report on Dr. Halloway's desk. Two names stared back at me.

Vivienne Marsh. Killian Cross. Linked by a child neither of us had expected.

I pressed the paper against my chest, trying to understand how everything had changed so quickly. A few weeks ago, two pink lines had made me believe my dreams were finally coming true. Now another piece of paper had changed everything again.

I thought the hardest part would be discovering I was pregnant.

I was wrong.

The hardest part was realizing that the future I had dreamed of was no longer mine to choose.