REJECTED AND PREGNANT: HIS RIVAL’S OBSESSION

Sophiah's POV The first rule of surviving in a pack that hates you is simple. Never let them see you bleed. I learned that the hard way. Eighteen years with a woman who beat me for breathing too loud taught me how to swallow pain like water. Three years in the Eternal Night Pack taught me how to smile while doing it. Today had been long. I spent the morning organizing supplies for the pack kitchen, the afternoon settling a dispute between two omega families over housing, and the evening reading bedtime stories to the pups at the orphanage. My back ached. My feet were swollen. And somewhere between lunch and dinner, a strange wave of nausea had hit me so hard I nearly collapsed in the hallway. But I kept going because that's what I do. That's all I know how to do. The packhouse was usually dead quiet by the time I got home. Tyran and I had perfected the art of avoiding each other. Some nights, he wasn't even there. Most nights, I preferred it that way. But tonight, I heard laughter. Not just any laughter. His laughter. I stopped at the edge of the living room, my hand gripping the doorframe. Tyran was sitting on the couch, leaning back with his arms spread wide, and the sound coming from his chest was something I hadn't heard in three years. A real, full, genuine laugh. And it wasn't for me. It was for her. Keira. She sat across from him, legs crossed, her dark hair falling over one shoulder like silk. Her green eyes sparkled under the warm light, and her smile was the kind that made people forget she had teeth sharp enough to tear you apart. My sister. Or whatever she was to me. The girl who was swapped with me at birth. The one my biological parents raised and loved while I was beaten and starved by her real mother. The one who had everything that should have been mine and still wanted more. She was back. Something tightened in my chest, a pressure that made it hard to breathe. I wanted to turn around and walk away, but Keira's eyes found me first. Her smile didn't drop. It shifted. The warmth in it turned into something sharper, like a blade wrapped in velvet. "Sophiah!" She stood up, arms open wide. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Tyran and I have been catching up for hours." Hours. He had been sitting here laughing with her for hours while I was running his pack, caring for his people, and trying not to throw up from whatever sickness had been creeping through me all week. I looked at Tyran. He glanced at me the way you glance at a clock on the wall. Brief. Disinterested. Then he looked back at Keira. "You should sit down," he told her. "You just got here. Don't tire yourself out." The gentleness in his voice made my stomach turn more than the nausea. He had never spoken to me like that. Not once. Not even on the night we got engaged, when his father stood behind him like a wall and made him slide a ring onto my finger while his jaw was clenched so tight I thought his teeth would crack. I didn't choose this life. None of it. I didn't choose to be stolen from my real parents. I didn't choose to be raised by a monster. I didn't choose to be dragged back to the Eclipse Pack at eighteen and shoved into a world that didn't want me. And I certainly didn't choose to be mated to a man who looked at another woman the way he should have looked at me. But here I was. "I wasn't told you were coming," I said, keeping my voice steady. Keira tilted her head. "Oh? Tyran didn't mention it?" She turned to him with a playful pout. "You didn't tell your own mate I was coming?" He shrugged. "It slipped my mind." It slipped his mind. Three words and each one was a knife. I had spent three years managing every detail of this pack, remembering every name, every birthday, every allergy among the pups, every patrol schedule, every supply order. But my mate couldn't remember to tell me that the one person who had made my life miserable was moving into our home. "She'll be staying with us until after the Alpha Ceremony," Tyran added, not even looking at me. "Make sure the guest room on the east wing is ready." He wasn't asking. He was telling. "The east wing?" I repeated. That was the room directly next to ours. The one with the balcony overlooking the garden. The best guest room in the entire packhouse. I had been saving it for visiting Alphas during the ceremony. "Is that a problem?" His eyes finally settled on me, and there it was. That cold, flat stare that told me my opinion didn't matter and never would. I swallowed. "No." "Good." He stood up and stretched. "I have a council meeting in twenty minutes. Keira, make yourself comfortable. Sophiah will take care of everything." He walked past me without another word. No touch. No acknowledgment. Just the faint scent of pine and authority brushing against me as he disappeared down the hallway. Keira and I stood alone in the living room. The warmth she had performed for Tyran was gone. What remained was the real Keira, the one only I ever got to see. She took a step closer and lowered her voice. "You look tired, sister. Has the pack been running you into the ground?" She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Don't worry. I'm here now. I can help carry the weight." "You don't need to help with anything," I said. "You're a guest." "Am I?" She picked up a framed photo from the side table. It was a picture from the pack's last bonfire gathering. I was in the background, barely visible. "Because from what Tyran tells me, this pack has been waiting for someone like me for a very long time." My pulse quickened, but I held my ground. "What exactly did Tyran tell you?" Keira set the photo down gently, like she was placing a chess piece on a board. "He told me he's not going to mark you at the ceremony." She paused, letting the words sink in. "He's going to reject you, Sophiah. And he asked me to be here when he does."