Sorry, Alpha. This Pup Isn’t Yours

Chapter 4

Adrian left the territory with Chloe and stayed away for seven whole weeks.

During the first week, I still sent him one message.

Serena: My doctor says I need to avoid Alpha aura. We need to talk when you get back.

The reply didn't come from my husband. It came from his personal liaison.

Chloe: The Alpha is in a meeting. If it's about work, send it to me first.

I deleted the chat and never contacted him again.

Chloe's profile, however, never stopped updating.

Her page showed champagne on a private jet, fireworks beneath snow-covered mountains, a backless gown at a council dinner, and Adrian's black gloves left casually beside her on a hotel terrace.

Not one photo showed them together, yet every one looked like a glimpse of a secret honeymoon.

Meanwhile, at the Silvercrest physician's office, I heard my pup's faint heartbeat for the first time.

"Didn't the father come with you?" the physician asked.

I stared at the tiny flicker on the screen and said nothing.

From that day on, I took my medication on schedule, stepped back from all high-risk duties, and personally altered the prenatal report I planned to reveal at the Full Moon Banquet.

I was actually nine weeks pregnant.

The version I would make public said four weeks.

At the end of the seventh week, Adrian finally returned to the territory.

The driver picked up Adrian and Chloe first, then came for me on the way to the Blackwood Full Moon Banquet.

When I opened the car door, the two of them were sitting side by side in the back while the front passenger seat sat empty.

Chloe was still wearing the blue moonstone necklace.

The instant Adrian saw me, his black wolf seemed to snap awake behind his eyes.

His nostrils flared as he caught the scent, and his cedar scent flooded the cramped car.

"Serena." He stared at my abdomen, his voice tight. "Why is there a pup's scent on you?"

He could smell it now. After seven weeks, the trace that had once been too faint to identify had grown impossible to miss.

Chloe went pale.

I didn't answer. I simply slid into the empty passenger seat. "Take us to the banquet."

A moment earlier, Adrian had still been waiting for me to order her out of the car, waiting for me to lose my temper, waiting for jealousy to finally make me yield.

After the door shut, I never once looked back at him.

In the rearview mirror, his expression slowly darkened.

Of course I minded.

I just didn't plan to sit beside him anymore.

At the banquet, Chloe sat on Adrian's right and spoke to Elizabeth Blackwood with easy familiarity about the details of his daily life.

"The Alpha refused to eat anything raw in Bellmont City, so I had the chef make something else for him. His stomach was bothering him, so I've already put his medication in the office. He only slept for two hours on the plane..."

Those intimate details, the kind that should have stayed between husband and wife, were laid out across the dinner table like trophies.

Adrian finally frowned. "Chloe."

I set down my napkin.

"Elizabeth, I'm pregnant."

Elizabeth's fork clattered onto her plate.

Adrian's gaze locked on me.

The pup's scent he'd caught in the car had now been confirmed in front of everyone. His cedar scent intensified at once, and he reached for me almost on instinct.

"Serena." His voice shook. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"But..." Chloe spoke softly. "The Alpha has been with me in Westoria for the past seven weeks."

The entire dining room went silent.

I took out the prenatal report and laid it on the table.

The report listed me as four weeks pregnant.

The joy that had just flared in Adrian's eyes slowly froze into disbelief.

"Explain."

"There's nothing to explain. While you were traveling around Westoria with your personal liaison, I met someone new too."

"You're lying to me."

"You can smell that I'm carrying a pup, but this early in the pregnancy, its paternal bloodline doesn't have a distinct enough scent for you to identify yet."

I removed the Luna signet ring I had worn for four years and set it on top of the report.

At that same moment, Adrian's phone began chiming with one notification after another.

The civil divorce petition, the alliance withdrawal notice, the joint asset division schedule, and the petition to dissolve the Luna oath had all been delivered.

"Silvercrest finally has an heir of its own."

The long table cracked beneath Adrian's palm.

Dark gold flooded his eyes. A low growl rumbled from his throat as his black wolf slipped out of control, the first warning of an approaching storm.

I faced down his Alpha aura, then slowly smiled and rested a hand over my abdomen.

"I'm sorry, Alpha. This pup isn't yours."