The Hockey Alpha Captain's Secret Heir

2

ELENA

‘ It hurts. ’ I sobbed.

' I know. ' Luna’s voice softens, which is somehow worse than the attitude she always gives me. ' I am sorry, Elena. ‘

I press both hands flat against my stomach. What do I do about this child now?

A knock at my window pulls me out of my trance. I gasp and run towards it only to find Ronda, my aunt, on the other side.

She lets herself in without waiting for an invitation, the way she always does, and one look at my face tells her she already knows more than I want her to.

She is the only one in this world who knows about Damon and me, and the only person who has ever loved me.

“ You are not sleeping… ” She whispers.

I shake my head and she falls silent. That's when I know something is more wrong, worse than my own personal disaster downstairs at the bonfire.

“ Elena. ” She sits on the edge of my bed, and her hands are shaking almost as bad as Brielle's were shaking tonight. “ I need to tell you something, and I need you to listen to all of it before you say anything. ”

' I don't like this. ' Luna goes very still.

“ Okay. ” I fold my hands in my lap so she can't see them shake too.

“ Fifteen years ago, there was a girl in this pack named Corinne. ” Ronda's voice drops low, careful, like the walls might be listening. “ She was pregnant, unmarried, and the father was the Alpha. ”

My whole body goes cold in a way that has nothing to do with the open window.

“ What happened to her? ” I find my voice coming from a deep tunnel.

Ronda doesn't answer right away. She looks at the door first, then back at me, and I understand before she even says it that this is the kind of thing you check for eavesdroppers before you say out loud.

“ The Alpha doesn't allow illegitimate children in his bloodline. ” She says it flat, fast, like ripping off a bandage. “ It's pack law. Any child born outside a claimed mating, fathered by the Alpha's line, gets ended before it's born. Corinne didn't get a choice. Neither will you. ”

She knows. The room tilts in my view as I stumble back.

' Elena— '

I am carrying his child. I am carrying the Alpha's grandchild outside a claiming.

“ How do you know I am— ” I start, but Ronda is already shaking her head.

“ I have smelled it on you for two weeks now. And half the Pack’s healers have also smelled it. It's only a matter of time before someone tells the Alpha, and once he knows… ” She doesn't finish. She doesn't have to.

“ What happened to Corinne… ” I ask again, because I need to hear the whole thing, not the small version.

“ They took her to the infirmary…and told her family it was a miscarriage. ” Ronda's jaw tightens. “ She left the pack eight months later, and nobody has heard from her since. I don't know if that's because she couldn't stand to stay, or because they made sure she didn’t stay…but I do know for sure that it was not a miscarriage…”

“ How… ” My voice lowers some more.

Ronda's green eyes glaze over as she glances my way. “ Because I was the one who followed Alpha’s orders and killed that child. ”

My breath hitches as I stare at her in horror. My hand flies to my stomach. I don’t want to lose my child. This is the only thing in the world that I can call mine.

“ Why are you telling me this? ” I ask, my lips quivering. “ Why didn't anyone warn me before tonight? ”

“ Because until tonight I didn't know you needed warning. ” Her hand covers mine, and it's the gentlest thing anyone has done to me all night. “ but after he…took your friend as his mate, you need to know what comes next.”

“ I will not kill my child. ” Tears begin streaming down my face again.

“ I know. ” She nods and quickly gets to her feet. “ That’s why you need to leave. Tonight. Before sunrise, before the healers report anything, before anyone does the math on how long it's been since— ”

Since Damon had me pinned against the wall behind the Packhouse, telling me I was his over and over again. Since he filled me with his c*m and made sure I was pregnant.

' She is right. ' Luna's voice is steadier now, colder, the way she gets when she is already three steps ahead of me. ' We run, or we lose this baby whether we want to or not. There is no version of tonight where we stay and keep it. '

“ Where would I even go… ” My voice comes out smaller than I want it to.

“ Anywhere that is not here. ” Ronda squeezes my hand once, then lets go. “ I have some money saved. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get you out of the territory and somewhere safe for a while. I will bring it to you in twenty minutes. You pack light, pack fast. ”

She turns around and rushes to the window before I can even think about it. She stops at the window, one leg already over the sill.

“ And Elena…Don’t say goodbye to anyone. Not Brielle, not your parents, no one. If they don't know, they can't be made to answer for it later. ”

After warning me, she is gone, and I am alone with my wolf and a stomach full of secrets and about twenty minutes to decide the rest of my life.

' Elena. ' Luna's voice is quiet now. ' We have to go. '

I know.

I look around my room…the only room I have ever slept in, the only walls that have ever known me. I swallow the lump forming in my throat and start pulling a bag down from the closet shelf.

I don't cry until I am three miles into the tree line, pack territory shrinking behind me, and even then I don't stop walking.