Barren Luna's Revenge

chapter 2

Chapter Two

Ana

The ride back from the clinic was the quietest hour of my life.

After the chaos at the estate, Lily had practically forced me into a car. She didn't care that I wanted to wait for Desmond. She didn't care that I was shaking. She only cared about the life growing inside me.

We went to a small pack doctor on the edge of the territory, someone Lily trusted to keep a secret.

For a long time, I just sat on the examination table. I felt small. The paper with the positive result was crumpled in my pocket, a permanent reminder of a miracle that felt more like a disaster.

I thought something bad had happened to my child after the fall. My heart raced the whole way there, fear gripping me so tight I could barely swallow. Every small ache in my stomach felt like a warning.

Lily paced the small waiting room, her footsteps a steady rhythm against the linoleum. She had my phone in her hand. She was calling Desmond again and again.

Each time, I watched her face. She would hold the phone to her ear, wait, and then her expression would sour as she pulled it away.

"Still nothing?" I asked, my voice cracking.

"Straight to voicemail," Lily snapped, her thumb hovering over the call button to try yet again. "He isn't even looking at his screen. Or he’s ignoring it."

Each ring that ended in silence made the hurt in my heart grow heavier. I stared at the bandage the nurse had placed on my hand where the gravel had sliced my skin.

I wondered if this was really the man I had loved all those years. Was the Alpha who just pushed me into the dirt the same person who used to hold me until I fell asleep?

I leaned my head against the cold wall and closed my eyes. I remembered when I was on the brink of collapsing years ago. Back then, I was the outcast, the girl without a wolf. Everyone ignored me.

But Desmond had been different. He stepped up and cared for me when no one else looked my way.

At that time, he was not even Alpha yet. He was just a boy with a heavy title and a father who didn't believe in him. I remembered his father, the old Alpha, scolding him in the garden. He called Desmond lazy. He told him he was unable to rule the pack and that he would be the ruin of their bloodline.

Ema had been his first love then. She was the beautiful wolf by his side, the one everyone expected to be his Luna.

But the moment things got difficult—the moment his father's pressure became too much and the pack faced its first great winter—Ema left. She didn't want a "lazy" boy who might never lead. She wanted power, and when she didn't see it in him, she walked away.

Desmond almost gave up on everything after she left. He stopped training. He stopped caring.

I was the one who stood by him. I was the one who sat with him through the long nights, reminding him that he was more than his father’s insults. I pushed him to study, to lead, to become the better Alpha he was today. I gave him my strength when I had no wolf of my own to offer.

And now, he saw me as nothing.

After all that history, he had carried her out in front of everyone when he saw that I also needed help. He didn't even look back to see if I was standing.

The doctor came back in with a clipboard, looking solemn. "The baby is fine, Ana. You're lucky. But you need to rest. Stress is your enemy right now."

He paused, looking at the paperwork. "I need a signature from the father of the child to finalize these records."

I looked at the floor. My throat felt like it was full of sand.

I did not know how to tell him that my mate had just carried another woman instead of me. I couldn't find the words to say that the Alpha was too busy with his ex-girlfriend to sign a paper for his own child.

The words stuck in my throat, and I just shook my head.

"He's... he's busy with pack business," I lied. The lie tasted bitter.

Lily was so angry that she looked like she might shift right there in the office. She wanted to find Desmond and make him pay for what he had done.

"He disgraced you," she hissed as we finally left the clinic. "Not only did he leave you in the dirt, but he proved to the whole pack that you do not matter."

I didn't answer. I just wanted to go home and hide under the covers.

But as Lily walked me out of the hospital toward the parking lot, I stopped suddenly. The world seemed to slow down.

I saw a couple right in front of us, near the main entrance. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I thought maybe I was hallucinating from the stress.

But then I saw Desmond clearly. He was standing by his black SUV, and Ema was right there with him. She had laid her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed as if she were exhausted. He had his arm around her waist, pulling her close.

I almost lost my balance again. This time, there was no one to push me; the weight of the sight was enough. Pain stabbed through my chest, sharper than any physical wound.

Lily noticed my stare. I felt her body go stiff beside me. At that moment, she felt angry too—a hot, protective rage. She took a step toward them, her fists clenching. She wanted to confront them right there in public, to scream at him for being a coward.

I reached out and held her arm. My fingers were weak, but I held on tight.

"Let it go," I whispered. "Please. Just take me home."

"Ana, you can't be serious," Lily argued, her voice trembling with fury. "He's right there! With her!"

"I can't do this here," I said, my voice barely audible. "Not like this. Just take me home."

The drive to the estate was a blur of streetlights and tears I refused to let fall. When we arrived, the house felt empty, even though the lights were on. Lily stayed for a while, making me tea and making sure I was settled on the sofa, but eventually, she had to leave to check on her own family.

As I sat at home later, I kept looking at the clock on the mantle. The ticking sounded like a hammer. It was almost ten o'clock, and he still was not back.

The house was too quiet. Every time a car drove past, my heart jumped, but the engine sounds always faded away into the distance.

I thought about the doctor's words when he said "congratulations." At the time, it had felt like a ray of light. Now, sitting in the dark, I wished he could just take it back. I wished he could say it was all a joke or a mistake.

A baby was supposed to be a bond, a way to bring a couple together. But seeing what was happening right in front of me, there was nothing like a joke to it. This was real. My husband was with another woman while I carried his child in silence.

The front door finally opened. The heavy wood groaned on its hinges.

I didn't move from the sofa. I stayed in the shadows, watching as Desmond walked in. He looked so worn out. His hair was messy, and his coat was unbuttoned. He looked as if he had just left a rundown place after having far too much fun.

He didn't look like an Alpha; he looked like a man who had spent the evening forgetting his responsibilities.

As he walked into the living room, he saw me sitting there. The dim light caught the little bandage on my hand. I looked weak, and I knew it. My eyes were red, and my skin was pale.

Before I could say a single word, before I could even ask where he had been, he spoke first. His voice was cold and full of judgment.

"You know Ema just came back today, Ana," he said, shaking his head. "But that doesn't mean you will act all wicked and treat her bad. She only came to apologize and mend for her mistake. She's trying to be a better person."

I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell him to repeat those words so I could hear how ridiculous they sounded. But I felt so still inside that I could not say anything at first.

My brain was trying to process the fact that he was actually blaming me.

"Treat her bad?" I finally managed to say. "Desmond, I didn't even touch her. I did not try to do anything."

"I saw you, Ana," he snapped, his eyes flashing with a hint of his wolf's anger. "I saw her fall. She’s pregnant and vulnerable. Trying to push her and get her killed is unacceptable. I thought you were better than that."

The injustice of it was like a physical weight. Anyone with clear eyes would see that she was just acting. Anyone who knew Ema knew she was a master of putting the blame on others.

But to Desmond, the man who was supposed to know me better than anyone, I was the culprit. I was the "wicked" one.

I slowly stood up as I looked at him. The anger inside me rose so high that I did not even know when the words left my mouth.

"She pushed me, Desmond! She made me bleed!" I held up my bandaged hand, but he didn't even glance at it. "I fell in pain, and all you did was pick her up and leave. You left me on the ground like I was trash. Do you even love me? Or has the person you always wanted finally returned, and now I'm just in the way?"

He looked at me then, and for a second, his expression softened. He took a step forward and reached out his hand, as if he were about to touch my face and tell me he was sorry. My heart flickered for a tiny moment, hoping for a spark of the old Desmond.

I pulled away quickly, stepping back into the darkness of the hallway.

"I am going to bed," I told him, my voice flat. "If you want dinner, you can just tell the maid. I’m sure there’s something left."

But before I could leave the room, he spoke again. His words were the final blow.

"I already ate," he said, turning away to hang up his coat. "I took Ema to a restaurant. She said she was hungry after the shock of the fall, so I ate along with her. So don't bother. I am not that hungry."

He didn't look back. He didn't ask if I had eaten. He didn't ask how the doctor's visit went.

With that, he walked past me and headed toward his study, leaving me standing there in the cold hallway, filled with a deep, crushing regret for ever loving him.