1 - I am the baby's father
Melina was now a woman at peace, sweet, sensitive and enthusiastic. A twenty-six-year-old from Louisiana, with a recent two-month pregnancy in her womb.
Someone who months ago had her body wounded after discovering a betrayal. A painful divorce from a bad marriage.
Melina Rice was a blonde with narrow hips and beautiful blue eyes, someone with a smile as bright as the sky.
She remembered her marriage. How she had been betrayed and how she had been humiliated and hurt.
Now she was about to become a mother. She felt her life was going somewhere else. She wanted to share it with a nice guy. But life had spoken and shown her that men were cruel.
Besides, who needed them? They were self-centered, terrible and selfish.
She was better off on her own.
The choice of insemination was what made her heart beat again, now whole and making another.
After facing challenges and obstacles in a toxic relationship. The decision to undergo artificial insemination was a moment of rebirth for her. It was as if her previously broken heart had finally found a renewed purpose for itself.
Some people could be happy alone, with lots of money, traveling. But she felt she would be happy this way. Melina was no longer so naïve, she had learned her lesson, but her heart was pounding in her chest.
When she received the news that the insemination had been successful, her heart leapt.
It was an overwhelming mix of emotions: happiness, gratitude and renewed hope. She knew that this little miracle was about to happen in her life. It had to be unique and special.
Every heartbeat now had a new meaning. Melina felt like she was beating not only for herself, but also for that new being that was forming in her womb. It was a feeling of fullness, of being complete and ready to embrace motherhood.
At every ultrasound scan, she saw the baby's heart beating, and this filled her with indescribable joy. She knew that with that strong, rapid sound, she was showing her child growing, developing and preparing to enter her life.
She was no longer alone, now it was a living being that shared a special connection with her.
As the days and weeks went by, the connection between her and the little being growing inside her became stronger and stronger.
Melina wondered if it was really that intense. She felt unique.
She imagined what the baby's face would look like, what its eyes would be like, its smile.
Every day she prepared to welcome that little being into her life. She prepared the baby's room, chose the most beautiful clothes and thought about the names she could give it. She had no idea if it would be a girl or a boy. It would be her son.
She also sought knowledge by reading books and attending courses on motherhood. Things about looking after a newborn. She didn't have a mother. She didn't have a father. She wanted to be ready to offer all the love and care that this little being deserved.
Two months might not seem like much, but for her, it was enough time to nurture unconditional love for the little one that was growing inside her.
The sound of the door made her move, she let go of her hair and opened the door.
"Hey?"
Her face was full of surprise. Melina lived in Louisiana, in a building on Fifth Avenue, on the sixth floor.
In almost a year there, she had never seen a man like the one at her door.
A shiver ran through her body, goosebumps broke out on her skin and she found it strange to look at the stranger on her doorstep.
The man's presence was simply mesmerizing. Her heart seemed to have skipped a beat in her chest, which made her grip the door handle.
The angular shape of his jaw, the intense, deep-set eyes and the lips that seemed to have been drawn with precision by an artist's hand. It was as if every detail of her face had been sculpted.
"Are you Melina?"
"Yes, I am. Who are you?"
"My name is Joyce Folin."
She was mesmerized by the way he expressed himself. His deep, captivating voice enveloped her in a spell. Every word seemed to have a profound impact on her skin, which was still crawling with goose bumps. Like a warning sign she couldn't understand.
Joice?
She didn't know anyone by that name.
The man, with a serious look on his face, extended his hand to her, offering a warm and friendly gesture. The kind of gesture he wasn't used to making.
Her visual encounter with him was a moment in which she found herself enveloped by a wave of strange sensations. Her eyes fixed on the man, who seemed calm and self-assured. He wore an elegant suit and had an expression she had no idea what it represented.
"Who are you?"
The young woman's eyes met the man standing in the doorway of her house. Something looked ominous.
It was Joice Folin, alpha of the Moon Werewolf pack, an important member of the royal family, which was made up of werewolves of the first rank. Hot-blooded, as some would say.
Joice Folin had all the physical attributes and charisma
An alpha of a werewolf pack.
With his striking appearance and athletic build, he was a powerful and dominant leader who was in serious trouble.
The problems involved the young woman in front of him. He imagined a lady in her forties, but no, it was a young woman who was in the middle of the confusion, a young woman with sparkling eyes.
Joice felt the presence of her son inside her belly. It didn't take much to confirm that her son was in that woman, that she wasn't like him. She was only human.
God, he was in trouble.
"You don't know me yet.
Joice had an intense, penetrating expression that conveyed a sense of power and authority.
He was trying not to appear rude or ill-tempered.
He spent a week trying to understand the signs. He was in his room when they whispered in his ear: "Your child is on the way. A genuine child. The next heir to the moon. I have chosen."
His deep, determined gaze reflected the origin of someone who is willing to protect his pack, defend his territory and solve problems. Like that one.
Even if those problems came from a voluntary donation of his sperm eight years ago in a cheap corner clinic.
He was young. His father still punished him when he messed up. He needed the money and he was young and dumb. He'd rather do that or beg for Folin's f*****g money.
But he was at the door of a stranger's house.
She was carrying the son of an alpha.
The result of his actions.
"You don't know me yet. I'm just the father of the child you're carrying."