The world stopped. Truly stopped this time. The air froze in my lungs, cold and sharp. Alice’s words hung in the quiet hallway, heavy and deadly.
Pregnant
A baby.
No. It couldn’t be! My mind screamed the word. This wasn’t possible. Not now. Not after everything. Just moments ago, I had found my voice. I had
stood tall. Astor had claimed me. And now this.
The triumphant smirk on Alice’s face was a punch to my gut. She watched me, enjoying the way my composure crumbled, piece by piece. Her eyes, usually just calculating, now held pure malice.
This was her final, cruel victory.
My legs felt like jelly, and my hands started to shake. The warmth that had spread through my chest when Astor defended me was gone, replaced by an icy dread. It felt like a trick. A terrible, elaborate trick.
I couldn’t speak. The words were stuck in my throat, and I was overcome by a heavy wall of shock.
What was there to say? Alice had just dropped a bomb, and I was reeling
from the blast.
“Cat got your tongue?” Alice’s voice was soft, but it cut through me like a
knife. “I thought you were so brave. So strong.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to push away the noise, the pain, the
image of Astor and her, the nightmare that was now real.
When I opened them, my vision was blurry. I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t
face her. Not now. Not with this.
Chapter 27
I turned, my movements stiff and slow, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. I walked away, one foot in front of the other, each step an effort. I heard Alice’s soft, mocking laugh behind me, but I didn’t look back. I just kept
walking.
I needed to escape from the house, from her, from the terrible truth.
I moved faster, my walk turning into a hurried pace, then a run. I ran out the back door, past the manicured gardens, towards the dense woods that bordered our pack territory. The cold autumn air hit my face, a welcome
shock.
I didn’t stop until my lungs burned and my legs ached. I found a small clearing, hidden by thick bushes and tall ancient trees. I sank to the ground, my back against the rough bark of an old oak.
The world spun around me, a chaotic blend of forest sounds and the echo of
Alice’s words.
Pregnant.
His baby.
It was a permanent mark. A bond. Not just between them, but now twisting itself into my life, into Astor’s claim. He had called me his mate. He had
stood against my father, against our pack, for me. He had shown me more
worth in that one moment than I had felt in years.
And now this…
Every sweet word, every protective gesture, felt tainted. How could he do this
to me? How could he have a child with another woman? What did I do or nOT
do enough to deserve this? The questions hammered in my head, relentless and unforgiving.
A sob tore from my throat, raw and painful. It wasn’t just the pain of betrayal, though that was sharp and deep. It was the crushing weight of a future that
Chapter 27
had just appeared, only to be snatched away. The fragile hope I had dared to
hold onto, the light that had just begun to flicker in the darkness of my life,
was now extinguished.
Tears streamed down my face, blurring the green leaves above me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rage. But all I could feel was a deep, aching emptiness. It was the kind of emptiness that swallowed sound, that devoured happiness, that left nothing but a hollow echo.
I had been so sure, just minutes ago, that things were finally changing. That I was finally seen. That I had a place. Now, I was adrift again, lost in a storm that felt impossible to weather.
What did this mean for Astor? For us? How could we ever move past this?
How could I?
I felt arms around me, and I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t. My whole life was
unravelling yet again.
“It’s okay,”
Astor suddenly appeared, and his voice was supposed to be giving me some comfort and warmth, but right now it was like salt being rubbed all over my
wound.
It must have taken me a couple of minutes to calm down, and I’m starting to realise that this is the first time he has seen me completely break down.
I’ve always been strong in front of him and made sure that he never sees my weaknesses, but he is also the person who has hurt me the most.
And I’m starting to see that he isn’t even done because he is hurting me every single minute I breathe in his presence.
“Is this about what I said to your father, because I didn’t mean that I was going to stop supporting them, but I just wanted them to stop her hurting you.” He said when I calmed down a little.
i don’t know ovisan is making you cry, art ind you to tell me what i des wing, and I promise that it for a He ROMA CHAVAy I datt konk be’s making fun of me nght now off he peranaty dart kekon
Listen he said, taking both my hands his meat what i said in thee, and you don’t have to lead guity because of that. Youre the lure of my pad and my mate, and you deserve to be treated with respect
He was saying all the right things, but at the wrong time, becane tyrk realized that it’s a little too late.
“Alice just told me that sh-*
He stopped me before I could say what wanted to say.
“Your father is sending her to stay with her biological parents for a couple of months, and maybe when she comes back, she’ll have grown mature enough,” he said, completely dismissing what I wanted to say, and it made me realise that he doesn’t know.
He doesn’t know that he is about to have a child with her, a part of him that was supposed to be mine too.
I have to tell him, I should tell him, but why couldn’t I open my mouth to say
it?
cphakathi28
#vote#
