Seraphina’s POV
Ti stopped completely. The air in my lungs turned ice cold and razor sharp. Roxanne’s words echoed in the empty hallway, each syllable hitting like a physical blow.
Pregnant.
A baby.
No. This couldn’t be happening. My brain refused to process it. Not now. Not after everything we’d just been through. Minutes ago, I had finally found my courage. I had stood up for myself. Julian had chosen .
And now this bombshell.
The satisfied smile spreading across Roxanne’s face felt like a knife twisting in my stomach. She was drinking in my shock, savoring every second as I fell apart in front of her. Her eyes weren’t just cold and calculating anymore. They were filled with pure hatred.
This was her ultimate weapon. Her final, devastating blow.
My knees went weak and my hands began trembling uncontrollably. The warmth I’d felt when Julian protected vanished completely, replaced by a bone deep chill. Everything felt surreal. Like so horrible nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
Words wouldn’t co. They were trapped sowhere between my chest and my throat, blocked by the crushing weight of what I’d just heard.
How could I possibly respond to sothing like this? Roxanne had just destroyed my world, and I was still trying to understand the wreckage.
"Nothing to say?" Roxanne’s voice was honey sweet, but each word sliced through . "I thought you were so fearless now. So confident."
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out her voice, the pain, the image of her and Julian together that was now burned into my mind.
When I opened my eyes again, everything looked fuzzy and distant. I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t look at her smug face for another second. Not with this truth hanging between us.
I spun around, my body moving like it belonged to soone else. My legs felt wooden as I walked away, each step taking enormous effort. Roxanne’s cruel laughter followed down the hallway, but I didn’t turn back. I just kept moving.
I had to get out. Away from this house, away from her, away from this nightmare.
My walk beca faster, then desperate, then I was running. I burst through the back door and raced past the perfectly trimd gardens toward the thick forest at the edge of our territory. The sharp autumn wind stung my cheeks, but the pain felt almost good.
I didn’t slow down until my chest was on fire and my legs felt like they might give out. I found a small hidden spot surrounded by dense bushes and towering old trees. I collapsed against the trunk of a massive oak, sliding down until I was sitting on the cold ground.
Everything around seed to spin. The sounds of the forest mixed with the echo of Roxanne’s voice in my head.
Pregnant.
His baby.
It was a permanent connection. A bond that would tie them together forever. And now it was tangled up in my life too, in whatever Julian and I had started to build. He had called his mate. He had stood up to my father and the entire pack for . He had made feel valuable for the first ti in years.
And now this happened.
Every tender mont, every protective touch, felt poisoned now. How could he have done this to ? How could he have gotten another woman pregnant? What had I done wrong to deserve this betrayal?
The questions pounded in my skull, each one more brutal than the last.
A cry ripped from my throat, harsh and broken. It wasn’t just the sting of betrayal, though that cut deep. It was watching my future collapse before my eyes. The tiny spark of hope I’d finally allowed myself to feel, the first real light in the darkness of my existence, had just been snuffed out.
Tears poured down my face, making the leaves above blur together. I wanted to scream until my voice gave out. I wanted to destroy sothing. But all I felt was a vast, consuming emptiness. The kind that ate everything good and left nothing behind.
Just minutes ago, I’d been so certain that my life was finally changing. That soone actually saw . That I belonged sowhere. Now I was drowning again, caught in a storm I didn’t know how to survive.
What did this an for Julian and ? How could we possibly get past sothing like this?
How could I?
Strong arms wrapped around , and I wanted to pull away, but I couldn’t seem to stop falling apart.
"It’s okay."
Julian’s voice should have been comforting. It should have made feel safe. Instead, it felt like acid on an open wound.
It took several minutes for my sobs to quiet down, and I realized this was the first ti he’d ever seen completely shatter. I’d always been careful to stay strong around him, to never let him see how broken I really was. But he was also the one who’d caused the most pain.
And apparently, he wasn’t finished destroying yet.
"Is this about what I said to your father? Because I didn’t an I would stop helping your family. I just wanted him to make her stop hurting you." He spoke when my breathing finally steadied.
I couldn’t make sense of his words at first. He was completely missing the point.
"Listen," he said, taking both my hands in his. "I ant every word I said in there. You don’t need to feel guilty about any of it. You’re the future Luna of this pack and my mate. You deserve to be treated with respect."
His words were everything I’d wanted to hear. But they ca at exactly the wrong mont, because I now knew it was too late for us.
"Roxanne just told that she’s—"
He cut off before I could finish.
"Your father is sending her to stay with her birth family for a while. Maybe when she cos back, she’ll have matured so." He dismissed what I was trying to say completely, and I realized with growing horror that he had no idea.
He didn’t know he was about to beco a father. He didn’t know that Roxanne carried a part of him that should have been mine too.
I needed to tell him. I should tell him right now. But the words wouldn’t co.
Reviews
All reviews (0)