Aria's POV
I threw my pillow across the room as hard as I could.
Three weeks. Three long, confusing weeks since I'd overheard Elder Marcus talking about Isabella being pregnant. Three weeks of Damon sneaking into my cottage every night like we were doing something wrong.
And three weeks of him refusing to tell me the truth about anything.
"Aria?" Damon's voice came from outside my window. "Can I come in?"
Part of me wanted to tell him no. To lock the window and make him explain himself through the glass. But the other part of me - the part that loved him so much it hurt - couldn't turn him away.
"The door's unlocked," I called out, not bothering to hide the anger in my voice.
Damon came in quietly, like he always did these days. Gone was the confident Alpha who had once declared me his in front of everyone. Now he moved like a man carrying a terrible secret.
"You're mad at me," he said, sitting on the edge of my bed.
"I'm not mad," I lied. "I'm frustrated."
"What's the difference?"
I turned to face him, and my heart clenched at how tired he looked. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was thinner than before. Whatever secret he was keeping was eating him alive.
"Mad means I want to yell at you," I said. "Frustrated means I want to help you, but you won't let me."
Damon reached for my hand, but I pulled away. I couldn't think clearly when he touched me, and I needed answers.
"Aria, please. I know this is hard—"
"Hard?" I stood up, pacing across the small room. "Hard is watching the man you love disappear right in front of you. Hard is having someone visit you every night but act like a stranger."
"I'm not a stranger," Damon said quietly.
"Aren't you?" I whirled around to face him. "When's the last time you told me you loved me? When's the last time we talked about anything that mattered? When's the last time you acted like we actually have a future together?"
Damon flinched like I'd slapped him. "It's complicated."
"Everything's complicated with you lately!" I exploded. "I ask you what's wrong, you say it's complicated. I ask about the Sterling Pack, you say it's complicated. I ask when we can stop hiding in my cottage like criminals, and you change the subject completely!"
"I'm trying to protect you," Damon said, his voice strained.
"From what? I'm supposedly the most powerful omega in existence, remember? I can heal mortal wounds and see through pack bonds. What exactly do I need protection from?"
"From me!" The words burst out of him like he'd been holding them back for weeks. "From the choices I'm going to have to make. From the pain I'm going to cause you."
My anger drained away, replaced by cold fear. "What choices?"
Damon buried his face in his hands. "I can't do this anymore. I can't keep pretending everything's going to be okay when I know it's not."
"Then stop pretending," I said, sitting down beside him. "Tell me what's really happening."
For a moment, I thought he might actually do it. His hands dropped, and he looked at me with so much pain in his golden eyes that I wanted to cry.
"If I tell you," he said slowly, "you're going to hate me."
"I could never hate you," I said, taking his hand. "No matter what."
"You say that now."
"I mean it. Damon, whatever's wrong, we can face it together. That's what mates do."
Something flickered across his face - hope, maybe, or desperate wish. But then it was gone, replaced by that terrible resigned look I'd been seeing more and more.
"I have to go," he said, standing up abruptly.
"What? No!" I jumped up after him. "You can't keep doing this. You can't keep running away every time things get real."
"I'm not running away. I'm protecting you."
"I don't want your protection!" I shouted. "I want your honesty! I want my mate back!"
Damon stopped at the door, his hand on the handle. "What if your mate is a coward? What if he's weak? What if he's about to do something that will destroy everything you believe about him?"
"Then I'd rather know the truth than live in this horrible uncertainty," I said firmly.
He turned to look at me one last time, and I saw something that terrified me. He was looking at me like he was memorizing my face. Like he thought he might never see me again.
"I love you," he whispered. "I need you to remember that, no matter what happens."
Before I could respond, he was gone, leaving me standing alone in my cottage with tears streaming down my face.
I sank onto my bed, hugging my knees to my chest. Something terrible was coming. I could feel it in the way Damon held himself. In the way he looked at me. In the way he kept apologizing for things he hadn't done yet.
The pregnancy. It had to be about Isabella's pregnancy. But how was that even possible? Damon had been with me every night for weeks. When would he have been with her?
Unless...
My blood turned to ice as a horrible thought occurred to me. What if Isabella had been lying about when she got pregnant? What if it had happened before I ever met Damon? What if he'd been with her first, and now he was being forced to claim the child?
Or worse - what if he had been with her recently, and he'd been lying to me this whole time?
I was still trying to figure out which possibility hurt more when someone pounded on my door.
"Aria! Aria, open up!"
It was Riley, my best friend. But she sounded panicked, which wasn't like her at all.
I opened the door to find her standing there with wild hair and frightened eyes.
"Riley, what's wrong?"
"I've been looking everywhere for you," she gasped, trying to catch her breath. "I ran all the way from the pack house."
"What happened?"
"It's bad, Aria. Really, really bad." Riley grabbed my hands, and I could feel how badly she was shaking. "The Sterling Pack sent a messenger tonight. An official messenger with documents and everything."
My stomach dropped. "What kind of documents?"
"A formal ultimatum," Riley said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Marriage or war. If Alpha Damon doesn't agree to marry Isabella Sterling within forty-eight hours, the Sterling Pack will declare war on us."
"Forty-eight hours?" I repeated numbly.
"That's not the worst part," Riley continued, tears starting to run down her cheeks. "The announcement is tonight. At the pack meeting. In one hour."
"What announcement?"
Riley's next words hit me like a physical blow.
"Damon's decision. He's calling the entire pack together to announce whether he's going to marry Isabella Sterling or lead us into war." She squeezed my hands tighter. "Aria, everyone's saying he's going to choose marriage. They're saying he has to, for the good of the pack."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. This was why Damon had been acting so strange. Why he'd been looking at me like he was saying goodbye.
He was going to marry Isabella Sterling. Tonight.
"There's something else," Riley said, and somehow her voice got even smaller. "Something about Isabella being pregnant. With Damon's child."
"I know," I whispered.
"You know?" Riley stared at me in shock. "How long have you known?"
"Three weeks. I overheard Elder Marcus telling Damon."
"Three weeks?" Riley's eyes flashed with anger. "And you didn't tell me? Aria, how could you keep something like this to yourself?"
"Because I was hoping it wasn't true," I said, my voice breaking. "I was hoping Damon would find a way out of it. I was hoping..."
I couldn't finish the sentence. I had been hoping for a miracle that was never going to come.
"We have to go," Riley said urgently. "The meeting starts in less than an hour. If you're going to do something, if you're going to fight for him, it has to be now."
"Fight for him?" I laughed bitterly. "How can I fight a pregnant woman? How can I ask him to choose me over his unborn child?"
"Because you're his mate!" Riley said fiercely. "Because you love each other! Because what you have is real!"
"Is it?" I asked. "If it was real, wouldn't he have told me about this weeks ago? Wouldn't he have included me in the decision? Wouldn't he be fighting for us instead of giving up?"
Riley didn't have an answer for that.
We stood there in silence for a moment, both of us trying to process the enormity of what was happening.
Then Riley grabbed my arm. "Aria, there's one more thing. Something I heard from my father."
"What now?" I asked wearily.
"The Sterling Pack isn't just demanding marriage," Riley said, her voice shaking. "They're demanding that Damon publicly reject you. In front of the entire pack. Tonight."