POV - Elara
I woke up to an empty bed, and my heart stopped.
Kieran always stayed until sunrise. Always. For three months, he'd held me until the first light came through my window, then kissed my forehead and disappeared like a beautiful dream.
But this morning, he was gone.
I sat up fast, pulling the blanket around me. His smell was still everywhere—pine and winter storms and something wild that made my wolf purr. But the sheets next to me were cold.
Something's wrong.
I tried to push the feeling away. Maybe he had an early meeting. Maybe there was pack business. Maybe I was being silly and anxious because everything had been too perfect lately.
The pregnancy tests were still hidden in my bathroom drawer. Three of them, sealed. I'd bought them two weeks ago but hadn't been brave enough to use them yet. My period was late—really late—but I kept telling myself it was just worry.
Except I wasn't worried. I was happier than I'd ever been in my entire life.
Last night, Kieran had held my face in his hands and said, "I'm going to make this real. I'm going to stand in front of the whole pack and take you. Would you say yes if I asked?"
I'd cried happy tears and kissed him until we both forgot how to breathe.
"Yes," I'd whispered. "A thousand times yes."
He'd smiled—actually smiled, which Kieran almost never did—and pulled me closer. "Then I'll ask soon. I promise."
But now he was gone before dawn, and my stomach felt sick.
I got dressed and went to work at the pack library like always. Nobody looked at me differently. Nobody knew that the unseen omega who filed their books had been spending every night in the Alpha's arms. It was our secret, and I loved that it was just ours.
Except today, everything felt wrong.
My best friend Sara found me reshelfing books around noon. She looked worried.
"Have you heard?" she asked quietly.
My hands froze. "Heard what?"
"There's an emergency meeting this afternoon. The Alpha's making a big news." Sara bit her lip. "Elara, people are saying it's about the political marriage. The one with the Council's daughter."
The books in my hands crashed to the floor.
"That's impossible," I said, but my voice sounded far away. "He wouldn't—we talked about this. He's going to refuse the Council."
"I don't know," Sara said gently. "But the High Council arrived this morning. Victoria Ashcroft is here. I saw her going into the Alpha's office with the Elders."
I couldn't move. Victoria Ashcroft—the most beautiful, powerful Alpha female in all the regions. Daughter of the High Council leader. Everything I wasn't.
He promised. Last night, he promised.
"I need to see him," I said, already moving toward the door.
"Elara, wait—you can't just walk into an Alpha meeting—"
But I was already running.
I made it halfway across the courtyard before Marcus, Kieran's second-in-command, stopped my path.
"The Alpha isn't taking visitors," he said coldly.
"I need to talk to him. It's important."
"More important than Council politics?" Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Go back to work, omega. Whatever you think you have with the Alpha, it's not real. He uses women and goes on. That's what he does."
The words hit like knives, but I lifted my chin. "You don't know anything about us."
"I know he's in there right now agreeing to marry Victoria Ashcroft," Marcus said. "I know the engagement will be announced in two hours. And I know you should leave before you embarrass yourself."
I stood there, frozen, while my perfect world fell around me.
The gathering bell rang at three o'clock. Every pack member gathered in the great hall—hundreds of wolves watching their Alpha stand at the front with Victoria beside him.
She was beautiful. Tall and strong and confident, with golden hair and ice-blue eyes. She looked like she belonged next to Kieran. Like she was made to be an Alpha's mate.
I pressed my hand against my stomach, where our maybe-baby might be growing, and watched the man I loved announce his engagement to someone else.
"This union secures our territory's independence," Kieran said in his formal Alpha voice—the one that sounded nothing like the soft way he talked to me at night. "Victoria and I will marry within the month."
He didn't look at me. Not even once.
I waited in my room that night, pregnancy test finally in my shaking hands. Two pink lines appeared almost instantly.
Positive.
I was carrying the Alpha's child, and he'd just promised himself to someone else.
When Kieran finally came to my door at midnight, I let him in because I needed answers more than I needed pride.
"I can explain—" he started.
"I'm pregnant," I said.
The words hung in the air between us like poison. Kieran's face went white. His hands started shaking.
"That's... I'm always careful. It's not possible."
"Well, it happened," I said, my voice breaking. "Three months, Kieran. You came to me every single night for three months. Did you really think there wouldn't be consequences?"
Something cracked in his expression—pain and fear and maybe hope, all twisted together.
"This changes everything," he whispered. "I need time to think—"
"Think about what?" I asked. "You just announced your marriage! I'm pregnant with your child, and you're marrying someone else!"
"The Council threatened war," Kieran said desperately. "Thousands of lives depend on this union. I can't be selfish when—"
"Get out," I interrupted quietly.
"Elara, please—"
"GET OUT!"
He left, and I started packing. I'd be gone before dawn, taking his secret with me.
But as I reached for my bag, my door exploded inward.
Victoria stood there, her eyes sparkling with Alpha power and something darker—something that smelled like magic and murder.
"You're pregnant with his child," she said softly. "How inconvenient."
Then she smiled, and I saw the knife in her hand.