Chapter 2

Willow’s POV

I didn’t know when I stopped breathing. I didn’t know when the paper and pouch the healer had given me slipped from my fingers. I was standing in the doorway and my vision had gone strange, like everything was suddenly too bright, and their voices had started sounding like they were coming from underwater—

“Noah.”

I didn’t mean to say it. It just came out.

The room went silent.

He turned.

The look on his face when he saw me told me everything. The raw guilt on it was overwhelming.

“Willow…” he breathed out.

I couldn’t look at Stacey. I was looking at Noah, and at his hand, which was still resting on her stomach. 

He hadn’t moved it.

I stumbled back slightly. My shoulder hit the doorframe and I used it to steady myself because my legs didn’t feel like it would hold.

“You…” My voice came out small. “You got her pregnant?”

He stood up immediately. “Willow, listen to me —”

“How long?”

He stopped.

His mouth opened and closed.

The silence stretched between us and I felt each second of it pierce through my chest like knives.

Eight weeks, the healer had said.

I thought about eight weeks ago. I tried to count back. I had been with him eight weeks ago. We had been together, and he had looked at me the way he always did, and he had said things—things I had believed.

Tears were burning in my eyes. I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of Stacey, who was still sitting on that bed watching me like she was watching something very funny.

“Willow.” Noah took a step toward me. “I can explain —”

“Don’t.” The word came out harder than I thought possible. “Don’t come toward me right now.”

He stopped.

“Noah?” Stacey called softly, looking perfectly innocent. “What’s going on?”

I looked at her then, because I couldn’t help it. She was watching us with wide eyes, looking concerned, like she had no idea what was going on, but she had a gleam in her eyes.

I wanted to tear her apart.

Noah cleared his throat. “Nothing.” He forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Excuse us for a moment.”

Before I could move or say anything, his hand wrapped around my arm and he walked us both out into the hallway, closing the door shut behind him.

The moment we were out of earshot, he let go and ran a hand through his hair, looking frustrated.

“Look,” he started. His voice was low. “You have to understand, Willow. What we have is… complicated.”

“You’re an omega,” he continued, and my chest tightened as he said it. I didn’t need another reminder from him on what I was. “You don’t have a wolf. And I’m going to be an alpha soon. There are things that come with that. I have responsibilities — and I need—”

“We are fated mates.” The words came out of me before I could stop them. My voice cracked on the last word and I hated that I sounded like I was begging. “Noah. We are fated mates.”

He went quiet.

Then he nodded slowly.

“Yes,” he said. “We are.”

Something in my chest loosened for just a second, before he kept talking.

“But I need a strong female beside me. As my Luna. Someone the pack will respect. Someone who can—”

Tears spilled down my face before I could stop them. I didn’t wipe them. I just looked at him and asked.

“And that person is Stacey?”

His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.

Then he nodded again.

I stumbled backward.

My chest hurt in a way I didn’t have a word for. It wasn’t just heartbreak, it was something worse than that.

“You said you hated her.” My voice came out shaky and thin. “You said she was fake.”

“She is,” he muttered inaudibly I almost didn’t catch it.

I stared at him.

“She is?” I repeated. “Then why are you having a baby with her?”

He ran his hand through his hair again, looking frustrated like I was the one being unreasonable, like I was the one who had done something wrong here.

A broken laugh escaped me.

“Really?” I said. My voice was rising and I couldn’t stop it. “Really, Noah?”

“Keep your voice down —”

“Don’t.” I cut him off sharply. “Don’t tell me to keep my voice down right now.”

He exhaled. “I’m not trying to hurt you —”

“Then what are you trying to do?” I demanded. “Because from where I’m standing, you have been with her for goddess knows how long, Noah.” My throat tightened.

He didn’t answer. What could he say? There was nothing.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides. My whole body was shaking and I couldn’t tell anymore if it was grief or rage. It was both.

Something in me broke at that moment.

My fists came up and I hit his chest with both hands, he barely moved — but I hit him again, and again, and then I was sobbing incessantly.

“Willow—”

“Don’t touch me —”

His arms came around me anyway. He pulled me into his chest and held on, and I kept hitting his chest even as he held me, until my arms got tired and I just stood there in his grip, crying into his shirt like an idiot.

His scent flooded me. That familiar warmth that my body loved. Even now it worked to calm me. My breathing slowed a little and my shoulders dropped slightly. I hated myself for it.

Then he spoke.

“We can still be together,” he said quietly. His chin was resting on top of my head. “Just like before. Nothing has to change. Stacey being my Luna changes nothing between us. You’re my fated mate, Willow. That doesn’t go away.”

I stopped crying.

It was like he had poured cold water over me. Every single muscle in my body froze.

At that moment, I finally understood.

Noah was never going to choose me publicly.