Chapter 5

Willow’s POV

Alpha Kelvin clasped his hands behind his back and looked at me with the same flat expression he used in pack meetings. 

“I’m talking about Stacey Holt and Noah,” he continued. “Their child.” He paused. “From your current state, I assume you have heard already.”

My mouth opened and closed.

I scrambled for something that made sense. He was standing in my room talking to me like we were having a normal conversation, like we had ever had a normal conversation in eleven years.

“I — ” My voice came out cracked and thin. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I don’t understand, Alpha. I don’t see what that has to do with — I mean, I am just —”

“Stop.” He cut in without raising his voice. I snapped my mouth shut immediately.

He looked at me for a moment, a slight sneer crossing his face briefly.

“I was silent,” he drawled. “Not blind. There is a difference. I am aware of your… situation with my son. I have been aware of it for some time.”

My knees felt unsteady at that moment.

“I chose not to interfere,” he continued, “because Noah is young, and young men need room to make certain mistakes before they are ready to lead. I did not say anything because it was harmless enough. But he also has a responsibility to this pack, to his future. And that responsibility cannot be compromised.”

He said it like it settled everything. Like my four years with Noah was merely a ‘youthful mistake’.

I stood there and stared at him and said nothing, because what was there to say? He had just looked me in the face and told me he had known all along and done nothing, and somehow that felt worse.

“I am also aware,” he added, “that you and Noah are fated mates.”

My breath caught.

Something shifted in his expression then.

His eyes softened, and for a single moment he looked less like the cold intimidating alpha.

“I had a fated mate once. It was many years ago, before Noah’s mother.”

I didn’t move.

“She was unsuitable, she was an omega,” he continued. “The pack council would never have accepted her, and I knew it.” His jaw shifted slightly. “So I made a choice. I let her go, I chose duty instead.” His eyes came back to me, sharp and cold again. “Look at how strong this pack is now, because I made a necessary choice those years ago.”

He said it without grief and regret.

I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or terrified of him. I was leaning toward terrified though.

“But,” he said, and his voice shifted again, “fated mates produce the strongest heirs. The bond between fated mates runs deep, and the pups born from it carry that strength. Every alpha knows this.”

He looked at me directly.

“Which brings me to why I am here.”

My stomach dropped.

He tilted his head slightly. His eyes moved downward slowly and settled on my stomach.

I swallowed, feeling completely exposed. I crossed my arms over my stomach without thinking.

“Wha—” My voice barely came out. “What are you — how did you — ”

“The healer told me,” he replied simply.

The air left my lungs.

Healer Maren. The woman who had smiled at me softly not three hours ago, who had pressed herbs into my hands and told me to rest and eat well and come back in two weeks.

Of course she had. She was the pack healer. Her loyalty was to the alpha, not to a wolfless omega with no standing.

“I know you are carrying Noah’s child,” Alpha Kelvin continued calmly, like he was reading from a document. “You’re six weeks along, if I am not mistaken.”

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. I just stood there with my arms wrapped around my stomach and my heart slamming so hard against my ribs it was almost painful.

I had no idea why he was telling me all these things, but every instinct I had was telling me it was not going to be good.