Chapter 4

ATHALIAH

Wren didn't try to make me change my mind. She simply patted my shoulder before processing my discharge documents. After my discharge, I headed back to the Alpha house. If I wanted to leave successfully, I had to be strategic. Knowing Damian would never accept a divorce, I knew I had to be cautious about my escape plan. I simply can't disappear overnight. If that happens, Damian's suspicion would be raised and he'd likely send the pack guards after me.

To hide my pregnancy and buy myself time to escape, coming back to the Alpha house was my last resolve. If I keep acting like the calm and composed Luna I've always been, there's no way anyone would know I have an escape plan on my mind.

The cab pulled up in front of the Alpha house. I got out and headed in. Just one step into the living room, I paused, roaming my gaze around to make sure I entered the right house. Sure enough, it was indeed the Alpha house.

So why does it scent so much like Everly?

My brows lifted, Everly's home was the next building, there was absolutely no reason for my matrimonial home to smell so much like her.

Eyes roaming around and wondering what was going on, I proceeded to the hallway, but it only got worse. Her scent was everywhere. Even the second floor where my bedroom was located, strictly out of bounds, wasn't spared.

I watched as servants moved past me carrying suitcases of different sizes, folded blankets, like someone was moving in. None of them bothered to acknowledge me, they were all fixated on carrying things in.

I trailed behind a group of servants, carrying baby supplies, only to be led into my baby's nursery. The same nursery I’d prepared for my future pups. Every single item in there was carefully chosen by me with love for my pup.

Standing in the doorway, I watched as everything I'd carefully now seemed to  belong to another woman. Two large cradles had even been placed side by side near the window.

“What is going on?” I had barely even finished speaking when someone called out my name from behind me.

“Athaliah,” I turned around, knowing it was Corrine.

She stood before me, holding one of Everly's pups. Next to her was Everly cradling the other.

“Good thing you're here now,” Corrine said loudly.

“I want you to assist Everly in moving in. Make sure she's very comfortable. That's your duty,” she bluntly stated.

Then turned to the servants.

“Everly has given birth to the pack’s heir, I expect you all to listen to every word she says and treat her with utmost care,” she instructed.

I just stood there, eyes on her. Not a sound from me.

Everly smiled calmly at me.

“I'm sorry for intruding this way,” she said softly.

“I really did try to tell the alpha this was absolutely unnecessary. But he insisted,” she rattled on. But I wasn't even listening.

“The alpha said being here will make it more convenient for him to care for the twins and I,” she stepped forward, taking my hand into hers.

“You did such a beautiful job here. I'm sure the twins will love it. I already love it,” she spoke to me like we were friends.

Looking at Everly acting all calm and docile, I almost let out a humourous laugh. When it's just the two of us, she was like a completely different person, vile, conniving and unreasonable. A complete opposite of the person before me right now.

Anger, humiliation, every negative emotion you could think of burned through me. They'd made this two faced woman move into my home without as much as a word to me. And as if that wasn't enough, my baby's nursery had even been given to her and I'm expected to calmly accept it?

I pulled my hands off her hold, turned to the servants.

“Take everything out,” I ordered, my face rigid.

Corrine gasped.

“Excuse me?”

I didn't bother looking at her. I fixed my gaze on the servants who stood torn between listening to me and doing what they'd been instructed to do, another bigger insult to my status as this pack's Luna.

“Everything in this room that I picked out with my own hands. Remove it, all of it.”

Not one servant moved, they all stood, eyes on Corrine and Everly.

The last of my patience slipped.

“Now!” I growled, asserting my authority as the Luna.

This time, they all scatter, grabbing whatever they can and taking it out.

I turned to Everly who stood gazing at me. The grief in her face couldn't be missed. But her eyes held something more, something more than the grief of losing a mate.

“You can have the room once it's empty, decorate it however you like.”

With that, I walked away, not giving a shocked Corrine the chance to recover her voice.

The Alpha house remained unusually quiet for the rest of the day. This was the first time I had stopped swallowing my anger for Damian's sake. And it shocked the servants who had grown used to seeing me get pushed around. All of these, I tolerated for Damian's sake.

I was lying on the bed, hands on my stomach, silently professing protection to my pup, when the door opened. Damian seemed to have heard of what happened from the servants who couldn't stop talking about it, walked in.

I slowly pulled my hand away from my stomach, I covered my body with the duvet, turning my back on him.

“Liah,” he called softly.

That took me by surprise. I couldn't remember the last time he addressed me by that nickname.

“Can't you be more understanding of Everly's situation?” He asked softly.

Just like I expected, calling me the nickname was only for Everly's sake.

I didn't respond. But he kept speaking.

“You didn't have to embarrass her like that. She just gave birth and is grieving on top of that.”

“I gave her the room, didn't I?”

He exhaled slowly.

“Once she recovers, things will go back to normal. Can't you be patient just a little longer?”

I didn't bother answering him. He was a lost cause. There was nothing left to say.

 I adjusted the duvet on my body and closed my eyes. I could feel him get on the bed, but I didn't bother looking his way. Soon, my exhaustion took hold of me, I dozed off.

A loud cry jerked me up from my sleep right in the middle of the night. It was Everly. Her cry was loud and broken. She kept constantly calling out her mate's name.

Before I could even realize what was going on, Damian scrambled off the bed. Bare chested, with just shorts on and rushed out of the room. I got off the bed and trailed behind him.

By the time I got to the hallway, he was already crouched on the floor with Everly on him, gripping onto his shoulders. I watched as she pressed herself against him, crying.

“Don't leave me again, Julian. Please,” she pressed her face into his chest, sobbing.

“It's Damian, not Julian,” I heard him say softly but she didn't seem to have heard him.

Her whole body began to tremble violently.

Damian released his alpha scent almost instantly, tightening his grip around her wanting to comfort her.

Standing not far away, I watched my mate comfort another woman with the same Alpha scent that soothed me through our mate bond.

He knew this would hurt me. He was an alpha, he understood this more than anyone. But his sense of duty to him came first before me.

The pain hit me, I clenched my teeth, trying my best to hold up with it. But then a painful twitch in my stomach sent me staggering and holding onto the wall for support.

He'd hurt our pup. Our only surviving pup.

I quietly slipped one hand into my clothes, pressing it flat on my stomach in a vain attempt to protect and reassure my pup.

Slowly I rose to my feet with gritted teeth, only then did Damian catch sight of me.

He immediately let go of Everly who had calmed a bit, handed her over to her nurses and hurried over to me.

“This isn't what it looks like,” he made a vain attempt to explain himself.

“I'm only doing this because the healer recommended it.”

I simply nodded my head, looking completely unbothered. I headed back into the room, calm as ever.

“Athaliah, I…” He grabbed my hand wanting to explain further.

But Everly's cry broke out once again. He immediately let go.

“I'll explain everything more clearly later,” he said, then turned away.

When I got back to the room, I stripped and walked into the bathroom to take a shower. After the excruciating pain in the hallway. I needed the cold water to calm myself.

After showering, I got out of the bathroom and walked into the room. The sight before me almost made me laugh out loud.

Several bottles of Everly's medicine now sat on the nightstand. A folded blanket had been placed at the foot of our bed, and a small overnight bag rested beside the wardrobe.

My matrimonial bedroom scented like another woman, not me.

I stared at them. There was no mistaking what this meant.

Damian walked in a moment later.

“Everly had another episode,” he said. “The healer doesn't want her left alone tonight. If it happens again, she may need my scent immediately. Mom thought it would be safer to move her here for the night.”

I looked at the medicine beside our bed.

“And you agreed?”

He hesitated. “Athaliah, it's only one night. She's sick. Nothing is going to happen.”

He expected me to understand but I didn't, it simply didn't make any sense to me.

Looking at the bed I shared with him for six whole years, the room that was supposed to be ours alone now having the belongings of another woman.

I didn't get angry, cry or yell like I'd have done in the past.

I only asked one question, calm as ever.

“Which side of the bed did you give her?”