Chapter 1

– ELIRA –

There was blood everywhere, on my hands, on the floor. It kept falling from the cuts where I had gripped the glass too hard.

“Stupid bitch.”

Garrick didn’t even turn to look at me when he said it. He just walked away like I meant nothing, like he always did. He never cared.

I sat there on the bathroom floor for I don't know how long, tears dripping down my eyes. Maybe an hour, maybe more. The cuts stung but I didn't care anymore, I'm used to it. It has been two years of this shit and I was done caring about everything except one thing.

The baby.

Three days ago I'd thrown up all over the marble sink and knew, I just knew, I didn't even need the test but I took it anyway to make it certain. It turns out to be two pink lines staring back at me like some kind of miracle I didn't deserve.

For the first time in forever I'd smiled, not that fake bullshit I wore at pack meetings when everyone watched us play happy couple, this was real.

I thought maybe things would change, maybe he'd stop hitting me when he got drunk, maybe he'd actually look at me without that disgusted expression he always wore, maybe I'd finally be worth something to him. Because for all long, he had been aggressive because I couldn't get him an heir apparent to the throne.

God I was stupid! Much more than I ever thought I was.

The bedroom was dark when I finally got up, my hands still hurt from the glass but whatever. Everything hurts these days, I wrapped them in some gauze I kept hidden in my drawer - had to hide everything from him, even basic medical supplies.

Our bed looked huge and empty like always. Garrick barely slept here anymore, he said my presence made him sick, that is the nicest thing to hear from my husband every night.

I changed into the nightgown he liked when he brought me new. Well, I used to like it. Now he just ignored me completely, but tonight would be different. Tonight I had news that would fix everything. The clock ticked loud in the silence, midnight came and went. Then one AM, two AM.

Where the hell was he?

I must have slept off, because I suddenly heard voices in the hallway, quietly talking. It made my stomach feel tight, maybe something was wrong.

Garrick never brought anyone up here this late. Then I smelled it, jasmine perfume, the expensive kind Serina always wore.

My twin sister. She is here? Was she here for a surprise visit?

No! No!! No!!!. They never knew about it, so how come she was here?

I crept to the door like some pathetic spy in my own house. Through the crack I could see them pressed against the wall, his hands all over her body and her wrapped around his waist. They were kissing like they were starving for each other.

"She's so pathetic," Serina was saying between kisses. "Walking around like some beaten dog waiting for scraps of attention."

Garrick laughed, I hadn't heard him laugh in two years.

"The barren little bitch serves her purpose. For now."

Barren? Did he just call me that?

My hand went to my stomach where his child was growing, I refused to believe what he said! I refused to believe what my eyes were seeing. I touched my stomach again, where our child was growing, and he was calling me barren while fucking my sister ten feet from our bedroom. Our marital bed.

"When are you getting rid of her?" Serina asked.

"Soon. Council meeting tomorrow, I’ll say failure to produce an heir, they'll approve the rejection. Less she do have a child to produce and you know she can't produce one"

They walked down the hall to his study. I heard the door bang shut. Then nothing. Just silence. And my heart was breaking into tiny pieces, I couldn’t go there, I couldn’t face them, I just couldn’t.

I was filled with anger. The least people I expected to betray me were my real enemies.

I slid down the door and sat on the cold floor. Serina, my twin? The person who knew me better than anyone. Who'd held me when I cried after explaining what I'm going through in Garrick's hands. Who'd promised to stand by me if I should reject Garrick at the night bound ceremony.

How could I have known she had been visiting my demon husband and planning my big downfall.

How long has this been going on? Months? Years? Had she been laughing at me this whole time I confided in her? Watching me get beat down and humiliated while she fucked my husband behind my back?

The baby moved, just barely. Too early to really feel anything but I swear I felt something, it was a flutter. A reminder.

I had something they didn't know about, something that changed everything tomorrow. Tomorrow to humiliate her more than she expected, something that would change the table against her.

Garrick wanted me gone because I couldn't give him an heir. But I was carrying his heir right now. His precious bloodline was growing inside the woman he called barren, the woman he wanted to throw away.

I started laughing, couldn't help it. Started quiet but got louder until I was crackling like some crazy person on my bedroom floor. The imagination of what will happen tomorrow, the prove before the pack that I'm not barren and expose my sister before the pack members how she had been cheating with the Alpha.

Let him think I was broken. Let them both think they'd won, they had no idea what was coming.

I stood up and walked to the window. Dawn was starting to creep over the mountains. A new day was fast approaching. The last day they'd have their little secret.

Tomorrow everything will change.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell the Council about the baby. Before Garrick opens his mouth, I want to look at his face when he sees he can't throw me away.

Not anymore as he promised Serina.

My hand pressed against my stomach again.

“Just you and me now, baby,” I said. “Mommy will make sure Daddy pays for what he did.”

The test was still in my jewelry box, hidden away like a loaded gun.

Tomorrow will be the time to use it, tomorrow my sister will know I'm not that weak omega she had always known me to be.