Chapter Two

My eyes widened, “What are you talking about?”

The question left my lips barely above a whisper, my hand still pressed against my burning cheek. The sting was still radiating down my jaw but that didn’t matter now… not even the ice spreading through my chest.

Surely I just heard him wrong because there is no way he would be telling me that… his supposed ‘only a best friend nothing is going on’ is carrying his baby.

There is no way.

Morgana folded her arms against her chest, staring at me with a triumphant smirk that made my heart drop to the pit of my stomach.

It can’t be…

“Kieran… please tell me that this is a joke.”

“Joke?” He frowned, “Why would I joke about something like this, Khione? Morgana is carrying my son.”

I gasped, and my vision suddenly became blurry with unshed tears that were pooling in my eyes. “How could you—Kieran, how could you do this to me?”

Kieran laughed, his head tilted back as if my question or whatever was going on here was the funniest joke he’d heard all year.

When his eyes met mine again, there was nothing in them I recognized—no warmth, no guilt, not even anger. Just cold amusement.

“How could I do this? I do not understand why you think you get to ask me that question…” He loosened his tie with one hand, casually, “I’m an Alpha, Khione. I answer to no one. Certainly not a lowlife Omega like you.”

The word hit like a second slap.

Lowlife.

Seven years of marriage, and that’s what I’d been to him all along?

“Did you honestly believe I’d want offspring from you?” He moved closer, and my body betrayed me by stepping back until my legs hit the armrest of the couch. “Are you truly that delusional and clueless, dear wife? You really thought that I’d want your Omega mixing with my Alpha blood and tainting the bloodline, the legacy? You think I’d want to have children who are anything less than pureblood-bred? I wouldn’t pollute my genetics with your filth.”

“Stop.” My voice cracked on the word.

“Weak children with tainted bloodlines.” He spoke over me like I hadn’t said anything at all. “Half-breeds that would embarrass me in front of every pack Alpha in the territory. You think I built everything I have just to watch it crumble because of some accident you couldn’t be bothered to prevent?”

Behind him, Morgana examined her manicured nails, that serpent’s smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

She was enjoying this.

Every word out of his mouth was a knife she’d helped him sharpen.

“Morgana is strong.” He gestured toward her without breaking eye contact with me. “Intelligent, refined, connected. The niece of Alpha Roderic, for god’s sake. She understands what it takes to stand beside someone like me. She’s worthy of carrying my children—my heirs.”

My throat closed around whatever protest I’d been trying to form.

Seven years.

Seven years of standing beside him through failed business ventures and pack politics that nearly broke him.

Seven years of using my hidden connections to open doors while pretending to be nobody, of building him up while making myself smaller so he could shine brighter. And this was how he saw me.

How he’d always seen me.

“So here’s what’s going to happen, and I want you to listen very carefully.” His tone shifted into that clipped, boardroom cadence he used when closing deals. “Tomorrow morning, first thing, you’re going to that clinic downtown. You’re going to abort whatever mistake is growing inside you. And then you’re going to smile and pretend this entire embarrassing situation never happened.”

“No.” The word came out stronger than I felt. “I won’t do that.”

“Or,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken, his jaw tightening, “you can get the hell out of my house and take your little problem with you. Though I’m curious where you think you’d go.” He tilted his head, mock consideration crossing his features. “You literally have no family to run home to, no connections of your own, no money except what I give you. Unless you want to crawl back to whatever gutter I pulled you out of ten years ago?”

He knew. He knew exactly how alone I was, how completely I’d isolated myself to be with him.

Or rather he thought he knew just how alone I was. How would he know about every friend I’d distanced myself from, every bridge I’d burned to keep my true identity hidden, to play the role of the nobody Omega who’d won an Alpha’s heart through sheer devotion.

“Choose wisely, Khione.” His voice dropped to something almost gentle, which somehow made it worse. “Because this is the only choice I’m giving you.”

He turned and walked away, his footsteps echoing down the marble hallway toward his office. The door clicked shut with terrible finality.

I stood there, hand still pressed protectively against my stomach, trying to remember how to breathe around the shards of glass in my lungs. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real. Any second now I’d wake up in our bed, and this would just be another anxiety nightmare brought on by the pregnancy hormones.

“You know, I’ve waited years for this moment.”

Morgana’s voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. She rose from where she’d been perched on the arm of the couch, smoothing down her red dress—the one that cost more than most people’s monthly rent. The one Kieran had bought her last month, claiming it was a thank-you gift for helping close some deal.

How had I been so blind?

“Years of watching you parade around like you belonged here.” She circled me slowly, a predator sizing up wounded prey. “Playing dress-up as the Luna, hosting those pathetic dinner parties, pretending you had any idea how to navigate Alpha society.”

“I never did anything to you.” My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears.

“You existed.” She stopped in front of me, close enough that I could count the flecks of gold in her brown eyes. “You stood beside him when that was supposed to be my place. He was always meant to be mine—we’re the same, him and I. Ambitious. Powerful. Connected to the right families.” Her smile turned razor-sharp. “But he was too merciful, too soft-hearted back then. He kept you around out of some misguided sense of loyalty to the past.”

“Morgana…”

“But I’m not merciful.” She leaned in, her breath hot against my ear. “I’m going to destroy you. Piece by piece, I’m going to take everything you thought was yours and make you watch while I burn it to the ground. And when I’m done, you’ll wish you’d taken that abortion and crawled away quietly.”

Before I could process her words, before I could step back or defend myself or do anything at all, her hand flew up and cracked against her own cheek. The sound was sharp, shocking. She did it again, harder, her head snapping to the side with the force of it. Red bloomed across her pale skin.

Then she screamed.

It was piercing, and so loud I feared she would wake neighbors three houses down.

What the hell was she doing?

Before my brain could fully process what was going on before me, she collapsed to the floor, her body hitting the hardwood with a thud that had to hurt. But she didn’t even flinch—just immediately dissolved into wrenching sobs, tears streaming down her face faster than should be physically possible.

I stood there frozen, my brain struggling to catch up with what my eyes had just witnessed. She’d hit herself. She’d orchestrated this entire thing right in front of me, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it because…

“Kieran!” She yelled, voice breaking. “Kieran, please, help me!”

The office door slammed open. His footsteps thundered back down the hallway, faster than I’d heard him move in years. He burst into the room and immediately dropped to his knees beside her, his hands hovering over her like he was afraid she might shatter.

“What happened? Morgana, what the hell happened?”

“I was just—” She gasped between sobs, one hand pressed to her reddened cheek. “I was just trying to be kind to her. To tell her we could work something out, that maybe we could all—” Her voice broke beautifully, trembling with just the right amount of fear. “But she’s so jealous. So angry. She pushed me, Kieran. She pushed me and told me she’d make sure my baby never took a breath.”

“That’s a lie.” The words finally broke free from my frozen throat. “Kieran, I didn’t touch her. She hit herself, she—”

His eyes when they met mine were Arctic ice. “You’re still talking?”

He stood slowly, deliberately, settling Morgana gently onto the couch like she was made of spun glass. Then he turned to me, and I saw murder in his face.

“I didn’t…” I started, but the protest died when his fist connected with my jaw.

The world tilted sideways. Pain exploded through my skull, white-hot and blinding. My knees hit the floor, then my shoulder, the impact jarring through my bones. Copper flooded my mouth—blood from where my teeth had cut into my cheek.

“How could you?” He loomed over me, his shadow swallowing the lamplight. “How could you be so cruel, so pathetic, that you’d threaten an innocent child?”

“Please.” I tried to push myself up, but my arms were shaking. “Please, Kieran, I didn’t touch her. You have to believe me…”

“Believe you?” His boot slammed into my stomach.

The world went white. Then red. Then black around the edges. Pain tore through my abdomen, a ripping, tearing agony that radiated outward until I couldn’t tell where it ended and I began. My scream ripped from somewhere primal, animal, a sound I didn’t know I could make. I curled into myself, arms wrapped around my middle, feeling warmth spreading between my legs.

No. God, no. Not my babies. Please not my babies.

“That’s what you get for threatening the mother of my heir.” His voice came from somewhere above me, detached and cold, like he was discussing a failed business transaction.

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe. The pain was everything, consuming, drowning me in waves that kept crashing harder.

“Get out of my house.” Each word fell like a judge’s gavel. “I don’t want to see your face again unless that bastard child is gone. Do you understand me?”