Chapter one

Chapter One. 

Gina. 

I stared at the clock for the tenth time this evening. Two weeks. Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty six hours since Brandon had walked out of our shared cabin without a word.

And now, here he was. Stumbling through the front door reeking of whiskey, smoke, and something bitterly unfamiliar, her perfume. Ashley’s perfume.

He barely managed to shut the front door behind him, his boot catching on the frame as he cursed and kicked it shut. My heart thundered in my chest. My hands trembled around the cup of tea I hadn’t touched. Every part of me ached, swollen and sore, but it was nothing compared to the pressure building in my chest.

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked, my voice hoarse, barely above a whisper.

Brandon froze. His eyes, bloodshot and rimmed in red, snapped to me like I was some nuisance. Some pest. Like I hadn’t carried the shame of his secret for months. Like I wasn’t carrying his child.

“You don’t get to ask me questions Gina ,” he growled, slurring slightly. “and definitely not in that tone, I don’t owe you anything.”

My lips parted, but nothing came out. I stood from the couch too fast, a sharp pain shooting through my lower back. I swallowed it down. “I’m pregnant, Brandon. With your baby.”

His eyes flickered to my stomach. A flash of something maybe guilt, maybe rage crossed his face, then disappeared beneath that familiar sneer. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“What deal?” My voice cracked. “There was no deal! You chose me. You said I was your mate”

“I said keep it a secret,” he snapped, stepping closer, towering over me. “Because it was never real. You were convenient, Gina. Someone to warm my bed until I made my real choice.”

I staggered back as if he’d slapped me.

No. No, no, no.

“Brandon, you marked me, I am your mate and we both know this.”

“It was a mistake,” he spat. “A moment of weakness. I should’ve known better than to think an omega could handle being with an alpha.”

My heart shattered with every word. I couldn’t breathe. The walls were closing in. My pulse was a drumbeat in my ears, a frantic rhythm of pain and betrayal.

“But you… you took my virginity. You told me to wait. You said... ”

“I lied, I told you what you wanted to hear.”

I didn’t realize I was crying until I tasted salt on my lips. My knees buckled and I grabbed the edge of the table to steady myself. My stomach twisted sharply, something inside me tightening. I winced, placing a hand over the small swell beneath my oversized sweater.

“You can’t do this,” I whispered. “You can’t just… pretend I don’t exist. That this baby doesn’t exist.”

He scoffed and reached for a bottle of scotch from the counter. “Watch me.” He started walking away. 

I couldn't just let him walk away, again, I slowly ran after him touching his shoulder, and that's when it happened. And for a moment I thought I was hallucinating but the heat on my cheeks was definitely real. He had slapped me so hard I was on the floor. 

I wanted to scream. I wanted to claw his eyes out. But I couldn’t even move. My legs felt like lead. My body wasn’t my own. A dull ache pulsed low in my abdomen, steady and growing.

“You’re a coward,” I said, my voice stronger now, sharper, edged with something feral. “You used me. You chose me. And now you’re pretending like I’m dirt under your boot because you’re too afraid of what the pack will think.”

Brandon rounded on me, his expression twisted with fury. “Don’t you dare speak to me like that, omega. You think you’re special because I fucked you a few times? Because you got knocked up? You’re nothing.” He said kicking me while at it. 

The pain flared so suddenly I doubled over, clutching my stomach.

A wetness trickled down my thighs.

Blood. Warm. Thick. Red.

I gasped, my legs collapsing beneath me. The world spun as I hit the floor hard, my knees slamming into the wooden boards.

“Brandon” My voice was strangled. “Something’s wrong with the baby.”

He didn’t move.

“Please,” I begged, panic rising like a flood. “Help me.”

He looked down at me, and for a second just a second I thought I saw fear in his eyes. But he turned away, tipping the bottle to his lips, draining it like he couldn’t hear my cries.

My vision blurred. I tried to reach for the table, for the wall, for anything to hold on to but my hands slipped in the growing pool of blood beneath me.

“No,” I whimpered. “No, no, no…”

This couldn’t be happening.

Not my baby. This was the only thing that was keeping me sane, the little human growing inside me. 

I had always had a crush on Alpha Brandon, ofcourse I never even once thought I had a chance with him. I was nothing but an omega, the lowest in the rank. 

But on my eighteenth birthday, I went to the mating ceremony with all my peers and Brandon chose me as his mate, I was his mate. My crush was finally mine and it didn't matter to me that he asked me to keep it a secret. 

I was an omega and he was the alpha, the pack was going to have a hard time accepting a low life omega as their Luna. So Brandon told me, he would introduce me to the pack as his Luna oncei was pregnant with his heir, it would make it much easier for them to accept me. 

Ofcourse I had believed him, until rumors started going around that he was seeing Ashley, an ALPHA'S daughter. Someone who fit his rank.