2.

ELLARIA.

I followed him outside without thinking.

He was standing on the front porch with his back to me, one hand pressed against his ear, his voice so soft I almost didn't recognize it.

"Hey, hey. Calm down. Tell me what's wrong."

My feet stopped moving. I stood frozen in the doorway, watching him speak to another woman in a voice he had never once used with me.

Something twisted in my chest.

I thought about the first time I ever saw Katerina Mikaelson.

I had been nineteen years old, starving and filthy, wandering through the Eastern Sector with no pack and a wolf that was barely present. 

I had no one in the world who cared if I lived or died. 

The border patrol had found me hiding in the woods and dragged me to the palace in chains, convinced I was a rogue.

Arren had been standing in the throne room when they brought me and a bunch of others in. And Katerina had been right beside him, looking so beautiful and glowing in a silk dress that probably cost more than I would ever see in my lifetime.

She had looked at me like I was something disgusting stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

Back then, she’d singled me out. She wrinkled her  nose at me and told Arren I smelled like a gutter. 

Then she came over to study me like I was some specimen. She’d stepped on me in her brutal observation, and as weak and starved as I was... I screamed for the goddess. 

It was so embarrassing, and I had kept my head down and said nothing. 

Because a long time ago I learned a long time ago that girls like me didn't get to defend themselves against girls like her.

Arren had told me to stay away from her. But she had other plans. 

She told him she liked how I screamed.

And that she wanted me as her handmaiden. 

And Arren, smitten by his mate then, said he’d give her what she wanted. 

His voice that day had been exactly the same as it was right now. Soft and so indulgent. 

I blinked and I was back on the porch, watching my husband speak to his ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night while I stood behind him holding a pregnancy report too scared to show him.

"I know he’s young child, Katerina," Arren's voice cut through my thoughts. "Is he okay?"

My stomach dropped.

A child? 

Katerina had a child?

"I'm coming right now." He was already moving, pulling his keys from his pocket. "Don't worry, okay? Relax. I'll be there soon."

He turned around and saw me standing in the doorway.

His expression went cold immediately.

"Were you listening to my conversation?"

"No." I shook my head quickly. "I-I just wanted to tell you something. That's all."

He studied my face for a moment, then looked down at his watch, “What is it?"

I opened my mouth to tell him about the baby. But the words wouldn't come. 

He was standing there with his keys in his hand, his mind already miles away with her, and I couldn't make myself say it.

"If it's not important, it can wait until I get back." He walked past me into the house and grabbed his jacket from the couch. "I need to go."

I followed him inside, my heart pounding. "Arren."

"What?"

"It's still my birthday."

He paused with his hand on the door. For a moment I thought I saw something flicker across his face. Guilt, maybe. 

But maybe I was imagining it too.

"I know," he said quietly. "But I have something more urgent to attend to right now. Katerina... she,” he cut himself off. Then he sighed.

"I'll make it up to you," he added, already turning away. "We can celebrate tomorrow."

He headed for the door and I stepped back a little too late. He walked right into me, and the pregnancy report slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the floor between us.

We both looked down at it.And my chest seized with dizzying anticipation as Arren finally stared down at the positive pregnancy report.