2.

ELLARIA.

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."

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 was nineteen then, no pack, no wolf.

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

Arren didn’t even glance at me before ordering the soldiers to put me to death.

It was Katerina who stopped them—though not out of kindness. She 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 stepped on my hand, and I couldn’t help but scream out in pain.

She told him she liked how I screamed.

And that she wanted me as her servant.

That was the first time Arren deigned to look at me and I felt his gaze, cold and filled with contempt.

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.

"he is just a 4 years old boy, Katerina," Arren's voice cut through my thoughts. "Is he okay?"

My stomach dropped.

A boy? I suspect I heard it wrong.

Before I could get closer. He was already moving.

"I'm coming right now."He pulled 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.

He frowned, walking straight past me into the house and snatching his jacket off the couch. “I need to go.”

No reason, no explanation. As if I wasn’t even worth one.

"Now? But today's my birthday. " I followed him inside, The words slipped out of my mouth. I’d thought he’d remember. Every year, without fail, he’d come home on my birthday. And that was why I’d always held onto hope, why I’d dared to believe this time might be different."

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.

He said coldly. "I have something more important to attend to right now."

I knew exactly what those "more important things" were: Katerina. Her problems always seemed to take precedence ever since she’d vanished for years and finally come back six months ago. Time and time again, Arren had abandoned me at the first sound of her voice, rushing to her side.

If she hadn’t disappeared without a word on the eve of their mating ceremony, leaving Arren with no choice but to take me instead, I would have never even been part of his life.

Now she was back. Everything he had put on hold for her was starting again.

"Wait, ” I said almost like begging, “I need to tell you something ."

He glanced down at his watch again, his impatience blazing through his cold expression.

I took a shaky breath, summoning every last bit of courage to speak. "I went to the hospital today."

And I held out the pregnancy report to him.