3.

ELLARIA.

Arren bent down slowly, picking up the report to get a closer look.

"What's this?"

My heart slammed against my ribs. I opened my mouth to tell him the truth, to finally say the words I had been choking on all night.

But he barely glanced at it before tossing it onto the side table."Don't bring patient files home, Ellaria. You know the rules at the medical center."

The paper slid off the table and scattered across the floor. 

He didn't notice or pay attention to it because he was already walking out the door, his mind already with Katerina and...

The front door closed behind him and a few seconds later I heard his car tear out of the pdriveway.

I stood there for a long moment, staring at the pregnancy report lying on the floor.

Then I knelt down and picked it up, smoothing out the creases with trembling fingers.

He didn’t even care enough about my daily activities to glance at the paper.

All because Katerina was waiting for him.

I sat on the couch and waited for him to come back.  I told myself he would feel guilty and turn the car around, and that what my suspicions about what I’d heard on that call were nothing. 

I told myself... Katerina and Arren couldn't have a child together. 

That Arren wouldn’t do that behind my back.

I told myself a lot of things that night.

But the hours crawled by. And Arren never came home.

By the time the sun was fully up, I had made my decision to hold off on telling him about the baby for now. 

I was keeping it. 

Arren just didn’t need to know right at this moment. 

Worst case scenario was that I was going to finish out the last three months of this contract, collect the information about my mother that he promised me, and disappear from his life forever.

Maybe... just maybe it would be better that way. 

I got up, showered and went to work anyway. It was one of the only things I could do to keep myself sane. 

The medical center was busy in the mornings and I threw myself into it, grateful for something to focus on besides the mess my life had become.

"Ellaria." My cousin Mirela grabbed my arm as I walked past the front desk. "You look terrible. Are you sick?"

"I'm fine."

"You're pale as a ghost and you have circles under your eyes." She pressed her hand against my forehead. "Go home and rest, my goddess."

"I said I'm fine." I pulled away from her gently. "I’ve just been watching some sad soap operas, so I’m carrying baggage that isn’t mine!"

She looked at me for a long moment, worry written all over her face. But she knew me well enough to know when I wasn't going to budge.

"Fine. But if you pass out, I'm telling everyone I warned you."

I managed a small smile and headed toward the nursery. It was my favorite part of the medical center. 

I didn't have a wolf, which meant I couldn't heal anyone the way the other staff could. But I could hold the babies. I could comfort the sick children. 

I could be useful in my own small way.

I was almost to the nursery door when something caught my attention through the glass window.

Arren was walking down the hallway with his arm around Katerina's waist, helping her limp toward one of the treatment rooms. She was leaning into him, her head resting against his shoulder, looking up at him with big sad eyes.

I couldn't move. 

I just stood there and watched my husband hold another woman the way he had never once held me.

They disappeared into a treatment room and I found myself walking toward it without making a conscious decision to do so. I stopped outside the door, which was slightly open, and listened.

"I twisted it this morning," Katerina was saying in a pitiful voice to the healer attending to her. "I'm so clumsy, but thank the goddess our alpha was there to help me." She ran her hands across Arren’s thigh in a way that made the doctor flush and turn away. 

In a way that made the backs of my eyes burn.

He murmured something I couldn't hear.

So gentle and caring. 

So he did know how to be tender with someone. 

He just never wanted to be tender with me.

The doctor walked out of the room, and I turned to leave before they could see me.

"Ellaria?"

I froze. 

Arren's voice was confused as it came up behind me. 

I turned around slowly. He was standing in the doorway of the treatment room, frowning at me. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here." I kept my voice steady. "I was just passing by."

His frown deepened, but before he could say anything else, Katerina's voice floated out from inside the room.

"Oh, is that Ellaria? How perfect. She can help me put my shoes back on. The healer said I shouldn't bend over."

A sharp pang of anger hit me square in the chest.

I looked past Arren and saw Katerina sitting in a chair with her bare feet dangling above the floor. 

Her expensive heels were scattered on the ground beside her. She was smiling at me, sweet and innocent, and I knew exactly what she was doing.

"I have work to do," I said.

"Surely you can spare a moment to help an injured woman." Katerina tilted her head. "Or have you gotten so arrogant that you've forgotten where you came from? You used to be my handmaiden, Ellaria. Putting on my shoes was one of your duties."

She said it with such a sweet smile that anyone else but me would think she was joking around. 

I felt Arren's eyes on me, waiting to see what I would do.

"I haven't forgotten," I said quietly. "But I'm not your handmaiden anymore."

Katerina's smile flickered. Then she turned to Arren with a pout on her lips.

"I'm so thirsty, Love. Could you get me some water? My throat is completely dry."

He hesitated for just a second, glancing between us. Then he nodded and walked away down the hall.

The moment he was out of earshot, Katerina's whole demeanor changed. The sweetness vanished from her face and something cold and cruel took its place.

"You should enjoy these last few months while you can." She stood up from the chair, apparently not injured at all, and walked toward me. "A wolfless omega with no family and no status. Your times up sweetheart."

My brows furrowed. What was she talking about?

"He chose you because you're nothing." She smiled. "Easy to use and just as easy to throw away. The contract expires in three months, Ellaria. Tick tock, sweetheart. And when the clock strikes midnight, you'll go back to being exactly what you were before. A nobody. A wrench, and a cast a way with nothing, and no one who loves her." 

Everything about her words left me feeling exposed and raw, but I managed stutter out coldly, trying to fight the shock, "H-How do you know about the contract?"

"Arren tells me everything." She laughed. "Did you think you were special? Did you think he actually cared about you? You were just keeping his bed warm until I was ready to come back."

I stared at her, trying to process what she was saying.

That’s what this was?

All these years of trying to be a good wife, trying to earn his affection, trying to make him see me as something more than a contract wife...

He had chosen me specifically because I was disposable.

Specifically... because... after our contract was over... he was going to marry her?

"You're lying." My voice came out barely above a whisper.

"Am I?" She stepped closer. "Why else would the Alpha King marry a wolfless orphan omega? Think about it, Ellaria. You were never meant to stay. You were just the backup plan until the real Luna was ready to take her place. He wasn’t just going to get rid of you, he’s going to replace you with the woman he truly loves."

Something inside me cracked.

I grabbed her arm without thinking. "Tell me the truth––"

Katerina wrenched her arm back and threw herself onto the ground with a scream.

"Help! Someone help me!"

I stumbled backward in shock. "What are you..."

Footsteps pounded down the hallway. Arren appeared in the doorway, his eyes scanning the scene. Katerina was on the floor, crying. 

And I was standing right over her. 

I knew exactly how it looked. 

He pushed past me and knelt beside Katerina, pulling her into his arms.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"She pushed me." Katerina sobbed against his chest. "I don't know why. I was just trying to talk to her and she pushed me."

"That's not true." I stepped forward. "Arren, I didn't touch her. I swear to the goddess she's lying."

He looked up at me and his eyes were colder than I had ever seen them before. "Be quiet and apologize to her!."

"What?"

"You heard me." He helped Katerina to her feet, keeping his body between us like he was protecting her from me. "Apologize to her. Now."

I stared at him. 

At the way he was shielding her. 

At the way he looked at me like I was the villain in this story.

A dull pain started spreading through my lower abdomen. I pressed my hand against it without thinking.

"And if I refuse?"

“Then you can say goodbye to your job.” His jaw tightened. "You’ll be suspended from working at this medical center until further notice."