4.

ELLARIA.

“Then you can say goodbye to your job.” His jaw tightened.

I'd given my all to this hospital, and he knew it.

I had no wolf and none of the healing abilities the other doctors possessed. All I had was myself, and the skills I had forced into my bones over the years, once I realized the world would never pity wolfless omegas like me. I had found a passion and I had lived for it.

And now he wanted to take it all away. Because of her.

Arren looked at me with undisguised dislike, while Katerina was plastered to his side.

“That's not fair, Arren.” I hated how my voice cracked. “You have no right to do this to me. I did nothing to her.”

“I didn't ask for your explanation.” His face hadn’t shifted at all. He was hellbent on making an example out of me. “Do you have something to say to Katerina or not?”

“No.” My hands curled into tight fists.

My words enraged Arren. He called out to his Beta.

“Kate, let the staff know that effective immediately, Ellaria will no longer be recognized as medical staff at this hospital.”

“Understood, Alpha.” Kade nodded.

Arren turned to Katerina, his hand settling on her back, and walked her away without another word.

She rested her head against his shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Like I didn’t even exist.

I watched them walk away, moving through the hospital corridors for everyone to witness my shame.

Mirela appeared beside me and slipped her arm through mine without a word. My back hit the wall, and I pressed one hand over my stomach, standing there as everything crashed down on me at once. I let her take me home—she was the only one I still had left.

Once she had settled me into the bedroom, she looked straight into my eyes, her tone firm and certain. “You’re pregnant.”

I knew I couldn’t keep it from her for long, not when Mirela was an exceptional reproductive doctor.

I nodded, trying to smile. But my pale, weak smile did nothing to ease the tension.

Rage flared in Mirela’s eyes   “Arren, that bastard, He can’t do this to you,” she fumed, ready to fight for me.

“He doesn’t know.” I told her the entire truth about my marriage with Arren. When I finished, she pulled me close and held me tightly.

She pulled back, her eyes red. “What are you going to do?”

“He never really gave me a home.” I whispered. “I mean, yes, I got the Luna title and a house… but what I truly crave… Arren isn’t capable of giving it to me. Not ever.” I hugged myself. “I want to build a home with my twins. Even if Arren isn’t part of it.”

She squeezed my hands fiercely. “I’m with you a thousand percent. I’ll support you with everything I have, but…..”

She stared at the ground, as if treading on something fragile. Then Mirela lifted her gaze to me. “But the babies deserve a father. Arren deserves a chance to be one too. Tell him, Ellaria. Don’t hesitate. Give him one chance to prove himself.”

I sat in silence for a long while, knowing deep down that she was right.

These babies weren’t just mine. No matter what lay between us, their father had a right to know they existed.

“Okay,” I said quietly. “He gets one chance.”

***

When I arrived at the pack house, Arren was not there.

I stepped down the stairs, and seconds later, I bumped straight into something small and warm.

A little boy, no older than four, with mesmerizing greyish-blue eyes—just like Arren’s.

My legs went weak.

With a vicious flash, Arren’s conversation over the phone with Katerina last night came back to me for the second time today.

He must belong to another pack member, I tried to reassure myself, even though I knew nearly every pup in the pack.

That was when Katerina’s voice drifted around the corner.

“It’s all my fault Ellaria got fired. You don’t blame me for that, do you?”

Katerina’s words sounded more like coquetry than an apology.

Arren replied coldly, “No, I don’t.”

“I simply cannot allow someone who harms patients anywhere near the pack’s pups.”

He spoke as if stating the time of day—simple, certain, an undeniable fact devoid of any emotion.

I peeked around the corner and saw them standing together, their arms pressed close, unbearably intimate.

My heart shattered. I tried to hold back my tears in front of the boy, but then he let go of my hand and ran toward Katerina.

“Mommy!”

Mommy?

A smile spread across Katerina’s face as she wiped the sweat from the boy’s cheek.

The boy’s little arms wrapped tightly around Arren’s legs.

“Daddy. Play with me.”

What…?

“Okay.”

Arren’s voice was soft and unguarded, carrying a warmth and certainty I had spent four years starving to receive from him. “My boy.”

So that was what it meant…?

My legs could no longer support me.

I collapsed onto the floor, pulled my knees to my chest, and sobbed as silently as I possibly could, one hand pressed firmly against my stomach, over the two tiny lives growing inside me.

He already had a child with Katerina.

It wasn’t that he never wanted children.

It was that he never wanted mine.

I stared down at the crumpled, damp pregnancy report clenched in my fist.

His footsteps drew nearer. Everything in me that had spent four years learning to survive in silence screamed to run, to slip into the night and go home—to honor the rest of our bargain and leave quietly when it ended.

But I was so tired of being the only honest one in this.

He had started this transaction.

He could watch me end it.

I stood up, smoothed out the pregnancy report with trembling fingers, and stepped out from the corner.

The light fell on all three of their faces at once.

Katerina’s expression was triumphant, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

Arren went utterly still, watching me with an emotion I was done trying to decipher.

“What are you doing here?” His voice was calm and measured.

I did not answer his question, because I had something more important I needed to know.

“Arren… is that boy your son?” I asked.