7.

ELLARIA.

He didn't even look back.

That was the part that got me. 

Arren just turned around and walked away, Katerina at his side and the little boy trotting along between them, and the three of them moved down their path together like a unit, like something complete, like something that had existed long before I came into the picture and would exist long after I was gone.

I stood there and watched them until they turned the corner and disappeared.

Then the tears came and I didn't try to stop them despite how tired I was of crying 

There was no point anymore. 

No performance left in me, no composure left to arrange. 

I just stood there on that lawn and cried quietly and let everything I had been holding down since yesterday morning finally come all the way up. 

The pregnancy report was still in my hand, and somewhere in the middle of it I realized I had crumpled it so tightly it was barely recognizable anymore. And I laughed a little at that. 

It fluttered to the ground and I didn't pick it up.

Katerina had been right about everything. 

She and Arren were a match made in heaven. 

Fated mates, childhood sweethearts, with a child already between them. Everything about them made sense together in a way that Arren and I never had and never would. 

The only thing that had ever been wrong in this picture was me from the very beginning.

I had just been too foolish and too full of hope to let myself believe it. 

And so I had stayed, and I had tried and I had loved him and it did nothing but bring me here. To a crumpled pregnancy report on the floor and three people walking away from me like I was something they had already moved past.

I had done this to myself and that was the part that hurt the most.

I started walking even though I didn't have a destination. I just needed to move and to get out of this place and into air that didn't feel like it was closing in on me. 

I made it a few steps down the path before I felt the ache. 

It was a sharp, tearing sensation deep in my abdomen that buckled my knees before I could do anything about it. I grabbed the nearest wall and held on. Bending over and trying to breathe through it, telling myself it would pass. 

But it didn't pass. 

It spread outward in waves that got bigger instead of smaller, each one worse than the last, and the air kept leaving my lungs faster than I could pull it back in.

I pressed my free hand against my stomach and felt something cold move through me that had nothing to do with the pain.

The babies.

I tried to call out. What came out of me was barely a sound, swallowed by the night, and I understood in that moment with complete clarity that nobody was going to hear it. 

Goddess.

My chances of being found were thin. 

I had never had a wolf and there was no mind link available to me.

I slid down the wall until I was on my knees on the path, and fumbled for my phone with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. The pain was coming in waves now, and each one was taking something out of me. 

I was trying to scroll to Mirela's name, trying to find it, trying to hold the screen still enough to read it, when the next wave hit and my fingers slipped and I pressed the wrong name.

Arren's name.

Warm liquid was moving slowly down my thighs and the pain was everywhere now, filling every corner of me. My fingers reached down and came up bloody. 

No, no, no.

The pain was unbearable and I was flat on the floor now. The phone had slipped a few inches from my fingers. I could see the screen glowing in the grass but I couldn't reach it anymore. I couldn't make my arm cooperate. 

The ringing stopped.

The call cut off in the grass a few inches from my outstretched hand and I lay there and watched the screen go black. 

My vision was fading slowly.

And all I kept wondering was... why was I thinking about him?

Why was I dying... but thinking about Arren??

He was somewhere in this pack right now, settled, with his child and his mistress, all three of them finally exactly where they were supposed to be. 

Why would he pick up a call from me on a night like this?

Why would he let me disturb that?

The world was going dark around the edges of my vision. 

I stopped fighting it.

The darkness pulled me under.

––•––

Mirela's voice was the first thing I heard when I came to.

She was talking to someone in a low urgent tone, and when she felt me move she was beside me in an instant, her hand warm on my face, her eyes red and swollen. "Ellaria, look at me."

“What happened?” My throat was dry and my memory was hazy.

"You're okay." Her voice was doing the thing where it was trying to be steady for my sake. "I found you on the road.” Her voice cracked. “You're at the clinic now. You're okay."

My hand went to my stomach before I could say a single word.

"The babies are okay." A tear slipped down her cheek, "They're okay, Ellaria. You got here in time."

The breath that came out of me took everything with it. I closed my eyes and lay there in that relief and let it be real, let it fill me up. 

Those two small lives were still here and still holding on.

When I opened my eyes again the healer was beside the bed. She told me plainly that I needed to rest. Complete rest, for the days ahead. No stress, no strain, no more of whatever had put me on the ground tonight. 

The risk of miscarriage was real and it was significant and I needed to take it seriously.

I nodded and said I understood and I meant it with everything I had.

Mirela waited until the healer left and then she stood up and her face had shifted into the expression she wore when she had already made a decision that likely involved bloodshed. "I'm going to find Arren," she said, reaching for her jacket. "He needs to know you're here. He needs to—"

"No." I said it quietly and I meant every part of it.

She stopped moving.

"Mirela." I looked at her and tried to find the words that would make her understand without making me feel the heart ache all over again. "He has Katerina. And I found out he has a... a child with her. He has everything he actually wants and it was never me." I pressed my palm flat against my stomach. "I don't want him to know about this. I would rather he never knows."

She looked at me for a long time with wet eyes and something in her face that was both understanding and grief at the same time. 

Then she sat back down and took my hand and held it and didn't argue, which was the kindest thing she could have done.

The room went quiet around us.

Then my phone buzzed on the blanket.

I looked at the screen. 

It was Kade, Arren’s Beta.

I picked up the phone.

"Ellaria," His voice was careful, then he cleared his throat, "I’m not sure how much of this you know, but the Alpha has arranged a financial settlement for when your marriage contract expires. It is a sum of money and several properties. I'm calling to ask if there's anything additional you need, the documents will be sent over today for you to review or adjust to your discretion."

All I could hear was the sound of my own breathing, and the hospital monitors beeping steadily around me.

I laid there in a clinic bed with my babies barely holding on inside me and listened to Arren's beta read me my severance package.

The laugh that moved through my chest had nothing humorous in it whatsoever.

All I felt was bitterness. 

"Tell him I don't want the money," I said, "Or the houses. Quite frankly, I want nothing but one thing."

There was a pause on the other line. "I’m not sure I’m following––"

"I want to terminate the contract early." My voice came out steadier than I felt, "Tell Arren I want a divorce. As soon as possible."