Chapter 3

BRIELLE’S POV

PRESENT DAY

A couple weeks had passed when I started feeling more tired than usual.

I tried getting more sleep but it felt like I was getting enough.

Then food started smelling bad. I threw up twice in one morning and blamed it on bad leftovers.

Afterwards my period was about four days late. By the time it was two weeks late, I couldn’t keep lying to myself.

I drove forty minutes out of the city to a pharmacy, bought a test, shoved it deep in my bag and didn’t take it out until I was in my bathroom at home.

My hands shook while I peed on the stick. I put the cap back on, set it on the counter, and sat on the closed toilet lid with my elbows on my knees.

Three minutes.

Just as I was getting lost in my thoughts the timer on my phone went off.

I stood up quickly and almost knocked the test into the sink. Two clear lines stared back at me.

I sat back down on the bathroom floor with my back against the tub and just stared at it.

I was pregnant.

I was still sitting there when I heard Tristan’s voice on the other side of the door.

“Brielle?”

I jumped in fear and the test almost slipped from my fingers.

“Are you in there?”

I didn’t answer fast enough and the handle turned.

He stepped in, already talking. “You’ve missed dinner two nights in a row and you’re not answering texts. I was about to—”

His eyes dropped to the stick in my hand.

I tried to hide it, but my fingers decided to fumble at the wrong time.

It slipped, hit the tile, and skidded across the floor until it stopped right against his shoe.

The same pink lines I saw was now staring up at both of us.

Tristan looked down and then he looked at me. “Brielle are you—”

I didn't let him finish and responded immediately. “Yes I am. And it belongs to Axel, Hunter and Darius.”

Tristan sat on the bathroom floor across from me for only a few seconds after I told him.

“You’re sure?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He dragged a hand down his face, then stood. “I’m telling Dad. Right now.”

I didn’t argue, I just followed him downstairs.

Alexander was in his study. He looked up the second we walked in and set his pen down. “What’s wrong?”

Tristan didn’t drag it out. “Brielle’s pregnant.”

Dad’s eyes moved straight to me. The concern for me was written across his face clearly. “How far along?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said. “I only took a home test.”

He stood up. “Then that’s the first thing we fix. You’re going to the hospital today. You'll get a proper bloodwork, and a scan done. No decisions will be made until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

He was already reaching for his phone. “I’ll call Dr. Langley. They will arrange the private wing for you, no one else needs to know.”

That was it, he wasn't even trying to lecture me.

An hour later I was in an exam room while a nurse drew blood and a doctor scheduled the ultrasound for the next morning.

Tristan had come with me, but he kept checking his phone and stepping out into the hallway. By the time they finished with me he was gone.

The driver brought me home alone.

I was still in the entryway taking off my shoes when the front door opened again.

Tristan walked in.

His lip was split. One eye was already swelling. There was blood on the collar of his shirt and an open wound across his knuckles.

I froze. “What happened?”

He shut the door harder than necessary. “I went to see them.”

“Axel and—”

“All three.” He walked past me into the living room and dropped onto the couch like his body hurt. “I told them you were pregnant.”

My stomach tightened. “And?”

He laughed. “They said they don’t know anything about it, that they barely even remember that night. Then Hunter asked how you could even be sure it’s theirs as if you sleep around so much it could be anybody.”

I stood there with my arms wrapped around myself, staring at the floor. “They said that?”

“Yeah.” Tristan leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Darius didn’t even try to deny being there. He just said if you got pregnant that’s on you for not being careful. Axel told me to get out of his house before he made me.”

I swallowed. “So they just…washed their hands of it.”

“That’s exactly what they did.” He continued. “Three of them. My oldest friends. And they looked me in the eye and acted like you were some girl who threw herself at them and now wants to pin it on them.”

I sat down on the edge of the coffee table. “I didn’t throw myself at them.”

“I know.”

“I thought—” I stopped.

Tristan watched me for a second. “I’m sorry. I should’ve been there that night. I should’ve seen what they were doing.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“But it feels like it is.”

We both went quiet. The only sound was the clock in the hall.

Neither of us noticed Alexander standing in the doorway of the study until he spoke.

“They said what?”

Tristan’s head snapped up and I turned around immediately.

Dad’s face was no longer calm. The usual neutral expression he always had was gone.

His face was contorted with anger, an expression I had only seen a few times in my life.

“I heard enough,” he said. He walked into the room and stopped in front of us. “They denied it. They insulted her and they put their hands on my son.”

Tristan started to speak. “Dad—”

"No." He held up a hand. "I've heard enough."

He looked at me directly. "You're leaving the city. Tonight if possible, tomorrow at the latest. I'll arrange the flight and the apartment overseas."

"Dad, wait." I stood up. "You can't just decide this for me."

"I just did."

"That's not fair." I argued. "This is my life and my body. Shouldn't I get a say in what happens to it?"

Alexander's jaw tightened. "You'll get a say in everything except whether you're safe. That part isn't up for debate."

"Safe from what? They're not coming after me, Dad, they're running from me. You heard Tristan, they wouldn't even look him in the eye."

"For now." He stepped closer. "But cornered men do desperate things, Brielle, and those three have every reason to make this problem disappear quietly. I will not gamble my daughter's life in the hope that their conscience shows up before their fear does."

His words stopped me for a second, but I pushed through it. "So the answer is I disappear instead? That's the solution?"

"The answer is you're protected." His voice hardened. "You have no idea what a scandal like this does once it starts moving. Every pack in the region will have an opinion about my daughter, about whether those children are even Prescott blood. Reporters. Lawyers. Council elders picking apart every detail of that night like it's theirs to judge."

"Then let them talk." I threw my hands up. "I'm not ashamed of what happened to me."

"I know you're not." He continued. "But shame isn't the danger here, exposure is. The moment this becomes public, you stop being my daughter to anyone outside this house. You become a story, a cautionary tale other Alphas tell their sons at dinner. And those babies you're carrying become collateral before they've even arrived."

I felt tears well up in my eyes. "I don't want to run, Dad. I've never run from anything in my life."

"This isn't running." He closed the distance between us and put both hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. "This is surviving long enough to come back stronger than any of them. I am not asking you to hide forever, Brielle. I am asking you to let me protect you the only way I know how, right now, tonight, while there's still time to."

"And if I say no?"

"Then I will still put you on that jet," he said quietly. "Because I am your father before I am anything else, and I would rather you hate me for a while than bury you."

The room went silent, even Tristan didn't say anything.

I wanted to keep arguing, to find one more reason he couldn't override me like this. But the look on his face, made the fight drain out of me all at once.

"Okay," I said quietly. "I'll go."

Upstairs I pulled a suitcase out of the closet and started throwing clothes in without folding them.

Sketchbooks, toiletries and the few pieces of jewelry I actually cared about.

Twenty minutes later I was in the back seat of the black car with the suitcase beside me. Alexander had already given the driver the private airfield route.

We stopped at a red light near the edge of the financial district.

Just then a car pulled up beside us. The door opened and Hunter got out.

He walked straight to my window and knocked once. I didn’t roll it down at first. Then he knocked again.

I lowered it a few inches.

“Brielle, wait. Just listen.”

“There’s nothing to listen to.”

“We didn’t know. About the pregnancy. We still don’t know if—”

“Don’t.” I stopped him.“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”

He leaned closer. “Just don’t leave like this. We can talk.”

I looked at him through the gap in the window.

“Talk to my father,” I said. “Or talk to Tristan. I’m done.”

I hit the button and the window went up. The light turned green and the driver pulled away before Hunter could say anything else.

I didn’t look back.