CHAPTER FOUR: A CHOICE OF DOOM

Asheron

This peasant kept crossing paths with me. It was already annoying because I had a woman I was already devoted to; Pearl, since after she saved me from an accident years ago.

But ever since Seraphina stumbled across my borders, bringing her chaotic, addicting scent into my territory, my focused mind was unravelling.

The only reason I kept her close was to use her as a link to Rowan’s weakness

I stood at the high arched window of my study, staring down at where I had scent-marked her hours ago. The pulse in my palm throbbed with the memory of her skin.

Why on earth did she have that weird effect on me?

She was nothing more than a discarded Omega, a weakling who had mistaken me for Rowan and shoved her lips onto mine in a stupid feverish blur. I should have tossed her to the rogues at the border. Yet, I had signed a contract binding her to my absolute authority, wrapped her in my own jacket, and branded her skin with my scent.

A clearing of a throat broke the silence behind me. I sighed “Pearl.”

My fiancée stepped into the study with elegant grace of a high-born Alpha’s promised bride

“I see you’ve brought a stray into the house, Asheron” she said smoothly, stopping a few feet behind my desk. “And not just any stray. Your rival’s discarded Omega. The entire estate and pack is whispering about the way you handled the guards in the courtyard today.”

“The guards overstepped” I replied coldly and turned to face her. “She is under my protection contract. No one on my land touches what is legally mine until I decide otherwise.”

Pearl’s eyes narrowed, and a toxic smile spread across her lips. “You are my fiancé and I demand the truth. Is that all she is to you? A contract?” She stepped closer “Well, news flash! You think you’re keeping her safe, Asheron, but you don’t even know what she’s carrying in her heart. Or how she’s still attached to your rival.”

I crossed my arms “Speak plainly, Pearl.”

“Seraphina isn’t as innocent as she pretends to be...Information reaching me is that she is secretly pregnant.”

I stiffened.

“For months, she intentionally forced herself on Rowan knowing fully well his hearts lies with her. Now she is playing the victim. She’s a master manipulator, Asheron. She’s playing both sides.”

It wasn’t very wise for me to believe Pearl without confirmation but if her words were true, Seraphina wasn’t just a pathetic, helpless victim of her pack. She was playing a dangerous game that was already disgusting.

“What if she kept the pregnancy a secret just to trap you into fathering it?”

“Leave” I commanded

Pearl smiled, satisfied with the seed of suspicion she had planted, and quietly retreated from the room.

An hour later, I couldn’t stop myself. I went to the secluded room where I had banished Seraphina.

As I approached her door, the scent hit me. It was laced with the sickeningly sweet tang of a phantom Alpha scent.

Rowan’s scent mixed with hers caused it...it was the pregnancy all along.

My inner wolf growled and I shoved the door open without knocking.

Seraphina was curled on the edge of the bed, gasping for air, her body was shaking violently. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her hands were frantically clutching the bedsheets, trying to push them away as if they were burning her.

She was probably waking from a fever dream, a nightmare so vivid it had left her entirely disoriented.

“Rowan...” she gasped, her voice trembled in terror. “No... get away...”

Sprinkled across the linen were crushed lavender buds and a faint, chemical residue. Someone had planted a something on her sheets designed to simulate an Alpha’s presence and induce a vivid, terrifying fever dream of her past.

She was trapped in a planted hallucination.

“Seraphina...” I growled, stepping up to the bed.

She flinched violently at my voice and her eyes snapped to mine. “Asheron?” she whimpered, her hands trembling as she reached out blindly, desperate for something real to ground her through the haze. “Please... it was him... he was here...”

“He isn’t here. Get a hold of yourself” I said. I caught her wrists as she tried to pull herself up.

Her skin was scalding hot. The moment my bare hands touched her skin, that same electric, soul-searing spark snapped between us, hotter and fiercer than ever before.

“You...” she breathed, her voice breaking. “It’s you...”

Driven by pure instinct, she pulled herself up against my chest. The intoxicating scent of her pregnancy-altered blood flooded my senses, completely obliterating my rational mind. The disgust, the suspicion Pearl had planted, the cold detachment...it all burned away in an instant.

How come?

Before I could push her away, before my brain could construct a single reason to stop, I leaned down and captured her mouth with mine.

The kiss was possessive, and electric. It was different from the mistake-driven kiss from the corridor. This time, I took it. I crushed her against me, my hand buried in her soft hair, drinking in her sweetness as she let out a shuddering moan against my lips.

And then, as our mouths fused together, a sudden, blinding flash ripped through my mind.

A dark, burning night years ago...

I was dying under the debris of a collapsed building. A pair of delicate hands pulled me from the flames

A quiet, whimpering voice whispering in my ear: “Stay alive... please, stay alive...”

And as I drifted into unconsciousness, the sweet, distinct scent washed over my face

My eyes snapped open in absolute shock.

But Pearl had saved me that night, how was it so familiar to Seraphina being there?

I tore my mouth away from Seraphina’s, gasping for air as I stared down at the trembling Omega in my arms. She looked up at me with dazed, tear-filled eyes, completely unaware of the issue shattering my reality.

Was it a trick? A delusion forced by her strange blood? All this while, I thought I owed Pearl my life so I married her. Or had I spent years devoted to the wrong woman?

Before I could demand an answer, a sudden banging echoed from the main gates of the estate, followed by the blare of the pack’s intruder sirens.

“Alpha!” Kevin, my Beta shouted. “The royal pack has breached the border. Rowan is at the front gates, and he’s demanding the return of his Luna’s sister”

As I stood up with urgency, Seraphina pulled me back “Please...I don’t want to go back to him. I’d do anything to remain with you.”

I could sense her desperation “Anything you say? Even if it means getting rid of the pup you carry for him?”

“H-how did you know a-about it? I–I“ she rambled on and on.

I scoffed “Nothing gets past me unnoticed. The choice is yours...”

She scrambled to her knees while still holding on to me. “But you promised to protect me. In the contract...”

“Yes, I did. But I never promised to protect an offspring that wasn’t mine.”

Her grip on me loosened “You’re really as ruthless as the rumours say...aren’t you?”

I nodded twice.

“You’re crazy. What happens if I say no?” She challenged. That was the most confident I had ever seen her.

“The contract is null and void. I hand you over to your oppressor and continue to live your fuck ass life. Imagine their reactions when they find out you kissed me twice while pregnant for Rowan...”

“Yes! Yes yes...I’ll do it” She screamed “I-I agree to your terms.”