CHAPTER 2: The Announcement

"How long have you been standing there?"

Damon's voice cuts across the kitchen the moment the stair creaks under my foot.

"Long enough."

The words land like stones. Silence ripples out from them.

They've already sprung apart. Guilt flashes across both their faces before their expressions rearrange into something more controlled. But I saw it. That split second of panic. That's not how innocent people react.

Clarissa steps toward me, hands lifting slightly like she wants to reach for me but thinks better of it. Damon's shirt swishes around her thighs. Her perfume reaches me before she does. Floral and expensive, sprayed on before coming downstairs.

In my house. Every morning.

How did I convince myself this was normal?

"I'm so sorry you found out this way." Her voice is soft. Genuine-sounding. "I was scared and I just needed to tell someone."

Someone. Not anyone. Him specifically. In our kitchen, at six in the morning, wearing his clothes.

"It's fine." The words come out flat.

"Damon has been so supportive." She glances back at him, her smile trembling at the edges. "Like a brother should be."

Brother. She leans on the word. Makes sure I hear it. Rolls it out like a welcome mat between us. Naming it so I can't name it. Gaslighting me before I can even form the accusation.

I keep my face still.

"After the miscarriage last year, I thought I'd never..." Her voice breaks. She presses a hand to her mouth.

The word hits me like a fist to the stomach.

Last year.

The timeline crashes into me. Last year, Clarissa was sick for months. Stomach problems, they said. She stayed in the guest room. Damon was never home, always dealing with something urgent, always away for days at a time.

They were together then. Have been this whole time.

This isn't new. This didn't just happen. This has been my life since before the wedding, maybe even before he proposed. Was I ever anything but a placeholder while he figured out what he actually wanted?

My hand presses against the doorframe.

"Are you okay?" Clarissa's eyes are wide with concern.

The concern looks real. It probably isn't.

"Fine." I straighten. "I'm fine."

Damon clears his throat. "We should celebrate." He's looking at her when he says it. Not me. "Dinner tonight. Father will want to know."

Father. Alpha Thornwell. The man who called me a weak omega at our own wedding reception.

"We?" The word slips out sharper than I intend.

Damon turns to look at me. His eyes are cold and steady. "The family."

He says it like the meaning is obvious. I understand perfectly who he means. Him, Clarissa, his father, the pack leadership. I am the wife. The afterthought. The mistake that won't go away quietly.

Clarissa wraps her arms around herself, pulling that borrowed shirt tighter. "You don't mind, do you, Iris?" Her voice is tentative, apologetic. "I know it's sudden."

She's asking permission. Or performing the asking of it. Playing the considerate sister-in-law while she carries my husband's child and sleeps under my roof.

Every instinct screams at me to pull out my own test. To hold it up between them and watch their faces. To say out loud everything I've swallowed for three years.

But what would it change? Damon made his choice before he ever proposed to me.

"Of course not," I hear myself say.

The words taste like burning.

Clarissa's face lights up. "Thank you. You're so understanding."

Damon nods once. Already turning away. Already done with me. "Reservation at seven."

He walks past without making eye contact. Clarissa follows, and as she passes, she squeezes my arm. Her fingers are warm through my sleeve.

The touch makes my skin crawl.

I stand alone in the kitchen. The bacon on the stove is burning. Black smoke curls toward the ceiling.

I don't move.

In my pocket, pressed against my hip, the test feels heavier than it did five minutes ago. I pull it out and stare at those two pink lines.

I'm pregnant too.

And tonight, at that dinner table, surrounded by people who have already decided I don't matter, Damon is going to announce Clarissa's pregnancy to his father.

His father who controls the pack's bloodline laws.

His father who has the power to annul a mateless bond.

My fingers tighten around the test.

If Alpha Thornwell finds out about both pregnancies tonight, only one of us walks away with a future in this pack.

And it won't be me.