Chapter Five

Valerie

I ran like my life depended on it, because it did. There was no way I was staying in this place with them, I was going to go back home and beg my family to forgive me, after everything I had just gone through, they would surely forgive me. I thought to myself. 

The gates were in sight, black iron towering over the long driveway like salvation. My lungs were burning, my legs screaming, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I had to get out. Away from this place. Away from him. Away from wolves turning into men and a baby growing inside me that apparently belonged to him.

I don’t know how I was even still moving, maybe adrenaline, maybe fear. Probably both. Just ten more steps. Five. Three. My hand reached out to the gate latch and then I felt it. 

A huge arm wrapped around my waist pulling me back. 

“No!” I shrieked as I was yanked back with so much force I lost my footing and collided against something solid. Someone solid.

His chest.

Max Black. Of Course he had run after me, which was shocking. I had expected him to use the two men that had just terrified me to death. 

I crashed into him with a thud, my palms pressed to his chest instinctively to steady myself, but I felt every inch of hard muscle beneath his shirt. His heart beat slow. Controlled. The opposite of mine, which felt like it was trying to tear through my ribs.

I froze. Because for the first time, I really looked at him.

Green eyes. Bright. Sharp. Like emerald flames, locked onto mine with something I couldn’t decipher, power, anger… concern?

I gasped and tried to shove away, but his grip didn’t budge.

Our lips were inches apart and I could feel his warm moisture all over me. 

“Let me go,” I choked. “Please don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt my baby. I’ll leave and never tell anyone what I sawI swear, you just have to let me go, please.” I started pleading. 

He didn’t loosen his hold. But his voice, when he spoke, was low. Gentle. Unshakable.

“I’m not going to hurt you or the baby, Valerie. But I can’t let you go either.”

I shook my head furiously. “Yes, you can! I’m not safe here, there are were wolves here, they will kill me and eat me, my baby too, please.”

“I know,” he said, standing up fully and holding onto my wrist now instead of my waist. “That’s exactly why this is the only place you are safe.”

I blinked up at him. “What does that even mean?” I asked even more confused, how could this be the only safe place I could be at when it was the most dangerous with men turning into wolves. 

His eyes didn’t waver. “It means I’m a werewolf too Valerie”

My stomach dropped like it had been sliced open and emptied on the spot. A part of me had started connecting the dots when the other men bowed to him, he seemed to have some type of rank over them, but I was still hoping he would say he was human and had just hired them for security since he was a billionaire. 

“No,” I whispered, backing up. “No, you’re not.”

“Yes,” he said. Calm. Certain. “I’m their Alpha.”

His grip was still firm but not cruel, and I tried again to tug free, but his strength was unreal. “What does that even mean? Alpha?”

“It means I lead them. Protect them. Command them.”

I stared at him, my voice barely above a whisper. “You’re a werewolf*…

“Yes.”

Everything inside me recoiled. I wanted to scream. Cry. Vomit. I didn’t know what to do, how to process this.

“Why?” I asked, not even knowing what I meant. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why bring me here?”

“Because you’re carrying my child Valerie.”

My breath hitched.

My mouth went dry.

“You’re carrying a werewolf baby,” he said, quiet but absolute.

I didn’t hear the wind anymore. Didn’t feel the cold air against my skin or the pulse pounding in my ears. Just those words.

A werewolf baby.

My knees buckled, and I would’ve hit the ground if he hadn’t caught me again.

“No,” I said. “That’s not possible. That’s not… no.”

“Valerie,” he said, crouching with me, one hand on my back to keep me upright, the other still wrapped around my wrist. “I know it’s a lot. But it’s the truth. The child growing inside you is part werewolf, part human and he is going to be my heir.”

My body started trembling again. I wanted to reject it. Deny it. But the pieces were falling together.

The wolves. The transformation.

The way he hadn’t flinched.

The way he looked at me now like I was his.

“Oh God,” I whispered. “I can’t.. this can’t be happening to me.”

I closed my eyes, but the dizziness spun harder now. The truth was slamming into me over and over like waves in a storm. I’d woken up in a hospital thinking I’d been violated, and now I was being told that I was carrying some sort of supernatural child? In a mansion full of monsters?

“I need to get out of here,” I whispered, swaying. “I need to go, I can't stay here, please don't make me stay here, I can't... ”

But my head was too heavy to continue. 

The sky tilted sideways. The trees blurred into shadows. My heartbeat roared in my ears and then vanished into nothing.

And then, everything went dark. 

When I woke up again, everything felt so warm and soft and soothing. From a distance I could hear the sound of fire crackling. 

My eyes fluttered open to a room that looked like something out of a winter fairy tale. Dark wooden beams stretched across the ceiling. There was a fireplace in the corner, dancing with golden light, and large windows letting moonlight spill onto the floor.

I blinked groggily. My head was foggy, like I’d been drugged. My mouth was dry.

I sat up slowly, but I wasn’t alone.

Max was there, sitting in a chair near the fireplace, elbows on his knees, watching me like a sentry.

“You passed out,” he said, his voice low.

I didn’t say anything.I was still in shock.

He stood slowly and walked over to the bed, not too close. He placed a glass of water on the nightstand.

“Drink,” he said.

I hesitated, then reached for it. My fingers trembled as I brought the glass to my lips and took a few slow sips. My throat ached. My head pounded.

“What now?” I asked, hoarse.

Max looked at me with those impossibly bright eyes.

“Now,” he said, “you rest. You’re safe here. No one will touch you here, I will take care of you and the baby”

“I don’t feel safe,” I said, staring into the water.

“I know,” he admitted. “You don’t trust me yet. That’s fine. But you will with time as you get to know me”

I looked up at him. “Why do you even want this child? You didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for this.”

His jaw tensed. “Because it’s mine. And because you, both of you matter now. Whether you like it or not.”

I turned my face away, staring at the fire.

And for the first time since this nightmare began… I started crying uncontrollably and he just held me and let me bawl my eyes out without saying anything.