I'm pregnant

Sara's expression softened immediately, melting into a soft, innocent look. Her eyes brimmed with tears, lips trembling as she pulled her gown down.

"Rosewyn—" Her voice cracked into a sob. "It's not what it looks like, I swear, he—he came in here, and… he wouldn't stop."

"He wouldn't stop what?" I whispered, shoulders dropping with exhaustion.

"Please…. I tried to push him off—"

"What?" Archer snapped his head toward her.

The performance would have worked had I not heard her moaning in pleasure. I would have rushed across the room and dragged Archer away from her, making certain everyone knew he'd taken advantage of my sick sister. But the way she'd been moaning his name and gripping his shoulders didn't look like the behavior of someone who was actually sick. Or someone that was being taken advantage of. She was pretending.

For months I'd watched her claimed illness flare up, watched her act so weak. If only I'd known it was all an act, that she'd been sleeping with Archer behind my back.

"Don't," I said quietly. "Don't you dare."

Archer dragged a hand through his hair, his chest heaving as he stared at me with wide eyes. "Rosewyn, look, this isn't what you think. It was Sara's idea. She came to me, and said—" He cut himself off at whatever he saw on my face, and then, astonishingly, he fell to his knees. His hands clasped in front of me, his eyes burned with unshed tears. "Please. I'm begging you. I didn't mean for it to happen."

"You didn't mean for it to happen?" I scoffed. This felt like a nightmare. I wanted to believe it was a nightmare so bad. I wanted to wake up to realize none of this was real.

"Please—"

"Stop this madness," I snarled into his face. "You're getting no forgiveness from me. Neither of you."

"Rose—"

"Get out!"

He blinked, staring at me for several seconds as though I might miraculously change my mind. When nothing happened, he rose to his feet. His expression shifted, hardening into something cold, like he was relieved.

He turned to Sara with a small smirk. "I told you this wasn't going to work. Bad idea."

"It was your idea, though." She laughed. "You said we should do this if we ever got caught."

I placed my heart against my pounding chest as I choked, feeling as though it would burst any moment from now.

Sara wiped the tears from her eyes and stepped closer. When she spoke again, the tremor that had been in her voice earlier was gone. "Sister Rosewyn."

"How could you?"

"How could I?" She chuckled. "You weren't giving Archer the attention he deserved. You were always too busy hunting for food in the woods with our brother. When Archer came to me, I couldn't stop him. Not because you're his mate—but because I'm attracted to him too."

Her eyes were hard and unashamed.

My jaw clenched with rage as I realized I'd been fooled by these two for a long time. I would come back from hunting, share what little I could offer with Archer, then divide the rest among my siblings, never once suspecting these two were sleeping together behind my back.

"I love him. I've loved him for months. I'm sorry, sister… but I'm pregnant."

"What?!" My eyes went wide with disbelief. What did I just hear?

"I'm carrying his child, and we plan to keep the baby." With a broad smile, she slowly rubbed her stomach. I looked down and noticed the faint swell I'd mistaken for illness. I was so certain it was her sickness getting worse, at least that was what she made me believe. I'd been such a fool not to realize my little sister was pregnant.

Archer refused to look at me now. He crossed to stand beside Sara and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Archer, why?" I cried out. "Why would you do this to my sister? How dare you?"

"He didn't do anything to me," she snapped. "I love him."

"What about the bond we share? Don't fucking give me that look!"

He laughed. "I was planning to reject you sooner or later. Why not now?"

Sara rubbed her stomach softly. Before I could speak again, Archer cut me off.

"I, Archer, reject you, Rosewyn, as my mate. From this day forward, you're nothing but a stranger to me."

My knees buckled instantly and I hit the floor. A raw, burning sound crawled from my throat. I pressed my hands against the floor as if I could hold my broken self together.

The pain of the rejection burned through me like fire through dry wood, and I could not, for the life of me, stop screaming.

I thrashed, clawing against my chest. The pain was just too much.

….

The moment I caught my brother's silhouette, I took a deep breath, though the relief didn't reach the ache in my chest.

"Where have you been?" I asked roughly as worry and pain tangled so tightly in my chest. "I told you to come back immediately if you didn't find it."

I should have gone instead. I'd known that even as I let him leave—known how stubborn and reckless he was.

My body was still trembling from the pain of Archer's rejection.

"I thought you'd be asleep when I returned." He glanced past my shoulder, scanning the empty house with a small frown. "Where's Sara?"

My chest caved in at the sound of that name. I swallowed it down. "It's past curfew. Lycans are patrolling everywhere. How did you even make it home?"

"I have my ways." He shrugged, and then he smiled—that warm, easy smile he always gave me when he wanted me to stop worrying, the one that had gotten them both into trouble more times than I could count. "You don't need to worry. Everything will be alright soon."

"I know." I sighed.

"Once we've gathered enough money to escape this place, we'll run far. Somewhere none of them can find us."

The words should have comforted me. Instead they cut somewhere raw.

"We can't leave." My eyes burned, and I hated how my voice sounded. "Our parents died trying to escape from here."

Their faces surfaced in my mind. 

My mind wandered back to the last moment when the Lycan killed, and took their lives away just because they wanted a better life for us, away from this place.

Kieran opened his mouth to argue, the way he always did, but whatever he'd been about to say died on his tongue. His face drained of color, eyes fixed on something behind me.

"Rosewyn." His voice had dropped to a whisper. "Lycans are here."