1. Pregnancy

Ivy’s POV

The sixth time my Alpha husband refused to have sex with me, I left and moved in with Grandma Susan.

In the strict hierarchical world of werewolves, I'm a wolfless Luna meaning I'm weak. Also I've been stripped of my family name, meaning I live with no dignity at all.

Despite this, Alpha Theodore doesn't refuse to mark me. I’m a wolfless Luna and his wife, but he doesn’t respect me or trust me.

I stand at the sink. I feel sick again and I know what this means even if I’m trying to ignore it. I know it means I’ll have to face my husband the Alpha again. He’s my husband and he’ll need to know the truth.

My mind drifts to the last time I saw Theodore.

I reached across the bed to touch his body I’m desperate for his touch. My body aches for him.

“What do you want, Ivy? I’m tired,” Theodore said as he pushed my hands away. “In any case, have you forgotten your position. I am your Alpha, I’ll decide when we have sex. Now go to sleep.”

“I know my position — I’m your Luna. How can you deny me your body?”

“Ivy, can you not hear me? I said not to tonight.”

“If not tonight, then when? When last did we have sex? I’m your wife even if you wish I wasn’t.”

I started crying even though I don’t want to. I know Theodore, he hates weakness. He hates that there is no wolf in me. I hate that there’s no wolf in me too. I wipe the tears away in frustration. If we’re not fated, if he knows this, he should say it out. I’m tired of this pretending.

Theodore sat up in bed, his anger rising. Is he finally ready to speak the truth?

“What do you want from me, Ivy? I’m trying! I married you, is that not enough? After what happened, after the lies and deception, I still married you! No one else would have done that. Why are you not thankful?”

I felt my anger build at the injustice of his words and I jump up from the bed. I stood naked in front of him, seething with fury. I deserved better! I am the Luna! I did nothing.

His eyes were on me. He wished he was not lusting for what he was seeing. He breathes hard and his eyes shift to glowing green. The wolf was rising though he’s fighting it, fighting it with all that he has.

“I’ve never lied to you! Ever! I never lied to the Sterlings either! Do you think I knew that I was not theirs, not the heiress of the Silver Claw Pack? How could I have known? I was a child!”

“That’s not what Tiffany says. She says you knew it all along, you knew she was the real heiress. That you’re the one that kept her from her rightful place and made her suffer. You’re the one that stopped her from marr…” He stopped himself.

“Finish!” I shouted, fury pushing up inside of me. “Finish what you’re saying! You think I stopped you from marrying Tiffany? Tiffany thinks she should be in this bed with you, that she should be your wife! I know this. She thinks a wolfless Luna like me should be abandoned, thrown to the wind, forgotten, not lying in bed with the Alpha! And you think that too!”

Why didn’t he trust me? I’ve never told him a single lie. Still he lets Tiffany’s bile fill his head.

“I don’t know what to think,” he said.

“And yet you let her lies poison our bedroom! Poison our life!” My breath is coming hard, my heart beating in my chest like a bass drum. My fury raged inside of me like a wild animal.

Suddenly Theodore stood and puled me to him roughly. He sniffed the air, my scent aroused him.

He can’t fight the wolf inside. There he was, in all of his power! Biceps pumping with power, his face showing the overpowering lust for me. He must have me— now! I needed him too.

He pushed me to the bed, bent me over, ready to enter me, and then he stopped.

“No! No! I’ll not do this! I will not!”

He was in agony. His desire was on display, his body ached for mine.

But his mind steps in. Tiffany’s lies step in. My wolflessness steps in. How can a powerful alpha like Theodore bed a wolfless luna? He can’t.

He fell to the bed. I looked at him. Is it pity I felt? But for who? For an Alpha married to a Luna he can no longer bed? Or the Luna with no wolf, with no family? A Luna who deserves no respect.

“This is the sixth time you have refused to take me. This will be the last. I’m leaving.”

He turned and looked at me, the wolf now deep inside. He said nothing as he watched me dress.

I pack that night and come here to Grandma Susan’s, the only person in his family that truly supports and accepts me as I am. The only one who believes that Theodore and I are meant to be together.

I hold the kitchen sink, and bend forward and vomit. I know I’m not sick; I’m pregnant. And it’s time for a meeting with my husband.

***

“I’ll see you soon,” I tell Grandma Susan, though I’m not sure I’m telling the truth.

“Ivy, my dearest, you must be careful. Danger awaits you, all of you. Trust no one. I love you.” And then adds reading my mind, “Do not fear, we will indeed meet again.”

I cry as I drive away. I’ve been betrayed by the parents I thought loved me and the brother who protected me. Thrown away like rubbish because I have no wolf, because the truth about me not being the heiress was revealed. Still Grandma Susan stood by my side. I’ll never forget that.

I pull into the town where Theodore lives. I drive for a bit and then park the car a distance away from Nicole’s surgery. I need to get her to do a pregnancy test and a prenatal check-up so that I make sure everything is in order before I meet my husband and give him the news

I park a distance away. As I walk, people stop and look at me. The town becomes eerily quiet. Something has changed during the time that I’ve been gone.

I stare back at them. Who do they think they are? I am the Luna of Silver Claw Pack and they should respect me!

I enter Nicole’s office and she’s waiting for me. I warned her I was on the way.

“What’s going on, Nicole? Everyone’s looking at me as if I’ve grown another head,” I say.

Nicole looks at her receptionist and then says, “Let’s go in my office.”

Inside she tells me. “Tiffany is back.”

“What?! Really? Where has she been for the past three years?”

“I don’t know. The Alpha is keeping everything quiet. Apparently she arrived in a weakened state and he wants her kept calm. But you know the people. The rumours. They all think you had something to do with her disappearance before the wedding.” She looks at me sadly. “Most in the pack are treating her as the new Luna. It’s disgusting.”

It’s hard to hear Nicole’s words, but she has always been my loyal friend, and sugar coating the situation would be of no help to me and she knows it.

“Thanks. Anyway there’s nothing I can do right now. I’ll deal with it all when I see Theodore. We have some more pressing business you and I. Like I told you on the phone, I think I’m pregnant.”

Nicole smiles. Despite everything, a new baby is always a wonderful miracle. “Let’s have a look.”

She does a pregnancy test which is positive and then lays me down on her examining table so that she can do an ultrasound.

“Oh my word!”

“What is it? What are you seeing?” I ask.

“Quadruplets! You’re pregnant with quadruplets!”

She shows me their four little beating hearts and I fall in love immediately.

“Take a photo so I can show Theodore. I know he’ll be so happy,” I say.

“Sorry, I can’t just now. The machine is broken. We’ll get a photo at your next appointment. Or maybe the Alpha will be with you and he’ll see his babies live.”

Despite the reality of the situation that predicts something very different, I hope that Theodore will be there at the next appointment too.

***

I leave Nicole’s surgery and decide it’s best to warn Theodore that I’m on my way to him. I call and he picks up after five long rings.

“Hello, Ivy. What do you want? We’re in the middle of a family dinner,” Theodore says, his annoyance not kept at bay.

It’s noisy in the background, but above the noise, I hear Tiffany laughing. I don’t mention it.

“I’m here in town. We need to talk about something. I’m coming to the house.” Before he can stop me, I hang up.

I stop to buy dessert for the family dinner to show I hold no grudges.

On the way I think about how Theodore might respond to the news that he will be a father. He may decide he doesn’t care, that he wants me out of his life anyway.

It doesn’t matter. If that’s what he wants, I’ll raise the children alone. I have money. And I’m certain Grandma Susan will want us to live with her. We’ll be just fine.

I drive down the last stretch of road leaving town, an empty part, the road cut out of the forest, the trees towering on each side.

Suddenly I see a sports car racing towards me, in my lane! What is this person doing? They’re heading straight at me!

I panic knowing I have no wolf and I’ll die if the car crashes. I try to veer to the other lane and the sports car veers with me. The driver intends to kill me!

That’s when I see who’s driving the car: it’s Tiffany! How can that be?!?

The sports car sideswipes me and I start skidding headlong into the trees going far too fast. I know when the car hits the tree I’ll die.

Just before the crash, I see Tiffany and she’s smiling at me, her eyes glow green, her wolf is enjoying this.

And then everything goes black.