Chapter 5: Eight days late

Vera

“I think I’m gonna pass out.”

That’s what I whispered to myself as I pushed open the heavy door to my basement room and collapsed onto the thin mattress.

The springs squeaked under me like even they were tired of holding me together.

My arms felt like bricks. My feet ached in places I didn’t even know had bones.

My back was wet with sweat from scrubbing the entire East Wing twice because Luna Marie said the floors “still looked dull.”

I even washed her underwear.

And I did it with my bare hands.

Disgusting right?

But I’m used to it.

Because apparently, Luna duties now meant omega slave work too.

I was supposed to be the Luna of this goddamn Pack.

But all I’d been lately was their cleaner. Their cook. Their fucking slave.

I dragged my fingers down my face and groaned. “Why do I feel like this?”

Normally, I’d handle all these chores without blinking. It’s not like today was the worst.

But my body? It felt like someone replaced all my blood with cement.

My head was aching badly. And my body temperature could boil an egg.

“Maybe I’m coming down with a sickness,” I muttered, reaching for the towel I hadn’t even had the energy to use.

“Or maybe my body’s finally giving up.”

It had been two weeks since Alpha Jade officially installed Kieran as Head of Pack Security.

And ever since that night…the storm, the one-night stand, and the fucking announcement, I’d done everything in my power to stay the hell away from him.

And so far, I've done a good job. Or maybe he was just busy with all the meetings and war talk.

Bluemoon Pack had been getting ready for a rogue attack from the Blackfangs. Everyone was on edge.

Especially me.

Not because of the war alone now.

But because Kieran now lived in the same palace as me.

I’d been walking on eggshells every single day.

Peeking around corners before turning. Taking the longer path to the kitchen.

Skipping meals if I thought I might run into him.

It’s not like we were close. He didn’t even talk to me that night. I didn’t give room for any conversation. How he knew I stayed in the basement self, I still don’t know.

But something about him…bothered me. No, not bothered…pulled.

Like some invisible cord tied me to him.

Three times. We’ve only had three encounters. First was when he found me locked out in the rain.

Second time was when I walked into his room drunk and begged him to let me sleep next to him, and ended up doing a lot more than sleeping.

And the third time was when Jade introduced him in front of the entire Pack like some war trophy as the new head Pack security officer.

I remembered my knees going weak the moment he stepped out in that uniform.

I felt his eyes on me even though he didn’t look my way once.

I rubbed my chest. “It’s probably nothing,” I told myself. “It’s just because I haven’t been touched in weeks.”

Alpha Jade hadn’t touched me in… what, a month? Maybe longer. Not that I missed his robotic thrusts.

But ovulation had a funny way of making you crave what you’d normally run from.

Wait…ovulation.

Shit.

I sat up, reached for my phone, and opened my period tracker.

The screen stared back at me like it was mocking me.

I’m eight days late.

“No, no, no…” I whispered, my heart was literally banging against my ribs.

“This can’t be.”

I scrolled back. Tried to make sense of the days. Maybe I logged it wrong.

Maybe I was stressed. Maybe I was just..

But then I remembered the nausea. The dizziness. The constant irritability.

The way certain smells had made me gag this past week. The tiredness that didn’t make any fucking sense.

I clutched my stomach. “No. This can’t be happening.”

My hand trembled as I held the phone. My mouth went dry.

“Is it my ovulation? Maybe that’s why I’ve been… drawn to him like a damn flame,” I muttered aloud. But that didn’t explain everything.

It didn’t explain why I walked barefoot all the way to the visitor’s villa that night like some possessed idiot.

“It was nearly a kilometre from the servant’s wing to the visitor’s lounge.”

“How the hell did I walk that far? Drunk and alone. Through corridors I’d never even taken before?”

I’d lived in this palace my whole life. And I’d never stepped foot that deep into the North Wing. Not unless summoned by someone with more power than me.

What the fuck was I doing there?

“Wait, am I really pregnant?”

The door opened and I almost jumped off the bed.

Alpha Jade stepped in like he owned every breath in the room. He didn’t knock. I’ve told you he always never knocked.

His eyes narrowed as they landed on my phone.

“What are you looking at?”

My stomach sank. My throat tightened.

“Nothing. Just… reading a story.”

He walked further in, eyes cold, mouth tight. Then he tilted his head at me like I was something he scraped off his boot.

“Are you pregnant?”

I choked on air.

“What? No. Of course not.”

He stared at me for a long second, like he could smell the lie leaking from my pores.

“Meet me in my room. Now.”

He turned and walked out without waiting for a reply.

I sat there, completely still.

He was going to fuck me. That’s what “meet me in my room” meant in Alpha Jade’s language.

Not passion. Not affection. Just need. Power. Control.

I stood slowly. My legs were still shaky. My mind was spinning.

“I think I might be pregnant,” I whispered to myself.

“And it’s actually a good thing if Alpha Jade mates with me tonight.”

“Nayyyy. I can’t be pregnant.”

“Not for Kieran. Please no.”

I stripped and jumped into the cold shower. Shaved. Scrubbed. Sprayed the expensive body mist Luna Marie once threw at me and said, “You smell like boiled onions, fix it.”

I put on the silk robe. The one I kept hidden in the closet just for nights like this.

Nights when I had no choice but to act like I really wanted it, as if I didn’t really want it. Lol.

My heart pounded.

I opened the basement door and started the walk to Jade’s quarters.

And that’s when everything fell apart.

I hadn’t even gotten past the kitchen when it happened.

What I experienced next shocked me to my bones.

My feet moved, but the rest of me? The rest of me was already breaking.