#Chapter 1: The Test

Charlotte’s POV

When I saw the two blue lines appear on the pregnancy test, I went to my fated mate Jason's room immediately.

But when I burst his room open, I froze there. Jason's back was rising and falling as he tangled with another woman beneath him.

The test fell from my fingers and skittered across the floor. All the joy that had been bubbling up within me fell flat.  

The pain of witnessing my fated mate's betrayal immediately ripped through my entire body, my hands moved to my pregnant belly immediately.

“...Jason? What are you doing? We’re fated mates!” I gasped, watching as both Jason and the woman turned their heads towards me.

That's when I realize the woman was Jessica, the alpha daughter of a neighboring pack.

There was no remorse, or shame in their movements as they became aware of my presence.  Jessica smirked at me and ran her hands across his shoulders, gracefully stroking him and then pulling him further into her with her legs wrapped around his waist.

I felt my heart breaking as I watched my fated mate taking his pleasure from her body instead of mine.

How could she claim him! He was my true mate!

“So you found out,” Jason turned his head towards me briefly, though his body didn’t quite stop moving as he continued to fuck Jessica, “ I’m breaking up with you anyways."

"But we are fated mates.."

"You didn’t really think that I’d make a wolfless girl like you, my real Luna, right? A Luna should be a noble, and she needs to be strong, like Jessica here.” He groaned and buried his head in Jessica’s shoulder as he increased the speed of his thrusts and then spent his seed into her.

His words hurt. Stronger pain spread through my entire body and I needed to hold the door frame to stop myself from falling to the ground.

At the age when most werewolves started hearing their wolf in their mind, I didn’t. I also couldn’t transform into my wolf form like my peers.

All I vaguely remembered was a war when I was a young child, and then I was taken away by Jason’s parents and grew up in a special home for war orphans.

I had grown up hearing words like ‘wolfless’, but I didn’t expect to hear them from Jason’s mouth.

Fated mates are supposed to love each other no matter what happens.

I had always had a crush on Jason. He was Alpha heir, tall, charismatic, handsome, and ruthless. Every time I saw him, I wanted to be around him more and more.

But I know we lived in totally different worlds, so I didn't expect one day he would tell me we were fated mates.

Fated mates are partners assigned by the moon goddess and no devoted wolves would reject their fated mates.

And Jason did promise to marry me, whispering sweetly in my ear in bed.

He told me that a public relationship wasn’t suitable for us yet, and that we just needed to endure a bit of a wait. I believed him.  I looked forward to the day when we could truly be lovers and mates in front of the pack and everyone.

When I found out I was pregnant, I believed it was the perfect opportunity to let everyone know.  The last thing I had expected was to find him like this, and to discover that he never planned to marry me.

“Why did you lie to me?” I whispered, tears in my eyes, “Why didn’t you just reject me directly?”

“Oh, Charlotte,” Jason rolled his eyes. He rose from the bed, naked and proud. Behind him, Jessica rose and wrapped herself around his shoulders, staring at me from behind him as she kept him from approaching me. Claiming him for herself.

“Why do you think?” His eyes lingered over my body, “The sex with fated mate was too good. I honestly was surprised, with a person like you, but I was unable to resist fucking you. That doesn’t mean that I want to make our relationship public.”

His words were like a knife, slicing right into me. Slowly I slid to the ground. The worse thing is, I felt pain rising directly from my belly this time.

“Jason, please!” I begged, grabbing the pregnancy test on the floor and showing it to him, “I’m pregnant. Your betrayal is hurting the baby through our mate bond. You need to take us to the hospital!”

Jason’s eyes widened, and his gaze darted to my stomach. He instinctively took a step forward, but Jessica pulled him back to bed. She stepped around him and glanced down at the pregnancy test on the floor, then she smashed it under her heel, shattering the plastic into shards.

“If you were really pregnant with Jason's child, he would be able to smell it, you stupid bitch,” she gave Jason a pointed glance, “You don’t sense the pup, right? So she’s lying. Reject her now and get rid of her.”

I saw uncertainty flicker across Jason’s face. How could he not sense the pup?  

“I don’t feel anything,” he said, his face reddening with anger, “I should be able to smell my pup.” He clenched his fists as he turned towards me, “You dare lie to me about this?!”

“She’s nothing but a grasping, deceitful human. Reject her now,”Jessica said slyly.

How could she say such things? She had seen the result on the test, and she knew that rejecting the bond would have killed our child.

“Please! I'm really pregnant with your child. We can go to the hospital together for an examination.” I pleaded in terror, kneeling before him, holding his hand in mine desperately, “ But If you reject me now, our child will die, and the moon goddess will never forgive you. And I will never forgive you!!!”

I saw Jason hesitate, but then Jessica marched towards me and slapped me hard in the face, rocking my head to the side.

“Are you threatening your own Alpha? ” Jessica said coldly, looking down at me with her hand raised for another blow, “Jason, if you really took this liar to the hospital, people will know you had a thing with her. That's her plan.”

"How dare you?!" Jason raised his chin at her words, looking down at me coldly. He crossed the room angrily.

No! I couldn’t let him hurt the child! I grabbed for Jason’s wrists.

"Please, Jason. Please! Trust me-"

“Shut up,” Jason snarled. He raised his foot and kicked me hard in the stomach so that I sprawled gasping across the floor, “I don’t want you, or your lies! I reject you! And the punishment for lying to an Alpha is death or enslavement.”

I felt a sharp pain searing through me and felt the gush of blood between my legs. I could do nothing to stop this. I was powerless against him.

I sobbed on the floor, as blood pooled around me.

Above me, I saw Jason’s cold eyes flicker with a hint of shock and remorse, but quickly faded away and replaced by confusion.

“ I will...hate you forever for this,” I choked out through my tears, as the aftershocks of his rejection wracked my body, “And I…” the words I had to utter would cause me pain, they would finalize the rejection of our bond, but they couldn’t be worse than what Jason had already done to me.

”I-I… accept your rejection!”