THE FORMER FLAME

Elaris’s POV

She glided into my room in a stalking manner, and her eyes scanned my bed in an arrogant way as her silken dress crunched against the cold ground. She looked at me like a queen, thinking that she could get everything done in her way from this palace.

Her eyes moved to the blanket on my belly.

And then gradually rose to my face.

Some sort of discomfort started filling me.

“Ah, so this is the broken stray that Averic got from the borders,” Virelle said and smirked at me.

I stared at her.

“Who are you?”

She chuckled.

“You don’t know?”

“No.”

Her smile grew.

“That means you should ask Averic what I mean to him.”

There was something in the way she called his name that made me feel strange.

She wasn’t just familiar with him.

She was sure she belonged there.

I rose up straight regardless of my weakness, holding the sheet to my body and demanding who allowed her to enter these chambers.

“This is the medical wing. You cannot just walk in here.”

Virelle raised her head.

“Actually, I can.”

“By whom?”

She took another step towards my bed.

“Averic’s.”

My fingers clenched around the sheet.

“That’s not possible.”

“Is it?”

Her eyes turned to the door.

“You’ve only been here for a few weeks. You don’t know everything there is to know about your future Alpha.”

My spirit dropped.

“What are you saying?”

But before she could reply, footsteps pounded down the corridor.

But before she could respond, footsteps thudded down the hallway, and the voice of Averic roared with unmistakable authority asking why Virelle was inside the palace.

“Who allowed her entry?”

The doors opened.

Averic stormed into the room, his eyes flashing with fury.

“Virelle.”

His tone held a sense of disbelief.

“What are you doing here?”

Virelle looked at him.

The smirk on her face vanished in an instant.

“Averic…”

Her voice grew gentle.

Delicate.

Terrified.

I watched it unfold right before my very eyes.

It was such a flawless transition, that it frightened me.

The moment Averic passed through the doorway, Virelle’s cocky personality melted away, giving way to tears as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

“I thought you would never come for me.”

Averic froze.

“Virelle, let go.”

She held tighter onto him.

“I was scared.”

His hands did not move from his sides.

“What are you doing here?”

She gently withdrew from him.

Tears glimmered in her eyes.

“I had no place else to go.”

Averic’s expression turned hard.

“You just vanished without anyone knowing where you were going.”

“I had my reasons.”

“What were they?”

She lowered her head.

Placing a quivering hand over her belly.

“I had to go into hiding, Averic,” Virelle whispered brokenly to him. “I could not tell you until I was sure… I am pregnant with your child.”

The confession rang in my ears.

I could not breathe.

Pregnant.

Once more.

I found myself reaching underneath my blanket without thinking.

Our child.

Averic’s child.

My hand shook against my belly.

Virelle had come back with the same secret that I had been ready to share.

Except that hers had preceded mine.

At least, that was what she wished for us to think.

Averic’s body grew completely stiff, his arms staying close to his sides while shock showed on his face.

“You’re pregnant?”

Virelle nodded.

“Yes.”

“How long have you known?”

“Long enough to be sure.”

He frowned.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was scared.”

“Of what?”

She swallowed hard.

“Scared that you would reject me.”

Averic looked at her.

I studied his face intently.

There was no happiness.

No hug.

No announcement.

Just confusion.

And yet that did not erase the pain in my heart.

Virelle took his hand in hers.

“I’m back because our child needs his father.”

Averic’s eyes moved to her stomach and then back up to her face.

It was like the air had suddenly been sucked out of my lungs; my happy announcement of my own pregnancy became frozen in my throat.

Just minutes before, I had been picturing telling Averic.

I had envisioned the smile on his lips.

The touch of his hand upon my stomach.

Even maybe the future he had promised that we would discover together.

But now I was rendered speechless.

What would happen when I told him?

Would he look at me the same way he was looking at Virelle?

Would he feel responsibility for both of us?

Would our baby turn into one more burden?

Anxious growls rose inside my wolf.

Pressing my palm harder against my stomach.

No.

Fear could not control this situation for me.

However, I could not turn away from what I saw too.

Because Virelle had come at the worst time.

Virelle pulled back slightly to look up at Averic with begging eyes. She claimed that she came back as soon as she found out that the baby was old enough to travel.

“I did not want to put the child in danger.”

The face of Averic still stayed guarded.

“You should have told me.”

“I was afraid you would refuse to see me.”

“Is that an excuse?”

“Yes.”

She lowered her head.

“I made a mistake.”

She sounded broken.

“However, the child is innocent.”

The jaw of Averic tightened.

"I will never punish the unborn child for the mistakes of its parents."

Virelle gave me a glance.

In that moment, her sad look vanished.

There was some ice in her eyes.

Then it came back.

"I only want my child to be safe."

I could feel a chill run down my spine.

She was looking at me not as another woman.

She was looking at me as an obstacle.

Bound by strict pack law to protect any woman who is pregnant with potential Alpha blood, Averic clenched his teeth and permitted her to live in the east wing.

"You will stay in the east wing until the healer confirms your pregnancy."

Virelle nodded.

"Thank you."

"And you will obey palace rules."

"Of course."

"And you will not go into Elaris's chambers again without permission."

Virelle's gaze shifted.

Then she smiled.

"As you wish."

I watched Averic carefully.

He did not seem pleased.

It should have reassured me.

Instead, a new idea formed in my head.

If Virelle was pregnant with his baby, pack law would protect her.

Elders would protect her.

The whole kingdom would protect a mother of a potential heir.

What was going to happen to me?

While Averic led Virelle towards the doorway, Virelle turned to give me one last look over her shoulder, gracing me with that triumphant, wicked smile that proved every tear had been fake.

My stomach churned.

She had wanted me to see that.

She wanted me afraid.

Before disappearing behind the doorway, she gave my covered abdomen one last glance.

Her smile turned into a smirk.

Then she whispered in such a low voice that Averic wouldn’t hear her.

“You should have kept yourself hidden.”

My heart turned cold.

I looked at her.

She kept on walking.

The door closed behind her.

I didn’t move.

She knew.

Or maybe she guessed.

Both options made me afraid.

Suppressing the pain I felt, I put my hand on my stomach and promised not to reveal my pregnancy, knowing with a chilling realization that admitting it might make Averic think I was trying to use my baby to compete with Virelle and Virelle would take any actions needed to kill my baby.

I turned my gaze towards the shut door.

Averic had told us that we will plan out our future.

However, he is now back with his past holding another potential heir.

I rubbed the tears off my face.

“No one will take you from me,” I whispered to the life growing inside of me.

Happiness that was absent since I found out about the pregnancy vanished for the first time behind fear.

I would protect my child.

Even if it meant lying to the father of the child.

Even if it meant making Averic believe that Virelle’s child is his only child.

And even if keeping this lie apart me from the man whom I had begun to love.