Chapter 1

Carmen’s POV

“That is wonderful news,” Silas said, glancing at me too pointedly. I had been married to him long enough to know exactly what that meant.

“We decided we don't want to know the gender of the baby just yet,” Isabelle, the Beta's wife, said with a glowing grin. She rested a hand on her round stomach. “We’re planning a big gender reveal party for the whole pack.”

“Three children in four years,” Silas smirked at his Beta, Gregory, who was seated beside his wife. He was a slender man in his forties with salt-and-pepper hair and a nose that was almost too big for his face. “Your wife’s womb is blessed.”

Gregory stood up, helping his wife up. “We just came to share the news with our Alpha and Luna first. We shall be on our way,” he said.

The second they stepped out, Silas's expression changed. “My Beta has three children now. What do you have? Nothing!” he spat. “I am the fucking Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack, the strongest territory in this region, yet after six years, I don’t have an heir!”

“We can keep trying,” I squeaked weakly, taking a few steps back. Silas had a temper that could turn violent when he felt his ego was bruised, and nothing bruised it more than the lack of a son.

I could not blame him. The first two years of our marriage had been blissful. He had been the sweetest man alive to me, but I had a duty and I failed. The council of the pack was constantly on his neck to produce an heir, but he still didn’t have one despite how much we tried.

“Maybe we should visit a fertility specialist?” I asked. “What do you think?”

Silas scoffed, then burst out laughing, shaking his head deliriously. “You're fucking barren and you know it. You're the reason I don’t have an heir…the reason my lineage ends with me.”

“I'm just… maybe they can prescribe something I—” I started.

“Then go fix yourself—and Goddess, it’s bad enough you're not slim enough; you are still adding pounds. Fuck, why can't you just be the perfect Luna? Take a look at your sister Chloe. She’s elegant, lithe… a true Luna. Marrying you was the biggest mistake of my life,” he snapped.

I swallowed hard, tears stinging my eyes. I wanted to scream that I was a size 10 and that wasn’t fat, but the words died in my throat. I just wanted things to go back to the way they used to be. “I’m sorry, Silas,” I said.

“If you’re really sorry, you’d do the fucking needful.”

I swallowed hard, tears stinging my eyes. I needed for things to go back to the way they used to be.

I wanted to turn and run, but I didn't. I stood there and let Silas leave first, knowing he would take it as an insult if I walked out on him. Once he slammed the front door, I grabbed my designer purse from the couch and headed to my car. I needed to see a gynecologist again, and I needed to do it alone. I was done being a disgrace to the pack. I would do anything—surgeries, hormones, ancient rituals—whatever it took to finally carry his child.

~~~

The clinic was in a fancy part of town just outside the Stonehaven gates. I waited for a while and then someone brought a form for me to fill out before I was led into a room.

“Luna Carmen!” my gynecologist, Dr. Aris, beamed at me as she walked into the room where I was. She was a human who had taken care of the pack's people for years, one of the very few humans that knew that the so-called exclusive residential estates were actually pack territory. “It has been a while since you came to see us.”

“I have been quite busy with pack duties.” The lie rolled off my tongue with ease. I just didn’t like coming here since it was a reminder of what I was.

However, I still preferred this place than the hospitals within our pack because there was just this way they looked at me that I didn’t like.

Like I was broken.

“Pack duties huh?” She sighed. “Must be hectic.”

I nodded. The one thing I really needed to do, the one thing that did not involve numbers or papers, was the one thing I could not do. So yes, hectic.

“Let’s take a look at you. You said you gained weight on your forms? You don’t look much different.”

I nodded and lay back on the cold table. “Silas is getting upset. I need to know if there is something we can try to have a baby. Anything at all,” I said.

Dr. Aris did not say anything. She started checking me and put her hands on my stomach. She looked confused then immediately got the ultrasound machine and put some cold gel on me. I braced myself for the usual news: an empty womb.

But Dr. Aris didn't speak. She stared at the monitor, her eyes widening behind her glasses. She moved the transducer back and forth, her expression changing to utter confusion.

“Luna…” she started, her voice trailing off. She looked at the screen, then back at my flat stomach, then back at the screen again.

“What is it? Is it a cyst?” I asked, my voice rising in panic. “Is it something worse?”

Beinf barren was bad enough but there was still hope that one day i would have a baby. However, if something had happened to jeopardize those chances, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to take the pain.

“Luna Carmen, I don’t understand,” Dr. Aris whispered, turning the monitor toward me. I saw the grainy gray-and-white shapes, but I didn't know what I was looking at until I saw a distinct, rhythmic flicker. A heartbeat. A very strong, very fast heartbeat.

“Your scent hasn't changed,” the doctor muttered, shaking her head. “Your abdomen is almost completely flat. You’re still showing no outward signs of a shift in your hormones, which is why your wolf hasn't signaled the pack… but Luna, this is a miracle.”

She looked me dead in the eyes, her voice trembling with shock.

“You are experiencing a cryptic pregnancy. Carmen… you’re six months pregnant.”