Chapter 1

AURORA 

"You're going to have the best dad in the world," I whispered, placing one hand on my stomach. "I promise."

I'd said it three times already, just to hear how it sounded out loud. It sounded real. It sounded true. I lay there in bed a little longer, staring at the ceiling, letting the fact settle into my bones. I was pregnant. Me, Aurora Hale, who used to get nervous holding other people's babies, was going to have one of my own.

Things with Dylan hadn't been easy lately. There'd been a lot of pack meetings I wasn't invited to, and many nights he came home late and tired, not wanting to talk. I'd even started to feel like a stranger in my own relationship. But none of that mattered now. This would change everything. It had to.

I imagined his face when I told him. I pictured him going still for a second, the way he always did when something took him aback, and then that slow grin of his spreading all over his face. He'd pull me in, maybe spin me around like he used to when we were seventeen and stupid and everything felt easy. He'd remember why he chose me in the first place.

"Okay," I said to the empty room, pressing my palms against my cheeks to cool them down. "Okay, let's go tell him."

I got up and moved around my room like everything was normal, brushing my hair, spraying on some perfume, and changing my shirt two different times, even though nobody was going to care what I wore. I just needed something to do with my hands. 

My wolf, Willow, was pacing under my skin, so restless in a way I hadn't felt from her in weeks. She liked the news too. She kept nudging at me like she wanted me to move faster.

"I know," I told her. "I'm going."

I practiced the words in the mirror on my way out. 

“Dylan, I'm pregnant.”

No, too blunt. 

“Dylan, we're having a baby.” 

Yes, that was better. Softer too. I laughed at myself a little, feeling lighter than I had in months. My legs were shaking, but in a good way.

His bedroom was at the end of the hallway, and I was almost jogging by the time I got close, my heart beating frantically in my chest.

Then I heard voices.

I stopped outside his door, my hand raised just as I was about to knock. From inside, I could hear Ivy's voice sounding so light, teasing, and familiar. It hit me like a punch to the chest before I even understood why.

"You're really going to announce it tonight?" she was saying.

"Why wait?" Dylan said. His voice was easy and relaxed. He never sounded like that around me anymore. "My father's already told the Council. Once it's official, nobody can dispute it."

"And Aurora?"

There was a long pause. I stood frozen, my hand pressed against the door now, my palms already getting damp.

"She'll understand eventually," Dylan said. "Or she won't. Either way, it won’t change anything. This is bigger than her."

"Bigger than her." I mouthed the words without meaning to.

"The engagement will join your family and mine together," Dylan went on. "That's the whole point. My father wants it announced before the next Council meeting. Once your name's tied to mine, the Council won’t have a reason to oppose me anymore, and I’ll definitely end up as Alpha."

Engagement?

The word hit me somewhere deep in my stomach. I told myself I'd misheard. I told myself that there was definitely some other explanation; some reasonable, boring explanation, because Dylan wouldn't do this to me. Not after everything we’d been through together.

My hand was still resting on my stomach when I pushed the door open.

They both turned. Ivy was sitting on the edge of his desk, one leg crossed over the other, looking completely unbothered, like she hadn't just talked about getting engaged to my husband. Dylan was standing near the window, and for one second, a flash of emotion appeared on his face, though I couldn't read it fast enough before it disappeared.

Nobody said anything.

I waited. I actually stood there and waited for him to look sorry, then rush over and explain that this was a mistake, a misunderstanding, anything. I waited for him to notice my hand on my stomach and ask why I was standing there looking so pale.

He didn't move.

Ivy didn't even flinch. She just gave me a cool, unbothered look, like I was nothing but a pest.

"Aurora," Dylan finally said. 

The words I'd practiced in the mirror were still right there, at the back of my mind, but now they felt stupid and irrelevant. I could feel them dying there, one by one, as I stood in that doorway and watched the life I thought I’d built shatter.

"What's going on?" I asked, even though I already knew. 

Dylan didn't answer right away. He glanced at Ivy first, as if he needed her permission to speak, and something about that little glance told me everything I needed to know before he even opened his mouth.

"We should talk," he said. "Just not right now."

Not right now? 

I looked between the two of them, feeling my heart beginning to shatter little by little. My hand was still pressed against my stomach, holding onto the one piece of good news I had left, the one thing I'd come in here so excited to share.

I didn't say it. I couldn't. Not with Ivy sitting right there and Dylan looking at me like that.

"Fine…" I said, my voice breaking a little. "We’ll talk later, then."

I turned around and walked out before either of them could see my face crumble, my hand never leaving my stomach the entire way down the hallway.

Behind me, I heard Ivy's low and amused voice, and Dylan saying something too quiet to catch. I didn't stop walking. I didn't let myself run either, until I turned the corner and my legs started shaking terribly, my shoulder hitting the wall hard.

I pressed my back against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor, my knees pulled against my chest.

My hand never left my stomach.

Willow whimpered inside me, confused and hurt, but I couldn’t answer her.

Dylan had chosen Ivy.

The man I thought would be the father of my child had just decided I had no place in his life.

I closed my eyes, fighting back another wave of tears.

I had come to him carrying the happiest news of my life. Instead, I walked away with one terrifying thought stuck in my head.

If Dylan could discard me this easily, what would he do when he found out about the baby?