Chapter 3

Blenda

Jeff patted Molly’s hand until she let go of his arm, then took a step toward me with perfectly calm eyes and let out a slow breath. “That’s never going to happen.”

“You don’t get to decide that,” I said. “It’s my marriage too.”

“It’s a marriage this pack believes in.”

He rolled his shoulders back and slid his hands into his pockets. “It stays that way.”

“Why?” I turned to Molly.

 “You have each other, and you have a daughter. What do you even need me for?”

Molly shook her head slowly.

“Fine. He’s terrible at explaining things, so I’ll do it. Pack law says the Alpha’s heir has to be born to his Luna, and that’s you, so Jess doesn’t count no matter whose she is. We need another baby, a son, and on paper, he’ll be yours.”

“Mine?”

“Yeah, carried by you,” Jeff said, pressing his lips together.

“You want me to carry your baby?”

“Our baby, to be exact.” Molly smiled.

 “I carried Jess myself and nearly died doing it, and I’m not doing that twice. We tried a surrogate last year, but she passed away, and honestly, it was such a hassle.”

Jeff studied his fingernails. “Her body couldn’t handle it.” He looked at me.

 “Her wolf turned on the pregnancy, and in the end, it turned on her. That’s why you’re the best candidate. You don’t have a wolf.” He turned his head and gave Molly a smile.

My left wrist itched on the inside, exactly where the needle always went, and I rubbed it with my thumb without knowing why.

“I can’t have children,” I said. “You know that. Everyone knows that.”

“Exactly,” Molly said, and she crossed the grass until I could smell her special vanilla perfume.

“No wolf means no eggs, so you have nothing to give, Blenda, except one thing.”

 She tapped two fingers low against my stomach. “You don’t have a wolf, but you’ve got a uterus—and that’s precisely what I want. Remember how I told you this a million times when we were kids? Not having a wolf doesn’t mean you’re worthless. At least to me, right now, you’re a one-of-a-kind vessel. Only your wolf-less uterus can help me and Jeff have our son. It’s just perfect, isn’t it?”

When I heard Molly say that, my head just rang—like someone had punched me square in the back of the skull. Then, this hot, sour liquid shot straight up from my stomach into my throat, and I threw up.

They disgusted me so much.

I pressed my bag against my stomach and clenched my other hand into a fist, nails digging hard into my palm.

“Are you okay?” Molly asked.

“Yeah.” I wiped my mouth. “Couldn’t hold this disgust.”

It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard because the pack had exactly one rule about girls like me, and everybody agreed on it.

The elders said it; the healers said it, and even Nora had whispered it once in the clinic: “Wolfless she-wolves can’t have pups.”

And here I stood in the sunshine with a positive test in my purse while my sister explained that my body was a rental.

“Blenda.” Jeff stepped forward. “We'll talk at home and do nothing impulsive.”

“Sure,” I said, and I walked out through the gate without running.

“Drive safely!” Molly called after me sweetly. “You look pale!”

I was shaking and dizzy the whole way.

It took me four tries to get the key into the ignition.

I don’t remember the drive home, only the house at the top of the hill with the pack crest over the door, which I had decorated curtain by curtain because Jeff never cared.

I stood in the dark foyer, listening to the beams creak, then sat on the stairs, pulled the paper out of my purse, and flattened it on my knee. “I’ve got you,” I whispered, and my voice broke on it.

I waited for Jeff to come home and explain himself, and by the time I understood he wasn’t coming, my face was wet again.

My phone buzzed.

I wiped my cheeks. An unknown number had sent a message: Blenda? It’s Caleb. Do you remember me?

I hadn’t heard that name in years.

Caleb. We had sat together in Mr. Dunn’s science class from sixth grade on; he walked me home whenever the pack kids got loud about my wolf, and he never once mentioned it afterward.

He was my best friend all the way through senior year until he left for college, and we drifted apart, and the last I’d heard, he was in medical school.

I saved the number and typed back one word: Caleb?

Caleb: Hey. How have you been, Blenda?

My thumbs hovered over the screen. I typed, “Terrible, my husband has a child with my sister,” deleted it, then typed, “I'm good,” deleted that as well, and finally sent: “Fine. You?”

Caleb: I came back to the pack after graduation. Heard you’re our Luna. Congratulations. I seldom had time to say hi.

Caleb: Jeff made me his Beta since I came back, and I work in his lab, running your blood matching and research.

Caleb: There are things I need to show you in person. Can we meet?

Me: When?

Caleb: Tonight. Behind the pack clinic, midnight.