Chapter 3: Salt To Injury

~VALERIE~

The moment I opened the door and met the sight that was waiting for me, my mind refused to understand what my eyes were seeing.

Chris was sitting on my bed. My bed! Sonia was on his lap with her legs wrapped around his waist and her fingers buried in his hair. His hands were on her hips, pulling her closer and kissing her like they were the only two people in the world and would be tearing their clothes off any moment.

The sounds they made were soft and wet and intimate and the next second, clothes were on the floor like this room didn’t belong to me.

My chest tightened so hard it hurt and I actually stepped back, blinking and thinking maybe I had the wrong room but then the bed creaked and reality slammed into me.

They noticed me at the same time and Chris pulled back first.

“Oh.”

Sonia laughed slowly and lazily with her lips swollen.

“Oops.”

Tears burned my eyes instantly.

“What are you doing?” My voice shook. “Get off my bed.”

Neither of them moved right away though. I couldn't believe they were doing this. Was what they put me through last night not enough? How long before they realized I was already down?

Chris stood up slowly, fixing his shirt like I was the one who was intruding on them and not the other way round. Sonia slid off his lap, smoothing her dress and clearly not in a hurry.

“We were waiting for you,” Chris said.

Really? That was the dumbest thing in the history of dumb things I'd ever heard. Did they really believe I was a moron?

“Waiting? By kissing her?”

Sonia shrugged.

“We didn’t plan it. We just got… carried away.”

“Carried away?” I repeated. “In my room? On my fucking bed?!”

Chris sighed like I was being dramatic.

“You weren’t here.”

That hurt more than anything.

“I was rejected last night,” I said with my voice cracking. “In front of the whole pack. You humiliated me and this is what you do after? What the hell do you want to talk about anyway?!”

Sonia crossed her arms.

“We wanted to talk to you.”

Chris nodded.

“We wanted to say sorry.”

I stared at them but there wasn’t a single ounce of regret on their faces. There was no guilt and no shame at all!

“You think I’m stupid?” I asked softly. “You think I don’t see what this is?”

Sonia smiled with her eyes going even colder.

“You always overthink things.”

“Get out!!” I screamed suddenly. “Get out of my room!!”

They laughed like I was being unreasonable and Chris shook his head.

“You’re still so emotional, Valerie.”

“And so desperate,” Sonia added. “Honestly, I don’t know why you expected anything else.”

I turned to Chris with my heart breaking all over again.

“You let her talk to me like that?”

He frowned at me as if I had suggested that he stab Sonia.

“She’s my mate. What do you want me to do? Side with you against her?”

That response plunged me again into the reality that I was never going to be wanted or needed by anyone.

They walked past me like I wasn’t even there and Sonia even bumped my shoulder on purpose as she left.

I stood there long after the door closed, staring at my bed like it had betrayed me too and even though tears threatened to fall from my eyes, I knew crying would only give them what they wanted.

******

THREE WEEKS LATER

Three long miserable weeks had passed since that disastrous night of the mating ceremony. Three weeks of being the talk of the pack at every corner I turned. Sure. Why not? I was just an Omega and entertainment for all of them.

At first, I thought I was just tired but then, the nausea started and then the dizziness. I couldn’t keep food down and every morning, I ran to the bushes behind the house, throwing up until my throat burned.

Lady Vivianne noticed, of course. She always noticed things that inconvenienced her.

“You better not be faking,” she snapped one morning when I nearly collapsed in the kitchen. “I won’t have you dying in my house and bringing trouble to me.”

She called the pack doctor that same day, making it very clear she wasn’t doing this out of kindness.

“I’m not heartless,” she told Sonia loudly. “I just don’t want accusations later.”

The doctor arrived in the afternoon. He asked questions, examined me and he ran tests and then he went quiet.. too quiet for my liking too.

“Well?” Vivianne demanded. “What is wrong with her now?”

The doctor cleared his throat.

“I'm afraid she's… she’s pregnant.”

The room went silent monetarily as everyone stared at the doctor in shock.

“What?!” Vivianne snapped, breaking the silence and Sonia burst out laughing.

“That’s so funny, doctor. You've got to be kidding right? I mean who would sleep with this girl?”

“I’m serious,” the doctor said. “She’s about three weeks along.”

Gasps followed when they realized that the doctor wasn't kidding and then the laughter came sharply and loudly.

Lady Vivianne clutched her stomach.

“An Omega whore,” she said between laughs. “I knew it!”

Sonia wiped fake tears.

“Who in their right mind would sleep with her?”

Their voices sounded far off and registered only on my subconscious.

I couldn’t speak because I knew… I knew exactly who the father was. It was the stranger! The man from the bar. The one night that changed my life!

After the doctor left, Vivianne turned to me, smiling like a predator.

“You won’t be giving birth to that thing here in this house,” she said calmly.

My heart dropped.

“What?”

“I’ve already sold you,” she said.

My blood immediately ran cold.

“Sold… me?”

She smiled wider.

“To Alpha Viktor.”

The name echoed in my head like a death sentence…