Chapter 3: Pregnant and Rejected

DEXTERA

“Thank goodness!” Valeria’s figure swam into focus as she sat beside my bed, worried. “I can't believe you made it.”

It took a moment for my sight to adjust to my new environment and my body ached terribly as I tried to move. The scent of fresh linen and faint traces of something musky, something undeniably Kestrel, clung to the air.

I glanced around, my pulse quickening.

“Where is this?” My voice came out hoarse and strained.

Valeria steadied me as I struggled to sit up. “We're at the pack’s special courtyard,” she said carefully.

A slow, creeping unease curled in my stomach. My fingers clenched the sheets beneath me as the realization hit.

I panicked. The special courtyard was sacred; meant for the Alpha and his Luna alone. No one else was permitted here.

“Why are we here?” My breath quickened. “We can’t be here, Valeria. If we’re caught...”

Valeria gripped my arm, keeping me in place. “Dextera, calm down. Alpha Kestrel brought you here himself. As for me, I snuck in. But no one would ever know.”

The words sent a sharp jolt through me.

“Kestrel brought me here?” My throat went dry. “Why?”

“You passed out last night,” she murmured, almost in a whisper. “The doctor said the next few hours would determine if you’d even make it. Your body was shutting down.”

She exhaled shakily. “I'm just... so grateful you made it through the night without killing or maiming someone.”

The memories rushed back all at once; Kestrel’s chains, the unbearable pain, the overwhelming surge of power. And then, his hands, his mouth, the heat of his body against mine.

My stomach twisted at the remembrance. Kestrel had touched me and laid with me on a feral night. That was out of his character. But I guess he yielded because he had been under so much pressure from the pack elders due to the last feral incident where my beast almost killed one of the pack’s strongest guards and his pup.

I also recalled the female voice that had cut through the chaos, urging Kestrel to do something other than brutalize me into submission. Who was she?

Valeria snapped me out of my reverie.

“What's got you thinking so hard?” She frowned. “You should be worrying about your condition, Dextera. What do you plan to do about it?”

Her words rang in my ears. My condition. A chill ran down my spine with the way the word rolled off her tongue and I forced myself to meet her gaze.

“Wait... what condition are you talking about?”

Valeria looked at me, searching my eyes for signs of pretence. Then, slowly, her eyes dropped to my stomach.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know you’re pregnant.” She chirped. “I actually thought you intentionally hid it from me.”

I literally stopped breathing in that moment. She sounded so serious and I just knew she wasn’t joking.

Pregnant.

The word echoed in my skull, rattling around like a death sentence. I shook my head, gripping the sheets beneath me as if they could anchor me to reality.

“No,” I whispered. My throat was dry and my lips, numb. “That’s impossible.”

Valeria exhaled; her eyes filled with...pity? Worry? My reaction must have told her I was also in the dark about it.

“You’re six weeks gone, Dextera. The doctor confirmed it while you were unconscious.” She ascertained.

The previous night with Kestrel couldn’t have caused it. Six weeks. That could only mean I had been pregnant long before, without realizing it. I hadn’t even felt any symptoms whatsoever. I felt blood drain from my face. My mind spun, trying to grasp onto anything, any logic that could explain why fate decided to play such jokes on me, but there was none.

“I actually pleaded with him to keep the news to himself till you’re awake, but he’s so scared to offend the Alpha…and the Luna.” Valeria added.

That meant there was a high chance everyone in the pack already knows about my pregnancy. Adira being Kestrel’s Luna, she never fails to find ways to make my situation in the pack worse than it already was. I could already imagine her blabbing and making jests of me to her maids who would in turn, spread it across the pack.

“What... what am I supposed to do?” I trembled as I looked at her, searching for an answer I wasn’t ready to find.

“You tell me," Valeria said softly. “Are you going to keep it?”

Keep it? Her question had me thinking. This wasn't just any child, it was Kestrel’s. Alpha Kestrel’s.

The same man who had hated me for the greatest part of my life and had always bowed to my step sister's wishes in a bid not to offend her; the same person who had only ever seen me as a pain in his ass and never as something to protect. My supposed fated mate who didn’t think twice before rejecting me and even went as far as stripping me off the rights I had in the pack as a Beta’s child…

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I have to talk to him first.”

Valeria's brows shot up. “Talk to him? You really think the Alpha is going to accept the child?”

I hesitated. The truth was, I had no idea.

Kestrel wasn’t like other Alphas. He ruled with cold logic, not emotion. He saw weaknesses and erased them without batting an eyelid.

Would he see this child as a weakness? Would he strip it from me the way he had stripped away my freedom and my happiness?

“Nevertheless, I have to try.” I admitted weakly. “It’s his child.”

“You will do no such thing,” Adira's voice interrupted as she strode in.

I turned to see her tall figure standing few feet away from the ajar entrance, a maid trailing behind her. Such ostentatious flair she loved so much.

I stiffened. Her presence alone sent unease slithering down my spine. She was the last person I wanted to see right now.

“Excuse me?” My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t care.

Adira took slow, deliberate steps toward me, her eyes gleaming with a twisted kind of amusement. She stopped by the bed, tilting her head as if I were some fragile little things she could snap between her fingers.

“You must have lost your mind,” she mused, brushing an invisible speck of dust from her sleeve. “You actually think talking to Kestrel will change anything?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “I deserve that chance, at least.”

Adira let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “Deserve?”

She leaned in, her voice dipping into a venomous whisper. “He hates you, Dextera. You’re nothing to him. Less than nothing. And now, you're carrying a child that shouldn't exist. A sinful child, born from an Omega. Not just any Omega, but one who murdered its grandfather.”

“That wasn't...”

“Save it,” she cut in, waving a dismissive hand. “You think truth matters to an Alpha like Kestrel? To his people? They will never see you as anything more than a monster. And your child? A disgrace.”

I swallowed hard on nothing. But I refused to let her see me break.

I lifted my chin. “I don't care what they think. All I know is I have to see him first.”

Adira sighed as if she pitied my foolishness.

“Do as you wish then.” She straightened, smoothing down her gown. “But don't say I didn't warn you.”

She turned to leave, then paused at the doorway, casting me a knowing glance over her shoulder.

“Actually, I do have a deal for you,” she stated. “Something far more... favourable than whatever miserable future with Kestrel you're delusional about.”

“I'm not interested.” I replied without hesitation.

She chuckled. “Oh, Dextera. You haven't even heard what it is yet.”

“And I don’t care. Whatever it is, my answer is no.”

She smirked, as if she had expected nothing less. “Well, when you change your mind, which you will, you know where to find me.”

With that, she strolled out, leaving behind only the scent of her perfume and her suffocating words.

Minutes later, I forced one foot in front of the other, my body still weak, but with strong intent. I had convinced myself that I could do this, that I had to do this. No matter how much I feared Kestrel's reaction, I refused to cower.

I found him in his private garden, typing away on his laptop.

As soon as he spotted me, his cold blue eyes sized me up, his face devoid of any emotion. He strode toward me slowly, raking his gaze over me like I was someone unpleasant whose presence he had to tolerate.

“I need to speak with you,” I managed to say as shivers ran down my spine.

“You’ll do away with that filth inside you, Omega.” He lashed out without mincing words.

My knees buckled, my body instinctively stepping back. I had prepared myself for indifference, maybe even resentment, but not this. He didn't even allow me speak. I didn't expect this level of cold, calculated disgust from him. From the look of thing, he already made up his mind way before I arrived.

“What?” The word barely escaped my lips.

“You heard me.” He stepped closer in his suffocating stance. “You will not birth this disgrace in my pack. There is no way I will accept a murderer’s child as mine.”

A murderer. The accusation landed like a blade to my chest, cutting through every fragile hope I had clung to.

“It’s your blood, Kestrel,” I whispered, searching his face for any crack in his resolve. “How can you...”

“I don’t care what you call it. That thing is a fucking mistake that should have never happened. A discarded Omega can’t bear the Alpha’s heir, and that’s it. At this time of my reign, the last thing I want is a weakness jeopardizing my pack’s stability.

I felt nauseated immediately. I wanted to argue, to make him see reason, but the way he turned his back to me, to his own child, told me all I needed to know.

I opened my mouth to convince him, but he raised a hand, silencing me before I could even try.

“Enough,” he said. “As soon as you leave here, you’ll go to the hospital. Dr. Mira knows what to do.”

I felt myself swaying. My feet were so heavy, it took everything in me to drag them away.

“Leave now.” His tone brooked no argument.

Humiliation burned my skin, but nothing compared to the sharp, unbearable ache in my chest. I turned away, forcing myself to move and to breathe.

“One more thing, Omega.” He stopped me in my tracks.

“Don’t try anything foolish,” he warned. “Or you’ll regret ever going against my orders.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, brimming with anger.

“I can’t deal with two monsters,” he added coldly. “I already have enough monthly disasters to prevent.”

I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood, walking away without turning back.