5

Raven's pov

“Didn't you hear me just now…Dante…I'm pregnant!” I clapped and danced a little as if that would be enough to infect him with a bit of my enthusiasm.

But Dante continued to stare at the test results as if they were a rock from the moon.

Then, in an instant, he threw it so hard on the ground that it shattered.

“Dante!” I wailed like it was the baby itself that he had tossed.

I bent to the floor picking up the shattered pieces, his disgusted gaze washing all over me.

My head was still lowered, churning with confusion when I quietly asked.

“Aren't you happy, Dante? I promise you that it's not a prank. I'm really pregnant. I-I…”

Dante suddenly got up and walked over to the wall, then at full Force, he started banging his head hard against it until cracks came and blood started running down.

I rushed over, trying to stop him, but he pushed me away.

“Please stop hurting yourself!”

“Shut up!” he yelled at me in a tone that I had not heard in years, one of complete disgust and revulsion.

“How did you even get pregnant? Weren't you on birth control all this time?”

I nodded.

“I was…but recently I found out that it causes weight gain so I…”

He laughed, not minding the blood that was running down his nose from his forehead.

“Did you consider for a second that maybe it's because you eat like a hippo that you are gaining weight and not because of birth control? You stupid –why did you let me keep sleeping with you if you knew that you were off?”

I got up trying to salvage the situation.

He had every right to be angry.

I should have told him that I was getting off the pill.

But I wanted it to be a surprise.

Apparently, it wasn't exactly a pleasant one.

“I mean…you're going to be alpha soon, I wasn't planning to get pregnant but I thought even if it happened we were going to go public with our relationship so it didn't matter,”

Now his eyes bulged out.

“What do you mean we were going to feel public? With what relationship?!”

My chest was getting tighter the more he spoke like that.

“Dante, but we're mates…. We've been intimate with each other for the past two years,” I told him in case he needed to catch up.

His face got a little pale and then red all over again.

“So what? I'm sh*hugging a bunch of other girls too, if I'm not planning to make them my mate what makes you of all people any special?”

Each word out of his mouth was another bomb dropping on the fragile love I had built in my mind sending it down like a castle of cards.

“But the mate bond…you never rejected me,”

“But I didn't mark you either, I never claimed you as my own.”

I touched my shoulder as if to remind myself, and truly it was bare, fresh tears tore through my eyes.

I picked myself up and threw myself on the bed, the humiliation of the frame squeaking beneath me made me want to dig into the Earth and just hide forever.

“Then what am I going to do about this baby inside of me Dante? Even if you claim that there is nothing between the two of us, this baby is still yours!”

He was quiet for a long time and then he said something that completely floored me.

“How do I know the baby is mine?”

Once again, I thought he was joking. I sat up and looked him straight in the face, and there was no laughter whatsoever there.

My face puffed out as I tried to keep my calm.

“Whose baby would it be if it's not yours? You haven't let another guy get within a 5-foot radius of me for the last two years. In fact, even before that it pissed you off, now you're asking who the father is?”

He came forward, his cold demeanor.

“As you rightfully said I'm about to become an Alpha, do you think that I'll just take in any random child anyone brings to me just because they think it's mine?”

His accusations ran so deep I wanted to cry.

How could he even insinuate such a thing?

“But how can we check if you are really the father if the baby isn't born yet?”

He told me about a special crystal that glowed in the hands of anyone who carried Alpha blood, and since I claimed to be pregnant with his child, if I got that Crystal, then it would also glow in my hands.

That was great but that crystal cost a pretty penny.

I would have to give up a leg and an arm for it.

But he promised that he would do the right thing if I proved the baby with this.

Before I knew it, I had evaporated my entire break, saving money from part-time jobs and even my allowance.

Those months were torture.

But it was the final confirmation of the feelings that I had been slightly denying before.

I had fallen for my adoptive brother, and I wanted to prove how loyal I was to him.

While I was waiting for the crystal to be delivered, the Alpha, who had slightly recovered his health, held the passing over ceremony.

It was the ceremony where the mantle of Alpha was handed over. I wrote a note congratulating him and telling him just how much I appreciated him.

I didn't think he would take time to read it but I was wrong.

When he stood on a raised platform in the grand hall, he brought out my note to read it, well, some parts of it, taking my words as his, then he concluded by holding out his hand and saying.

“All these words of appreciation are for the most precious person in my life. In truth, I've always loved her, but all this time I've been in denial…” I nearly rushed to the platform but then I heard another name that made me freeze in my tracks.

“Luella, please come up. Everyone, welcome your future Luna,”

That was the last thing I heard before the ground beneath my feet began to spin and I passed out.