Chapter 4: A month and a half

Anya

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Out of sight, out of mind.

That was what people said. But being away from Nathan did nothing to help me forget him. He left for the trip with his family days after our conversation. He didn’t say goodbye to me. He didn’t even spare me a single glance of regret.

I watched from the second-floor window as the cars passed through the iron gates. The moon was still visible in the pale morning sky, as if mocking the fate that had been written for me.

“A coward…” I whispered, lifting my eyes toward the sky as I tried to hold back the tears. “…and a foolish, naive girl.”

My broken voice wasn’t an insult. It was grief. A painful realization. We were two lovers condemned by fate: one without the courage to fight, and the other without the power to do so.

The moment he left, I returned home.

Unlike what Mrs. Volkov believed, those two months would not be a vacation for me. Taking care of Noah had always been easy. Taking care of my mother… that was something else entirely.

Seeing the woman who had once been wild and free now trapped in a sick, fragile body caused a different kind of pain in my chest.

One month passed, then a month and a half. That was when I started to notice something was wrong.

My body felt different. I couldn’t eat the same things anymore. At first, I thought it was depression, but my wolf was restless, uneasy, overly sensitive.

One cold night, while everyone slept, I woke up with a wave of overwhelming hunger. I went to the kitchen and searched for something to eat. There wasn’t much, so I grabbed some bread with butter.

But the taste… It was wrong.

The first bite made me grimace. I stared at the slice, thinking it had gone bad, but it looked perfectly fine. I brought it closer and sniffed it.

That was it.

A sharp wave of nausea hit me. I dropped the bread on the counter and ran to the bathroom, covering my mouth, trying to hold it in. I barely made it. I dropped to my knees and emptied everything in my stomach into the toilet.

Breathing heavily, I stared ahead, my mind racing. I wiped my face, stood up, rinsed my mouth, and looked at myself in the mirror and I started counting. Days, weeks, a month since my last blood.

The moment the realization hit me, the world stopped spinning. I was…

“Pregnant,” I whispered, my hands trembling.

Tears streamed down my face as I covered my mouth to stifle a scream. How? How was I supposed to deal with this?

He had abandoned me. I was nothing more than a foolish omega who had slept with the Alpha heir, thinking there was something real between us.

I ran my fingers through my hair, pacing back and forth in the bathroom. I didn’t sleep that night. I stayed awake until sunrise, searching for a solution and failing every single time.

Time passed in a blur. By noon, I was in the kitchen, preparing lunch, my mind completely absent.

“She’s doing better, you know.” Sasha’s voice pulled me back. She stood by the stove, stirring a pot of soup while I sat at the table, cutting an apple for my brother. “Since you started spending more time here. She misses you, Anya.”

I paused, looking at her. Sasha had been my best friend since childhood. After I got the job with the Volkovs, she helped take care of my mother and my brother. I paid her what little I could. I had told her to rest during these months, but she refused and insisted on coming back every two days.

I let out a heavy sigh, dropping the knife. Everything felt like it was collapsing over me: Nathan, my mother, the baby.

I rest my elbows on the table and hide my face in my hands. The tears win before I can hold them back.

“Any…” Sasha whispers softly, sadness in her voice. She lowers the heat on the stove and comes over, sitting beside me, gently rubbing my back before pulling me into a hug.

But I keep crying uncontrollably, feeling like my chest is being crushed by everything happening around me.

“You’ve been a mess since you came back…” she says, holding me close, soothing me. “Do you think I don’t notice the dark circles under your eyes? This job is destroying you. I’ve never seen you like this. Please… talk to me.”

Her voice carries deep, genuine concern. I take a shaky breath. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep hiding it, carrying everything on my own. I pull away from her, breaking down completely.

“I’m pregnant.” The words tear through my throat, painful, burning. “I’m pregnant, Sasha!”

Her eyes widen in complete disbelief. She stammers, quickly bringing me a glass of water, and I tell her everything.

The week I spent with Nathan, his engagement, our goodbye, the pregnancy.

“Oh, Goddess… Any…” she murmurs, covering her mouth.

Sasha stands up and grabs a glass of water for herself, her hands trembling. She looks more shaken than I expected. I breathe unevenly, still trying to swallow my sobs, staring at her like she might have a solution I already know doesn’t exist.

But all she does is look at me… just as lost as I am.

“I need to run,” I say, wiping my tears. “I need to disappear.”

“No!” she blurts out, turning sharply, almost desperate. I frown, not understanding her reaction. She notices and stammers, avoiding my gaze. “I-I mean… your mother, your brother… you can’t just leave them behind like that. Let’s give it a week and think this through, okay?”

“I don’t know if I can afford time,” I said. “I can take them with me.”

“I don’t know if I can afford to waste time,” I say, shaking my head as I stand up. “I can take them with me.”

“You’re rushing this, Any,” she says, walking over and taking my hands. “You’re pregnant. What are you going to do? Run through the forest with a pup inside you, a sick mother, and a twelve-year-old boy? Is that your plan? You need a real plan. Supplies. Maps…” She pauses, lifting one hand to cup my face. “Listen, let’s think this through, okay? One week.”

I wanted to run, to disappear as fast as possible… But I knew she was right. And there was my mother. My brother. How could I take them with me?

I exhale, defeated, closing my eyes before giving a small nod.

“Okay… one week,” I say, pulling her into a tight hug. “Thank you, my friend.”

She hugs me back, but there’s something heavy in it. Almost painful.

“I love you, Anya,” she says, her voice nearly breaking, as if she’s holding back tears. “Never forget that, okay?”

“I love you too, Sasha,” I reply, thinking she’s just as scared as I am, trying to comfort me. “Forever.”

Sasha promised to come back in two days, like always. Those two days passed slowly. I wandered restlessly through the house, gently caressing my mother’s face, even though I wasn’t sure she could feel it.

I tried to talk to my brother, but Liam barely spoke to me. I didn’t blame him. I spent most of my time at the Volkov mansion. I practically lived there. I couldn’t expect him to treat me like a sister he was close to.

“Bye, have a good day at school,” I said, waving to him on the morning of the third day.

He didn’t look back. Didn’t even wave. I didn’t allow myself to feel hurt. Living alone with a sick mother was too heavy a burden for a twelve-year-old boy. I went back inside and started heating water for my mother’s morning bath.

Finally, a knock on the door announced Sasha’s arrival.

“Coming!” I called out, surprised she hadn’t just walked in like usual. I wiped my hands on my clothes and hurried to the door. “Why didn’t you come in like you alwa—”

I stopped mid-sentence. My heart dropped, skipped a beat. The air around me grew heavy. Standing there, at my door, instead of Sasha, were three guards and Patricia Volkov, the Luna of the Silverfang pack and Nathan’s mother.