Chapter four

The pack hospital sat against the eastern wall, all glass and brushed steel. The doors hissed open before I touched them.

The smell hit first. Antiseptic, dried lavender, warm tea. For the first time all day, I finally breathed.

Nurse Helen stood at the VIP wing desk with a tablet in her hand and her silver hair pinned in its usual tight bun. She looked up. The tablet went down.

"Adele?" She crossed the tile in six steps. "Child, you're gray. What happened?"

"Is your exam room free?"

"For you? Always."

She didn't ask anything else. She took my cold hands in her calloused ones and steered me down the hall. Inside, she dropped the blinds, locked the door with a tap, and pushed a mug of tea into my fingers."Drink child. Your pulse is hammering."

"Helen."

"I heard about the banquet." Her mouth thinned. "Half the staff did. The pendant on the plate. I wanted to applaud you."

"It wasn't brave. It was exhausted."

"Same thing, usually." She sat across from me. "Now tell me."

"I need you to run a scan."

She went still.

"I got dizzy outside," I said. "Nauseous. And my wolf." I paused. My throat closed. "Please."

Helen looked at my hand. I hadn't realized I'd pressed it to my stomach again.

"Up on the table," she said gently. I lay back then she woke the diagnostic wand, laid her palm on my abdomen, and closed her eyes. A pale green glow bled from her fingertips into my skin. The monitor beside the bed flickered and filled with soft lines. Ten seconds. Eleven. Twelve.

Helen's eyes flew open.

All the color left her face. Then it came back, fierce and bright. She grabbed my face in both hands.

"Adele," she whispered. "Look at the screen."

I looked.

A tiny, fluttering pulse. A small curve of light. A heartbeat, fast as a bird's. My eyes burned. I had held a thousand patients' hands and read a thousand screens. I had never once seen my own.

My wolf pressed against the inside of my ribs, silent and shining.

"You aren't sick, child. You carry life." Her eyes filled. “You are almost six weeks along."

The room hummed. I couldn't hear anything but that small, quick sound.

"Does he know?" Helen asked.

"No." It came out hard. "And he can't. None of them can."

"Adele. It's the Alpha's heir."

"I know whose it is."

"Then Luca has a right to--"

"A right?" I sat up. "To what? To use my child as a chain? To keep me in that house while Lyra smiles at him across the table?"

Helen's mouth opened and closed.

"My father will bargain with it," I said. "He'll hold this baby over Luca like a contract. And Lyra." My voice dropped. "Lyra will smile and pour tea. You think she'll let a rival heir live?"

"She wouldn't dare."

"She wore my crown for two days and called me a burden. She'd dare."

Helen was quiet. I watched her weigh it. She'd known my sister for years.

"And Luca?" she asked at last.

"He'd see an obligation." I let out a hollow laugh. "A leash tied to a substitute he never wanted. I won't raise my child as an obligation." Helen took my hand.

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Leave." I said it clearly. "Hand over the ledgers. Pack a bag. Slip out before anyone sees a bump. Raise my child far from Sunfall greed and Moonlight ice."

"Where?"

"I don't know yet."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she squeezed my hand and nodded once, short and decisive, like she was closing a chart.

"Then I'll clear your records.The central database will show you came in for a stress headache."

"Helen, if they find out you--"

"I swear on my life, Adele." Her blue eyes were steady. "Nobody hears it from me. Not the Alpha. Not even your father. Not anyone."

"Thank you." My voice shook. "I don't know how to repay you."

"Eat properly. Sleep. And when that baby is born, let me hold it." She dabbed her eyes. "Now go finish what you came to do. Smile like it's nothing."

"I don't have a lot of smiles left."

"Then borrow mine."

She actually smiled, wobbly and warm. I laughed, and it came out half sob.

She pressed a packet of ginger crackers into my palm. "Eat one before you walk anywhere. Another when the nausea hits."

"I know. I'm a herbalist."

"You're a patient today. Skip the raspberry leaf, no pennyroyal, and for the love of the moon, stay out of the sage cupboard."

"Yes, Nurse."

"Good girl." She tucked a loose strand behind my ear. "Whatever you decide, my door is open. Any hour."

By the time I walked into the administrative wing, the sun was high. My office was a glass corner on the third floor. For three years, I had balanced ledgers there until dawn, one lamp on, the city asleep below. Now the room felt like a stranger's.

My fingers lingered on the green desk lamp. I had bought it myself, the first winter, with my own pocket money. I left it where it stood. I did the job anyway.

Encrypted hard drives. Physical ledgers. Warehouse keys. The trade seals, one by one, stacked in neat rows on the desk. I labeled each in my careful hand. Then the door beeped. Garrett stepped in and tinted the glass behind him with a tap.

"Lady Adele."

"Captain." I didn't look up. "You shouldn't be here."

"I'm security. I'm always here." He glanced at the stacks. "That's everything?"

"Everything. The codes are in an envelope. Lyra has them."

"She doesn't know which outposts need winter gear," he said, low and tight. "Or which patrols are short."

"She'll learn."

"People will freeze while she learns."

"Garrett." I finally looked at him. "I know. I know. But I can't carry it anymore."

His jaw flexed. He opened his mouth, and I saw the offer rising again, the same one from the hallway.

I shook my head. "Please."

He swallowed it. "Understood."

The door chimed.

Lyra swept in, all white fur and tailored wool, cheeks flushed from the cold. Two royal guards trailed her with empty leather cases.

She paused at the sight of me. "Oh. Adele. Still here?"

"Handing over, as ordered."

"How diligent." She ran a gloved finger along the desk and inspected it for dust. "I'll have this redecorated. It's so gloomy."

"Garrett! Perfect." She ignored me as if I were a lamp. "Take these drives and ledgers to my suite. Luca and I will review them over lunch." Garrett didn't move.

"Captain." A little steel crept in. "Did you hear me?"

"I heard you, Lady Lyra." He gave her title all the weight of a closed fist. "I'm Captain of the Guard. My duty is security, not carrying your files." Her eyes flashed.

Then the air in the hall changed.

Heavy. Dark. Pressure like the moment before a storm. Alpha power rolled into the room and everyone in it straightened.

Luca stepped through the door.

He filled the frame. Dark suit, tight shoulders. His eyes went from my face to Garrett's stance to Lyra's pout in one sweep.

"What's the problem?"

"Luca!" Lyra was at his side in an instant, hurt blooming across her face as she took his arm. "I only asked Garrett to help me with the records. He's being so resistant to my authority."

Luca looked at Garrett.

"Assist Lyra."

A muscle ticked in Garrett's jaw. For a moment I thought he might refuse. Then he bowed, stiff as a plank.

"Understood, Alpha."

He gathered the ledgers, the drives, the seals. As he passed me, he murmured, "My door is always open, Lady Adele." Then he marched out without looking at Lyra once.

The guards followed with the cases. The door slid shut.

Three of us. The room felt smaller.

"Everything is in order," I said coolly. I came around the desk. "The seals, the key cards, the supply accounts. You have what you wanted." Luca's eyes swept the neat rows on the desk. "You labeled them."

"Habit."

He looked at the labels a beat too long. Then I made for the door.

Luca's hand shot out and closed around my forearm.

The bond lit up.

It was a jolt, bright and hot, running from his fingers through every nerve I owned. My wolf yelped. My stomach heaved.

The nausea came fast. Savage. It clawed up my throat before I could think. My wolf snarled and curled tight around the secret I had carried for exactly one hour. I gasped and wrenched back. My free hand slammed against my stomach.

Luca's grip loosened at once. His eyes dropped to my hand.

For an instant, his scent changed. Worry, sharp and unmistakable. Behind him, Lyra's smile went still.

Then his eyes rose, dark and narrowed, 

"Adele," he said slowly. "What is wrong with you?"