Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Alpha's Greatest Regret: Kabanata 271 - Kabanata 280

ALICE'S POVI woke up with my hand already resting low on my belly.The room was quiet and full of soft morning light. Downstairs a cupboard door banged shut, and Lucian was talking loudly about something. Benjamin's words from last night kept running through my head. He had said "another pup," and those two words stayed with me all night. I pressed down on my stomach, trying to feel if anything was different, but I felt nothing new. I am a doctor. I know there are many reasons a woman can feel sick in the morning, and I know hope can trick you into believing something that might not be true.I pushed the covers off and got out of bed before I could keep thinking in circles.Benjamin stood at the kitchen counter buttering toast. Lucian knelt on a stool next to him, looking at a piece of paper covered in messy handwriting."Should I be worried that you two are having a planning meeting without me?" I asked.Lucian turned so fast he almost fell off the stool. "Mom! We're making a list

ALICE'S POVThe nausea hit me hard while I was standing at the counter in the clinic going through the morning reports. One moment I was sorting patient notes with my ginger tea steaming next to me, and the next moment the floor felt like it was tilting under my feet. The whole room started spinning, so I grabbed the edge of the counter to keep from falling. I lowered myself down carefully until I was sitting on the floor with my back against the cabinet.Benjamin's footsteps came running across the room right away."Alice?" he said, and his voice changed as soon as he saw me on the floor. He crouched down beside me and all the color left his face. I could feel his fear through the bond. It was sharp and sudden."I'm awake," I told him before he could start shouting for the rest of the pack. "I can hear you and I can answer you. I'm just dizzy. I'm not dying.""Why are you on the floor?" he asked."Because the floor finally stopped moving long enough for me to sit down," I said.He d

BENJAMIN'S POVThe first delivery truck pulled up at eight in the morning.I signed for the white crib with the rounded corners and checked the box carefully to make sure nothing was damaged. The delivery men carried it upstairs to the nursery, and they were still bringing in the changing table when the next van arrived. That van brought a rocking chair and a nursing chair, and it also brought a second rocking chair because the first one did not have an adjustable footrest. After that came two bassinets, a stroller, and a portable crib. A bottle sterilizer showed up too, along with a baby monitor that had a camera and a second monitor that tracked the temperature in the room and every movement inside it.Alice walked down the stairs and stopped so suddenly that she had to grab the railing to steady herself.Boxes filled the hallway, and half of the sitting room had disappeared behind packages. One of the delivery men was trying to move a flat-packed wardrobe around the sofa.She look

ALICE’S POVThe house felt too quiet that morning, and that was strange because Lucian was never quiet. I went into his room and found him curled up under his blanket with red cheeks and damp hair at his temples. His favorite soccer shirt was still sitting on the chair, untouched. I sat down on the edge of his bed, and he opened his eyes and looked up at me.“Mom?” His voice sounded rough and small. “My head hurts. And I’m cold.”I brushed his hair away from his forehead and felt how hot his skin was, and right away my stomach dropped because I knew something was wrong. Even though his face was burning, he pulled the blanket up to his chin like he was freezing.I took the thermometer out of the drawer by the bed, shook it, and put it under his tongue. He let me do it without asking any questions, and that scared me more than if he had complained. While we waited for the result, I rubbed his back and counted his breaths.The thermometer beeped, and the number was high enough to worry m

BENJAMIN'S POVThe meeting was only supposed to be about the eastern patrol routes. Nothing else.Alice stopped me at the bedroom door that morning and smoothed her dress over her growing belly. “Just talk about the patrol routes, Benjamin. Don’t let the elders turn it into a discussion about our family.”“I can handle the patrol routes,” I told her.“You can handle anything as long as you remember to breathe between your sentences.”I kissed her because she was right, and because kissing her always helped calm the restless feeling inside me. Lucian’s fever had broken two days ago. He was still tired, but he had eaten breakfast at the table and argued with Callum about painting a wolf on his soccer ball. Hearing my son argue again made something tight in my chest finally loosen.The council had different plans for the morning.We finished talking about the cut fence in less than twenty minutes. I was collecting the reports when Elder Sorin leaned back in her chair and folded her hands