All Chapters of Too Late To Claim Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

I woke up to the breathing of someone beside me and for a few seconds, I didn’t move, I was caught somewhere between sleep and consciousness.The awareness hit me almost immediately as my eyes snapped open.My eyes caught the sunlight spilled through the curtains. The blanket tangled around my waist wasn't mine neither was the dark gray sheet beneath me or the arm draped across my stomach.My pulse stopped as I slowly, almost mechanically, turned my head.Remus Lyall was asleep beside me and for one impossible second, my brain refused to process if it was him.Remus.Alpha of the Lyall Pack, the man everyone already called Selene’s future mate.My sister’s future Alpha, the one my father welcomed into our home with pride, the man my mother treated like he was already family.The man who sat beside Selene at every pack gathering while I remained quietly at the corner, unnoticed because that was how it had always been.Selene was the daughter everyone saw, the daughter, my mother loved

The omega district sat at the far edge of the pack territory.I had passed through it before but not as someone who belonged there.The difference felt enormous; the houses were smaller than the ones near the center of the pack. The roads were uneven. Paint peeled from walls. Roofs sagged under years of neglect.Nobody smiled as I dragged my suitcase down the narrow dirt road.A few people glanced at me, then glanced away and others didn’t bother hiding their curiosity.I kept my eyes forward. If I looked at them, I might see pity or worse.The room I rented was barely large enough to fit a bed, a chair, and a small dresser. I stood in the doorway for several seconds.This was it, this was what remained of my life.Yesterday, I had lived in the Beta House and today, I lived here.The thought should have made me cry but instead, I felt strangely numb.I set my suitcase on the bed, the mattress creaked beneath its weight. The sound echoed through the tiny room, for the first time since

I spent the entire walk back staring at my hands not because there was anything unusual about them but because they knew something I didn’t.There was a life growing inside me.My steps slowed as my hand moved slowly to my stomach.The healer’s words repeated in my mind.You’re having a child, I still couldn’t understand it.How could something so small exist inside me when my entire world had already fallen apart?My hand drifted to my stomach again. I hadn't meant to do that but it kept happeningI reached my room and closed the door behind me, the small space felt different not because anything had changed but because I had.I sat on the bed and stared at the wall and the thought of having a child scared me.I didn’t know how to be a mother.I didn’t know how to raise someone when I had spent my entire life wondering why my own parents couldn’t love me.A bitter laugh escaped me.What kind of person was I?Rejected by my mate, abandoned by my family and now carrying a child into th