All Chapters of The Prince's Mistake, The King's Heir: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Effie's POV I typed the words three times and deleted them twice. Private fertility clinic, omega friendly and no mate required. My finger hovered over the enter key. Then I pressed it. A page of results loaded, full of clean white websites and smiling women cradling newborns. I scrolled past every one that said bonded mates only, until one made me stop. Discreet. Confidential. Every woman deserves a family. Every woman. I bit my lips reading it over and over again. Then suddenly, my bedroom door swung open. "Effie, put your shoes on, everyone's gathering in the square." My mother stood there in her good blue dress, already pinning her hair in place. "The Alpha Prince arrives tonight. He's here to review the pack's tribute and the border patrols with Alpha Reed. Attendance is mandatory for the whole pack, and Alpha Reed already sent word twice." I closed the laptop, slower this time. "A business visit," I said flatly. "So we all have to stand in a field for hours while men ta

Effie's POVI left before the sun came up, while the house was still dark and my parents were still asleep down the hall, my father's low snore keeping time with my mother's softer breathing. I didn't let myself think too long about the note.If I thought about it too long, I would never write it, and if I never wrote it, I would never leave, and I had already decided I couldn't stay in Hollowmoon one more day with everyone's laughter still ringing in my ears.Mama, Daddy, I'm sorry. I couldn't stay after last night, and I don't want you to watch me fall apart in that square for the rest of my life. I'm safe, and I have a plan, and I promise I'll write to you once I'm settled. Please don't come looking for me. Please don't worry. I love you both more than I've ever said out loud. — EffieI left it on the kitchen table, weighed down with the sugar tin so it wouldn't blow away when she opened the door, and I walked out with one bag and the little money I'd saved from selling preserves a

Effie's POVThe car that pulled up outside the clinic was longer and glossier than any vehicle I'd ever seen in Hollowmoon, black as wet stone, with windows so dark I couldn't see my own reflection in them. A driver in a fitted gray suit held the door open without a word, his eyes forward, like he'd been trained not to look at whoever climbed inside."Shouldn't we wait?" I asked, hovering at the edge of the curb with my one bag clutched to my chest. "To find out if I'm even pregnant first, I mean. What if none of this is even necessary?""No," Alpha Knox said simply, already holding the door for me."The doctors won't have your results for another week," Alpha Tobias added, coming around from the other side. "And we're not waiting a week with your name already sitting in a clinic's system, Effie. Word travels faster than you think, especially about a woman two kings walked in to meet personally."I hadn't thought of it that way. I supposed that was rather the point, that I hadn't tho