Hyacinth
My lifelong rival and I married into the Alpha family of the Silver Ridge Pack.
I married the older brother, Adrian Black—the pack's brilliant healer, the cool-headed first heir everyone expected to become the next Alpha.
Maya married the younger brother, Kane Black—the hot-tempered second heir who commanded border patrol and pack enforcement.
Maya and I had spent our whole lives trying to beat each other. We fought for first place in training, and the top ranking at the werewolf academy. Even after we got pregnant four days apart, we secretly competed over whose pup would arrive first.
Then, eight months into my pregnancy, I lay bleeding in the wreckage of a car crash—and my husband, the best emergency healer in the pack, decided I was lying.
"Your vitals were stable this morning."
"You're only making this up because you don't want me helping Vera. Stop using our pup and threatening to leave the pack just because you're jealous. Grow up."
The only person who came for me was Maya. She carried our own unborn pup while she dragged me five miles through a snowstorm to the pack medical center.
When I woke, she sat beside my bed with red-rimmed eyes and an empty belly.
"You'd better not die," she snapped. "I haven't beaten you enough yet."
I stared at her flattened stomach. "Where's your pup?"
For once, Maya had no cutting answer. After a few seconds, she forced a smile that looked worse than tears.
"Gone with yours."
We looked at each other for a long time.
"Let's leave them," I said.
She wiped her eyes and gave a bitter laugh. "Look at that. We finally agree on something."