Chapter 1
I'd just gotten the news from the pack healer that I was six weeks pregnant when Derek kicked open the front door with a bloody woman in his arms.
He said, "Allie, Selena took a silver bullet for me. She's got wolfsbane in her blood.
"I have to claim her. It's the only way to stop it from spreading."
Before I could pull the pregnancy test out of my pocket, he'd already carried Selena into our bedroom.
The moment our mating bond ripped apart, the pain shot from my chest all the way down to my belly. I curled up on the floor, every breath tasting like blood.
At dawn, Derek stood in front of me, still reeking of Selena's scent.
"She can't handle the cold. Let her take the climate-controlled villa for now. You stay at the outer watchtower for a few days," he told me.
There was a time when his eyes could find me in any crowd.
But now, there was nothing left of me in them.
I hid the pregnancy test and replied, my voice steady, "Okay."
That night, I went to the witch and got a vial of scent-blocker. I rubbed it on, walked out of the Silvermoon Pack, and never looked back.
Three years later, when I came home one day, my pup tugged at my skirt and whispered, "Mommy, why does that man keep smelling me?"
*****
The night Derek Frost and Selena Redfield got back from Barrowfield, I was in the kitchen keeping an eye on a pot of bone broth.
My phone screen was still lit up with a message from the pack healer that had come in half an hour earlier.
It read: [Congratulations, Alicia. You're six weeks pregnant, and everything looks stable.]
I read the lines maybe a dozen times, and my palms went warm and sweaty.
Derek had been out on a mission for three months, and right before he left, he'd pressed his face against my belly, joking that we were definitely having a baby once he got home.
I'd thought he'd been childish, so I'd laughed and pushed him away by the forehead.
And now, I really was pregnant.
The soup was bubbling away with steam rising up when a loud crash came from outside all of a sudden.
Someone kicked the front door open, a blast of cold air and rain rushing in. The bowl of soup slipped out of my hands and shattered into pieces on the tile floor.
Derek was standing in the doorway with a woman in his arms.
Her left shoulder was soaked through with blood, her face was ghostly pale, her hair was plastered to her neck, and her breathing was shallow and choppy.
"Allie, go get the healer. Now," Derek said, his voice cracking and his eyes rimmed red.
I had never seen him like this before.
He was the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack, known for his coldness in the territory, and was the kind who wouldn't blink with a knife at his throat.
But now, his hands were shaking.
"Who is she?" I asked.
"Selena Redfield. She's one of my team on this mission," he said.
He laid Selena down on the couch and pulled open her collar to look at the wound. There it was: a scorched hole from a silver bullet right next to her collarbone, with a nasty purple color spreading out from the edges.
The wolfsbane was already moving through her.
"She took a bullet for me," Derek said. "The healer's potion isn't cutting it."
He looked up at me, and in that second, I already knew what he was about to say.
"Right now, the only thing that can keep the wolfsbane from spreading is my scent," he added.
The pregnancy test in my pocket was pressing against my thigh, the corner of the paper digging into my skin hard enough to hurt.
"You're going to claim her?" I asked.
Derek didn't say anything.
The living room smelled like soup and blood and rain all mixed. My stomach turned so badly that I had to grab the edge of the table to stay upright.
"Derek, you're my fated mate. If you claim another woman, I'm not going to be able to handle it," I said.
"I know," he said quietly.
His Alpha scent came out of him, making the edge of the rug curl up, and my knees went so weak that I nearly hit the floor.
He walked over and held my face in both hands. "Allie, let me do this. If I don't, she'll die.
"Once the wolfsbane is gone, I'll sever the claim."
He pressed his forehead against mine, and his breathing was heavy and all over the place.
"Trust me," he said.
I looked at him, and I could see how panicked and scared he was.
But that fear wasn't for me at all.
"When you claim her, our mating bond is going to tear open," I said, choking back the pain.
"It's going to hurt, Derek. Please don't do this," I begged.
Derek's hands balled into fists, then relaxed, and then balled up again. He closed his eyes.
"I'll make it up to you," he said.
Then, he dropped his hands, turned around, and carried Selena straight into our bedroom.
The door shut right in my face.
Soon, I could hear Selena's broken moans and Derek's low, soothing voice.
The mating bond in my chest felt like it was being ripped apart by hand, and the pain shot from my heart all the way down to my belly. My vision went black, and I dropped to my knees.
The pregnancy test fell out of my pocket onto the floor, and one of the Betas who came running back in stepped right on it.
Tyler Grant crouched down next to me and let out a sigh.
"Alicia, don't blame the Alpha. Selena did take that bullet for him. If he hadn't claimed her, she would have died," he said.
Jack Mason leaned against the wall and snorted, "You're an Omega. You don't go out to fight.
"Selena risked her life for the Alpha. You ought to be thanking her."
I kept my head down and picked up the pregnancy report, which now was smeared with a dirty boot print.
A crease ran right through that tiny picture of the embryo.
I tucked it back into my pocket. My eyes burned with tears, but I didn't let them fall.
My pup was still there.
I couldn't afford to fall apart.