Pregnant and Rejected by My Alpha Mate

Bastien’s POV

This isn’t right.

The lab report in my hand is as clear as day, and its conclusions unmistakeable, but it can’t be right. I ve read it at least ten times now, scanning the page over and over again, looking for any sign of hope, any hint that the samples got mixed up or were contaminated in the lab. Yet every time the information remains the same. Beneath columns full of DNA markers I cannot even begin to understand, read the damning words:

Probability of Paternity: 0%

I don’t believe it. She has to be mine.

Selene, who turned pale and ashen the moment my mother revealed the envelope, squeezes the pup in her arms a little tighter. I can’t see Lila’s face, but I can hear the delicate wafts of her breath as she slum bers in her mother’s arms, completely oblivious to the disaster unfolding around her.

Selene furrows her dark brows and pouts her full lips, her beautiful face sullen and wary in equal mea sure. My stomach is in my throat, and the room around me is spinning out of control. She was telling the truth. I think simply, unable to process any more complex feelings than shock and pain.

I’d been so sure. I felt connected to Lila from the moment I saw her, and we bonded almost instantly. That has to mean something, doesn’t it? Surely I would not feel so possessive of another wolf’s child.

I suppose it might simply be the fact that she’s my mate’s daughter; after all, how could I not feel drawn to a pup who has so much of Selene in her? Maybe my mother was right, and I just wanted to be Lila’ s father. Maybe I didn’t want to believe my mate had truly chosen another wolf over me.

But she did. Selene chose Drake Cavanaugh’s pack over mine. She chose him for her protector; she chose him to father her pup.

Axel is howling mournfully in my head as I finally lower the paper. Every eye in the room is on me, and I realize they’re waiting for me to say something. “She isn’t mine,” I repeat, dropping the test results onto the side table. “The DNA wasn’t a match.”

Shockwaves reverberate through the room, surprised and disappointed faces mingling with those of re lief and triumph – but all remain silent. Axel is anything but. Howling has turned to ranting and raging, de crying the results with savage snarls and vicious growls. My head is so full of his fury I almost forget where I am.

through the haze of blurry bodies and unfocused faces filling the

slice me straight to the core. I assumed she was so upset about the

right to be

claim Selene. Frankly, I like the sound of both options. Of course, who’s to say I need to

upset by the re sults

tantly. “Are you alight?”

my heart. I know I’m barreling towards doing something I’ll regret,

trying to be worthy of a woman who betrayed me. I’m ‘an Alpha, not

need to pull back

before billowing back. It ebbs just enough for Aiden’s words to filter through to Axel, and together we try to force down the bloodlust consum ing us. Clenching and unclenching my fists, I will my pulse to slow.

out well. Whether my mate lied and stole my child, or bore one with another wolf, I was always going to lose.

loved me, hadn’t

imagined it

relationship a fantasy

admitted how deeply she cared. She’d been out of her mind with pain, but almost seemed more devastated by the idea I’d rejected her. How many times has she told me that I had my chance,

take another mate so quickly? How could she be hap py when I was in the depths of despair, barely surviving

my confusion and grief into

know why, Bastien.” Selene answers with exasperation. “It was never going to

happy.”| argue, trying

grapple for patience. “We were doomed from the beginning.” Do I imagine the pain in her voice? “A marriage can’t be built on pity and obligation. I couldn’t give you what you wanted, and you couldn’t give me what I need ed. That’s not either of our

and more.” | profess fiercely, blocking out our audience so that I can speak to Selene, and Selene alone. “How can you