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.

and unfocused faces filling the ::. room: beloved, ethereal and far too

not believing me.” My mate’s cold words slice me straight to the core. I assumed she was so upset about the test because she thought her lie would be revealed. Now I realize she was simply afraid of how I would react to

was right to

the sound of both options. Of course, who’s to say

upset by the re sults too, but she can also see that I’m

tantly. “Are you alight?”

pounding of my heart. I know I’m barreling

not some feeble Omega. It’s my job to lead and protect at all costs,

body like a dark storm. “You need to pull back brother.” He says, adding through our link,

blinding me thins for a moment, parting like fog 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

was never going to turn out well. Whether my mate lied and stole my child, or bore one with another wolf, I was always going to lose. It’s a reminder of

had loved me, hadn’t

I imagined

our entire relationship a fantasy I

all a lie. The night Selene shifted, she 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.

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

demand, pouring all my confusion and grief into

answers with exasperation. “It was never

were happy.”| argue, trying to

Do I imagine the pain in her voice? “A marriage can’t be built on pity and obligation. I

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