The sickened luna’s last chance

Alexander

I’d been avoiding Ella for three days, and it was slowly driving me insane.

Every morning, I left the house before she woke up. Every evening, I made sure to only return after I was absolutely certain she had already gone to bed.

During the day, I buried myself in pack business, trade negotiations, campaign documents–hell, I would even just drive around for hours. Anything to keep my mind off the conversation we’d had about children and the look of hurt that had flashed across her face when I had coldly mentioned the contract.

But no matter how busy I kept myself, my thoughts always, always circled back to her.

I kept thinking about the way she’d felt beneath me that night, warm and responsive and utterly perfect.

I thought about the soft sounds she’d made when I touched her, the way she’d offered her throat to me at the very end.

And then I thought about the question she’d asked about having children, and the hope I’d seen in her eyes before I’d crushed it with my cowardly response.

“She wants pups with us,” my wolf kept reminding me. “Our mate wants a family.”

And Goddess help me, I wanted that too.

I’d spent the last three days trying to convince myself otherwise, listing all the reasons why it was a terrible idea. Ella might be a spy. Her family had likely orchestrated my parents‘ deaths. I couldn’t trust her completely, not yet.

But every argument felt weaker by the day.

Because I’d seen how her own family treated her. I’d watched them ignore her, dismiss her, treat her like an inconvenience rather than a beloved daughter. If she was their spy, they were doing a damn good job of making it look like they couldn’t care less about her wellbeing.

And then there was the way she’d responded to me that night. The look in her eyes when we took each other’s virginity, the complete vulnerability she’d shown despite how cruel I had been to her over the years.

Either she was the most accomplished actress I’d ever met, or those emotions had been completely and

utterly real.

Today, on the third day of my self–imposed exile, was one of those days when I would rather drive aimlessly than do anything else. Sitting in my car while the rain pelted my windshield, the forest rushing past me on both sides, I finally admitted the truth to myself.

1/4

I didn’t want to reject Ella. I wanted to mark her, claim her properly, and give her the family she so clearly wanted.

and fall asleep with her

love her openly,

should have terrified me. Instead, it felt so…

between us with my reaction to her question about children. She probably thought I was disgusted by the idea of having a family with her,

talk. Really talk, no matter how bad at that we had been throughout our

divorce months ago, why she seemed so adamant about being rejected only

uncertain as I was. Maybe she was

time to prove her

tires screeched as I pulled a U–turn and sped home. The house was quiet when I returned, but i headed straight upstairs, expecting to find Ella holed up reading a

have to figure it out. We both would. Because 1 wasn’t going to keep dancing around like

bedroom door,

called out, checking the bathroom. She wasn’t here, and her purse

to head back downstairs to look for her when

sitting next to

dropping

pregnancy test. With two bright

it, a pamphlet titled “Safe

legs nearly

child. And she was planning

I whispered, grabbing the test

211

Sat, 23

Chapter 80

she had asked about children, wasn’t it? She was carrying my baby and wanted to know if

at a time. “Lilith!” I shouted. “Lilith, where’s

eerily quiet. I checked every room, growing more frantic by the minute, before finally spotting

frantic, my hair falling

me. “I… I think I saw her and Lilith leave earlier,”

you see which

shrugged. “Looked like they were

gone to town.

my mind, and suddenly