Amelia POV

Before I could blink Dr. Wyatt whisked me into a room that was part lab, part exam room.

“We’re going to take some blood, run a few other tests. It won’t take long, Luna Amelia.”

I nodded as I sat, rolling up my shirt sleeve, thinking about the couple I had seen. The woman looked familiar, and the man had looked so much like Damien. True, I had only seen him from the back, but still…

Dr. Wyatt swabbed my arm with rubbing alcohol, then stuck the needle in with a smooth, experienced motion. I took out my phone and sent Damien a message one-handed.

Sorry your day is so busy. Are you with the Council?

The Alpha Council ran everything here in the werewolf realm, the equivalent of a human government. My mate was a skilled leader, and often worked closely with the Council. In fact, he deserved to be an actual member, everyone said so.

But politics among werewolves is always complicated by family ties. Because Damien didn’t have an heir, he hadn’t yet been given the position he deserved. Which was all my fault.

By the time Dr. Wyatt finished drawing the last tube of blood, my phone buzzed.

No, I’m stuck in the office all day. Wish I was with you, sweetheart.

Then he sent a picture of himself at his desk. His hair was ruffled, like he’d been running his hand through it, something he did when he was stressed.

Relieved, I told myself to forget about that couple. My emotions were all over the place. It made sense that my anxiety would be high enough to think I saw something I didn’t.

I sent back heart and kiss emojis, and decided to make him something special for dinner. Just because I couldn’t share the good news - yet - didn’t mean we couldn’t start celebrating a little anyway.

I put my phone away and focused on the tests Dr. Wyatt wanted to run. By tomorrow we’d know for sure if I was carrying my mate’s child.

A few hours later I turned off the main road, onto the wide driveway of Damien’s estate. His pack is now one of the wealthiest, thanks to Damien’s hard work and skill as a leader. Most of the pack lives in this area, and the estate is large enough to include over a dozen large homes on the property, including the pack house.

Our house sits close to the deep woods, and many in the pack gather here for meetings, special gatherings or just to hang out. Even though it’s never felt like I’ve really been accepted by the pack I still love how social our home is, how much energy and life it holds. Our child will grow up surrounded by that community.

I stopped my car and got out to stand for a moment looking at the perfectly manicured lawn with its garden in full bloom, so many different kinds of flowers glowing brilliantly in the sunlight. A breeze carried their smell, and the smell of the woods, and I took a deep breath.

We’re going to raise our children here, I thought, hugging the feeling close to my heart. Our children.

I got back in the car and drove it into the garage. As the automatic door went up I saw Damien’s car already parked in his spot. It was a sleek and fancy town car, a deep forest green.

I parked my own zippy little car next to it, excited that he hadn’t had to stay late after all.

“Damien?” I called when I went inside. I dumped my shoes, purse and keys just inside the door.

When he didn’t answer I went looking for him. Not in the kitchen, or the den, or the bedroom. Eventually I went down to the basement, where we had a home gym, a movie room and a storage area. A few small noises drew me to the storage room.

I found him there, among the snowboards and skis, the camping and fishing gear, unpacking and stacking what I realized were baby things. Bottles, tiny clothes, a large box with a picture of a bassinet on the side.

My heart melted. My poor mate, he wants a child so badly. And I want so badly to give him one.

I sighed, touched, and the sound caught his attention.

“Amelia. You’re home. I didn’t realize… I’m sorry. I meant to be upstairs to say hello.”

He stopped what he was doing, leaving the room and shutting the door, blocking my view of the supplies. There were a lot - he must have been stocking up for a while. But he never said anything about it to me, probably not wanting me to feel any more pressure than I was already putting on myself.

He was right, seeing that would have made me sad. Before. Now, I had hope things would be different, and soon. Full of that feeling of hope and excitement, I rushed into his arms.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I understand how much you want a child.” I boosted up a little higher to whisper in his ear, “Why don’t we try again?”

I’ve become so familiar with my mate and his body that I could tell the instant his wolf stirred inside him, when his breath quickened as he took in my scent. His hands began to explore my body as a low growl rumbled in his throat.

Knowing just where and how he liked to be touched, I playfully licked up the side of his neck. The growl erupted into a snarl, and he pinned me roughly to the wall, already pulling at my clothes.

Excitement leaped in my belly, as it did every time he put his hands on me. This time, however, that excitement was mixed with a quick stab of concern for the baby.

I took his face in my hands and kissed him slowly, softly. “Slow down,” I said. “I want to take our time.”

“Of course, my love,” Damien said, and swept me up into his arms, carrying me all the way upstairs to our bed. He was slow and sweet and gentle, and we stayed there for hours.

The next morning I woke up excited. I kissed Damien goodbye as he headed off to work, then headed straight to the hospital.

I sat waiting in the exam room until my nerves started to stretch thin. Then Dr. Wyatt came in, and the good news was all over her face.

“Congratulations, my Luna. You are officially pregnant!”

I was so excited I popped up out of my chair and hugged her. “Dr. Wyatt, I can’t thank you enough! Your treatments are a miracle!”

Dr. Wyatt laughed and hugged me back, then we sat down. “Actually, Luna, according to the tests your baby is about two months old already - and likely wasn’t conceived during one of the treatments. You two seem to have done it all on your own!”

“But - how is that possible?”

“I don’t know, actually. Perhaps there’s something unusual about your physiology. Either way, monitoring your pregnancy could help develop my treatment even further.”

I agreed to the careful monitoring and regular exams Dr. Wyatt suggested, both for the baby and to develop the treatment, then took the report and hurried out, nearly in tears from being so happy.

I hugged the report to my chest. I couldn’t wait to tell Damien!

On the way out of the hospital I ran into Claire.

Claire is the daughter of Kendrick, the retired Beta, and her brother Ethan is the current Beta. Claire is beautiful, a cool blonde with all the charm of an iceberg. To me, anyway. She’s always sweet and friendly to Damien of course.

Claire grew up with Damien, and he treats her like a close childhood friend. I always wished she would let me in so we could be friends too, but her attitude toward me had never warmed.

I figured it was probably because she had feelings for Damien, since it was obvious that she did. Not that I cared. Damien loves me, we’re fated mates. In the werewolf world that trumped any lingering childhood crush.

Claire was being shown out of the clinic by a few doctors, a medical report similar to mine in one of her hands. The other hand sat on her belly, which was slightly rounded. Suddenly I realized she was the woman I saw the day before.

I hadn’t heard anything about her getting married, or even finding a mate. How was she pregnant?

Still riding the high of my own excitement, it wasn’t hard to smile when Claire saw me and stopped.

“Oh my god, Claire, congratulations! You must be so excited. I’m sorry, I hadn’t heard that you’d found a mate. I guess I owe you double congrats.”

I expected Claire to give me one of her cool, not-actually-friendly smiles, maybe blow me off or whatever. Instead she got a look of panic on her face.

“Amelia! I - why are you - I was just…”

With a look of concern the doctor nearest to her put a hand on Claire’s shoulder.

“Don’t be nervous. It’s alright to tell her. You, a noble Beta’s daughter, are carrying Damien’s child, after all. You carry the future heir of our pack!”

Amelia POV

A buzzing filled my ears, and it took me a moment to realize I was about to pass out. I shook my head, took a step back.

“What? What are you saying?”

Obviously feeling bolder now, Claire stood up a little taller, ran the hand on her belly in a circle, tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

“That’s right, Amelia. I’m carrying Damien’s child. He needs a werewolf to bring his heir into this world, and obviously I’m the best one to do it.”

“Damien…cheated on me? With you??”

“Oh don’t be silly. It’s nothing as dirty as that. All we needed was a little of his DNA, a little of mine and, well, here we are.” She smiled, obviously pleased with herself. Then she stepped closer, speaking only so I could hear.

“But listen, human. You may be the Alpha’s mate, but you’re not one of us, and you can never carry an heir. Even Damien’s family knows that. It was his own mother and sister who brought this idea to me.”

Everyone knows Damien wants a child, of course. For a werewolf finding a mate also means preparing to start raising a family. And as an Alpha he also needs an heir to be raised up to Council member.

But…this? Could Damien’s mother Samantha and his sister Victoria really have come up with some twisted kind of plot like this?

“No,” I said, taking a breath, trying to consciously slow my frantic heartbeat. I felt like my whole world was sinking away, and I needed to find an even footing. “I don’t believe you, Claire. You’re just making this up.”

“Don’t be such a child. You know how important family is to werewolves, and especially to Alphas. As a Beta’s daughter my blood is far more royal than yours. And Damien and I grew up together - everyone has always said what a perfect match we would make. How powerful our children would be. Don’t you see?”

Her eyes glittered as she sneered at me, and I felt my shock begin to melt into anger.

“You stupid human. I am the one who will fulfill Damien’s needs. I am the one who will carry his heir.” Suddenly she shrugged and stepped back, into the circle of waiting doctors. “It’s what he wants. Who am I to say no?”

The doctors escort Claire down the hallway, leaving me standing there alone.

I’ve always known Damien’s family weren’t thrilled with him taking a human mate, and the assumption that I can’t carry an heir is a part of that. But I had tried so hard to please my mate as well as his family, serving the pack tirelessly.

But it didn’t matter, did it? I was still a stupid, worthless human. I thought they had accepted me. But in the end they went behind my back and arranged this whole horrible thing.

I stormed out of the hospital, heading straight to Damien’s office to confront him. The only reason I didn’t floor it on the drive over was the thought of keeping the baby safe. No matter what else was going on, I needed to keep him or her in mind.

But I was still fuming when I strode into his office, throwing the door open so that it banged against the wall.

Damien took one look at my face and hung up the phone he’d been talking into. And any hope I had that this wasn’t true, or at the very least wasn’t something he’d been a part of, disappeared. I saw it in his face, and I knew he could tell that I’d found out.

He stood up and hurried around the desk, trying to put his hands on my shoulders.

“Amelia, it isn’t what you think.”

“Oh really? So what exactly is it?”

He lowered his hands and drew himself up. “I haven’t cheated on you, Amelia. You need to understand. I need an heir, and I agreed that Claire is a suitable surrogate. That’s all this is.”

I stared at him. He said that like it was an inconvenient change of plans for the weekend, a minor disappointment I needed to get over.

“You ‘agreed.’ So this was something you knew about and went along with?”

I guess I had been holding onto hope after all. Maybe, I don’t know, somehow his DNA had ended up in Claire’s hands without him knowing it. But that hope just died too, and behind it a deep pit of betrayal and agony started to open.

I put my hand to my stomach, feeling sick. My mate, my husband, was going to allow a woman who clearly had feelings for him, to carry his child. Because she was a werewolf, one who had high status in the pack. Higher, apparently, than the pack’s own Luna, since I was just a human.

He’d planned this and kept it from me - for what, weeks? Months? How long had I been a fool, thinking my husband actually loved and respected me?

I had so many questions, but the biggest one came out first. “Is this because you want a divorce?”

It’s the only thing I can think of. He wants me to leave, wants to replace me with someone who deserves to be Luna, and deserves to be his mate. How foolish of me, to think a human could ever belong in this world.

“No, Amelia. I love you. This is just…think of it like a business deal. That’s how I’ve thought of it. I knew it didn’t have to affect our relationship.”

I stared at him, and it was like I could actually physically feel my heart cracking into pieces.

“Wouldn’t affect our relationship,” I said. “Damien, Claire is now the mother of your child. She is going to be raising that child, your heir. You’ll be with her and the baby - they’ll be your family. What will that make me?’

I was already barely accepted as Luna of the pack, and actually treated with the respect a Luna deserves by very few. How could he not think about the slights and outright insults, the direct challenges and subtle disrespect I dealt with every single day? And about how much worse that would get if he had a child with someone else?

If Damien had a new family, a proper werewolf family, my life would become nothing but humiliation, or worse. And what about the baby I now carried? What kind of life would it have?

My own childhood had been difficult. I was orphaned at a young age, and though I’d been adopted by a kind family unable to have children of their own, by adopted father’s one night stand - and the illegitimate child that came from it - had torn my new family apart. Would my baby have to deal with the same situation?

What’s worse, Damien knew about my childhood, how I felt about cheating and dragging children into the dysfunctional mix. He knew about my scars, yet he was dragging me down into a nightmare that felt so awfully, terribly familiar.

Trembling, I lowered the hand from my stomach and balled my fists, willing my voice not to shake.

“Damien, either Claire leaves with the baby forever - or I will.”

Amelia POV

Damien’s eyes turned cold, and his expression hardened. “That’s ridiculous, Amelia. You of all people know what kind of stress I face, and the difficulties of leading a pack. I need an heir, and Claire can provide one. It’s as simple as that.”

As I looked up at my mate and his hard expression, I realized something I’d never seen before. Or maybe, something I hadn’t wanted to accept:

To Damien, having an heir was far more important than our love, our bond.

No matter how hard I loved him, how much I tried to serve the pack - it would never be enough.

What kind of man had I married?

A sudden noise in the hall drew my attention, and a whirlwind burst into the room.

It was Claire, with Damien’s mother Samantha and his sister Victoria. She rushed to Damien’s side, tears streaming down her face.

“Please, Damien, don’t listen to her hateful ideas! I won’t terminate this pregnancy, and I won’t be separated from my child. A baby needs its mother!”

Damien comforted her, giving her more care in one brief moment than he had to me during our entire conversation. I’d known Claire had feelings for my husband, but now I wondered, did he have feelings for her?

“Don’t worry, Claire. I already said, your child will be born safely. Besides, your father and brother have done so much for the pack as loyal Betas. I could never drive out any member of their family.”

Claire looked up at him. “I’m your family now too, Damien. Me and this child I carry.”

I felt sick all over again, looking at them. They made a beautiful picture, two gorgeous royal werewolves. Of all the emotions I was feeling, embarrassment began to creep in the strongest.

I’d been such a fool.

Samantha and Victoria seized this opportunity to turn on me, corner me, block me from Damien’s view, cut me away from that picture-perfect family portrait.

“Amelia, you’re just going to have to deal with this. After all, it’s your fault Damien has been passed over by the Alpha Council. If he had a real mate he’d already have an heir by now,” said his mother.

Samantha was a lot like Claire, gorgeous and cold. I wondered, before, how a man a loving as my husband managed to survive being raised by someone so cold-hearted. Now I realized he was a lot more like her than I ever knew.

“Honestly I don’t see why you’re being so dramatic,” Victoria said, eyes glittering. Oh, she was loving seeing me so hurt and upset. She always reminded me of a viper, always ready to strike.

“Victoria, this doesn’t involve you,” Damien warned, but she waved that warning away.

“My brother needs an heir. Claire can make that happen. It’s as simple as that. You’re being very stupid, Amelia.”

“Stupid, and selfish,” Samantha added. “A petty, spiteful child throwing a tantrum because she isn’t getting what she wants.”

“I said enough,” Damien said, loudly enough to get the attention of both of them.

But it was too late. The rest of my heart was already cracking and shattering into pieces.

Selfish? Petty? Spiteful?

I thought about everything I’d given up for Damien, my life, my family and friends, the entire human realm, just to be with him. And I thought about the life I’d endured here, a place full of people who had never fully accepted me.

I’d given my heart and my life to Damien and his pack. I’d been alone and lonely, my mate the only island of comfort in a sea of foreign politics and hierarchy. I had dedicated myself to being the best Luna I could be.

And that was even before I submitted my body to month after month of fertility treatment, to the pain and discomfort, to having my hopes dashed time and time again. For him, my mate. For his pack.

And now Damien and his family were trampling all over my dignity. Worse, they were acting like there was something wrong with me for not going along with it.

Heartbroken, but no longer willing to blindly submit myself to pack politics and pack rule, I straightened my shoulders, looked beyond Samantha and Victoria. Ignoring Claire, I spoke quietly but firmly to Damien:

“I want a divorce.”

Damien frowned. “Stop being so unreasonable, Amelia,” he said coldly, an Alpha clearly expecting to be obeyed. “This really doesn’t have to be that big of a deal. This is what’s best for the pack.”

But I refused to back down.

“If Claire and her child stay… You know what kind of situation I grew up in. This kind of thing only ends in tragedy. I refuse to allow children to grow up in a toxic environment like this.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed, and he studied me sharply, finally noticing I held something in my hand. “Children?”

Dr. Wyatt’s report! I’d forgotten it, and now I might have said too much.

If Damien knew I was pregnant, things will get more complicated.

But I’d meant what I said - no child should grow up in an environment like I did, not even Claire’s.

If ending the relationship was what I had to do to keep that from happening, then it’s what I would have to do.

Ignoring the curious looks of the women in the room, I turned and hurried away. I needed to get home and pack.

Damien POV

Amelia hurried out of the room, just as a fascinating suspicion began to tickle at my mind. I started to rush after her, but Claire continued to hold me, and my mother and sister blocked my way.

“Damien, you need to listen to me,” my mother said. “This is for the best. You knew she could never truly be a Luna to this pack, or a mother to your children. Now it’s time you listen to some sense!”

“I’ve listened to your ‘sense,’ haven’t I?” I retorted. “I’ve gone along with this whole surrogate scheme for months, keeping it secret from my wife - my mate.”

“And you were right to do so,” my sister chimed in. “Look at the tantrum the human just threw. It’s ridiculous. Come on, Damien. You know Claire is the better match for you. Let Amelia go.”

“Then we can make Claire the official new Luna, and everyone will be happy,” my mother added.

I saw the image my family was painting: The Alpha with the Beta’s daughter as my Luna, and mother of my child. Claire was a werewolf, and, since she was from a Beta line, very likely she will give me a relatively strong pureblood child. And since she’d been raised in the werewolf realm, she understood the complexities of pack life and even Council business better than Amelia could as just a human.

All I had to do was let this all unfold the way they planned. Then I’d be a father, and a member of the Alpha Council.

All I had to do was let my mate, the love of my life, walk away.

I shrugged off Claire’s clinging hands, pushed past my mother and my sister.

“Not a chance,” I said, and hurried home.

I hurried home, hoping Amelia would have calmed down enough to listen. If I could just make her see that this was about politics - that it really was just business - surely she would see the sense in my decision. As an Alpha, I had responsibilities I had to handle, and making sure I have an heir is one of them.

But when I got home, I found Amelia packing. And I realized she was serious about leaving.

I grabbed her arm as she marched past me to throw more clothes into a suitcase. She yanked her arm away.

“Don’t touch me, Damien. Don’t you dare.”

“Amelia, be reasonable. Darling, come here.”

I took her arms in my hands and stepped closer. I tried to give her a kiss, to remind her of our bond and calm her worries, but she turned her face and stepped away from me. Just a step, but it felt like a million miles.

“Amelia, listen - ”

Just then my phone rang, and I answered out of habit. It was my duty to always be available to the pack.

But it wasn’t the pack - it was my mother, calling from the hospital.

“That little scene in your office upset Claire so much she fainted. It may have triggered complications with the pregnancy. Damien, you need to get down here. The baby is in trouble.”

I hung up the phone and swore, torn. I needed to talk sense into Amelia, make her see that this had nothing to do with her, or with us. I was her fated mate, nothing could change that.

But Claire is carrying my child. Mine. I can’t just ignore that.

“Damnit, Amelia. I have to leave - but this isn’t over! And you’re not leaving until we talk about this.”

Before she could stop me I grabbed her and carried her down to the basement, ignoring her struggles, telling myself it was for the best. We could deal with this, we could get through this, I just needed her to stay put.

I called one of the staff to watch the basement, make sure Amelia didn’t leave. Then I carried her down into the basement, plunking her down on a sofa. I knew my voice was cold when I spoke to her, but she needed to understand that there was no way we were anywhere near finished:

“No one loves you more than I do, Amelia. You’ll stay here until I can come back and we can talk. Until then - don’t even think about running away.”