Chapter 5
+ 5 Points
I got to the hospital before sunrise, hoping to beat the crowd. Still had to wait two hours.
The results were undeniable.
I was pregnant.
I stood alone in the corridor, surrounded by white walls and quiet footsteps, clutching the paper. My legs felt heavy. My breath, shallow.
Then, up ahead–I saw them.
Two familiar silhouettes.
My gaze locked on their intertwined hands… and the necklace wrapped loosely around Claire’s wrist.
It was mine.
“Josephine?” Alpha Lucas’s voice snapped
Chapter 5
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He let go of Claire’s hand like it burned him and started toward me.
I didn’t move. Clutching the thin sheet of paper in my palm, I looked into his ever–gentle, deep–set eyes and pulled up a faint, bitter smile.
“You’re back,” I said softly. “I’m fine. Just haven’t had much of an appetite lately.”
He frowned, stepping closer. “Your stomach’s always been sensitive. I disappear for a few days and you forget how to take care of yourself? Do you want to get sick?”
How rich.
I searched every corner of Crown Shadow Pack thinking he’d been attacked, kidnapped, or caught in some rogue conflict. I
couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I was terrified something had happened to him.
Turns out, he was just busy proposing to another woman.
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Now he acted like nothing had happened, stepping up to hold me close.
The scent of rosewood cologne hit my nose. I hadn’t eaten a thing all day, and nausea surged again. My brows pinched tight as I stared at the two of them.
Claire immediately spoke up,
“Josephine, I’m back. Let Godfather know for me, will you?”
Then she glanced at Alpha Lucas and said brazenly, “Lucas was with me these past few days when he went off the grid.””
Lucas’s expression cracked.
“Claire, shut up.”
But it was too late. Her words hit harder than any slap.
A wave of nausea surged through me. I
vanked myself from his arin and
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yanked myself from his grip and bolted toward the restroom.
“Lucas, I had my checkup.”
The hurried footsteps behind me suddenly stopped. He stayed–because he was accompanying Claire for her prenatal checkup.
I dry heaved a few times before I finally regained some control. I splashed my face with cold water and stared at my reflection in the mirror, laughing softly in self–mockery.
This didn’t look like the humiliating scene of catching a fiancé cheating at a hospital checkup.
If anything, I looked like the other woman.
No–even calling me a mistress would be too generous.
To Alpha Lucas, I had always been nothing
more than a tool for revenge
Chapter 5
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I turned to leave and nearly walked straight into Alpha Terry.
He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, watching the OB–GYN door like a hawk.
“So this is the guy you gave me up for?” he asked coldly.
I gave a humorless laugh. “Alpha Terry, don’t flatter yourself.”
He stepped closer, frustration brewing behind his eyes. “I just… I didn’t know if you truly liked me. That’s why I kept testing you. Why didn’t you chase me longer?”
My stomach turned again–but this time, it wasn’t the pregnancy.
“Ten years wasn’t long enough?”
Maybe it did start as gratitude. Maybe I did owe him something back then. But after a decade, what I felt had become real.
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Not that it ever mattered to him.
He held that debt over my head like a leash. Never returned my feelings. Just needed to win.
In the end, he and Alpha Lucas were no different. Both treated my heart like it was disposable.
Alpha Terry’s voice dropped. “You still planning to stay with him? Even if he used you? Even if he’s having a pup with another woman?”
The pain came in slow, sharp pulses, blooming deep in my chest.
I pressed a hand to my right ribs. Then slowly slid it down to my belly.
That’s when my wolf stirred.
Ivy’s voice filled my mind, soft but firm.
Chapter 6
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“It’s okay, Josephine. Just endure a little longer.”
