Defying the Alpha, She Hid Their Daughter

y's

my hand when my phone buzze

dy? Lily at school says

room, staring at the screen

drow, and I still hadn't found the

him forever. It was that keeping it had

e the ink on our marriage contract had even dried: he didn

d the same thing-that I was a weak Omega who'd stumbled into the

one useful piece of information: my body wouldn't survive a t

best friend, Beryl's care, and told myself it was

onths. Old enough to ask question

in that voice memo bet

lpha of Starfalls Pack, and he doesn't know you exist" wit

ncoming trauma, ER bay three. I poc

into the exam room and

rk coat, one hand on the rail, watching the p

calm, with his pale silver-grey eyes that I had spent seven years

e I was part of the wall. That was

ndra

woman he'd never quite stopped lovin

chart I was holding said she was eight weeks p

said, the way he might instruct a su

right before a wound starts bleeding. Seven years marri

ing them louder than I needed to. "I've been licens

m the exam table, as if she found my answer

eaning against the wall, watching me with those pale gray ey

he watched me adjust the ultrasound, wearin

isted on driving me here himself. I told him I co

he baby," Theodore said. The unguarded

g. "He's been like this ever since we found ou

out to say something

"I'll take this outside. Call t

t look a

rshot, the fragility in Ale

strange for

ebrow. She did

ur husband something you never

. What was she saying-

e in the pack knows your marriage is just an arrangement. He's alwa

was only ever a contract. I

ontrol of my gr

date?" I repeated it under my breath, someth

probe aside, and wiped the gel fr

got pregnant by my husband, knowing full well

adn't gotten in the way, we'd

left him before

ottom of the chart, a

aint me as somethi

is, I haven't broken

glanced at her stomach. "That's th

s? I'm filing a complaint!" she sho

the second I stepp

not show a little consider

ed. He'd already d

eat. Apparently, Ms. Cyrus expects more

u're unhappy with my care, feel free to as

im. He caught my arm,

you speak t

t his hand, then at him. "Then

ed down, glancing between us, as if only now realizi

because I didn't want special treatment. Partly beca

his into something it isn't. You

e moment you paraded your mistress in front of

't my mi

I looked at him. H

sunderstanding, that he hadn't gotten another woman pregnant while

man like you wouldn't understand." After a beat

r like that, something in me s

the two of you should learn to keep your distance. Bring her in front

lked away. I di

heodore had never

re. I just sat in my car without starti

y, and I looked to see an

e was perfectly fine. She told her t

e photo tha

ackground clutched their parents' hands, balloons and streamers still scatt

d, and her hands were folded neatly on the table. Her eyes were fixed somewhere in the dista

My five-year-old ne

nding beside another woman,

at there in the dark befo

from Th

or three seconds befor

house next Wednesday. The doctor says sh

above the screen

ritten a dozen t

rked up the nerve to g

going to bring anothe

sage four times over. Ophelia in her yellow dres

nd the reminder for next Wed

ssed