Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Raven
“Alpha Damien still hasn’t arrived?” Irene, the pack doctor who oversaw my pregnancy, seemed surprised.
I smiled, but it felt more strained than anything.
“He sent word that he won’t be able to make it.”
In those hours when Alpha Damien and I fell into each other’s arms, I thought everything would change and that we could become…No. It didn’t matter what I wished for.
Everything had changed after all, just not in the way I’d expected.
Alpha Damien drew me aside shortly after he had Rielle settled in the pack house.
“Rielle will be returned to the Sky Pack once she is recovered.”
I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t.
“I understand.”
He caught my chin between his index finger and thumb, forcing me to look at him. His voice was so tender and deep, it almost undid me.
“Raven.”
Pushing down all the emotions I felt certain would drown me, I met Damien’s gaze.
“She’s your soul mate, and we are co-parents who sometimes share a purely physical relationship. You don’t need to explain yourself to me.”
Alpha Damien let go of me, his gaze shuttering, the wall between us springing to life again.
“Of course.”
So in the end, I pushed him away before he had a chance to push me away. They were fated mates, destined to be together by the Goddess. How could I compare to that?
Besides, my words hadn’t been a complete lie. All we shared was an intense physical connection. And I didn’t even like him like that. It was just my damn pregnancy hormones causing me to react this way.
Or at least that was what I told myself when Sinclair showed up for our routine training sessions instead of Damien.
“Alpha Damien isn’t coming today?” I asked, a painful lump in my throat.
“I will oversee your training from now on,” Sinclair bowed very low. “The alpha is busy with pack affairs.”
It wasn’t a lie. The Shadow Thorn Pack was still ironing out the new alliance with the Sky Pack, and the issues with the humans were being concluded. Between that, his company, and the fact that Rielle could only eat when Damien fed her, I knew just how busy he’d gotten.
Yet Sinclair’s words hit me painfully hard. What we had was just physical—just sex and a strong attraction. So why did it hurt so damn much?
“He was really looking for this appointment,” Irene said almost ruefully, her jovial voice bringing me back to myself. “On a brighter note, your pregnancy seems to be progressing splendidly, Raven. How are your symptoms?”
The strain in my smile eased slightly.
“Better.”
That, at least, was the truth. Somehow, despite my tumultuous emotional state of mind, my sixth month of pregnancy was less stressful and symptomatic than the initial months had been. Sure, I was less mobile than I’d been, but my overall strength and dexterity had increased.
I wasn’t sure if it was a result of my rigorous training or the part of me that had awakened the day I punched the wall.
However, as optimistic as I had been after that incident, I still couldn’t feel the presence of my wolf within me or even hear her voice.
For all intents and purposes, I was still wolfless.
On the work front, apart from Damien, everything was also better.
Whether it was because of Wendy’s resignation, Alpha Damien’s threat, or the fact that I was very visibly pregnant, everyone was much nicer, engaging in small talk with me, offering me their seats, giving me unsolicited but deeply appreciated pregnancy and delivery tips, and even Martin had cut my workload in half.
Even Ivy and Elias hadn’t shown up to trouble me in the two weeks since Rielle’s return. Everything was better, save the relationship between Alpha Damien and me.
Doctor Irene was still speaking.
“... since generally wolf labors and births can happen anywhere from the sixth to tenth month, depending on the hormonal stability of the mother.”
I blinked, returning to myself at once.
“Wait,” my throat suddenly felt dry, panic surging within me. “So I can give birth any moment now?”
There was so much I wasn’t prepared for: decorating their nursery, the duel, and meeting my child. Damien and I had opted out of finding out the gender as we wanted to be surprised. Doctor Irene let out a small, soft laugh.
“No. Not that soon. Usually, you’ll have several weeks, sometimes over a month of notice before your labor commences.
” She inclined her head before continuing.
“However, like I told you before, it’s necessary for you to continue staying on pack grounds till the birth.
I’ll give you a list. If you experience any of these symptoms, I’ll be a phone call away. ”
Alpha Damien found me shortly after I returned to the pack house, his harried pace slowing as he caught sight of me, his expression deeply remorseful.
“I’m sorry I missed the appointment. I—”
“It’s alright,” I shook my head, forcing a smile. “The pregnancy is going fine.”
Alpha Damien didn’t buy it. Rather, he took a tentative step towards me.
“I’m so sorry, Raven.”
“It’s alright,” I repeated, my gaze rising to take him in. “You are busy.”
Alpha Damien’s shoulders tensed, his lips thinning even as his golden gaze blazed. “Raven.”
He raised his hand to cup my cheek, and like an addict getting a dose of her favorite drug, I let my eyes fall shut, leaning into his touch and—
Something shattered, and a shrill scream tore through the air.
My eyes flew open. Alpha Damien gave me a lingering look, then he was gone, racing towards where Rielle stood, hands and feet bleeding, a shattered vase at her feet, her cheeks red with tears.
There was one thing Elias had failed to mention in his story. It was how beautiful Rielle was. Even with her mind gone, she had a haunting type of beauty. There was something in her fragile, beguiling features that made even me feel protective of her.
She was small, her head reaching only as high as Damien’s chest, with lustrous blond hair as fine as silk that fell almost to her knees, and I’d never seen eyes like hers, a blue so deep and rich that they seemed unreal.
Years of vagrancy might have left her rail-thin, but her movements held the innate grace of a natural predator. Yet as she stared up at Alpha Damien as he chastised her softly, she seemed on the brink of tears once more, a defenseless lamb.
I couldn’t help but notice how good they looked standing so close together—a fragile Beauty and her domineering Beast. I could only imagine how good they would have looked together in their prime.
“They look like they belong together,” the insidious voice, suddenly at my side, echoed my thoughts. “That’s what the term fated mates means after all. Destined to be with each other by the moon Goddess herself.”
The newcomer’s voice dipped with dark amusement as she continued on undauntedly.
“Tell me, cousin, how does it feel to be discarded?”
Smoothening my expression out, refusing to let her, of all people, see me rattled, I turned to face my cousin.
“Ivy,” I deadpanned coolly. “To what do I owe the displeasure of your visit?”
Ivy’s eyes darkened slightly at the insult, but her smile stayed undimmed at the prospect of seeing me in pain.
“Surely you’ve not forgotten about our blood duel, cousin?” Ivy mocked softly. “It’s time for the oath-taking. Wouldn’t want you running off once the baby is born, would we?”
Of course.
The oath-taking required the exchange of blood directly preceding the duel date, where both parties basically vowed to each other to keep the faith of the duel. It was legally binding. If any broke the oath, they would be hunted down and granted an oath-breaker execution.
Alpha Damien was fully capable of protecting me from the consequences of my oath-breaking if it ever came down to it, but somewhere in the months between Ivy issuing the duel challenge to me and now, I’d decided I wasn’t going to run from her.
Not from the girl who’d tormented me all my life and stolen everything from me.
No. I was going to fight with everything I had, and if I died, it wasn’t going to be alone.
“Come,” I gestured towards a more private reclining area by the staircase, unwilling to keep watching Alpha Damien and Rielle. “Let’s get this over with.”
After a beat, Ivy followed. With the flicker of a knife and a few hastily spoken ritualistic words, the oath was done. I turned to leave, but Ivy couldn’t help but poke one last jab at me.
“A weak runt like you actually dared dream that Alpha Damien was going to mate with you?” she scoffed. “The only thing that’s in your future is a death as miserable as that of your pathetic parents.”
The Raven of the past would have sucked it up and let it go. After all, what was one more insult to the plethora Ivy had plied me with daily? But I hadn’t been that Raven in a long, long time. I turned to face my cousin and had the pleasure of seeing the shock on her face as I backhanded her.
“Don’t you ever dare talk about my parents like that,” I warned.
Trembling, Ivy cupped her red cheek, her lips parting on a snarl.
“Bitch,” she raged, fingers morphing into claws as she reached for me.
Suddenly, Elias was there, standing between us and blocking Ivy’s blow.
“What do you think you are doing?” Elias growled, pushing Ivy back. “She’s pregnant. You could have hurt her.”
Ivy and I stared at Elias with similar expressions of disbelief on our faces. Ivy recovered faster, though.
“I could have hurt her? So what if I did?” Ivy screamed. “Since when did you start caring so much about this fucking bitch?!”
I noticed the back of Elias’s shoulders stiffen.
“Don’t call Raven that.”
Ivy stepped up to him, eyes dark with an incandescent fury.
“I’ll call her whatever the fuck I want to,” she bit out, her gaze moving beyond Elias to meet me. “She’s just a wolfless, pregnant whore who spreads her legs for both uncle and nephew—”
Elias slapped Ivy.
The resulting silence in the room was deafening.