Chapter 29
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
Marigold
The words swirl in my head.
Pregnant?
Dahlia?
There’s no way. She’s not…mated. But I guess she doesn’t have to be, biologically speaking. For a long beat I watch her, the play of emotions on her face, willing the world to make sense.
Mom wrings her hands so tightly I’m worried she might hurt herself. Her face has gone pale, tears shining in her eyes as she stares at Dahlia like she’s looking at a stranger. Across the room, Heath is ready to put his fist through a wall.
“Wait,” Mom says, shaking her head. “Heath, you knew?”
“I found the test this morning.” His voice is clipped, strained. “In Dahlia and Rue’s bathroom trash.”
Rue’s mouth drops open. “What?”
“I knew already, but I just had to be sure,” Dahlia says, curling into herself.
Heath points at her. “After she’s been throwing up so much? After Elise kept covering for her every time she got sick? It wasn’t exactly difficult to put the pieces together. And unless Rue has somehow mastered immaculate conception, I knew it wasn’t hers.”
I glance at the young maid standing beside Reece who is suddenly looking very uncomfortable. Her gaze is pinned to the floor.
Heath shakes the letter from Valor and snarls. “And now you’ve fucking ruined your entire future, D. Congratulations! So much for being the smart one in the family.”
“HEATH!” Mom gasps.
“What?” he snaps, his eyes almost black. “You want me to pretend this is fine? After everything I’ve been trying to do to help this family, this pack—” He stops and looks at me, and in that look, I know what he’s talking about. The others don’t.
He’s been working his ass off to not only keep the home running, but he’s been working, working. A real job. Long days, too, to help us crawl out of the hole of debt Dad left us in.
This will be a huge step backwards, and if word gets out that Dahlia is pregnant, unmarked, and unmated…
The room falls silent.
Meanwhile, Dahlia scoots to the edge of the sofa and rolls her shoulders back. If anything, she looks almost radiant despite the exhaustion under her eyes. Her skin glows. One hand drifts toward her stomach.
“Heath, I know you’re worried,” she says, like she’s ten years older than she is. “But I’m happy. You don’t need to worry about me. There is a plan.”
Heath lets out a disbelieving laugh. “Happy? Dahlia, do you honestly think Valor is going to welcome their first Omega student when she’s unmated and pregnant?”
“My talent and intelligence should speak for itself.” Dahlia lifts her chin. “What I choose to do with my body is exactly that. My choice.”
“It should. But that’s not how the real world works.”
“Tristen and I are in love,” she says. Like it’s simple.
Heath runs a trembling hand down his face. “Does he know about this?”
“About me being pregnant? Yes.”
“And?”
Her chin lifts higher yet, nose practically pointed at the ceiling. “And what?”
“Has he marked you?”
Dahlia hesitates.
“Heath, maybe we should—” Mom tries but Heath is quick to cut her off.
“No, Mom. We need to get ahead of this before the Queen Bee starts running her mouth. It’s the only way to save this family’s reputation.” Heath glares at Rue, who’s pulling out her yellow sparkly phone in that exact moment.
“What?” she asks with a shrug. “I wasn’t going to even go on Stitch.”
“Hand it over, Rue,” he orders, but she hugs it to her chest like it’s the most precious thing. “No cellphones until this mess is handled.”
“My baby is not a mess,” Dahlia adds in.
But he holds out his hand for Rue’s phone. “Give it up because if I have to wrestle it from you, I’ll shut off the service completely.”
She sighs loudly in aggravation as she passes it to him. “Ugh! Fine!” Then she collapses into the chair, arms crossed.
Pocketing the phone, Heath turns back to Dahlia. “Now, back to Tristen marking you. Has he yet or not?”
Her eyes narrow. “No. Not yet. But we’re going to be mated. He promised me.”
His eyes close briefly and pinches the bridge of his nose. “A promise. Fantastic.”
“Heath—” Mom tries again.
“No.” He points toward her but then his gaze sweeps over all of us in the room, even the servants.
“No. Listen carefully. Nobody can know about this until there’s a definite mark on Dahlia’s neck.
Promises mean nothing. She isn’t even of age or in her Season, and that’s already going to get people whispering.
So this needs to be handled delicately.”
“O.M.G. Wait, can D having a baby ruin my Season?” Rue sits up straighter.
Mom starts to cry, covering her mouth with her hand and sobbing softly behind it.
My heart clenches. I don’t know what to do to fix this, and I know Heath feels the same way.
Part of me is terrified for my sister. Dahlia is so young.
This will change everything about her life.
All those dreams she’d worked toward, all those plans she’d made for herself and how hard she worked to achieve them—they can all disappear because of this.
A small, ugly voice whispers that maybe I should have noticed. Maybe I should have been around more. Maybe if I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own problems, I could have done something, been a better sister to her, and guided her in a different way.
But this is Dahlia we’re talking about. She’s the smartest of all of us. No one thought she’d fall for the charms of an Alpha, especially over the lure of her goals and dreams.
As Heath paces, I can almost see the gears turning in his head and the anger change into sheer determination. “I’m going to fix this. I’ll find a way.”
“I’m keeping the baby, Heath,” Dahlia says, and Mom gasps at her implication. “I’m not getting rid of it.”
“That’s your decision, D,” he says, defeated. “But it means you need to be ready for the consequences and the responsibilities that come with your decision.”
“I am. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I don’t see this as a bad thing.” Her arms circle her abdomen, protective, strong.
Heath nods and lets out a long breath. “It looks like I’ll be inviting the Harwoods over tomorrow for brunch. We have a lot to discuss since things are moving so quickly.”
Dahlia visibly brightens.
“Get some sleep everyone. We’re in this for the long haul. All of us.” Then Heath turns and stalks toward the door.
“But where are you going?” Mom calls after him.
“To my office,” he snaps.
“But it’s almost midnight,” she says.
“I know what time it is.”
“How are you even going to reach the Harwoods this late?”
He pauses at the doorway. “I’ll figure it out.”
And somehow, I know he will.
A second later, he’s gone.
“Well, at least he didn’t go full monster,” Rue says, trying to find some kind of silver lining. “That could’ve been so much worse. He was almost nice about it.”
Glancing across the room, my eyes find Reece. Because if anyone else in this family has made a reckless decision recently, it’s me.
During this visit home, I was supposed to tell everyone I wanted to mate a Delta, a servant, but now I’m not so sure this is the best time. Dahlia’s situation needs to take priority.
Our circumstances aren’t identical, but they’re not entirely different, are they? I can’t judge Dahlia too harshly for what she did. She says she’s in love, and love makes you do wild things.
Rue breaks the silence. “Wait. I don’t understand something.”
Everyone looks at her.
“How are you even pregnant, D?” Rue asks her.
Dahlia blinks and then glances at Mom.
“Not that!” she shrieks, waving her hands. “No, no! I mean, you haven’t even had your first heat yet. Aren’t heats needed to…you know…make babies.” She whispers the last part.
“Oh, um…” Mom wipes at her wet cheeks frantically, looking like she rather be doing anything else but having this conversation now.
“It’s harder,” I says to try and save her. “But not impossible.”
Rue’s eyes widen. “Ooooh.”
At this rate, Rue will be lucky if Heath doesn’t keep her locked in her room until her Season starts.
Mom suddenly pushes to her feet. “I’m going to bed…” The hurt in her voice makes my chest ache. “Too…too much excitement for my poor heart. Come on, Rue.”
Sighing, Rue gets up, takes Mom’s waiting hand, and they walk out together.
Now alone with Dahlia, her face lifts to me, eyes pleading, and I know she’s waiting for me to say something, hopefully not as harsh as Heath or as prying as Rue.
But, the thing is… I don’t know what to say, so I walk over, take Mom’s place beside her, and slide my hand into hers. Then I squeeze her fingers.
“You’re not alone,” I tell her in an undertone. “I’m here.”
The tears she’s been holding back finally spill over. My heart squeezes.
As she leans into my shoulder, I decide right then. Whatever happens next, somebody in this family needs to be on her side.
And that person is going to be me.
It takes an eternity for the Harwoods to arrive.
But when they do, the nervous energy in the townhome hits atomic level. Our living room is large but with four extra bodies, plus Violet and Iris and the servants, it’s claustrophobic. And heavy with the oppressive chemical scent of blockers.
At least Mom made Rue sit this one out by staying in her room, even though she fought to be included.
Tristan stands at the center of the mele, a handsome young Alpha, blond, with a fragile air to him.
If he happened to trip and fall, he’d shatter into thousands of pieces.
And by the nervous way his parents watch him from across the room as he sits himself next to Dahlia on the couch, they seem to think so, too.
The person taking up all the space in the room is a gorgeous woman in a burgundy power suit, spike heels, and pearls. She reeks of authority and eating weak men for breakfast.
If I were to paint her, I’d make her a hybrid of some kind, maybe mixing her with a bulldog or a shark because it’s clear she’s not to be messed with.
She’s staring down Heath, who watches her with an equal amount of disdain.
It looks like my brother may have met his match with this one.