My Alpha Chose His Mistress Over Our Unborn Pup

The communal Omega bathroom reeked of bleach and despair, a far cry from the scented oils and marble counters I'd once known. I clutched the cracked porcelain sink, my knuckles white as another wave of nausea hit me. My body was betraying me, the pup's presence becoming impossible to hide with each passing hour. The sharp, metallic taste in my mouth had nothing to do with the cheap toothpaste and everything to do with the secret growing inside me.

Luna whimpered within me. *We need help*, she whispered. *The pup is straining us.*

'I know,' I breathed, splashing cold water on my face. The woman in the mirror looked like a ghost – pale skin, dark circles beneath hollow eyes, hair limp in the harsh fluorescent light. Three days as an Omega, and already I was fading.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway. I froze, water dripping from my fingertips. The scent of medicinal herbs and antiseptic grew stronger – Calder Voss, the pack healer. The same man who had administered years of painful fertility treatments under Luna Leslie's watchful eye.

'Hello?' His voice carried through the thin door. 'I thought I heard someone in here.'

I pressed myself into the shadows of the corner stall, my heart hammering against my ribs. If he found me like this, if he suspected...

'Just checking supplies,' I called back, forcing a casual tone. 'The Omegas were told to inventory the cleaning products.'

A pause. 'At midnight?'

I swallowed hard. 'Yes. New... efficiency measures.'

Another silence, longer this time. I held my breath, one hand protectively covering my stomach.

'Very well. Carry on.'

His footsteps retreated, but I waited, counting to one hundred before emerging. My legs trembled beneath me as I slipped out the back entrance, avoiding the main corridor. I couldn't risk being seen now. Not when my body was beginning to show the strain.

Back in my narrow bed, I curled around my middle, trying to will away the cramps that had started to build. *How much longer can we hide you?* I asked the tiny life inside me.

*Not long enough*, Luna replied, her voice heavy with resignation.

I closed my eyes, exhaustion pulling me toward sleep, when a familiar pressure built behind my temples – Ashlyn, reaching out through our mind-link.

'Emberlynn.' Her mental voice was tight, controlled fury vibrating through every syllable. 'I found something you need to see.'

'What is it?' I responded, already dreading the answer.

'Pictures. From the northern border. I've been tracking the lodge transactions.'

My stomach clenched. 'Ash, I don't know if I can—'

'You need to see this. It's time to stop lying to yourself.'

Before I could protest, images flooded my mind – sharp, clear, devastating. Jaden standing in the moonlight, his hand tenderly cupping the face of a young she-wolf. Her golden hair cascaded over her shoulders as she tilted her head, exposing her neck. The sacred gesture of submission, of invitation.

But it was what came next that shattered me completely. Jaden's head lowered to her neck, his teeth finding the sensitive junction where shoulder met throat. The marking bite – the same ritual he had performed on me nine years ago, the night we confirmed our fated bond.

The she-wolf's face contorted in pleasure, her eyes fluttering closed as Jaden's mark settled into her skin. The image was so clear, so intimate, that I could almost feel the phantom pressure of teeth against my own neck.

'Her name is Sienna Vale,' Ashlyn's voice cut through the agony. 'Luna Leslie has been arranging meetings between them for months.'

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The images burned behind my eyelids, searing away the last fragile threads of denial I'd been clinging to.

'He's taken her as his chosen mate,' Ashlyn continued, her mental voice thick with rage. 'While you were being tortured with treatments, while you were bleeding and breaking yourself for him—'

'Stop,' I gasped, pressing my fists against my temples. 'Please, just stop.'

But the damage was done. My wolf howled, a sound of such pure anguish that I had to bite my pillow to keep from echoing it aloud. The pup stirred restlessly within me, responding to my distress.

'I need to see for myself,' I whispered, both aloud and through the link. 'I need to see them together with my own eyes.'

'Emberlynn—'

'No. I won't believe it until I see it. Until I see him with her.'

Ashlyn's sigh resonated through our connection. 'Then go. Tonight. While the pack is distracted with the border patrol change.'

I nodded in the darkness, a strange calm settling over me. 'I will.'

As the night deepened around me, I rose from my bed, moving with a new purpose. The pain of rejection, the shame of demotion, the secret of my pregnancy – all of it crystallized into a single, burning need.

I had to see the truth for myself. I had to know that everything I had sacrificed for had been given to another. And then, perhaps, I could finally be free.