My Alpha Forced Me to Miscarry His Heir

The kitchen doors slammed against the walls with a violence that rattled the copper pans hanging from the ceiling. Austin stood in the entryway, his chest heaving, his golden eyes burning not with the warmth of a mate, but with the inferno of an enraged Alpha.

He didn't look at the shattered glass. He didn't look at the trembling chefs. He looked only at me.

"Austin, please," I choked out, stepping back until my spine hit the cold stainless steel of the prep table. "She's lying. I didn't—"

He crossed the distance between us in a blur of motion. before I could draw a breath, his hand clamped around my throat, lifting me off my feet. My heels scrabbled uselessly against the cabinet doors.

"You tried to poison her?" His voice was a low, terrifying rumble that vibrated through his hand and into my windpipe. "After everything? You try to kill the future Luna of this pack?"

I clawed at his wrist, my vision spotting with black dots. I needed to tell him. I needed to scream the truth that would shatter his anger. *I'm pregnant. I'm carrying your heir. Don't hurt us.*

"P-preg..." I gasped, the word dying in my crushed larynx. "Aus... tin... baby..."

"Silence!" he roared, his grip tightening. "I smell the wolfsbane on you, Ivy! Do not insult me with lies!"

He couldn't smell the second heartbeat. He couldn't smell the change in my scent. The acrid, chemical stench of the poison Stella had spilled on me masked everything else. He didn't see his mate. He saw an assassin.

Stella was sobbing loudly now, clinging to the arm of her father, Alpha Gordon, who had just stepped into the kitchen behind Austin. The older Alpha crossed his arms, his expression unreadable but expectant. He was waiting to see if Austin Scott was strong enough to punish a traitor, even one he had kept as a pet for eight years.

Austin saw the judgment in the older man's eyes. His jaw set in a hard line. He dropped me, and I collapsed to the tiled floor, gasping for air, clutching my bruised neck.

"Get up," Austin commanded. The Alpha tone slammed into my mind, forcing my trembling legs to obey despite my exhaustion.

He grabbed the back of my tunic, dragging me toward the back exit like a sack of refuse. I stumbled, trying to keep my footing, but he was moving too fast. We burst out into the night, and the storm hit me like a physical blow.

The rain was torrential, freezing sheets of water that soaked me to the bone in seconds. Thunder cracked overhead, shaking the ground beneath us. Austin didn't stop until we reached the center of the training grounds, a muddy expanse of earth churned up by warrior drills.

He shoved me forward. I slipped in the slick mud, falling hard onto my hands and knees. The cold ooze seeped instantly through my thin clothes.

"Kneel," Austin ordered, his voice cutting through the roar of the wind.

I pushed myself up to a kneeling position, shivering violently. "Austin, please. It's freezing. The baby... I have to tell you..."

He ripped the thin coat from my shoulders, leaving me in just my tattered tunic. "You lost the right to speak to me when you raised a hand against my guest. You want to act like a snake? You can slither in the mud."

He towered over me, rain dripping from his dark hair, looking like a vengeful god. "You will stay here until dawn, Ivy. You will kneel in this storm and pray to the Moon Goddess for forgiveness. If you move, if you try to seek shelter, I will exile you as a rogue before the sun rises."

"Austin!" I screamed as he turned his back on me. "Don't leave me here! Please!"

He didn't look back. He walked away, disappearing into the warmth of the pack house, leaving me alone in the freezing dark.

Hours passed. Or maybe it was minutes. Time dissolved into a haze of shivering agony. The rain felt like ice shards against my skin. My body was numb, shaking so hard my teeth clattered together with a sound like breaking bones.

But the cold wasn't the worst part.

A deep, twisting cramp seized my lower abdomen. It wasn't the hunger. It wasn't the wolfsbane. It was something deeper, something vital breaking under the stress.

"No," I whimpered, wrapping my arms around my stomach, rocking back and forth in the mud. "No, no, please wait. Hold on, little one. Just hold on."

Another cramp hit, sharper this time, like a hot knife twisting inside me. I screamed, but the sound was swallowed by a clap of thunder.

I felt a sudden gush of warmth between my legs. It was too hot to be rain.

I looked down, my hands trembling as I touched the mud beneath me. In the flash of lightning, I saw it. The dark, metallic stain spreading in the puddle. Red swirling into the brown.

"Help!" I shrieked, my voice breaking. "Austin! Someone! Help me!"

The pack house stood silent and dark, its windows glowing with indifferent yellow light. Inside, they were likely celebrating the alliance. Inside, the father of my child was warm and dry.

Out here, I was dying.

The pain crescendoed, a tearing sensation that ripped a sob from my throat. I curled into a ball in the freezing slush, clutching my empty stomach. I felt the bond—not the mate bond, but that tiny, fragile thread of new life—snap.

It was gone. The second heartbeat was silent.

I lay my cheek against the wet earth, the rain mingling with the tears streaming down my face. I didn't shiver anymore. I didn't feel the cold. I only felt the hollow, gaping void inside me where my future had been.

Austin had wanted to punish me. He had wanted me to atone.

Instead, he had killed us.