Pregnant and Banished by Alpha

I stared at the plastic stick in my trembling hands, watching as the second pink line darkened against the white background. Positive. I was pregnant with Wilder's pup.

My knees nearly buckled beneath me as I sank down onto the cool marble floor of Wilder's private bathroom. The morning light streamed through the high windows, casting golden patterns across the tiles. I pressed a hand to my still-flat stomach, hardly daring to believe it.

"A pup," I whispered, my voice barely audible even to my own ears. "Our pup."

After everything we'd been through—after finding him half-dead in that underground fighting pit, after trading my family's silver heirlooms to the Rogue King for his freedom, after taking that poisoned silver blade meant for him during the territorial challenge—this was finally proof that our bond was real. Stronger than any "fated" claim.

I closed my eyes, remembering the whispers that had been spreading through the pack since Kaylee's return. *The Moon Goddess has blessed her as Wilder's true mate. The pack needs a fated Luna, not a chosen one.*

Let them whisper now. Let them doubt our bond. This pup would silence them all.

I practiced the words in my mind as I stood before the mirror, smoothing down my dress and tucking the test into my pocket. "Wilder, I have something to tell you," I would say, my voice steady with confidence. "Something wonderful."

In my imagination, his golden eyes would light up the way they used to when he looked at me, before Kaylee returned. Before everything changed.

"I thought you might be hungry," I would add, placing my hand over his on the table. "The pup and I both are."

His smile would spread across his face, transforming his features from the stern Alpha he'd become back into the man who once promised to spend his life making up for my sacrifices.

"Tonight," I decided, touching the small bump in my pocket. "I'll tell him tonight."

With renewed purpose, I left the bathroom and made my way through the pack house toward Wilder's office. The corridors felt different somehow—lighter, as if the very walls sensed the life growing inside me.

I didn't knock before entering. As Luna, I'd never had to knock.

The sight before me froze the blood in my veins.

Kaylee sat perched on Wilder's lap behind his massive oak desk, her delicate fingers threaded through his dark hair. Her eyes were red-rimmed, tears streaking down her pale cheeks. Wilder's large hands cradled her waist, his face bent close to hers as he murmured soft reassurances.

The air reeked of her scent—that cloying, manufactured floral perfume she used to mask her natural odor. The scent that had been gradually replacing mine throughout the pack house.

"Diana," Wilder acknowledged without looking up, his voice flat. "We're in the middle of something."

"I can see that," I replied, my hand instinctively moving to protect the secret in my pocket.

Kaylee's eyes flicked to me, a flash of triumph hidden behind her tears. She buried her face in Wilder's neck, her body shaking with what appeared to be sobs but felt more like satisfaction.

"She's here again," Kaylee whimpered. "Her chosen scent... it's overwhelming me, Wilder. My wolf can't bear it."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Wilder's eyes snapped to mine, golden and cold.

"Silence," he commanded, his Alpha Tone vibrating through the room.

The word hit me like a physical blow. Though he'd used only a low-level command, it was enough to freeze my vocal cords, to make my wolf whimper and retreat deep within me.

"Kaylee is having a fated episode of anxiety," he explained, his tone maddeningly reasonable. "Your presence—and your scent—is distressing her wolf. The connection between true mates is delicate."

I stood there, unable to speak, watching as he stroked Kaylee's hair with the tenderness that once belonged to me.

Finally, Kaylee gathered herself enough to slip from his lap, shooting me a smirk disguised as a wince before gliding from the room. The door clicked shut behind her, leaving us alone.

Wilder's expression didn't change as he turned to face me fully.

"The elders have been approaching me," he said, his voice businesslike. "They're concerned about the pack's future. About honoring the Moon Goddess's will."

My heart sank as I realized what was coming.

"To keep the peace," he continued, "and to protect Kaylee's fragile mental state, I need you to vacate the Luna suite immediately."

"Immediately?" I echoed, finding my voice at last.

"You'll move into the guest quarters in the East Wing," he said, not meeting my eyes. "It's temporary—just until things settle down with the pack."

But his eyes were cold, distant. This wasn't the man who had once looked at me with gratitude and love.

My fingers closed around the pregnancy test in my pocket, crushing it. The plastic splintered against my palm.

"No one needs to know about this," I thought, feeling the first stirrings of a resolve I didn't know I possessed. "Not yet."

As I turned to leave, I wondered if he could smell the change in me—if his Alpha senses could detect the tiny life growing inside me, the secret I now carried alone.