CHAPTER 3

Pov: Kira Jansen

I left the infuriating man and made my way to the other side of the auditorium. I still hadn’t seen Nate and I was starting to get worried. There was a feeling in my gut I couldn’t shake off and it made me worry as much as I tried to shrug it off as nothing. 

As I searched for him my mind wandered to the infuriating man. Mr. asshole. He was handsome in a dark mysterious way and I could tell he was the type of man that had women for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He was the type of man parents warned their daughters about. The type of man daughters ended up with because they wanted to be engulfed by the powerful aura of mischief that he exuded.

I expelled him from my mind as I focused on the task at hand. Finding Nate had to be my main priority. I had to tell him he was my mate but that was nothing compared to the other news I had for him. I was pregnant!

Knowing his heir was growing inside me was the most wholesome feeling I’d felt. There was nothing like it. The joy it brought was unparalleled and I wanted to share that joy with him.

That morning I’d felt sick and one of my maids had suggested I call a healer but I shrugged it off as a stress. During my morning walk, it had gotten worse and I passed out halfway through the stroll. My maids had called a healer and she told me that I was pregnant and that what I was experiencing were symptoms of my condition. I begged the healer to keep the information between us and she promised she would.

Now as I looked for Nate my heart raced with the excitement I was experiencing. I had to tell him first. Suddenly I felt an unbearable pain in my chest that knocked the air out of my lungs. I gasped as the pain intensified and everything around me faded and all that was left was the pain. 

My wolf cried out within me feeling the pain but a thousand times more than I did. I could feel her agony and torment as she begged for it to stop. My whole body shook as my instinct for survival kicked in. I felt a pull towards a passageway and something about it made me feel it was the source of the pain. I knew I had to follow the pull if I was to have any chance of surviving the ache.

Without hesitation, I moved along the passageway giving myself completely to the mysterious pull. I kept going despite common sense telling me I was going crazy. The passageway led to the garden Nate had taken me through on so many occasions but I kept on through a maze of high bushes and past dolphin-shaped water fountains. 

Nate hadn’t taken me to this part of the garden and I wondered what was waiting for me at the other side. I wondered what the pull was leading me to and it was going to help relieve the pain. At that moment I realized the pain wasn’t as severe as it had been when it started and I felt I was getting closer to whatever it was I was being led to.

I rounded a corner and stumbled across a door that led to a secret room. I hesitated for a moment but the pull finally won and I entered the room. Immediately I got in, I regretted walking in as my eyes fell on Nate having sex with another woman.

The shock I experienced was so great that I had to hold on to the open door for support as the world around me spun threatening to take a drastic dive and pummel into annihilation. Nate stopped realizing they had an audience and he turned around to stare at me frozen by the doorway. I experienced a greater shock when the woman he was with straightened up to stare at me and I realized it was my sweet best friend, Tonya.

I gasped, unable to believe what was happening, and ran as fast as I could. I didn’t stop as I kept crashing into people along the way. I had to get as far away from them as possible. The tears fell freely and it wasn’t until I got to the Irving mansion that I stopped. I got my things packed and told my maids to prepare to leave immediately for home.

“Is everything okay, princess?” Griselda, my handmaid asked.

“Yes, Griselda.” I lied, wiping off the tears with the scuff of my dress. “Everything is fine.”

We were waiting for our soldiers to return when the doors burst open and royal soldiers under Nate’s command rushed in. Two of the soldiers grabbed my arms flanking my left and right side. They were rough as they pulled me outside. My maids tried to stop them but they weren’t spared from the brutality.

“What is the meaning of this?” I demanded.

One of the soldiers laughed. He looked like their leader and he said, “You have been charged with suspicions of high treason by the Alpha himself so you would do well to come with us without fuss.”

“Treason?” I mouthed, unable to believe what was happening.

The soldiers took me to a dark cell that smelled badly of cleaning agents and what I suspected was death. I couldn’t sleep the whole night and the next day I tried to get the guard to call Nate for me but he just laughed at me and mocked me like I was nothing more than a commoner.

I clutched my belly tight. It’s okay little one. This is all just a misunderstanding and we will have it sorted out in no time. We will get out of here together. I promise.

That night a soldier entered my cell and started asking questions about things I didn’t know. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about but he responded with violence. It was my first time getting hit and the shock and pain were unlike anything I’d experienced. The soldier tortured and questioned me for what felt like an eternity and the only thing that kept me conscious through it all was the pain.

The next day went the same way as the previous day. I was given stale bread that looked like it had been stolen from the clutches of a family of rats but I ate it hungrily and drank water that had a mix of colors. After being questioned and tortured, I folded in a corner in a fetal position and prayed to the moon goddess to spare the child inside me. There was nothing more important than my child. My precious child.

The outer door opened and the clink of heels on the floor echoed as a woman approached my cell. I was too weak to straighten up and look at who it was but I knew immediately I smelled the familiar cologne because I’d bought it. Tonya.

“Hey, friend.” She said in a cold unfeeling voice.

I rolled on my side and faced her. I could barely see her through the bump covering one of my eyes. “Tonya! Please I need you to tell them I’m innocent. You know I am.”

“Me?” She jerked. “I’m sorry but I don’t know anything.”

“Tonya?”

“What?” She sounded mean. “You shouldn’t have left your fairytale castle in the first place. You are the most naive being on the face of the planet. To think Nate was smitten by you. Oh please.”

It was like I was hearing the words coming out of her mouth and it was from a stranger. This wasn’t the Tonya I’d known for years. The woman in front of me was completely different and the way she spoke I suspected she hated me.

“I’m pregnant. Please tell Nate it’s his child.” I stopped through my tears. “His heir.”

“His heir?” Tonya asked, tilting her head to the side. “No. what you have there is a bastard that will soon meet a tragic end. His heir is here.” She said, rubbing her belly.

Her words cut deep into me like a reckless blade. There was no sympathy and I knew she meant everything. She was the only hope I had to save my child.

“Tonya, please spare my child. I’ll do anything.”

She thought for a moment and then said, “I’ll help if you kiss my foot.”

Without hesitating, I crawled on my side until I got to the bar and kissed the foot she put forward. I wasn’t thinking about how that was the greatest shame for a royal or how it meant she was now above me. I was only thinking about my child.

“Perfect.” She said happily. “I’ll get the guards to give you medicine for your baby while I talk to Nate and have this all sorted out.”

“Thank you so much.” I cried as she left.

A guard brought a foul-smelling drink to me. My wolf warned me not to take a drop of the concoction. There was something odd about it but I knew Tonya meant well so I drank it. 

A few moments later, I screamed out, wailing uncontrollably for I knew I’d just killed my child.