I couldn’t shake off the burning annoyance and hurt that gnawed at my insides as Olivia came home from her first maternity appointment without even bothering to invite me.Already that morning, not long after I woke up and discovered that Olivia was gone, I had begun receiving messages from friends and family who got wind of the fact that she went without me.They were wondering why I didn’t go with her to her very first maternity appointment, and I had no feasible explanation. Thankfully, I was able to convince them that I simply was busy, but still; eyebrows were already raised when it came to our ‘relationship’, and this didn’t help any.Truthfully, I didn’t even know that she had an appointment because she didn’t have the decency to let me know!I was slowly growing more and more furious with her as she seemed to be incapable of understanding my frustrations. When she kept reminding me that it wasn’t my baby, I only felt myself begin to fill with a pang of sadness.Of course it wa
I was lying in my bed in the dim light. I had been dozing on and off all day, but this time I was fast asleep.Suddenly, a creak caught my attention. I stirred from my nap, my eyes blinking away the remnants of sleep. The room felt hazy, and as my vision cleared, I noticed Nathan standing in the doorway.His face flushed a deep shade of red, and he quickly concealed his lower half behind the door.Confusion clouded my mind as I sat up, pulling the covers closer to me."What are you doing, Nathan?" I asked, my voice laced with both curiosity and concern.Nathan’s face somehow turned an even deeper shade of red as he stammered out a response. “I… I… Um…” He cleared his throat. “How did everything go with my mom this morning?”At the mention of Nathan’s mother and her horrible soup, I practically felt nauseous just thinking about it. I shook my head and laid back down with a shrug. “It was fine.”Nathan shot me a puzzled look. He hovered there for a few moments, still with his lower half
“Okay,” I said quietly, feeling the weight of Nathan’s fervent gaze hanging heavily in the air between us. “I promise I won’t say a word about it.”Nathan's sigh filled the space between us, and the tension in the room hung so thickly that I felt as though I could cut it with a knife. He looked at me awkwardly before finally making his confession.“Layla and I have never been pregnant.”I cocked my head to the side, confusion evident on my face.“And?” I asked, completely baffled by this sudden revelation. “What does that have to do with anything?”Nathan shifted uncomfortably where he stood. There was a bit of a silence before he finally spoke.When he did finally speak, his voice was tinged with a mix of resignation and frustration.“The thing is, we did try to a certain extent,” he said, sounding a little embarrassed. “It’s helpful for Alphas to have partners and children, so we felt a bit pressured to do it.”“So you tried, but you didn’t want to?” I asked, still confused as to wh
We weren’t expecting any visitors the next morning, so when I heard the sound of someone knocking impatiently on the front door, I was a bit confused.Nathan was in the shower, so I ran to open the door in my pajamas. My stomach dropped when I saw none other than Maria standing there with another pot of soup in her hands.“Oh— Mar— I mean, Mrs. Ford,” I said, opening the door a little wider, “I wasn’t expecting you.”Maria scoffed as she walked in. Her judgmental eyes wandered up and down my body. “Still in your pajamas, I see,” she said, her voice mocking me. “It’s almost ten o’clock.”“Y-Yes,” I said, managing a bit of a smile. “It’s Saturday.”“Hmph.” Maria gave me a cold look. “Well, I thought I did tell you that I would be back today, so shame on me for assuming that you would bother to make yourself presentable. Well, it’s no matter. I made more soup for you.”I felt like an idiot. Maria did mention that she would be back today, but I was so sick when she told me that it complet
As Nathan's mom scoffed at him, disbelief etched on her face, I couldn't help but feel a knot forming in my stomach. The tension in the room was palpable, and I was caught in the middle of a storm I never expected to be a part of.“My son is really kicking me out?” she exclaimed, her voice laced with indignation.Nathan simply nodded, his gaze unwavering. I watched as his jaw tightened, his determination shining through.Maria’s face turned pale, as though her blood had just run cold. I could only stand there in abject shock and watch with awe as Nathan stood up to his mother.“And for what? Your precious Olivia?” Maria looked over at me for a moment with a sneer, her beady eyes looking me up and down with a disgusted expression on her face. “She's nothing but a surrogate, a vessel for your child,” she retorted with a smug smile.Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. I had hoped for some understanding from her, but instead, she dismissed me as insignificant once again.I swallowed
I settled myself on the couch, exhaustion weighing heavily on my eyelids. Nathan tucked a cozy blanket around me, his touch soothing and gentle.Even though it was still early in the day and not quite noon yet, it had still felt like a long and emotionally charged morning, and all I wanted was a few moments to rest.Before I knew it, I was already dozing off right there on the couch in the warm embrace of the blanket that Nathan had tucked around me.A little while later, I stirred awake to discover that the early morning sunshine had shifted over to dark skies and a mild rain. I yawned, rubbing my eyes as I slowly sat up and looked around for Nathan.It felt as though I was asleep for a while, and when I picked up my phone and saw that it was almost one o’clock in the afternoon and that I had been asleep for a couple of hours, I couldn’t help but laugh a little.I was never much of a person who took naps, but it seemed that lately I was much sleepier than usual. I supposed that it wa
I woke up in a dimly lit living room, the remnants of sleep still clinging to my senses.Nathan was no longer sleeping beside me. Instead, a cozy blanket was tucked around me, courtesy of Nathan's thoughtfulness.As I yawned and stretched, a wave of recollection washed over me, reminding me of my afternoon spent with my childhood best friend.I couldn’t help but smile a bit as I remembered spending the afternoon enjoying the foods that we used to love as kids and watching movies, and the memories of Maria’s awful soup and horrible words felt like mere fragments in my mind.The pizza and the movies weren’t the only things that were lingering in my mind, though. I laid there for a moment in the dark living room, smiling up at the ceiling as I remembered the feeling of Nathan’s arm slipping around me.He was so warm and comforting. I couldn’t deny the fact that I craved being caught inside his arms again after we spent that last night together in his bed, when I was hearing bumps in the
I sighed heavily as the two mischievous culprits standing before me removed their masks.“Who are you?” Olivia asked, sounding frightened.I shook my head. It was none other than the naughty neighbor kids, Jake and Max. They were a couple of bratty teenagers who I had already caught on more than one occasion getting themselves into some trouble or another over the years, but nothing quite like this.Their tear-stained faces revealed a mix of fear and guilt, their mischievous facade crumbling in the face of consequences.“Really, guys?” I groaned, folding my arms across my chest. “Why would you do something like this? You can’t just creep around other people’s houses in the middle of the night and scare the living daylights out of a pregnant woman.”Jake, the taller one, sniffled pathetically. His voice was barely above a whisper."We thought it would be funny," he confessed, casting his eyes downwards. “Olivia is an outcast, and… No one believes that she’s the real Luna.”Max chimed i
OliviaI gripped the edges of the podium, my knuckles whitening from the strain as I stared out over the sea of faces. All eyes were trained squarely on me, awaiting my words. But I was frozen.A tremor of nausea wormed its way up my throat as I stared out at them. What was I thinking—how could I have ever agreed to this? Speaking to crowds had never been my forte; that was Nathan’s arena, not mine. I was just the woman behind the scenes, the young mom who had never gone to college, the one who had been handed her job by her husband…Suddenly, a flicker of motion off to the side caught my eye—Nathan, standing just at the edge of the stage with his arms folded across his chest. Even from this distance, I could feel the weight of his steady gaze, that piercing Alpha stare that always seemed to see straight into the depths of my soul.He must have sensed my faltering because, slowly, deliberately, he offered me the faintest of smiles and a single, reassuring nod.And just like that, the
Olivia I looped my arm through Nathan’s as we stepped down from the podium, the applause from the crowd and the flashing of cameras having finally subsided after what felt like an eternity. “It’s over,” Nathan beamed, giving my arm a squeeze. “That wasn’t so bad.” I couldn’t help but grin back at him. “No, it wasn’t. You were great up there.” And he really had been great; the press conference had been an overwhelming success—any lingering doubts or trepidation we had harbored before had been utterly blown away by the sheer force of the crowd’s enthusiastic response. For so long, it had felt like we were fighting this battle alone, like the victims who had suffered under Dan’s horrific operation were little more than nameless, faceless casualties. But today, we had finally given them a voice. Their stories had reached the masses, had resonated and struck a chord with everyone who watched. Nathan had handled all of the questions that were thrown his way with poise and ease
OliviaI rapped my knuckles lightly on the door to Nathan’s office. A moment later, his voice called out, “Come in.”Stepping into the room, I placed my hands on my hips upon seeing the scene in front of me: Nathan was standing in front of the mirror, his shirt still untucked and his tie loosened. His desk was a mess of papers and folders, and it was clear that he had been checking over his notes last-minute before the press conference.
OliviaI wiped a bead of sweat from my brow, slowly turning to survey the progress that had been made in the park. The banners we had hung were a bold purple color, signifying our support of the women who had been affected by the trafficking ring.I couldn’t help but smile a bit as I looked at our progress. With the press conference today, followed by a festival to help raise funds for the shelter we were building, the park was bustling with activity as our pack members worked hard
NathanI leaned back in my chair with a weary sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose in a futile attempt to stave off the encroaching headache. Spread out on my desk was an array of file folders, legal pads scrawled with notes, and printed transcripts—a minefield of information that would need to be carefully navigated on the day of the upcoming press conference.It had been two weeks since Dan and Montgomery’s bodies were found in the confinement pit, and it had been a dizzyin
OliviaMy hands shook uncontrollably as I stepped up to the edge of the pit, clutching the metal grating until my knuckles turned white. A thick, cloying stench wafted up from the darkness below—the unmistakable reek of death and decay.Despite the waves of nausea already roiling in my gut, I leaned forward for a closer look.
OliviaThe air coming through the open windows smelled like the fresh sea breeze as we made our way from room to room, touring every nook and cranny of the newly completed cottage. It was perfect—cozy and quaint, while still boasting all the modern amenities one could want. But more than that, it was a sanctuary, a haven.A fresh start.
OliviaThe sound of power tools outside streamed in through the window while I folded the laundry, a distant backdrop to my swirling thoughts. I had grown used to the sound, and actually kind of enjoyed it. It was a reminder that life went on, that our family was growing.It had been a couple of weeks since I had made the decision to take a temporary leave from work in order to really focus on my family—on rebuilding that long-severed bond with my mother—and I was glad I did.
NathanI couldn’t stop the rage from simmering just beneath the surface as I made my way through the darkened forest toward the confinement pit. No one knew I was here—I was coming under the cover of night, my hair and face concealed by a hood.But I had to come. I couldn’t stop thinking about Dan and Montgomery, and I needed to see them.