Chapter 2

LEXI.

“Who’s the father?” Austin asked almost immediately.

My heart constricted as my hand flew to my chest. I didn’t expect him to ask me that. “What do you mean with your question?”

“Is it mine?” He asked as he stepped back.

“Of course, it is yours! Who do you think the father is?”

“I don’t know.” He brushed his hand over his hair as his jaw tightened. “We are not exclusive, so I thought...”

“So you thought I was fucking around? Like you do?” I said, my teeth gritting. 

“I don’t know. I never asked! So don’t blame me if I thought that way!”

“Of course, who knows? But yes, this is yours! And I’m sure of that!”

“But how did you get pregnant?”

I gasped. “Are you stupid? Of course, you fucked me! Not just once! Do you want me to give you the exact details of how it happened?”

“You don’t understand my fucking question! How did you get pregnant when you don’t have a fucking wolf!” He was not raising his voice, but he was talking differently from Austin, who would sweet-talk me all the time before and after we messed around. 

His voice at the moment was cold, like I did a horrible thing to him.

“I don’t know! I told you to use a condom, but you said no — you got this! Remember?” 

“Why were you not taking pregnancy pills?”

“You said you got this!” I yelled at him. “You said I would not get pregnant because I don’t have a wolf! And just so you know, I’d been taking pregnancy pills for the last two years, so I wouldn’t get pregnant from my asshole ex, so I thought I would get a breather from it! But then you came, and instead of making sure I wouldn’t get pregnant by using a condom I was shoving on your ass, you made me believe you got this! Well, newsflash, Austin Montrell…” I paused for a second and pointed my fingers at my still-firm stomach. “... you got this!”

“No! No! No! Fucking no!” He was shaking his head, and I felt my heart stop as I stared at him. “I’m not ready for a pup! I don’t think I can do this!” He said in a cold tone as his eyes dilated. 

My mouth opened as tears pooled in my eyes, but I blinked them back right away. I couldn’t find the words to say. I was expecting that this scenario would happen, but I didn’t know that the flat-out rejection would happen right away.

“What do you mean?” I asked in a soft voice.

“Are you sure it’s mine?” He asked again, and I saw something in his eyes that any female would not want to see. 

He didn’t want this pup. 

He looked different from the Austin who had been visiting me, and I knew I had lost this battle already.

My hand raised, and a hard slap hit his cheek, making his face tilt to his right. And he just let it stay there. 

“Get out!” I pointed to the door while my chest continued to heave.

That was my last stance. Maybe he will realize what he just said and request that we talk again. I was keeping my hopes high. But, like always, Austin let me down. 

He grabbed his shirt from the couch and pulled it on his head before picking up his car key on my kitchen counter. And without a word, he walked past me toward the door without even glancing at me.

The tears I was holding raced down my cheeks when I heard the door slam. My shoulders shook as I let my sobs wrack my whole body.

I had expected this, but why am I crying? Because I didn’t know it would hurt this much. 

Austin, like everyone in my life, they would just leave when they had no need for me. I was back to square one. Alone.

I held my stomach as I pressed my back against the cold wall and slowly lowered my body until I reached the floor. I had no idea where I would start or what I needed to do. But I knew I couldn’t give up. Someone was expecting me to take care of him or her. I needed to be strong for this baby wolf in my stomach.

I bit my bottom lip to stop it from quivering before I started mumbling to myself. “Don’t worry, baby. Mommy is here. Mommy is going to take care of you. And I promise you that even if it’s just me, I will make sure you get all the love you need. I will make sure I am enough. You and me — we will be okay.”

I got this. I told myself. I had been telling myself that since the day I watched them burn my mother’s ashes and lower her urn to the ground. 

I got this. 

I would not let Austin’s rejection make me lose my sparkle. My mother raised me to be a strong and independent female. I would not let her down. 

-----------------

I had no idea what time I fell asleep, as I spent the whole night twisting and turning in my bed. I had been contemplating what my next step would be. 

My name is Alexandria Ricafort. Or call me Lexi for short. 

My mother was an ordinary she-wolf mated to a human, making me a half-breed shifter.

After my father’s untimely death when I was fourteen, my mother and I left the human territory and sought shelter in a new pack — the Black Shadow Pack. 

That was Austin’s pack. 

His mother and my mother forged such a great friendship that when my mother passed away with a broken heart, no one questioned when I was left under her care. I didn’t mind either. 

But with Mom gone, my surroundings full of shifters, and I being the only female at eighteen without a wolf in that pack, I made a big decision to move out of the territory and find my luck somewhere else.

Mama Janna tried to talk me out of it and told me many others had their wolf come out at a later time, and it shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, I knew that, but I told her I was no longer happy there.

I knew it broke her heart, but she finally let me go and made me promise to keep in touch. So I packed my bags, thanked her and her mate for their love and generosity, and moved out of the Black Shadow Pack to start my own adventure.

For the last five years, I had never been back to visit, but I kept in touch with Mama Janna, and whenever she visited Bernice City, I would make sure to make time to meet her. 

But never with Austin. So, seeing him on that fateful day at a random gas station in this city was a big surprise.

He was alone and looking like fresh meat out of the oven. He had always been confident, but his aura had changed massively. Together with confidence, his sex appeal was oozing out, and I couldn’t help staring at him that morning while we caught up with each other. 

I was smitten again.

And before I could even think, I had already invited him to my apartment. The simple breakfast led to another. The next thing I knew, I was already straddling him while he was ripping my clothes off as if we had done this before.

I told myself just one taste, and I should be good.

Big mistake. 

I got addicted.

So when he came back a few days later, I opened my door again and let him in. And it seemed I was not the only one who got addicted. Because the one-night stand became two and then three. Until it became a routine, and I could no longer count the number of times we did it.

But it was a no-strings-attached relationship. Just sex. Just letting out the steam fuming between us. We both made it clear what we were getting ourselves into. 

Austin was not made for a commitment, and I just got out of a two-year toxic relationship where my ex-boyfriend needed to know everything I was doing in my life. 

I wanted a break. Just to have fun and not think of anything but myself and the orgasm that I would get from him.

All was going so well. I had a sexy man in my bed who knew all the right buttons to push. Plus, he knew how to compliment me and make me blush without me needing to tell him how my day should start and how it should end. 

It was too perfect. 

But I should have known better. Nothing in life is too perfect. 

A baby was not part of “the having fun only” thing. 

He left because this was not part of our agreement. I knew he would do this, but I still kept checking my window because a part of me was hoping he would come back.

But he never did. No messages or missed calls. Nothing.

It only went to show that I was nothing but just a flesh he craved but never wanted. I knew we didn’t have any commitment, and I didn’t expect him to commit himself to me, but I was hoping at least he would acknowledge his own pup. I could forgive him for asking me if it was his, but the flat-out rejection of his pup was the one breaking my heart.

He didn’t even try. 

I knew he was not ready, and neither was I. 

I didn’t do this alone. We did this together. I shouldn’t be the only one who needs to face the changes because of this.

But I have no choice now. It was time to move on and forget about him.