Ready to be a mother?

Isabella's POV.

Bright sunlight filtered through the thick dense forest, sweeping me into its angry shift.

I moaned once and flickered my eyes open. I looked around in surprise when I saw nothing but trees surrounding me.

What was I doing in that part of the wood? So close to another pack's border?

The memories came back to me, assaulting me all at once.

When I got to the part where the rogue was chasing me, I bit my lower lips until I tasted blood, willing to stiffen the groans and tears that threatened to spill out of my mouth. But that didn't help my matter. The groan escaped and the well of water flowed freely.

How could I have lost what was so important to me to a total stranger? A rogue for that matter? How was I ever to face Darius or Connor or my parents now?

I got up from where I lay and went in search of my bag, growling when I felt a slight pain beneath my thighs. I rippled off my tattered clothes and changed into a wet but clean dress. Once I changed, I sat back on the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees to cuddle myself.

Angry at myself for crying over spilled milk, I wiped my tears away and reminded myself that no amount of tears would undo the damage.

"Bella! Isabella?!" I heard Connor yell my name.

Apprehension dawned on me and I got up from where I sat. There was no way I would return to the pack. Not with what just happened. After getting humiliated, if they found out that I lost my virginity to a rogue, I would never be able to overcome the jesting and shame.

I picked up my small bag and turned in the opposite direction and began to run away from the voices and steps that were beginning to sound very near. Soon, I got to a road and flagged down a car that was on the way. Luckily for me, the car stopped and gave me a ride.

**********

Nine months later.

I raced to a corner of the bar and lunged over the floor just in time before the nausation took over me completely. I began to puke my breakfast out, to the point that I was afraid my intestine would follow after there was no more food in my stomach to let out.

After I escaped from my pack members who were searching for me, I found myself in the human world, with no home to live in and no food to eat. The only luck I had was the money I took with me when I was leaving home that night, almost nine months back.

I didn't leave with my cell phone, so the people from my pack had no means to reach me.

Barely three months after I sourced for a house with my money and got this job at the bar, I discovered that I was pregnant.

The stupid rogue had impregnated me.

Oh, how I cried my eyes out. The life I envisioned for myself was not what I got. The tears surfaced but I blinked them back. I already came to terms with my harsh reality.

"Are you okay?" Clara, a friend and workmate at the bar, said to me. She held out a handkerchief and I took it with a smile. I wiped my mouth with it and gave her another small smile. If it wasn't for her friendship, I didn't know what I would have done.

She was always checking on me from the moment she discovered I was pregnant. As a nursing student at her college, she always instructed me on things to do or not do so that my baby would be secured.

My baby.

I placed my hands on my belly in a protective gesture.

When I first discovered the pregnancy, I had wanted to abort it. But the doctor told me that if I did, with the position the baby was in, I might not be able to ever conceive again. Even more, there was a 50 percent chance I could lose my life in the process. In the end, I chose my life and that of the innocent child over my shame.

"Come on, get up." Clara helped me up.

We moved back to the bar together. As I returned to my space, I began to feel weird. The fact that I threw up was weird too, but I just attributed it to the fact that I might have eaten something bad that morning. Now, I wasn't so sure as my legs felt too heavy for me to carry and my waist hurt like I lost my bones in the area.

Unable to bear the pain any longer, I clutched the table of a customer.

"Let me get this straight," Sierra, another workmate that seemed to hate my very existence, snarled at me. "You went out there for over ten minutes and now that you return, all you do is rest?"

I didn't answer her. Even if I wanted to, the pain I was in was not going to give me that privilege.

"Answer me when I'm talking to you!" She yelled at me. When I still didn't give any response, she pushed me. Because of how my legs were already weak, I stumbled backward and fell.

At that moment, my water broke and I doubled over as another round of intense pain hit me.

Clara hurried to my side and helped me up. When she saw how wet I was, she snared at Sierra first, then gave me a nervous smile.

"Are you ready to be a mother?" She asked me.

"A mot...her?" I asked her, quite uncertain of her words.

"I think the baby wants to come now." She told me proudly.

"Fuck!" I yelled as it felt like a hammer was taken to my waist.

Clara's words hit me when the pain subsided a little.

I was going to be a mother soon?

But, was I ready for that role?

I didn't have time to think when another sharp pain took over me.