Chapter One – Pregnant

Lyra

"Congratulations, Lyra. The test came back positive - you're pregnant!"

Those four simple words detonated like a bomb inside me, the shock waves rippling through my body in dizzying waves. For several heartbeats, I could only gape at Dr. Williams in stunned silence, her kind smile blurring before my eyes.

Pregnant?

After so many crushing disappointments, so many dreams deferred until I had nearly abandoned hope?

It seemed too impossible to be real.

But then Ria's ecstatic howls reverberated through my soul, shattering the disbelief. My inner wolf thrummed with fierce maternal pride and protective instincts.  

"Finally! All those cycles of heartache were not in vain," she crowed triumphantly. "Our dearest wish has been granted at last!"

"Dear goddess..." The whispered words escaped in a tremulous rush as hot tears burned my eyes. Emotions detonated inside me in a dizzying vortex - disbelief, elation, overwhelming gratitude, and bone-deep relief all swirling together.

Bitter memories resurfaced, unbidden. The degrading sideways looks from pack mates who deemed me a failure.

The cruel nicknames muttered behind cupped hands - barren Luna, wasted omega, useless breeder.

And beneath it all, the gnawing anguish of failure every time my cycle came, my womb cruelly empty once again.

"Don't take their words to heart," Ria growled fiercely, sensing my pain. "Those ingrates do not deserve to bask in our triumph. This new life is ours alone to cherish, born of our enduring devotion."

"You're right!" I uttered in my mindlink with Ria, and smiled at the doctor.

Dr. Williams returned the warm smile. "I know you've been through much, even give up hope at some point."

"This has been an incredibly difficult journey for you and your fiance," she said, rubbing my hand gently.

"This time the implantation was successful against all odds. You've beaten every potential obstacle - from embryo viability to hormonal imbalances to immune rejection."

Her warm hazel eyes crinkled with a knowing smile as she patted my hand. "The Semen insemination has been perfect. Now you can focus entirely on taking care of the child... Take good care of yourself and your little one."

"Thank you," I whispered, wiping away the little tears that slid down my cheeks. "Thank you for never giving up on us.... I can't do this without you."

"I have to go... I can't wait to share the news with him." I smiled.

Offering up a silent prayer to the moon goddess, I clutched the positive test results to my chest like a lifeline as I exited the reproductive health clinic into the bustling midday streets of LA.

The cacophony of car horns and distant sirens barely registered past the deafening thunder of my racing heart and Ria's triumphant howls echoing endlessly between my ears.

"Can you believe it?" she cried, her joy so palpable it was dizzying. "After all those grueling treatments and disappointments, the insemination finally worked! We are going to have a child of our very own!"

An almost giddy laugh bubbled up from my chest in response to her elation. Unable to contain my brilliant smile, I clutched my tummy with trembling fingers as if I could somehow sense the microscopic new life taking root inside me.

My child. My flesh and blood, even though the sperm donor was not him, we tried his and it didn't work. But no one would know.... and now Dad would accept you as the perfect Alpha for the pack as my mate.

Damien...

Anticipation and yearning surged through me at the thought of sharing this news with my beloved Damien.

The alpha wolf whose steadfast love and quiet strength had been the only thing holding me together through our struggle to conceive.

Damien had been the rock in the crashing waves of my despair, the beacon who had guided me through those times when I felt defective and unworthy.

His tender devotion and enduring belief in me had been an anchor keeping me tethered to hope even when I wanted to drift away.

Tears stung my eyes anew as longing and disbelief mingled inside me in a potent brew. How many times had my period arrived like a cruel omen, forcing me to break the news of yet another failure?

How many times had I cried heart-broken apologies into his strong embrace while he cradled me and whispered soothing words into my hair?

And how many times had he cupped my anguished face in his calloused palms and vowed it would be alright, that our time would come, binding his soul to mine through our ancient mating union?

Well, our time had finally arrived, and this sacred miracle would be the ultimate validation of his unshakable faith in me.

"The child we've dreamed of," Ria mused as we exited the clogged city streets into the wooded sanctuary harboring our pack's ancestral territory. "Just imagine Damien's joy. His devotion will only deepen when you tell him he's to have an heir, a strong and healthy puppy sure to become a great alpha like its father."

The sudden dissonant spike of anger in her mental voice pulled me up short, every sense abruptly tuned to high alert. Primal maternal instincts surged molten beneath my skin as the fine hairs on the nape of my neck rose. Something wasn't right here.

"What was that?"

An unfamiliar, caustic scent drifted on the crisp breeze, setting my nerves jangling. I scanned the swaying pine boughs overhead and dense underbrush sprawling to either side of the secluded dirt trail, but saw nothing amiss. Still, the apprehensive prickle refused to fade.

"Be on guard, Lyra," Ria warned, a low growl resonating in the depths of my psyche. "We are being watched... Hunted."

Gripped by this unseen threat, my steps became measured and cautious as I entered my pack's territory, the  forest domain beckoned ahead.

But even the soothing familiarity of home could not fully chase off the unmistakable sense that malicious eyes tracked my every move.

The protective need to shield my unborn child sharpened every sense to a razored edge.

Whatever predator lurked in the shadows, I promise it would not prevent me from sharing my joyous news with my mate. From starting the family we had longed for against all odds. This hard-won miracle deserved to be cherished, and no one would steal that from us.

But even as I pressed onward into our pack's sheltering embrace, dread coiled through my veins.

For the faintest scent riding the breeze was one I recognized after all, and it chilled my soul to name it - the sickly sweet odor of Seraphina Bloodmoon's predatory obsession with my mate.

Without knowing how or why, my elation had put us in the sights of a deadly danger craving only opportunity to strike.

Little did I know, in that moment, the pain and betrayal in store for us both. The destruction that would soon be unleashed on my life.