Chapter 4

Selena's POV

His words pierced my heart. I had never felt a more terrible pain in my life. Not even when I was insulted and mocked by my pack’s members. Because I had always known that their words didn't make me, and therefore couldn't break me.

Now, however, hearing those same words from the man I had wholly given my heart to felt like a thousand needles in my ribcage. It got difficult to breathe, and nausea rose up in my throat again, reminding me of the child in my belly. 

I looked up at Rowan, and placed a trembling hand on my still flat belly. Anything could happen to me, but I had to think like a mother expecting a child. “I'm pregnant, Rowan.”

“Are you so desperate that you would try to bring that up as well? Have you no shame?” he said. 

I reached into my bag and brought out the pregnancy kit test that I had been keeping. It was truly pathetic that I had to use it for this reason; to prove something rather than to celebrate with my husband. 

I lifted it and got up to my feet so that he could see it. “Look at this. If you won't believe my words, at least believe this.”

“This doesn't prove anything, Selena,” he growled, taking it out of my hand and flinging it so hard on the ground that it shattered. “Is that child even my own?”

“Of course it is!” I answered. “I've never been with anyone else but you!”

“You're a liar. And this just proves how far you'd go to keep them up, guards!” 

I couldn't believe that I was getting treated like some common criminal, and by none other than Rowan. 

I glanced at the picture on the mega screen one more time, once again seeing the unfortunate picture of myself and that man. 

Who had taken the picture? The only other person that had known that I was going out  was Raven. . .

As though in tune with my thoughts, she smirked at me. 

No way. “It's not possible,“ I whispered to myself. She couldn't be the one that fabricated all these against me.

Two guards came up to the stage, waiting for orders from Rowan.

“Take this adulteress away.” Rowan said coldly, barely even looking at me.

“Rowan, I'm pregnant. Please don't do this,” I begged, reaching out for him. Hands clamped around my shoulders. “Please!”

“Even if you are pregnant, it can't be for my brother. Go and meet that man you have been cheating on him with. You won't pin a bastard on our family.” Raven said. To the guards, she commanded, “Take her away!”

The men started to pull me away by the arms. I resisted as much as I could, struggling to hang on to anything that I could say to reach Rowan's mind.

“Rowan, you know me. You know I would never do such a thing. I was tricked. Please believe me. I beg you!”

He shut his eyes and turned away from me. The woman by his side wrapped her arms around him, offering him the comfort and warmth that he was only ever supposed to get from me.

What would happen now that she was his new Luna? Would they immediately start having children?

“Rowan!” I called out to him again.

He answered, turning to me with a furious look on his face. He moved close to me, but not close enough to touch me. “It's Alpha King to you. Let that sink in.” His voice dropped lower. “I trusted you. I got mocked every single day because I thought of not only being with you, but also having the bravery to marry you despite warnings, and this is all you can repay me with?

“And now you're here, telling me that you're carrying my child, when we haven't even been together for a while now. Is there any end to your lies? What exactly did I do to deserve such wickedness, Selena?”

More tears poured out of my eyes. “I don't know how this happened to me, Rowan. You didn't even come to me. You just went ahead and took another woman as your Luna on this special day that was meant for both of us. When did you start doubting me?”

“You cheated on me, Selena. And I will never forgive that. I am only doing what I should have a long time ago.”

A gasp dropped from my mouth because I couldn't believe what he just said. “What do . .you. mean…? Remember, this is my pack, Rowan!”

He leaned away from me and signalled the guards holding me to continue taking me away. “Take her to the pack borders and leave her there. Maybe her lover will come and pick her up,” he said, voice full of poison.

Before I knew what was happening, his mother stood before me and landed a terrible slap across my cheek, completely stunning me. 

Bells sounded in my ears, but his mother's vile words couldn't be blocked out. “You have guts, I'll give you that. How dare you try and defend yourself after the shame you have brought upon us?!”

Raven held her mother back, but not out of goodwill. “It's alright, mother. There's no need to lose your temper. She's not worth your anger,” she said, eyeing me with contempt. “She's just a worthless nobody that thought she actually had a place amongst us.”

——

After the guards dragged me outside the hall, Raven came to meet us before they could shove me inside their car and take me away.

She waved them off.  “Give us a few minutes alone,” she said.

They bowed at her and obeyed.

Not even up to three seconds when they were out of earshot, she shoved a finger into my forehead, until my back bumped against the car. “You're so disgusting that I shouldn't even get my hands dirty touching you.”

“Raven, what's this? Why are you doing this to me? We were like sisters.”

“Goddess forbid! Me? Your sister?” She giggled in a very odd way. “You're even more delusional than I thought. Let me set things straight; you were nothing to me. At best, you were simply a tool I could use to keep my brother occupied until the moment you were no longer needed.”

“What are you talking about? Did you actually do this, Raven? Was Rowan aware of this?”

“Of course he was. My poor brother,” she smiled evilly at me. “But it was all my idea. It's just something your simple brain wouldn't understand anyway, so I don’t need to explain anything to you.”

“I’m expecting his baby, your niece or nephew and I…” I mumbled in tears, wondering why the two people I trusted wanted me out so bad.

She glanced down at my belly. “As far as I'm concerned, you're not even meant to be able to conceive. Those pills you’ve been taking are not fertility pills. They were meant to destroy your womb so you and your phantom baby can go and exist elsewhere far, far away from my family.”

Finally, she moved away from me and called the guards back.

I was too stunned to speak at her revelations as I was put into the car, and just like that, taken away like some common criminal. 

As the car drove off, the memory of Raven's wicked smile remained burned into my memory so much so that it slipped into my chest and set fire to my heart.

My baby and I would survive this. And then they would know what it really meant to be worthless.

They would all know.