Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zachary's POV

The ink on the parchment was barely dry, yet the weight of my signature hung heavier than the air in this cursed room. My hand still trembled as I stared at the damning order, the scrawl of my own name sealing Eirene’s fate.

I couldn’t breathe. The room felt smaller, the walls inching closer with every tick of the clock. My chest constricted, and I fought to keep my composure.

"The traitor is with child," the healers had announced, their voices a strange mixture of awe and hesitation, as though they knew the storm their words would ignite.

And ignite it did.

I saw their eyes on me—on my shaking hands, my unreadable face—as they waited for my reaction. The announcement hung in the room like a guillotine ready to drop. But my silence betrayed nothing.

My silence screamed louder than any words could.

I didn't look at her unconscious body, those serene features. I couldn't.

The guards carried her unconscious body back to her cell, rage flooded my insides as I watched foreign men touch her, carry her.

My fists clench.

But I stayed there. Doing nothing.

And when they took her away, I saw her lips moving, whispering just one thing in her half conscious state.Her voice—soft, broken, yet unyielding—as she muttered, "You know it's yours, Zach. You know it."

She didn’t scream or cry. She didn’t beg. She simply let those words linger in the air, haunting me, burning into my mind like the cruelest of brands.

And she was right.

I knew it. Deep in the recesses of my heart—buried beneath layers of doubt, betrayal, and anger—I knew the child she carried was mine.

But knowing didn’t erase the pain.

I gripped the edge of the desk, my knuckles turning white as I forced myself to focus on the parchment. The order to keep her imprisoned stared back at me, my signature a traitor in its own right.

The words seemed to mock me, the weight of them pressing down on my chest like a stone.

How had it come to this?

Eirene. The name itself felt like a wound—a memory of fire and warmth that now burned with the sting of betrayal.

She betrayed me.

But had she?

I shook my head, the spiral of doubt threatening to pull me under. My beta, Ron stood at the door, his presence a reminder of the duty I owed my people.

“Beta,” I said, my voice rough and low. “Investigate.”

“Alpha?”

“The child,” I clarified, the words tasting like poison. “I want proof. I want the truth.”

His hesitation was brief, but it was enough to make my jaw clench.

“You want me to—”

“Do it!” I barked, my voice echoing in the empty room. “Quietly. I need to know.”

He nodded and left without another word, but the silence that followed his departure was deafening.

I sank into the chair behind my desk, my head falling into my hands.

She betrayed me.

But her eyes… gods, her eyes… they haunted me. They were always so damn honest. When she looked at me earlier—through the haze of exhaustion, pain, and fire—I didn’t see deceit. I didn’t see a liar or a traitor.

I saw the woman I loved.

The woman who had once been my entire world.

I squeezed my eyes shut, the memory of her voice breaking me all over again. "You know it’s yours, Zach."

I did.

But what if I was wrong?

What if this child was the result of her betrayal?

What if my rage, my jealousy, my heartbreak had all been justified?

And what if I’d just signed an order that condemned not only her but our unborn child?

I felt sick.

Pushing myself to my feet, I paced the length of the room, the weight of my indecision clawing at me. I was a king, a leader—meant to be decisive, unwavering. But this… this was a battle I couldn’t win.

Because the enemy wasn’t out there. It was within me.

And no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t escape the truth.

I didn’t doubt her.

I doubted myself.

The fire of jealousy, the cracks of betrayal, the whispered lies—they had all blinded me, leaving me to question the one thing I never should have: her.

And now, she was sitting in a cold cell, bearing the life we had created together. Alone.

I slammed my fist against the wall, the pain a welcome distraction from the storm inside me. The beta would investigate. He would find the truth.

But until then, I would bear the weight of my choices.

And pray that I hadn’t made the biggest mistake of my life.

If she was carrying my child, the game had just changed.

She has a part of me living inside her. My blood.

And I would burn the entire world before any harm comes to my child.

She will give me my heir, my blood to me. And no one can stop me from taking what’s mine.