The Alpha's Hidden Heir - The heir

p on the c

and vast and scattered with stars - and the stone wall at her back and the

rld hadn't

t came

of

e. The crowd turni

sed her

the cold of the ground anchor her to something real. Then she pr

legs

re

-

't go ba

ough the dark paths behind the pack house. Past the training grounds. Past the old maple grove. Pas

il her legs st

usic from the ceremony

and stood in the dark and presse

came bac

ct the

from her stomach like th

oes tha

there for

gave her

-

self it was

ht it like all pack children were taught it, the biology of broken bonds. Diz

as all

ymp

eally had and her mind had produced a st

at for approxim

-

sicknes

s different. Physical and specific and arriving on a s

were th

the nausea before it crested. Some days she made it. Some days she was on

dry cr

er she couldn

erself it

t convinc

n the library, doing the work she always did, invi

cof

l pot someone had left on the

ad to grip the shelf with both hands and press

e for a long t

her stomach witho

led the

ready fully formed, sitting in the center of her mi

-

he pack heale

ren used for private consultations. Aurora had chosen midnight deliberately. She'd wai

ked thre

came o

oor o

ades keeping other people's secrets. She looked at Aurora in the doorway - took in the dar

ck without ask

in," s

-

was smal

examination table in the center of the room with a paper sheet Aurora sat o

t start?" M

nds. "The morning sickness. The smell s

was

eful. Precise. "You were at

es

ceremony - in

to her hands. "Seven weeks ago. There w

't need

ssion had alr

-

ination

the answer and was simply confirming it. She used the old methods - the on

d very

iling and kept her breathing even and told herself that

t three time

ure she beli

-

esults on the t

teppe

and looked at Aurora with an expression that was trying v

regnant,"

landed wit

ut so

in the warm air of the annex between two wome

didn'

ooking at

me out steadier than she'd expecte

." Maren paused. "Consistent

th Kael Draven

the room like so

said n

-

long enough to be

sat up

table and sat there, hands in her lap, a

gna

weeks

m her in front of two hundred wolves without a backward glance. Who was currently planning a future with a

r hands agains

e didn't pul

-

know," Maren

a loo

rds carefully - too carefully, the way people did w

w," Auro

arrying Alph

ow." Aurora's voice was fl

th no rank, no family, no-" She stopped herself. Took a breath. "Aurora. I'm telling you this because I wan

ng to do," Au

re were

omething with a

r hands, still presse

bout the voic

ct the

ase of those four words. The way he'd turned away before th

up in this pack. Claimed. Used. Raised to serve a blood

jaw

-

time," s

produced a glass bottle - pale green, stoppered with wax. "Take this. It will he

took th

both hands an

helping me?

quiet fo

tched what this pack does with things it decides are inconvenient." She held Aur

ra n

own from

bottle in he

d toward

-

ror

tu

surface. She hadn't touched them. She was just looking at them, with the expression of s

t came, was barel

d should n

looked

bout the voic

he kept pressing against her

g - and then she thought about what she was going to do

Aurora sa

ened t

d out int

-

back to her roo

ex in the cold and looked

egn

en w

the man who had

nd against her stom

came - low and sourceless and

ct the

she whisp

whatever ancient thing had de

kn

arted w

reat deal to

very mu