I Rejected My Alpha: The Heir You Sacrificed

For seven years, I dreamed of carrying my Alpha mate's child. But when the day finally came, Caleb didn't celebrate. Instead, he gave our pup's birthright away.

To save his childhood friend Brenna from being executed for carrying a rogue's pup, Caleb publicly swore a blood oath claiming her unborn child as his heir.

He swore to me it was just a temporary lie. He promised I was still his only mate.

But promises can't keep me alive. Carrying his powerful Alpha bloodline is tearing my fragile Omega body apart, and Caleb is too busy protecting Brenna to give me the mate's scent I need to survive.

...

When I told Caleb I was pregnant, I expected him to pick me up and spin me around the kitchen. We had spent seven years talking about a child. Instead, he stood beside the window of our lodge outside Asheville and stared past me into the trees.

"A pup," he said at last. His smile arrived a beat too late.

But when I pushed to schedule the blessing ceremony, he pivoted so hard I swallowed the rest of my sentence. Suddenly, there were endless 'emergencies' out on the borders of our Blue Ridge territory. He skipped ultrasounds. Blew off dinners. Left me alone in the dark on the nights I couldn't sleep. I fed myself the same excuses I fed everyone else, mostly because I still needed to believe them.

Then I went to the pack clinic alone for my checkup and heard his voice outside the emergency wing.

"Stay here," Caleb said. "I'll hold off the elders. No one is touching your pup while I have a say in who becomes Alpha heir."

I stepped behind the lobby partition. Caleb came out with Brenna, the girl he'd known since childhood. She leaned on his arm, one hand curved over a small, unmistakable swell. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, then told her not to upset herself; the pup was still fragile.

His face held the fear and tenderness I had hoped to see when I told him about our baby.

The receptionist called my name. I came out of the shadows, and Caleb saw me. His hand fell from Brenna's shoulder. For a moment neither of us moved. Yesterday I'd asked him to accompany me here; he had sworn he had to patrol the border. Now he stood within arm's reach of another pregnant woman, protecting her while his mate had crossed town feeling faint and sick.

I looked at Brenna's stomach. "How far along?"

Caleb opened his mouth, but Brenna answered first. Her scent turned sweet and sharp, a challenge aimed straight at me.

"Almost two months," she said. "It's Caleb's pup."

Two months. Exactly as long as I'd carried the child whose growing Alpha strength was already wearing down my body. I gripped the edge of the reception counter to keep my balance.

"Caleb. Tell me what's going on," I whispered.

Caleb came to me so fast Brenna took a step back. His pine scent wrapped around me; for a second my wolf stopped trembling. He held me and spoke close to my ear, as if Brenna and the rest of the clinic couldn't hear.

"Laurel, I lied about the patrol. I'm sorry. But the pup isn't mine. I swear it. There's nothing between me and Brenna."

I pushed against his chest and asked, "Then why did she say it is?"

"The father is a rogue. If the elders find out, they'll put her and the pup to death. She came to me because she had nowhere else to go. I had to get her safely into our territory."

That explained the secret visits. But it didn't explain the way he'd looked at Brenna or why he had left me to face my own appointment alone. Behind his shoulder, Brenna caught my eye. She wore a smile until he turned; then her face crumpled and tears filled her eyes.

"Caleb, please don't do this," she said. "Tomorrow, at the pack meeting, you said you'd swear to the Moon Goddess that you're the father."

Caleb's arms tightened around me. Brenna took another breath, loud enough for the patients by the doors to hear.

"You already made a blood oath to me!"