Chapter 67

Elara

The nausea hit the second I opened my eyes the next morning.

I barely made it to the bathroom in time, my hands gripping the edge of the toilet as I heaved and my hair sticking to the sweat that was gathering at the nape of my neck.

This was the third morning in a row, and it was only a matter of time before Alaric caught onto what was happening. I didn’t want him to find out about my pregnancy from watching me vomit my guts up every morning; I wanted to tell him personally.

I had to tell him today.

After splashing cold water over my face, I padded back into the bedroom and dug through the bottom drawer of the dresser, where I kept the pregnancy tests.

Of course, I had already taken one test before, a couple of weeks ago. I knew it would still be positive. But if I was going to tell Alaric, I wanted proof—something tangible I could give him, just to make it all the more real.

So I took the second test.

And of course, it was positive.

Seeing those two little lines again filled me with an unbridled joy. A child. Alaric’s and my child—a piece of both of us.

Ella and Zoe held our entire hearts, of course. They were our children in all the ways that mattered, and I would never view them any differently, even with another little one in the mix.

But this felt like a missing puzzle piece, a link connecting our family into something whole, something cohesive and eternal.

A small smile tugged at my lips as I wrapped up the test and carefully tucked it into the pocket of my cardigan. Whatever else was happening in this house, whatever lingering ghosts Sarah had reawakened during her return, none of it mattered now. This was bigger than the bitterness that had been growing under my ribs.

I could already picture his reaction—how his hand would instinctively find the small of my back, his forehead pressed against mine as he smiled softly and told me that everything would be okay.

Because it would be okay. Right?

Taking a deep breath, I smoothed my hair back and straightened my clothes, suddenly feeling surprisingly anxious to find him and tell him the truth that I’d been hiding for weeks now.

But when I stepped out into the hall and made my way downstairs, I was met by Sarah, standing at the bottom step like she had been waiting for me.

Why was she always there wherever I went? It was a huge house. Two people could go days without running into each other here and yet she seemed to be around every corner, always ‘unexpectedly’ bumping into me when I just wanted five minutes of space.

Her eyes flicked up to me almost lazily. “Morning.”

I ignored the clench of my stomach. “Morning. Is Alaric downstairs?”

Sarah’s lips curved faintly, but there was nothing warm in the expression. “He left early this morning. Something about handling that trafficking investigation. Why do you need to know?”

I went to stride past her, but to my surprise, she stepped in my way and folded my arms.

Something in me snapped then. Maybe it was the postponed wedding, or the annulled marriage certificate, or the fact that Sarah was always coyly in my business, making small comments that felt like tiny daggers poking at me.

Or maybe it was because I was tired of thinking about everyone else. And maybe, for once, I wanted to think about myself. Stand up for myself.

“Alaric is my fiancé,” I said with as much coolness as I could muster, although I made no attempt to hide the distaste in my eyes. “I have every right to check in with him.”

Sarah’s smile twitched, but her nose wrinkled as her eyes flicked up and down my body.

“Fiancé.” She repeated the word like it left a sour taste in her mouth and reached up to pick a piece of nonexistent lint from her sleeve. “I wouldn’t get too comfortable with that title if I were you.”

I froze.

Her eyes sharpened, glinting as she took a step closer, her voice lowering into something colder—something that slithered beneath my skin like a snake.

“He’s not really your fiancé, you know,” she said, her head tilting slightly. “Your marriage won’t happen. You’re nothing compared to me.”

The floor shifted, and suddenly, I thought I might be sick again.

“Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can take my place,” Sarah continued, either oblivious to my anger or just choosing to ignore it. “You’re just a dirty little Omega homewrecker.”

The words landed like ice down my spine, and I swore I felt the house shrink around me.

I stood there, hand curling around the wooden banister, as Sarah brushed past, her perfume lingering like poison in the air.

I should have said something. Anything.

But I couldn’t. It wasn’t out of cowardice, but rather because I could barely even breathe, let alone speak. So, these were her true colors. I knew she didn’t like me, didn’t like the position I’d taken up in Alaric’s life, but this… I expected better from her. Better from the woman who Alaric had once loved.

The door shut softly behind her, and she was gone.

I exhaled sharply once I was alone, blinking rapidly to keep the stinging tears at bay. I wouldn’t let her make me cry, but there was no way to fully shake those cruel words she had just uttered.

Dirty little Omega homewrecker.

I tried to brush it off—tried to let it slide the way I always did when people spoke about me like that. But this time it stuck.

She had been held captive for years, I kept reminding myself. She was angry. Hurt. Maybe part of her was lashing out because she didn’t know how else to cope with the life she’d stepped back into. She had been ripped out of her home, forced into captivity, and when she returned, she felt as if she’d been replaced.

But none of that made the word feel any less like a knife to my gut. That was cruel—far too cruel. It wasn’t my fault that she had been taken, that her life had been upended. And it wasn’t anyone’s fault that Alaric had moved on, believing that she was truly gone for good.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled the pregnancy test out of my coat and traced the two pink lines with the tip of my finger. The sight of it made a soft smile tug at the edges of my lips, and for a moment, everything else fell away.

Still, as I curled my fingers around the pregnancy test, the house suddenly felt much colder than it had before.

I decided, then, that I had to tell Alaric when he came home later. Not just about the pregnancy, but Sarah’s cruel words. He deserved to know if this sort of thing was happening in our home—if such things were being said to his fiancee, his mate, the mother of Zoe and Ella and the mother of his unborn child.

All of those things considered, Alaric couldn’t possibly side with Sarah, could he?