Chapter 2

Layla's POV

Kian stood behind his desk with both hands spread on the glass, his head bowed like he was bracing for my entrance.

"Grab that lamp and smash it across his treacherous idiotic fucking head!" Freja snarled furiously.

He looked up quickly and something moved across his face as his eyes landed on me.

Surprise, relief and a flash of guilt that made my stomach churn again. Then, all emotions were pushed away as the mask of a calm and capable son of an Alpha slid over his features.

"Twat." Freja snorted.

"Layla," he said softly. "You shouldn't be here."

"Funny," I purred with a dangerous edge, "That's exactly what I was going to tell Chelsea at the hospital."

His jaw tightened, the muscle ticking once and he came around the desk, slowly and carefully, like I was a stray dog that he didn't want to spook. He smelled like cologne and cold air and something that used to pull at me, but it didn't feel good now. It felt like a lie.

"You heard something then," he said. "Listen...I can explain."

"It's always nice when you've taken the time to practice the lines before you throw them at me," I smiled sweetly as I planted my feet and folded my arms in front of me as if I even cared what he had to say. "Go on then, explain yourself."

"She's sick," he said immediately. "Mate sickness. It happens when a rejected wolf spends too much time near a bond that isn't theirs and it can throw their system out of balance. The hormones can mimic pregnancy and the doctors said it's rare, but it's a documented reaction as the wolf loses its grip on reality. I just need you to delay the ceremony until she stabilizes...or at least finds a mate that will take her."

I laughed, because I couldn't believe he had actually said it out loud.

"Delay the ceremony?"

"Just for a quarter," he pushed, hands open like we were negotiating a contract. "Six months, maybe less. You can go abroad for training. Alpha Stone's program in Zurich sent you an acceptance letter, why don't you take it? It'll look like a career choice, rather than a scandal. When you get back, we can pick up where we left off and no one gets hurt."

"No one gets hurt?!" I scoffed, incredulous now, "You do hear yourself, right?"

"Kill him." Freja said simply as her cold fury rolled through me.

He took a deep breath and tried again.

Layla, "I'm trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what?! A dress fitting?! A couple of whispers?! My own ceremony?!"

I reached into my bag and pulled out the envelope with the wax seal that had been burning a hole through my kitchen counter for a week, and slammed it down on the table between us.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to say 'thank you'?" I sneered and his shoulders dropped a fraction.

I reached for the envelope on the table again and tore it straight down the middle and threw it at him. The pieces dropped to the floor uselessly and it had done nothing to calm the rage that I felt.

"Layla," he said as his wolf pushed into his voice to try and assert his authority over me, but I laughed. It would've worked last year when I was besotted with him, but not today, not now.

"You don't get to make me the one who leaves," I hissed, "You don't get to ask me to disappear just so your father can spin the story any way that paints him in a favourable light, and the elders can clap for his smart little boy. You don't get to tell me that Chelsea has some delicate case of mate sickness like the pack's never heard of a fucking pregnancy test before."

He went still and the air in the room changed suddenly as pressure slid over my skin.

"Careful Layla, you're pushing it with me now."

"Chelsea isn't a true blooded Whitecrown heir," I said clearly. "She's the nanny's kid. She always was and you and your father have known that since the start of this little arrangement between us. He can call her whatever makes him sleep easier at night, but it doesn't change the fact that it's my blood that seals this alliance and not the blood in her veins."

He did that thing where he shut down without looking like he shut down, his blank face, controlled hands, and eyes that didn't blink as he stared straight through me.

"Where did you hear that?"

"When I came back, I was treated like a fucking outsider and she was little Miss Golden Girl. My parents weren't thrilled that I'd been returned, because it meant that they couldn't pretend anymore, that she wasn't theirs. Why did you think that they sent me away when I started to notice everything? Did you forget that I grew up in this pack? I watched your mother write checks under different names when she thought no one was watching, I watched your father add a surname to a donor wall that didn't belong to her. I listened to elders talk too loudly after they drank too much...I'm not stupid, Kian. I'm just done pretending."

He rubbed a hand over his mouth and for a second the mask slipped. The boy I used to spar with in the training yard looked at me, the one who grinned through a split lip and told me that I hit like a meteor. Then the man that he had become...the disappointment, came back.

"This is complicated," he said. "There are Whitecrown oaths that you don't understand. My father is under a lot of pressure. If Chelsea's sick because of proximity to our bond, we owe her care. If the optics are bad, we manage them. I'm asking you to be pragmatic about this..."

"Pragmatic," I repeated with a sneer, "Here's pragmatic for you. If she's sick, she sees a doctor and gets a plan of treatment. If she's pregnant, then she says it out loud and the two of you deal with it like adults. If she's lying, she stops. And if you think I'm going to leave my life so you can manage your fucking optics, then you've lost the plot entirely."

"You think I'm choosing her," he said, a thread of anger finally sliding under the control. "I'm not."

"You escorted her through the hospital with your arm around her where the whole world could see," I snarled, my voice rising despite my best efforts. "You didn't shut the whispers down. You fed them. That's a choice, is it not?"

His mouth flattened and he took a step closer but I stepped back and his hand twitched like he wanted to reach for me.

"Don't," I warned him, Freja flashing in my eyes, "I mean it."

He stopped. The clock on the wall ticked loud enough in the background to make me want to throw it out the window.

"You should throw it at his fucking head and ask him if that's pragmatic enough for his fucking optics." Freja snorted.

He dragged in a breath and let it out slowly.

"Just...give me a week," he said. "I'll get the file and I'll show you the labs. You'll see it's mate sickness and not pregnancy. Then we can move forward and no one has to carry a stain on their reputation that they don't deserve."

"You're so noble, Kian, worrying about other people carrying smears on their reputation." I said ironically, "It's just funny how they keep ending up on me."

His eyes flicked to the torn letter on the floor.

"Zurich has the best training in the world, Layla. You'd come back stronger."

"I'll train here," I said. "With people who don't ask me to run away because of their mistakes."

He looked like he wanted to argue but I turned for the door.

"Layla," he said, and there was a crack in his voice, "Whatever you think. I never meant to hurt you."

I looked back because I'm cruel enough to slap him with the truth.

"No Kian, you just didn't mean to get caught."