My chest felt like it might cave in as I stormed through the hospital’s double doors, the fluorescent lights overhead doing nothing to ease the pounding in my skull. Danielle had finally fallen asleep curled against me like a child and the second I knew she wouldn’t wake, I got the hell out.
I needed answers. Needed to see Felicia.
But when I shoved open her hospital room door, my feet froze.
Empty.
The bed was perfectly made. The sheets tucked with surgical precision. The window was cracked open, the curtain swaying gently in the breeze like it was mocking me.
“Where the hell is she?” I growled under my breath, pacing the room like a caged animal. This didn’t make sense. She was barely standing when I brought her in. She couldn’t have just disappeared.
I turned and strode down the hall, ignoring the stares from nurses and patients alike. I found the doctor’s office and pushed the door open without knocking.
He was scribbling something on a pad, but he looked up the moment I entered. His eyes narrowed slightly, like he’d been expecting me.
“Where is she?” I snapped, stepping forward.
His face tightened, jaw working like he was chewing on a secret he wasn’t sure he wanted to spit out.
“She left,” he muttered finally.
I blinked. “She what?”
“She left.”
The words hit like a slap. My hands clenched into fists at my sides. “What do you mean she left? She could barely stand!”
The doctor looked away. That silence only fueled the fire building in my gut. I was about to turn and rip apart the damn hospital if I had to when his voice stopped me cold.
“I’m loyal to you, Alpha,” he said quietly, almost cautiously. “But there’s something you need to know.”
Something in his tone made me turn back. I walked slowly to the chair in front of his desk and sat down, my eyes boring into his. “Then tell me.”
He hesitated. Coward.
“Now,” I snapped.
He flinched, then nodded. “The Luna asked me not to tell you. She was very clear.”
My stomach turned. “What did she say?”
“She said she didn’t want to burden you.”
Burden?
He took a breath. “She’s pregnant.”
The word didn’t register at first. My brain rejected it outright. “What?”
“She’s pregnant,” he repeated, firmer this time. “With your child.”
I stood so fast the chair toppled behind me. My heart slammed against my ribs like it was trying to escape my chest.
Pregnant?
Felicia?
I stared at him, the room spinning slightly. “I—I didn’t know…”
“She didn’t want you to.”
The doctor’s words felt like knives. I turned to walk out, needed air, needed anything but this claustrophobic silence pressing in around me—but then he added, “She’s not just carrying a child, Alpha.”
I froze.
“What do you mean?”
He looked me dead in the eye. “Twins.”
My knees buckled. I caught myself against the wall, my breath coming in ragged, shallow bursts.
Twins.
She was carrying my twins.
My throat tightened. I felt the floor tilt beneath me. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.
All this time… the one thing I’d wanted. An heir. A legacy. And she’d been carrying it—carrying them—while I was wrapped up in Danielle’s bed.
A hollow laugh almost escaped my throat, but it died there.
“She’s leaving,” I muttered, barely hearing myself. “She’s taking them and leaving.”
The doctor didn’t say a word.
I rubbed both hands down my face. Rage, grief, regret — it all warred inside me, tearing me apart from the inside.
“Twins…” I whispered again, as if maybe saying it aloud would make it real.
But it was real. And I was too late.