Accidental Surrogate

Sinclair

When I arrive at Lydia’s hotel, I’m still thinking about Ella.

We’ve been doing well over the last two weeks, keeping our relationship affectionate but resisting our shared desires as best we can. So far we’ve been able to avoid getting more intimate than we’d already become before the doctor ordered bed rest, but the sexual tension is still building – and the suggestion that Ella could be less irresistible is nothing short of ridiculous.

What’s more, the baby is making her more wolf-like every day, and I’m worried our restraint can’t last much longer. Her efforts to scent mark me today made that only too obvious. Before long she’s going to start pushing me like any she-wolf denied her needs, either challenging my dominance or seducing me outright. It will be up to me to resist, even though denying her needs goes against my every instinct.

I know we made the right decision about staying just friends, especially since I’ve already let my attraction to Ella distract me from the campaign more than once. I was so preoccupied with the beautiful human that I missed rogues pouring into my borders, and it cost the pack dearly. I got drugged and apparently bred like a prize stud because I was too busy gushing about her to a pack of bar flies than keeping my guard up.

None of that is to mention the harm I’m doing to Ella and our baby by keeping her in this fraudulent political game. I need to confirm Lydia’s pregnancy or find another Luna – and whomever I choose would never accept me having a relationship with Ella in private. That means we have to find a way to be together without romance getting in the way, and so far we’re failing. I’m failing her – again.

I knock on the door of Lydia’s room, trying to push down memories of the last time I was here. I can’t decide how I feel about this supposed pregnancy. On one hand, the last thing I want is to have Lydia back in my life. On the other, a baby born from her would solve some of my problems – the pack would accept me returning to my fated mate more easily than they would understand me leaving Ella for another woman.

Still, I can’t help but thinking the best solution to all this would be to find a she-wolf to be my Luna after the campaign, and to keep Rafe as my heir. That way we avoid Lydia’s awfulness, while still giving Ella the safety and comfort she deserves.

can consider the idea further, the door swings open, revealing Lydia in a hotel bathrobe. She’s wearing a knowing smirk, and her dark hair is still wet from the shower. “Dominic, I’ve been expecting

me to know how attractive I once found this woman. The idiocy of youth, I suppose, and the cruel tricks of

one time it had smelled natural and fresh to me, now it just reminds me of floor cleaner. I can’t smell

it’s been two weeks since the apparent conception and I can’t detect

you are pregnant, it’s not mine.”

that!?” She exclaims. “I’m not some slut, Dominic, I don’t

She probably thought she had plenty of time to figure out how to

flinch at my cruel phrasing and imagining Ella scolding me for intentionally targeting her weak spot. “But if you were carrying my child, I would be able

opens and closes as she struggles to find the right words. “Are you sure about that?” She finally challenges, “you wouldn’t want to risk being wrong about something so

uncinching her robe. I press my palm to her stomach, telling myself that she deserves this and more. After all, this is nothing compared to drugging someone and sleeping with them when they can’t consent. Again I feel nothing, no pulse of

She explodes, wrenching her body away

do you mean, if

of yours! You didn’t want anything to do with me, you kept going back and forth between gushing over how wonderful she is and asking for her, trying to leave so you could go find her. I had to practically tie you down just to keep you here, and then nothing I tried got you even a little aroused – I should have shown you her photo, I’m sure you would have been hard in

I