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.

smirk, and her dark hair is still wet from the

in my head, and I can’t blame him. It amazes me to know how attractive I once found this

aroma: the cloying combination of lemon and pine. At one time it had smelled natural and fresh to me, now it just reminds me of floor cleaner. I can’t smell a pup in her womb, which doesn’t mean she isn’t breeding,

down the hall when Ella was only ten days along, but it’s been two weeks since the apparent conception and I can’t detect a single hint of my own

pregnant, it’s not mine.” I announce,

can you say that!?” She exclaims. “I’m not some

quickly the bond between a father and pup forms. She probably thought she had plenty of time to figure out how to pass of the child as mine, or to conceive one for

never been pregnant, you couldn’t possibly know this,” I state coldly, watching her flinch at my cruel phrasing and imagining Ella scolding me for intentionally targeting

the right words. “Are you sure about that?” She finally

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 life, no tiny consciousness or connection. “I’m sure.” I proclaim fiercely.

fists, and she bares her fangs. “Goddess damn it!” She explodes, wrenching her body away from me and yanking her robe closed. “If

do you

throwing her hands up in exasperation. “Do you have any idea the lengths I went to in order to drug you, Dom? To get you back here? That was supposed to be the hard part but of course, you never make anything easy! You were out of your head on GHB, and still all you could think about was that little whore 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,

I clarify, relief coursing through