Pregnant And Rejected

Chapter 22 The Alpha is Dead

Selene’s POV

“Selene, are you ready?” Odette is knocking on the dressing room door, her kind voice unusually somber.

“Yes.” I call, smoothing my skirts. “You can come in.”

The door pushes open, and my mother-in-law’s lovely face peeks inside. She sidles through the narrow opening, approaching me with a wistful expression. “Oh my darling.” Odette murmurs bleakly, her eyes shining as she studies my reflection. “I really thought you two would make it.”

“I thought we might too” I admit, keeping my gaze high to ward off tears. “For a while.”

Her hand closes around mine, squeezing gently. “What happened, Selene?” She asks gently.

All at once it hits me that I’m not merely losing my husband, but the only parental figures I’ve known since my mother died. I swipe at an escaped tear, “It’s what Bastien wants.”

Odette frowns, the edges of her warm brown eyes crinkling beneath the weight of her drawn brows. She opens her mouth to speak but before any words can escape, all the blood drains from her face in a frenzied rush, leaving her white as a sheet. Her eyes go wide and her body crumples, bowing and bending against her will. Her mouth gapes open in a breathless gasp, emitting a strangled cry.

“Odette!” | exclaim, catching her by the arms so she does not fall. “What’s wrong?”

Her mouth is opening and closing soundlessly, her body trembling beneath my hands. “It’s Gabriel.”

Before I can stop her, Odette rips herself from my hold, flying out of the room and down the hall. I race after her, blood rushing in my ears. I’ve never seen someone look so anguished, so afraid.

moment they see the look on Odette’s face. She bursts

whimper. I do not need to see her stumble back against the door frame, sinking to the ground with shaking limbs. I do not need to hear the screams that follow, or the weeping. I do not need to see her crawling across the floor on her hands and knees, seeking something just out of sight of the

Gabriel’s blood, her body thrown atop his, wracked with violent, heaving sobs.

back my own grief. I can’t fall apart, not when others are hurting so badly. Odette needs me to keep it together,

of irrational panic I try to come up with any possible plan to stop them. He shouldn’t have to see this, he shouldn’t have to lose

thick blood seeps into my wedding dress, smearing over my skin and pooling beneath our huddled bodies. The stench of death is thick in the air, and I can almost imagine I smell the

of heavy running footsteps meet my ears, and I know my prayers have not been

trembles, I could cry from the look on Bastien’s face alone. He looks so lost, a child adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

his eyes never leaving his father’s body. Sinking to his knees by my side, Bastien roars with fury and despair. I watch helplessly as he sinks forward, lowering his head to Gabriel’s too-still form, his hands clenched in

as he does now. The sight of my indomitable husband broken and helpless tips me over the edge.

hauls me into his lap, squeezing me like a security blanket while he pulls his mother into his other

there, grasping Bastien’s shoulder and gently telling him we need to move

his grief, Bastien nods, setting me on my feet. I stand protectively at his side while he attempts to rouse Odette, trying to pull her from Garbiel’s body as tenderly as possible. She won’t budge. She bares her fangs and snarls at her son, clutching her mate’s body so tightly her hands shake almost as violently as her

shock. I’ve seen Bastien assert his dominance over countless pack members over the years in precisely this way – I’ve experienced it myself on a handful of occasions – but to see it happening

Odette to her feet, and Aiden asks Dr. Kane to administer a sedative. While the doctor speaks with

his attention to my face. “I’m going

clamp down on my hips, his grip so strong I fear I might bruise. His head shakes slightly from right to left, and I think he’s going to

lips to

blood from Odette and tucking her in with the help of the doctor’s sleeping pills, I return to the Alpha’s office. Gabriel’s body has been removed and though the once-cozy space is now full

desk, his head cradled in his hands. The man I knew a few hours ago is gone, replaced by a leader with the weight of the

I