Pregnant And Rejected: The Alpha's Cruel Choice

I gave up a prestigious scholarship to Zurich to become the architect of the Obsidian Pack, believing Alpha Emilio was my Fated Mate. I spent four years building his walls, his training grounds, and his legacy, waiting for the Mark that never came.

On the night I planned to tell him I was pregnant with his heir, he stood on the dais and publicly gave my custom-designed Luna bracelet to his mistress's son.

Desperate and heartbroken, I stepped forward to reveal the truth about our baby. Emilio didn't offer comfort. Instead, he used the Alpha Command.

"Sit down, Elana."

The force of his voice was a physical blow. It threw me off the stage and slammed me onto the stone floor. The impact didn't just break my body; it severed the life of our unborn pup.

As I lay bleeding out, Emilio didn't look at me with regret. He shielded his mistress, Hayden, from the sight of my pain.

"Get her out of here," he told the guards coldly. "If she dies as a Rogue in the woods, it's just nature."

He thought he was discarding a broken tool. He thought I would die in the river.

He didn't know that I would wash up on the shores of the Silver Alps.

He didn't know that their Alpha, the most powerful wolf in Europe, had been admiring my designs-and me-from afar for years.

Three months later, I returned to the Obsidian Pack.

I didn't come back to build his walls. I came back to tear them down.

Chapter 1

Elana POV

The scent of graphite and aged parchment usually served as my sanctuary, grounding me in lines and logic. But tonight, the air in the drafting room reeked of anxiety-acrid and sharp.

My fingers were stained a smudge of charcoal gray as I smoothed out the final blueprint for the Obsidian Pack's new northern defense wall.

It was a masterpiece of engineering, if I did say so myself. Hidden ballistae, reinforced concrete facings textured to mimic natural granite, and escape tunnels calibrated narrowly enough that only a wolf in human form could slip through.

"It's brilliant, Elana," Ayla whispered, leaning over the drafting table. As the Pack's Beta female, her approval carried weight, but as my only real friend, her concern carried more. "Truly. The Council will have to acknowledge you this time."

"I don't need the Council," I murmured, my eyes darting to the heavy oak doors of the meeting hall. "I just need him."

The doors swung open.

Alpha Emilio strode out, and his presence hit the room like a physical shockwave-a wall of heat and dominance. He smelled of rain-soaked earth and ozone-a scent that used to make my inner wolf purr with instinctive contentment. Now, it just made her pace in jagged, nervous circles.

He walked past the table, his gaze sliding over the intricate drawings that had cost me three weeks of sleepless nights without truly seeing them.

"Emilio," I started, my voice trembling slightly. "The northern wall designs. They are ready."

He didn't stop. He didn't even slow down. He just reached out, his large hand brushing the top of my head in a gesture one might use for a well-behaved golden retriever.

"Good job, Luna," he murmured, his voice low and smooth.

*Luna.*

The word hung in the air, a shimmering, empty promise. He called me that in private, or when he needed something, but I had no Mark on my neck. No ceremony. Just a title whispered in the dark to keep me compliant.

"He didn't even look at it," Ayla hissed as Emilio walked away, disappearing down the corridor. "Elana, you gave up the scholarship to the Zurich Academy for this? To be his glorified architect?"

"He's my Fated Mate, Ayla," I said, rolling up the parchment, though my hands shook so hard the paper crinkled. "He's just busy. Being Alpha is a heavy burden."

"He's not too busy for *her*," Ayla muttered darkly.

I ignored her. I had to. Because if I listened, the cracks in my heart would shatter wide open.

I forced myself to remember college. The first time I Shifted, my bones breaking and rearranging in agony. Emilio had been there. He had wrapped me in his jacket, his scent anchoring me to reality. *I will give you a home,* he had promised. *Build our future, Elana.*

So I built. I built the packhouse extension. I built the training grounds. And tonight, I had built the wall that would keep us safe.

Later that evening, the air in the Great Hall was thick with anticipation. I stood near the back, clutching a small velvet box in my pocket. Inside was a positive pregnancy test.

I was going to tell him tonight. A pup. An heir. He couldn't ignore this. Blood was the strongest bond of all.

Emilio stood on the dais, looking magnificent under the chandeliers. But he wasn't looking for me.

Hayden stood near the front. She was an Omega, delicate and wide-eyed, everything I wasn't. I was sturdy, my hands rough from work, my skin often stained with ink. She was pristine, untouched by labor. She looked at Emilio with a worshipful gaze that made my stomach churn.

"Tonight," Emilio's voice boomed, enhanced by his Alpha aura, "we celebrate the future of the Obsidian Pack."

My heart leaped. Was he going to announce our mating? Finally Mark me?

"Come here, Leo," Emilio said, his voice softening.

A small boy, Hayden's son, scrambled up the stairs. He was five years old, with messy hair and a toothy grin. Emilio knelt before him.

"A leader needs a strong legacy," Emilio announced. He pulled something from his pocket.

It glittered in the firelight. A bracelet made of woven silver and moonstones.

I gasped, the sound sucked from my lungs. I knew every twist of that silver wire. I had designed that bracelet. I had drawn the sketch on a napkin three years ago, telling Emilio it was what I wanted to wear when I officially became Luna.

Emilio fastened it around the boy's small wrist.

"To Leo," Emilio declared. "My... ward. And the future of this pack."

The room went silent. My inner wolf let out a low, confused whine. That was *my* bracelet. That was *our* promise.

I stepped forward, my legs moving before my brain could stop them. "Emilio?"

The crowd parted. I saw Hayden lean down to Leo, whispering something in his ear.

The boy pointed a chubby finger at me and screamed, his voice shrill and piercing. "Go away! Give back my dad!"

The words hit me like stones. *Dad?*

"Emilio," I choked out, stepping onto the dais. "What is this? That bracelet... you said..."

Emilio stood up. His eyes were cold. There was no love in them. Only annoyance.

"Not now, Elana," he growled.

"Not now?" I pulled the velvet box from my pocket. "I'm pregnant, Emilio! We are having a pup! And you give *my* Luna token to her son?"

Gasps rippled through the hall. Hayden's face twisted into a mask of horror. "She's lying! She's trying to trap you, Alpha!"

"I am not!" I shouted, the wolf in me rising, angry and hurt. I took another step toward him.

"Enough!" Emilio roared.

The air pressure in the room dropped instantly, sucking the oxygen from the space.

"Sit down, Elana."

It was the Alpha's Command.

It wasn't a request. It was a sledgehammer to my will. My knees didn't just bend; they collapsed under the weight of his magic. My body obeyed the compulsion with violent force. I was thrown backward, off the edge of the dais.

I didn't just sit. I crashed.

I hit the stone floor hard. A sharp, tearing pain ripped through my abdomen, hotter than fire, colder than ice-a severance of something vital.

"Ah!" I screamed, curling into a ball.

Warmth spread between my legs. The metallic scent of copper-blood-filled the air.

My inner wolf howled, a sound of pure desolation. The tiny spark of life I had felt for weeks... flickered and went out.

I looked up through a haze of tears. Emilio was standing at the edge of the dais. He wasn't looking at me with regret. He was looking at Hayden, shielding her and Leo from the scene, his hand resting protectively on the boy's shoulder.

"Get her out of here," Emilio said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Clean this up."

Darkness swarmed the edges of my vision. The last thing I saw was the moonstone bracelet glittering on the wrist of the boy who called my mate "Dad."