Chapter 5

Clarice POV:

The scandal rocked the Pack, but Jacob spun it. He claimed the Red Wolf was a "parasitic twin" and the true Alpha was simply "gestating longer due to its immense power." Bella remained under house arrest, a prisoner in luxury, waiting for the second birth.

I, however, was living in a very expensive incubator.

"Draco, put me down," I sighed as he carried me down the stairs.

"Healer said no stress," Draco grunted.

"Walking isn't stress!"

"You carry my heirs," he rumbled. "Plural. Precious cargo."

*Heirs.*

The magical resonance scan confirmed it. I wasn't carrying a baby. I was carrying a Clutch. Three distinct life signatures.

The Serpent Clan went wild. I was the first human-wolf to conceive with a Serpent King in five centuries.

That afternoon, we were in the library. Draco was "nesting"-arranging swan-down pillows near the fireplace with intense, terrifying focus.

"My King," a servant knocked. "A visitor. She insists."

"Who?"

"Bella."

Draco growled. "I'll remove her."

"No," I said, hand on my stomach. "Let her in."

Bella waddled in. She looked grotesque. Her skin was grey, stretched tight over a belly that pulsed with unnatural veins. She smelled of desperation and that chemical tang.

She fell to her knees.

"Clarice," she wheezed. "Help me."

"Help you how?"

"Jacob... if this baby isn't perfect, he'll kill me. But you..." She stared at my stomach. "You're pregnant. I heard the rumors. Tell me the secret."

"Secret?"

"How did you make a monster's seed take root? Give me the potion! If I can make this thing inside me look like an Alpha..."

"There is no potion, Bella," I said. "It's called compatibility."

"Liar!" She lunged, eyes manic. "You have magic! Give it to me!"

Draco was there instantly. He caught her by the throat, lifting her feet off the ground. Fangs extended.

"Touch her," he hissed, "and I peel you."

"Draco, put her down," I said. "She's not worth the carpet cleaning."

He tossed her back. She hit the wall, gasping.

"You think you won," Bella rasped, clutching her freakish belly. "But you're carrying snakes. Cold, heartless things. They'll eat you from the inside out."

"Leave," Draco roared. The window cracked from the pressure.

Bella fled.

That night, I woke up sweating. *My blood was boiling.*

"Draco!"

"Clarice?"

"It's time."

"Too soon," he panicked. "Four months!"

"Serpent pregnancies are faster," I groaned. "And... something else."

I threw the covers off.

*My legs were fusing.* My skin shimmered, turning iridescent gold.

*The ancient bloodline. My mother's secret. The Siren blood, dormant in my wolf veins, was waking up to accommodate the children of the deep.*

"Get the healers!" Draco shouted, shaking the castle. "The Queen is shifting!"

*Bella was wrong. They weren't eating me. They were remaking me.*