In his study, perusing through the never-ending issues of the packs, while trying to suppress the worry that he might never get an heir, Alpha Eryx sighs heavily, his posture rigid, brows knotted.
Just as he picks up another file, he freezes mid-movement. A second heartbeat echoes inside him... faint, but undeniably present.
His eyes widen. A rush of heat floods his chest. His wolf stirs, alert.
It's unmistakable.
He's feeling it, just like the other alphas. A favored skill among alphas: the ability to feel the moment their heir is conceived.
For a moment, he thinks he's imagining it. But it grows, just a little more, steady and persistent.
He stands abruptly, heart pounding as his wolf leaps with joy before he can even digest the realization himself.
Without hesitation, he rushes out, storming down the hallways of the pack house toward his room.
He throws the door open and immediately wraps his arms around Morgana-- his Luna.
He gasps, breathless, triumphant.
"It happened! It has happened! We have a baby! Finally, it happened successfully, we will have a baby soon!"
His voice shakes with emotion. "I felt it."
Morgana blinks, brow pinched in confusion.
"Felt it?!"
He pulls back, gripping her arms, grinning with a kind of joy she has never seen in him.
"Yes!" His voice lowers to a whisper, like he can't believe it. He's so excited, he doesn't even notice her shocked, confused expression.
How did it happen? she wonders, reeling.
For years, she had lived to avoid that pregnancy. Because if she was to be honest... baby cries, the constant wailing, the red-faced creatures sulking on her breasts, leeching the life out of her body, it could never be her.
She imagined the swollen feet, the stretch marks, the raw nipples. It disgusted her.
She took the pills long before the Alpha touched her. She would bleed out a conception before it ever got the chance to nest inside her.
Because to her, motherhood isn't a gift, it is a defilement. A slow decay of everything she has crafted: her beauty, her power, her precision.
But vanity wasn't her only reason.
She was never supposed to fall pregnant, not once. Her very presence in this pack is a mission.
One assigned to her long before she was ever called Luna. Planted by those who feared the strength of this bloodline, she is meant to get close, stay loyal, and rot them from the inside.
A child would only complicate her focus, dull her sharpness, and this Alpha having a child only means the bloodline strengthens.
She smiled beside the Alpha, obeyed when the pack watched, played the devoted Luna when it suited her.
But behind her locked doors, she gathered knowledge like poison. She memorized patrol shifts, mapped out territory weaknesses, stole fragments of spellwork and sealed scrolls meant for the Alpha alone.
And every time she bled out another hidden pregnancy, she reminded herself: this was the sabotage. This was the mission. They would thank her later.
Just yesterday, Alpha Eryx had suggested that they try insemination, since the natural method wasn't working.
He had tried.
Tried and tried his best, but she never got pregnant.
And lately, he had even started to wonder if he might be infertile.
But even the one time Morgana had accidentally conceived, she had aborted the baby.
And even when Alpha Eryx insisted he felt the heartbeat of his heir, Morgana had convinced him it was just in his mind...
"How sure are you that you're not imagining this again?" she asks now, her voice tight, even though she knows very well that every time Eryx said he felt it, it had been true.
So what actually happened? Because she is certain she is not pregnant.
Did those doctors inseminate the sperm in another woman?
The thought knocks the air out of her lungs.
She had asked them to dispose of it. So what actually happened?!
"Please don't say that, baby," Eryx pleads, his tone softer now. "I can feel that this time it's real. Even now, I still feel it. Should we see the doctor so he can examine you?"
The question hits her like a physical blow. For a moment, she doesn't answer.
Then, unconsciously, she speaks.
"I uh… Yes! Oh my goodness, yes!" she fakes a smile, voice a little too high, too cheerful. "But can you give me a few hours, just one hour, I need to finish the updates here fast. I'll be out in an hour."
"Okay, my love, I'll wait impatiently," he says, beaming. "Or rather, we can just call the doctor here. No need to bother you going there,"
"Yeah… great idea," she says, the words forced but smooth.
"Okay, I'll communicate to him right away," Eryx replies and leaves the room still breaming.
As the door closes, Morgana begins to pace. Her head spins. What the hell is happening? How did this even happen?
"I need to see those idiotic doctors! How could they make such a crucial mistake?!" she growls to herself, already grabbing for her things.
But when she searches for the key to her cabinet, the one that contains everything that belongs to her, even the money she could use for transport since she can't use her car right now without being noticed, she doesn't see the key.
Frustration explodes from her. She yells toward the door.
"Get me that stupid servant right now! Where did she place my keys!!!"
The guard outside flinches, even though he's used to her daily outbursts. Still, he rushes off without a word and returns almost immediately.
"Luna," he says carefully, bowing, "she's not around. They say she wasn't feeling well, she was taken to the hospital yesterday, and she hasn't been discharged."
Morgana groans, furious, pushing past him as she storms out the door.
If necessary, she will use her paws in wolf form to get to that hospital. Because she needs to know who is carrying that child.
And she is going to get rid of it right away.