The doctors didn’t find anything wrong with Carmela except a few bruises, but Tatum insisted on her being hospitalised for the best care with a full bodycheck. Leila spends all the time she can squeeze out visiting Carmela.

The whispers about her have gotten louder than ever now that Carmela has returned, with everyone asking, when will Alpha Tatum make Carmela his Luna?

The question is not if he will but when he will. Everyone in the pack is so certain of it.

As for Leila, she pretends not to hear these gossips, she tries not to think about it. She is just happy that her long-lost best friend who saved her has returned but the happiness is not a full one.

Leila knows the truth in her heart and it is the pain that comes with it that makes her still live in denial.

Alpha Tatum has tirelessly spent the last two years looking for his lost love and now that he found her, it was only a matter of time before she got the axe of rejection and let his rightful woman take her place.

She knew she stole the time with him and she was okay with that. But the baby? The baby really came at the worst timing...

“I can’t believe you went through all that Carmi, thank the goddess for the power of true love, what would have happened if the Alpha hadn’t found you?” Tracy, one of Carmela’s old friends in the pack says to her.

Carmela is lying down in her hospital bed with her feet stretched on Leila’s lap while two other women, Tracy and Edna sit by her side.

“Of course he will!” Edna laughs with Tracy as if Leila is not present, “He found Carmi as his mate that night, remember?! The mate bond would guide him!”

Tracy’s words make Leila’s heart pound with a pang but she keeps a straight face.

“Right on! The mate bond is sacred!,” Edna snorts a reply, sneering in Leila’s direction all but pointing fingers in her face, “...not something that can be easily stolen!”

Leila’s eyelashes quiver and she looks up calmly. Carmela pats her friend on the wrist lightly, giving Leila an apologising smile. Leila gives her a bitter smile in return, shaking her head slowly.

In the past two years, these women said worse things.

“The Alpha found Leila as his second chance mate, so please drop it about me being the Alpha’s mate, okay? It would put him in an awkward position.” Carmela says with a graceful but sad smile, sighing lightly, “I missed my chance…”

Her words were like oil, and the flames of her friends’ fury exploded.

Edna rolls her eyes at Leila. “Oh please, Carmi, you are too kind! The Alpha found his mate two years ago, remember?! Hell, you were born our Luna! You bear the phoenix mark, no?!”

Leila glances over timidly as Carmela reaches for her neck with two of her beautiful fingers, sorrow and happiness on her face in reminiscence.

That’s right. The phoenix mark. Their pack has been different from all packs where the Luna is chosen when the Alpha comes to age and finds his fated mate. Their pack’s Luna is revealed long before that – in a prophecy at the birth of the Alpha. Tatum was born the heir, and his mate was going to be the most powerful Luna in history, with the mark of a phoenix on her body.

Carmela got the mark on her collarbone when she was ten, right where the mate mark would be.

And that was when everyone started treating her as the future Luna. Tatum, too. He has been waiting for her to come of age, and he did, he found his mate’s scent on that fateful night, only Carmela got kidnapped before he could trace it to her, and that scent disappeared like it was never there with her.

“You would have been our Luna and married to your mate if this thief didn’t steal it right from you!” Seeing the pitiful look on Carmela, Edna bursts out.

Leila’s face turns paper white. She shoots her head up in shock. They never liked her, she knew, but they weren’t bold enough to take it to her face, until now.

She wants to say something, anything to tell them it’s not okay, but she can’t. Because they don’t know her secret. They can’t know. They hate her already, and if they got to know that she’s not actually the Alpha’s second-chance mate, they would tear her apart.

“It’s okay, ” Tracy pats Edna with a faux smile, staring at Leila as she continues her “comfort”, “Now that our true Luna is back, the title will be hers, finally. You need to start preparing for your wedding with the Alpha, Carmi.”

Carmela gasps, putting her hands over her mouth to feign shock.

“No guys… I have no intention of becoming Lu-”

She fakes a violent cough, not to finish her statement and points at the water dispenser in the corner of the room.

Leila quickly rushes over to the dispenser and returns with a glass of water for Carmela.

Carmela sits up and reaches over, but the glass falls through her fingers and shatters with the water spilling everywhere.

“What are you doing?!,” Edna retorts at Leila. “Can you not get anything right at all? What if you spill the hot water on Carmi?!”

“Don’t just stand there like a dunce, get something to clean this mess, make yourself useful for once,” Tracy barks at Leila as well.

Leila grits her teeth at their disrespect, feeling the rage to remind them of her position.

However, she says nothing and turns. She is not going to let this bitter women come between her and her best friend. They are Carmela’s friends, and they are picking on her on purpose because Carmela sacrificed herself for her.

She has no position to defend herself.

As she heads for the bathroom to get a mob, Edna shrieks behind her: “Who are you leaving this mess to?! Get the shards first! It could hurt someone, jeez!”

Leila nods and kneels to pick up the bigger ones with panicking hands, and it is at this moment, the door opens after a short knock, and Leila looks up with the shards cupped in her palm, only to meet the Alpha’s cold eyes.

“What are you doing?” He notices Leila and instantly, a frown crawls onto his handsome face.

“Alpha!” Carmela jumps off the bed and runs to the Alpha, throwing her arms around his neck like when they were kids, “Can I please, please leave the hospital now? Pleaseeee.”

Her cute tone got a light laugh out of the Alpha and he pats her on her waist to get her off.

“Twenty now, and you are still acting like a little girl.”

“You should know…..you are the one who spoiled me–ouch!” Carmela’s big smile is replaced by a sudden frown as she lifts her foot in pain.

“Careful!” Alpha Tatum picks her up into his arms, noticing the shards left on the floor. His unfriendly eyes glances around and lands on Leila.

Her heart shrinks in fear and she speeds up the picking, using her palm to wipe the floor in case she missed any, leaving several cuts which hurt her but not as much as seeing her husband carrying another woman in his arms.

“What happened?!” The Alpha demands again, still at Leila this time when she is secretly checking her hands.

“It’s not her fault…” Carmela pulls Alpha Tatum’s sleeve timidly. And at her words, the Alpha narrows his eyes, understanding that Leila is the one who broke the cup.

“You can’t get a mop for it?” The man’s long, sharp eyebrows twist together, “Who taught you to clean broken glasses with your bare hands?!”

Confirming the Alpha’s attitude toward Leila, Carmela’s friends exchanged a gloating look.

“Carmi just wanted a cup of water, and she was too impatient to deliver the cup into Carmi’s hand!”

“She cut herself seeing Carmi hurt her foot, just to get your atten–”

“That’s enough.” Two calm words out of the Alpha and the mean girls shut their mouths in fear. They can’t handle the Alpha’s dominant aura.

Leila’s eyes brim with tears. She embarrassed him, again. She wasn't born to be Luna like Carmela.

All she ever brings him is trouble.

Speaking of trouble, Leila sneaks a timid peek at the Alpha as her stomach twists together: she is carrying one in her as they speak.

If she wasn’t sure whether he would want the baby before, she is sure now that the baby will only be a bother to him.

She hasn’t had time to talk to him about it. Or rather, she hasn’t allowed herself the time to talk to him, so she doesn’t have to make a decision on it.

Now she has one.

She can’t keep the baby. She can’t break him and Carmela up, again.

They all say that she stole him from Carmela, but only she knows she could never. His heart has been Carmela’s since forever ago. He is just too kind, taking good care of her in their fake marriage and she started twisting his kindness into symbols of love.

She tricked herself into thinking that maybe somewhere in his heart, there was a small spot for her but it’s time to wake up from her dream, a dream that is too good to be true.

Seeing the stinging image of the Alpha sitting by Carmela’s bedside, talking and laughing, Leila forces the tears back in her eyes and scooches to the door.

“Where are you going?” Alpha Tatum spots her sneaky moves before she can take two steps.

“Home…” Leila can only squeeze single words out of her without exposing the crying tone behind it.

“Wait for me, I’m going home, too.” Alpha Tatum gives a flat order.

“Actually,” Leila bites her lips, “I need to see Amanda first.”

“Amanda?” The Alpha frowns, upset at her change of answer, “You don’t have to take the routine tests anymore.”

Right. Leila sighs in her mind. They don’t have to pretend that they are trying to have an heir anymore. He is marrying his true Luna.

“I…” Leila grips her own finger hard, trying to form a sentence, “I should let her know, then.”

The Alpha stares at her with his eyes narrowed. Is he getting suspicious, just because she insisted on talking to her?

“I–”

“You said I can leave the hospital!” Carmela shakes the Alpha’s sleeve coquettishly, “Aren’t you taking me home yourself?”

With an indulging sigh, Alpha Tatum rubs Carmela’s head: “Of course I will.”

“I’ll be home then!” Leila throws her words as she escapes the room, unable to watch even one more second.

She needs to talk to Amanda before the news could get out because soon it will not be true--

She needs an abortion.

Leila tosses and turns on the pristine white sheets of her soft mattress, her red and puffy eyes settling on the chandelier dancing to the tune of the strong wind blowing in from the open window.

She smiles bitterly at the ornament swinging above her, it reminds her of own self. She is not in control, she just dances to the tune of whatever terrible music her miserable life is playing.

Two years ago, she was just a regular girl hoping to find her fated mate, to live a simple life with him and raise beautiful children but life has her right now as a hated Luna and a jilted wife.

Tatum promised to come home after dropping Carmela but it’s been hours and he is still with her, probably reminiscing of the love they used to share before Carmela disappeared

She blinks back the tears tugging at her eyes as her chest tightens in pain from the thought.

They aren’t mates. She forgot. She shouldn’t have let his kindness cloud that.

It was his ultimate act of kindness that made him marry her. After Carmela went missing, the pack members turned on her and her mother. Many blamed her for the incident, a few even accused her of plotting it.

The abuse started as verbal and gradually grew physical, to the extent that their house suffered an arson attack with them inside it.

It was that same night that Tatum called a pack meeting and declared her as his second chance mate, marrying her on the spot, even if they both knew they felt no bond.

She runs her hand over her taut stomach. Depending on her decision in a few days, it would remain ever taut or grow into a huge bump.

“No way Leila! I took an oath to preserve life, I will not do it.”

Amanda’s voice carried every bit of seriousness when Leila spoke of the abortion.

“Amanda please, this child will only create problems, I don’t want it,” Leila replied, her eyes coating with tears, pain and desperation lacing every syllable that left her mouth.

“You are asking me to kill the next Alpha of this pack, even if I break my oath and do it, I can never live with myself, it would haunt me for life,” Amanda’s tone was as low as a whisper, her eyes full of fear and worry.

“What is going on Leila? Talk to me. We have all been waiting and praying for this child to come. Why do you suddenly want to get rid of it?”

How could Amanda not know? Everyone in the pack knows -- they are getting a new Luna.

Her poor baby is not being born as the heir of Alpha, but could only be an illegitimate child. Leila can’t allow that.

Leila pursed her lips and dropped her head to avoid Amanda’s weary eyes, feeling a crack in her heart. To Amanda, she had the perfect life, only she knew how far it was from perfect.

“She’s back Amanda, Tatum will get rid of me. I don’t want my child to grow up in a broken home,” Leila replied with a trembling voice and as the words left her lips, the flood gates opened and she could not hold back the tears that streamed down from her eyes.

The pain in her chest felt like a thousand needles prickling an open wound.

“Oh dear…..” Amanda scurried over and curled her hands around Leila in a soothing hug.

“He loves you and I know you love him too. Why don’t you talk to him about it first? You have been married for two years, it has to be worth something,” Amanda replied.

Leila closes her eyes and heaves a deep sigh, standing up and walking over to the window, the heavy wind blowing her auburn hair in all directions.

She failed to guard her heart, and now feelings for a man that doesn’t belong to her are growing in her heart like crazy vines.

Even though they were feelings she could never revel in, feelings she could never openly express to him, feelings she knew he could never return, she felt happy when he returned home and ate with her, when he cuddled her to sleep or chatted with her into the night over pack matters but now, all of that was about to be taken away from her.

But what if Amanda is right? What if Tatum is also in love with her? Could the time they have spent as a couple be worth something to him?

Will he even return home tonight? Will he ever sleep in her bed again? Will she ever go to bed wrapped safely in his warm embrace?

She is not stealing him, or jealous. She is just concerned. He said he would be home. She is only worried about his safety.

She mindlinks him, waiting in the darkness, nervous but also anticipating. She didn't know she missed him so much. Her heart is beating fast as if she was back to when she was 16, having a crush on the handsome yet gentle man.

The mindlink is through, and her cheerful words blurts out: "Alpha--"

Only to freeze when she sees through his eyes--

Carmela is in his arms.