Chapter 121

Alyson

My body may be getting examined, but my mind is with Olivera. He is off snooping for a cure, trying to help save my mate, and I'm stuck under the hands of an unfamiliar healer. He centers his hands over my stomach, his eyes going crooked toward me.

"Luna," he breathes, resting my shirt back down after his last treatment relaxed my body past the point of feeling pain. "The wolf you came in with, the Alpha aura, is that your mate?"

I hold back a spat of laughter. "My mate? No way."

"Where is your Alpha, then?"

It's only now that I notice his voice has gone ice cold. I fear he may tell me I'm doomed to die, or I'm sick like the other rogues and I don't have the fever yet, but instead he waits for my reply and I can't stall any longer in my anxious thoughts.

"He's at the palace, on our pack lands, about an hour run from here," I breathe, the truth. "He hasn't been feeling well though, sick with pneumonia," my partial truth, "why do you ask? Am I going to be okay?"

The healer taps his foot rapidly, staring at my abdomen while pauses and then shaking his head slowly. "Well, Luna, I hate to share this news without the Alpha present, but you're pregnant."

I swallow hard, seeing spots, thinking I've passed out and I'm dreaming.

The healer centers his powers against my temples, straighten my mind out long enough to hear him repeat those words again. "Pregnant. You're pregnant."

I shake my head, lost in his words. "I—I can't be."

"It' the truth, Luna. When did you last go into heat?"

"A few months back," I groan.

Thinking back to the moment I walked to the meadow for some peace and ended up in a heated arraignment with my mate before realizing I had been in heat the entire time. I hadn't felt a symptom since that moment with Ryan so I never considered I would be pregnant.

"Did you and your mate act on the impulses?" he asks, dancing around the words to be mindful of my decency alone in this conversation without my mate present.

I feel a knot grow in my throat. "Y—yes. We did."

"Well, it is as simple as that."

There is more pressing things I should focus on, like saving Ryan's life, but I can't knock this from my mind. "I can't be pregnant, healer. I've had wolfsbane toxins in my body and I've been exposed to silencer stone… I've been able to shift… until earlier today…"

The healer runs a touch across my stomach, making me lay my head back in bliss. His hands are magic, healing the pain before they even appear. "How long after you went into heat were you first exposed to the wolfsbane?"

I think back to my mate, to the meeting and being kidnapped in the rain.

My first dose was in the woods on the way to Olivera's pack house.

"The next day, I think," I breath, muddled in confusion.

The healer nods, swirling around my hips soothingly. I groan in ecstasy. "That explains it, Luna. You were stunted from feeling the symptoms because of the wolfsbane. Seeing as you're still holding viable pups, it doesn't appear the wolfsbane or shifting has affected their growth but I would refrain from those things in the future."

I shove his hand off my side, sitting up so quick I see spots. "Pups?!"

The door flies open, Olivera standing in the doorway with a slight smile. He gives me a simple nod and I try to hike off the table, needing to get out of this room with the healer before I lose my mind. He is wrong. He has to be mistaken.

My legs are weak from the excursion from pain to healed and I collapse.

"Luna, please, be easy," the healer huffs.

He moves to help me but Olivera steps in his way. "What is going on here?" he tips his head over his shoulder, peering at me as I fluster to stand up, holding my stomach like the healer could be right; but he can't be. This can't—none of it can be—I sink down to my knees in defeat. "Speak, sweetheart."

I dare to open my mouth, but no words come spilling out.

The healer looks perplexed by the pet name Olivera uses for me. "Are you the mate?'

"Hell no," Olivera laughs.

The healer scratches his head. "Is this one of those things where the Luna sleeps with someone who isn't their Alpha and gets pregnant? I can't have another one of those situations on my hands; I'm tired of Alpha's trying to punish me for giving them the news and blaming me. I'm going to have to ask you both to leave."

Olivera's eyes go wide as could be. He exhales deeply.

Thankfully the rogue Alpha helps me stand and I walk with him, plastered into his side and exhausted, leaving the facility. I feel a vial in his pocket as we make our way into the mountain valley nearby and sit down. I want to talk about the cure, about saving my mate, my one true love, but Olivera is stunned. He doesn't look like he wants to talk about hearing the news the healer just shared with us both.

I bury my face into my hands. I can't possibly be pregnant. Let alone with several pups. I've been dammed to having to save my mate's life and I can't help him with my blood, he won't let me heal him and I can't drain my blood that much anyways; the pups thrive off of me being healthy and right now, I don't know if I truly am.

"Is it true what he said?" Olivera asks, his voice flat for once and not snarky.

I only nod, fighting back stressful tears. "Yeah, it is. With more than one, apparently."

"Why are you so upset then?"

I wipe my face, shameful to be crying right now. "If I can't heal Ryan, and things turn worse, I could be stuck with these pups without their Alpha, without their father. I can't fathom that thought right now."

"Don't think like that," Olivera says simply. "If worse comes to worse, I will make sure those pups have their dad around. I'll ensure Ryan is back and better than ever." He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a closed syringe and vile of liquid that's label is blacked out in marker. "Let's get this to those pup's father, shall we?"