Betrayed Heiress: My Second Chance Mate is A Lycan King

Aira’s POV

Five minutes earlier…

I watch from a distance as Alex speaks to Carla. There is a softness in his eyes that made me a bit envious, but I am glad he was being a lot nicer to her now.

But now what do I do?

A sigh leaves my lips as I take a look around. My gaze falls on Arnold walking by, and my eyebrows furrow with confusion. He has been quite scarce these past couple of months. I suppose I could use him to keep myself busy until Alex is done with Carla.

“Hey Arnold!” I call out, and his feet come to a halt. His gaze falls on me, and his eyes soften slightly.

“Luna, you look well,” he says in a way that leaves me concerned. He sounded so empty and hollow. Now that I take a better look at him, he was incredibly pale compared to the last time I saw him.

“Yeah… and you don’t. Are you okay?” I ask him, and he runs his fingers through his hair.

“I am just dealing with a lot of stress from work,” he admits, and I frown.

“Then take a damn break. My goodness, Alex has you working like a dog. I haven’t seen you these past seven months,” I tell him, and he nods in agreement.

“Yeah, I have been traveling as a representative of our pack. It was meant to be Alex, but since you both are expecting a child, he knows that he can’t leave your side. And it isn’t advisable to have you travel around during this time,” he explains, but I still didn’t see his point.

“That is no excuse to have you working like an animal. I am going to speak to him. You need to go on a leave; take a load off. Relax. Possibly go on a vacation. Honestly, since the day I met you, all you do is work. It’s not healthy,” I scold, and he smiles tiredly at me. The size of his eyebags was also awful.

This is honestly no way to live.

“I appreciate your concern, Luna. But believe me when I say I actually like being this busy,” he says, and I rearrange my head back.

“Why? You are clearly on the verge of falling terribly ill. Just take a break, even if it is just a month,” I tell him, and he shakes his head in refusal.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“I can’t. I do not want to. If I am idle, then my thoughts might return,” he says, and my curiosity gets the better of me.

“What thoughts are you talking about?” I ask, and he sighs.

“Please do not worry about it. I just really like to keep myself busy,” he says, then checks his watch for the time. “Speaking of which I have some matters I need to attend to, so-”

He tries to walk away from me, but I grab his wrist with a strength that surprises the both of us. “I am the luna; there is nothing more important than a meeting with me.”

My words surprise him, and his eyebrows shoot all the way to his hairline. He clears his throat and stands erect. “You are right. Forgive me.”

I let go of him and folded my arms above my chest. “What thoughts were you talking about?”

He sighs, and his hand goes up to his nape. “You are quite persistent, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, and so is my baby. She tells me what to do now,” I say, and he chuckles lightly.

“Of course, how could I possibly refuse the princess? How rude of me,” he says, placing his hand above his chest to show his apology. “The thing is, I envy you and the alpha’s love story; it makes me think of my mate.”

My eyes widened slightly with surprise. “You have a mate?” I ask him. I have never seen Arnold anywhere near a woman before.

“Had. She is dead.”

My hand flies up to my mouth, and suddenly I feel terrible for making him talk about this. “I am so sorry,” I whisper just before a strange sensation courses between my legs.

What the hell?

“It’s actually quite fine. I have learned to cope by burying myself with work,” he reveals, and my heart cries out for him. That is not exactly a healthy way to grieve. I am just about to ask him how his mate died when a sharp pain strikes my abdomen.

Suddenly I feel some sort of liquid flowing down my legs. Don’t tell me I peed on myself now, did I?

“Luna, are you alright?” Arnold asks, and just before I can respond to him, another sharp pain shoots up my abdomen, making my knees grow weak.

I nearly fell to my knees if it wasn’t for Arnold’s quick reflexes. He takes me into his arms, and that is when I feel. My baby.

She is coming.

“Someone call the alpha!” Arnold yells at the top of his voice, loud enough for the guards nearby to hear and do as they were told.

Arnold scoops me into his arms and takes me straight into the infirmary. Just as we got to the infirmary, my gaze fell on Alex. He has a groaning Carla in his arms, and that is when I notice the wetness between her legs.

Oh no.

This can’t be happening. We cannot be having our babies on the same day.

Oh Goddess, why?

Alex’s eyes fall on Arnold, then on me, then on Arnold, and then to his hands around me. The growl that rumbled off his chest shook the walls around us. Alex doesn’t mutter a word before kicking the door to the infirmary open and stepping in with Carla in his arms.

I do not know why that hurt so much.

Seeing him with another woman in his arms. I know it was Carla, and she was in desperate need of him right now, but so was I.

Arnold takes me into the infirmary and places me on the stretcher beside Carla’s. The second he does, Alex comes to his side and says, “Go to Carla.”

Arnold doesn’t bother to argue and just silently does as he is told.

Alex comes to stand by my side; he takes my hand gently in his and places a loving kiss on my knuckles. “I am here, my love.”

Suddenly all the doubt and fear I had was washed away.

“Oh dear.”

My gaze falls on the doctor, who looks between Carla and me in confusion. He looks torn, and Alex steps up. “Just tell me what to do; you can focus on Carla.”

“What?” I ask, feeling panic wash over me. I try to sit up, but another sharp pain attacks my abdomen, causing me to sit back down and let out a scream.

“Sorry, love, you are just going to have to trust me on this one,” Alex says, and the rest of his discussion with the doctor is unknown to me. I was just too focused on the pain coursing through my stomach and legs.

Alex takes his position between my legs and nods at me to start pushing. And that is what I do.

My screams and groans mix with Carla’s. Beads of sweat travel down my head to my neck, and it feels like an eternity before Alex says, “I can see her head; come on, baby, you are almost there. Bring my little girl to me.”

Something about Alex’s statement filled me with a sensation I couldn’t quite comprehend. Shortly after, the blessed sound of a wailing child fills the air. For a moment, I was filled with happiness. But it vanished just as quickly as it came.

It was Carla’s baby, not mine.

“Oh, look at my little angel,” Carla says, a bright smile on her sweaty face as Arnold handed her child to her. “It’s a girl,” she says before meeting my eyes with a grateful smile.

“Aira,” Alex says, calling me back to the present. “Come on, you are almost there. I need you to push with everything you have got, okay?”

I nod in understanding and do as I am told. I pushed harder and harder; at some point I found it hard to breathe. “Just one more push.”

A scream cuts through my throat as I give it my last push. And that is when I finally hear it. The cries of a child.

My body collapses on the bed, and black dots taint my vision. I felt myself slowly begin to lose consciousness. But before I do, I manage to shoot Alex a glance. The look on his face had me scared.

“It’s a boy.”

The second those words leave his lips, that is when darkness engulfs me.

I should have known better than to let Ana fool me. She has and always will be a liar. I suppose that is why she stood at the corner, grinning deviously as she watched me fall into a bottomless pit of darkness.