Marry Me Again, Mate!

Maya

My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I stared at the pregnancy test.

Come on. Show me something. Anything.

I'd been holding my breath for so long my lungs were burning, but I couldn't look away from that little window. Not for a second.

Then I saw them. Two pink lines, faint but unmistakable, cutting through the white like lightning.

"Oh my God," I whispered.

The test slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the bathroom counter. I grabbed the edge of the sink to steady myself as tears blurred my vision.

I'm pregnant.

After a whole year of trying, of disappointment after disappointment, it had finally happened. I was carrying Mason's child.

Our child.

The contract flashed through my mind... that stupid, cold piece of paper I'd signed twelve months ago. Clause Two was burned into my memory: The Luna agrees to produce one pure-blood heir within reasonable time. Upon successful delivery of said heir, both parties may pursue dissolution of marriage.

Mason had demanded it. And I... I'd been desperate enough to sign it.

But here's the crazy thing. I wasn't thinking about the contract right now. I wasn't thinking about Mason's father or pack politics or any of that.

I was thinking about Mason.

About the way he sometimes smiled at me when he thought I wasn't looking. About Thursday nights when we'd lie in the dark afterward and he'd trace patterns on my shoulder with his fingertips. About that one time he'd carried me back from the gardens when I'd twisted my ankle, and how his arms had felt like the safest place in the world.

Maybe he's started to feel something too. Maybe this baby will bring us closer. Maybe-

"Stop it, Maya," I muttered to myself, wiping my eyes. "You sound insane."

But I couldn't help it. We were mates. That had to mean something, didn't it? Even if he'd loved someone else before me, even if this marriage had started as just an obligation... mates were supposed to be mates. Forever.

I grabbed the test again, clutching it like proof of something magical.

I have to tell him. Right now.

The thought of seeing his face when I gave him the news sent electricity racing through my veins. Would he smile? Would he pull me close? Would those ice-blue eyes finally, finally look at me with something other than distant politeness?

I practically flew out of the Luna's wing, my feet barely touching the marble floors as I headed toward the Alpha's quarters on the opposite side of the packhouse. My heart was doing somersaults in my chest.

He's going to be so happy. I know he will. He has to be.

But halfway down the corridor, I heard voices.

Two maids were huddled together near a decorative pillar, whispering in that urgent way people do when they're sharing gossip they probably shouldn't.

"-can't believe she just showed up like that-"

"Does the Luna even know yet?"

"Poor thing. How is she supposed