Olivia POV
I stare at the doctor in silence, wondering if maybe he has the wrong file in hand, or maybe this is all some joke my mate, Alpha Herold, has put my doctor up to. I came in today for a check-up, a few common cold symptoms, but not this. I read his blank, cold expression, something dangerously serious about the diagnosis.
“Can—Can you say that again?” I plead, assuming that I misheard his original verdict.
“Six months, if you’re lucky,” he says, flipping through his clipboard of papers. “This pregnancy has accelerated your hepatocirrhosis, which will likely only leave you with less than half a year of life expectancy.”
“I’m going to die in six months?” I repeat, trying to find the part that I may have missed.
“If this goes untreated or the pregnancy is attempted to be carried to term, then yes.”
“If I’m lucky?”
He glances back down at his packet, nodding generously. “Yeah, if you’re lucky.”
I haven’t been feeling well for the last few weeks, maybe even months, but I hadn’t had the slightest clue that I was pregnant—or dying. I would be concerned over my health if there wasn’t a child in the equation. I would long for nothing more than to provide my Alpha mate a child but at the expense of what? My life?
What if we both die before I can go into labor?
“We can assume that terminating this child would be the best option to expand your life expectancy, but even then, the results are bleak.” He clicks his tongue, sure of his words.
I feel the tears well in my eyes, falling recklessly down my cheeks. “What if I keep the pregnancy? Then what? What will be the treatment then?”
He stares through me, like I’ve tied a noose around my neck willingly. “Well, your immune system would shut down first, then your body would slowly deteriorate and you would have little chance of recovery, if any chance at all. Whatever health you do maintain will be segregated for the child and you would likely die trying to keep it alive.”
“I want to keep this baby,” I say, shaking my head quickly. “It would be our only child together—I have to keep it. Please. For my mate, I have to.”
The doctor seems skeptical, setting down his clipboard and leaning back against his countertop. “I suggest you speak with your husband about this matter first, before you make any rash decisions. But as it stands with your current health, if we were to terminate the pregnancy, your chances of full recovery would still be dim with your ailing liver. Perhaps, when you talk to your husband, you tell him the options are strictly this: either you live, or you and the baby both die in six months.”
I walk home alone in a grim silence. I should tell Herold the minute I see him about what the doctor told me, about the options and the way I want to go about things, but when I walk into our home, I see him and his favorite gamma sitting on the couch together.
Alicia is curled up beside my mate, her feet kicked up on our couch while my mate holds an arm over her shoulders. For a moment, I think I’m walking into a normal, loving couple’s home, but the reality is it’s my home, the home I was intending to share with my Alpha mate. He is far too preoccupied with Alicia, though. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that I had given half of my perfectly healthy liver to Alicia years ago, and that’s what has me in the failing state that I’m in now. I keep the dismay to myself though, shutting the door into our home behind me as I make a trip to the bathroom, my stomach starting to cramp wildly.
“Olivia, why don’t you come watch a movie with us?” Alicia asks, purposefully snuggling closer to Herold as she does so in her pristine, high-pitched voice she uses when she wants to make a dig at me.
It works, and I wave off her false attempt to be nice to me.
I hear her cough a cry, catching the attention of my mate who does what he does best and soothes the gamma, as though I slammed a door in her face or something. I can’t help but listen to her weep in his arms as she blame herself for my attitude towards her, as though she hasn’t earned it.
“It’s okay, Alicia. I’ll teach her a lesson in manners. No one disrespects you like that and—” Herold has a temper that overboils quick and not even I can seem to calm him down on his bad days.
Something about Alicia, though. She settles him in no time. “No, no,” she coos. “Stay here, with me. Please. She isn’t going to be an issue much longer, right?”
I shut the bathroom door slowly, hearing my mate hum his reply, “Right.”
I am far too busy needing to throw up to make sense of their exchange.
If seeing them together wasn’t enough to make me sick, the news the doctor told me makes me even more ill. I lean over the toilet, clearing my stomach as the fire shoots up my throat and forces me to heave for every breath.
Dizzy, I step back, wiping the sweat off my forehead and then wiping my mouth, noticing a splotch of blood lacing my gums, trailing across the back of my hand. I look away, knowing that what the doctor said is true. I don’t have much time left. I can taste the blood in my throat, in my broken system.
I am broken except for one positive thing I can look forward to.
I hold a hand to my stomach, feeling for the baby I know is in there now. “It’s okay if I throw up. It’s not so bad. Even if I die, at least your father can have you to love. And don’t you worry, he will love—”
There’s a harsh knock on the door, and I clean up the remaining mess of my sickness before pulling the door open. Herold stands in the doorway expectantly, a stack of papers in his hands, outstretched for me to take. His eyes are downcast, and he hardly seems to notice I’m here if it weren’t for the packet he holds out for me to take.
My eyes are still damp and my body is sweaty profusely, cramps in my stomach making me dizzy while I try to settle my nerves as I take the papers, ignoring them at first so I can finally clear this secret from my mind. I have waited our whole marriage for news this good to share with him.
“Herold,” I breathe, smiling for the first time today. “I have to tell you something. I went to the doctor today and he told me I’m—”
He looks discant, as though my words don’t touch him. “I want a divorce, Olivia.”
My world shatters for a moment.
In the next, I glance at the stack of papers I hold, feeling the world crash down around me and my mate, and our unborn pup, all at once.
Dissolution of Marriage Agreement.
Olivia POV“Sign it,” Herold insists, the packet weighing heavily on my hands.I can’t get past the first page, seeing that this legal document is real. For a moment, I anticipated it to be false, for this to be a mistake, but Herold is sporting a callous frown—he has made no mistakes here.“What—What happened? Why would you—”“I learned today that it was you who whispered lies into my mother’s ear about being Luna of my pack, forcing Alicia to leave me,” he says, his teeth grinding. “You’re the reason everything is fucked up—you’re the reason I was forced into this false marriage.”My mind is perplexed beyond measure. The story he thinks is true is nothing like what really happened. Herold was going to be Alpha soon, taking over his father’s spot, but he was hurt in a rogue attack. He needed a blood transfusion and I was a match.I insisted on helping him, seeing at how his future Luna willingly left his side in a time of need. I may not have been so fond of him back then but I was a
Olivia’s POVI watch helplessly as Alicia took the short blade and crossed it over her cheek. I have never seen such an act of spite, such lowly behavior in my life, but I know now why she is doing it. I ran to her, trying to stop this disgusting act of violence, but as I grabbed her hand and yanked the knife away from her face, the damage was done.The rooftop door is thrown open, Herold rushing over to split up the scene that unfolds. When Alicia and I are torn apart, she releases the blade, leaving the bloody tip of the knife in my hands now. Alicia tries to hide her smile, pressing her hand over her lips in some mock form of pain and anguish.“Thank the moon goddess,” she pants, her cheek streaked in crimson. “She said she was going to disfigure me, Herold. She’s so evil… thank you for finding me just in time.”“She’s lying,” I breathe, throwing the knife aside. “She tricked me up here and set this up to look like I attacked her, Herold, please believe me. I would never—”“She att
Third Person POVAlicia worked overtime trying to put Olivia out of the way and it finally worked.Reese had been spreading rumors for a while, speaking ill of the future Luna and how she never really helped Alpha survive, just doing some social damage control, but Reese knew the whole truth. he had spread it all over the pack by the end of the week and when warriors showed up at the hospital to take him to jail, Olivia had other plans.She knew her time was coming to an end anyways. She just wanted the baby to live and she counted the six months down slowly, knowing that as she rot away in jail, there was no chance of surviving this new trouble. She took Reese’s place in jail, taking the blame for the rumors, and as time crawled on, Olivia didn’t mind the jail cell too much.There was no Herold here, no Alicia, and that was all she needed.“She’s got it out for you, mutt,” one of the other she-wolves said, everyday walking by Olivia’s cell, threatening her endlessly. “Just wait until
Third Person POVThe moon goddess is what Olivia had always imagined she would be. Beautiful and loving. Since Olivia arrived in her world, the goddess has done nothing but profusely apologize for her treatment. She said she couldn’t watch her suffer any longer, and when the time came to choose for me to heal from my wounds or succumb to them, she chose the option that she thought Olivia would want most.But she was wrong.“It was my fault from the beginning,” Olivia breathes, looking below to see her brother far away in the distance. He leaves the beach after casting out the body, but the other figure on the beach stays. “I should never have trusted that monster.”The moon goddess, dressed in her silk white robes and combed back cyan curls, watches the same wolf kneel on the beach below and speak to himself about my death. “He’s sorry now,” she mutters, waving off Herold’s confessions to the moon. “He should have treated you better.”“I should have seen his true colors,” Olivia admit
Olivia POVIt’s hard to ignore the awkwardness that flooded the crowed surrounding us now. Some looked away, while others held a hand up to their mouth in shock. The King Alpha was respectively surprised, his face frozen in shock at the feeling of being slapped.“I’m your husband,” he mutters simply.The words hardly reach my ears. If this was true than the man before me really is the King Alpha and that means the body I’ve been given belongs to his mate, the noble Queen Luna. She was a beautiful creature from what I have known but it’s no secret that she had severe depression. I can only imagine that’s why she is in this condition.“You’re so pale, my dear. Warriors, get my Luna to the hospital immediately.”Soldiers had begun to swarm me suddenly, lifting my cold, wet exterior onto a rolling bed and carrying it through the rough sand. I stared at the stars for as long as I could, wondering if the moon goddess was watching over me still.She had done the unthinkable for me and I felt
Third Person POVIn the early morning of the royal palace, Olivia watched the news with awe and shock. She could see her face, her past life, and watched as the reports gave an update on the Luna’s funeral services. The date has changed several times now and each time it only infuriated Olivia more and more.She couldn’t understand why he was posturing like this, speaking to reporters about his sorrow, about the horrid murder of his mate, as though he hadn’t known all along that this was her fate. Olivia was dying anyways, Alicia just made sure it happened before she could give birth to the Alpha’s offspring first.Gabriel set nearby, flipping through his newspaper. “So sad about that Luna.”Olivia felt the fear strike up her throat. “Why do you say that?” Of course, to Olivia, she knew her truth. she knew Herold wanted her dead, wanted to divorce her, and had no use for her anymore. Watching him play this grieving Alpha only pissed off Olivia more. “It’s obvious that Alpha is faking
Olivia’s POVHerold was still staring at me, waiting for me to reply. I fear I have exposed my identity, seeing him step forward, almost sizing me up, and at last he broke eye contact, seeing Gabriel cross the room toward us. The entire wake had been watching and seeing the Alpha King march over now only caused the interest in the room to spike more.“Who are you?” Herold whispers, his tone harsh and taut.“I am the Queen Luna,” I say, sure of my words.Gabriel charges between us, snaking an arm around my hips and pulling me into his side charmingly. I find myself sinking into his grasp, comfortable with my mate; a feeling unfamiliar to me. He brushes his hand under my chin, sneaking a glare toward Herold in doing so, as though to mark his possessiveness over me in front of this falsely grieving Alpha.“Is everything okay, my dear?” Gabriel asks, his eyes soft and kind in this moment. “What’s going on with the Alpha? Why has he upset you?”I shake my head, trying to compose myself. I
Olivia POVI stood at last, helping Reese to his feet. I half expected Gabriel to be by my side after witnessing such an odd moment with someone he thought of as a stranger, but instead Herold made it to me first.His hand found my arm, pulling me out of earshot of the crowd. His crimson eyes held so much anger and confusion, I’ve seen it all before.“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re Olivia?”My heart sinks straight into my stomach, making me ill.“I know it’s you,” he huffs. “My wolf might tell me differently but it’s the only explanation. It’s the only way you would have known how to help him.”I yank my arm free of his grasp, hating the feeling of his hand on my elbow. “How dare you insinuate such a preposterous lie, Alpha Herold? You know damn well that you are the reason your mate has died. You are at fault for losing her. Don’t you dare approach me now as some form of healing for your broken, black heart.”He hardly flinches at my words, smiling coyly. “I’ve never heard you speak so b