Chapter 14

Cara

I’ll do anything to protect my unborn baby. Even if that means pretending to be Alaric’s secret office mistress again.

At least Alaric’s been much nicer to me since I “agreed” several days ago to go back to how things used to be.

When I see him, that is. He’s been so busy with work that we haven’t spent that much time together at the apartment like we used to.

He’s been taking me out. We went back to The Hideout, and tried a few other restaurants, too. It’s been… almost nice. I might even say it’s been peaceful.

Until today.

Alaric came back to the apartment and finally took a look around. I cleared out all of my stuff a while ago, planning to leave DarkWood and find a new pack.

That’s still the plan, but Alaric’s renewed interest in keeping me as a mistress has been a bit of a setback.

“Where are all of your things?!” He was furious.

“You said I could leave the pack after the wedding was over. I was just preparing—” I’m trying to get him to see reason, but he’s far too upset for that.

“You can leave when I says you can leave!!” He was the picture of an Alpha male, refusing to accept any ideas except his own. “I’m not done with you yet!”

“Yes, Alpha King,” I say submissively, trying a new tactic. Logic clearly isn’t working. I just need him to calm down.

If he thinks he has the upper hand for now, then so be it.

Alaric eyes me, like he’s trying to decipher me, before nodding.

“Good.” Just before he walks off to resume working, he looks back at me, “I’ll even raise your salary to sweeten the deal.”

I feel sick. And not only because I’m pregnant.

Truth is, I really do need the money now. If I’m going to find a new pack and start a new life, if I’m going to provide a nice and stable life for my child, then I need as much money as I can get.

Alaric and Lilia have both called me a gold digger more times than I can count by now. It was never even true.

I had debts to pay, that much was true. Grandmother’s medical expenses were massive. I had to go to Alaric’s father, the last Alpha King, more times than I’d care to admit asking for financial assistance.

But Grandmother had been the cook for the entire pack house. She wasn’t just important to me, she was important to all of Pack DarkWood.

That’s why Alaric’s father had paid me so handsomely over the years.

But I’m proud to say I earned every single penny I made by working hard to support the pack. And Grandmother’s medical bills were now finally all paid.

Just in time for me , I need more money.

I couldn’t catch a break.

“Cara, come to me…” Alaric commands later once he returns from work.

I knew what he wanted. He was in the bedroom, waiting for me to bring him pleasure.

But I was nervous about the baby inside me. What if Alaric got too rough? What if the baby got hurt?

“I can’t… the doctor still hasn’t cleared me for that kind of activity,” I tell him.

My best friend Ruby had faked a medical excuse for me. It said that the doctors ordered me to avoid all “strenuous physical activity” due to my recent fainting spells.

I’d been using that excuse for days now. I could tell Alaric’s patience was wearing thin.

A yawn came from my lips. I’d been so damned tired lately. I sat down on the couch for just a moment and promptly fell asleep.

I awoke hours later to the sounds of Alaric coughing in the apartment’s study. The sounds of his sickness were unmistakable.

I rise from the couch to check on him, and his eyes locked on mine when I reach the study doorway.

He was hunched over with a wastebin in his lap. Definitely, his stomach issues flared up agin. His skin was pale.

“Help me,” His voice gives the order, somehow with the full authority of an Alpha King despite Alaric being covered in his own sickness. “Consider this overtime, Beta. You’re still being paid for your time.”

I take a breath and get to work. I need the money, of course, but it’s sad that he brings everything back to money.

Not that he deserves my help.

I've loved Alaric for so many years, and I know exactly how to take care of him. I’m softly rubing his stomach when he speaks again.

“You’re much more considerate than Lilia,” he says with a sigh. I’m not sure if he meant to say that out loud.

I ignore it.

I can’t ignore the documents I see strewn about his desk, though. It’s all paperwork regarding a free kitchen Alaric’s starting to feed the Pack DarkWood poor. There were so many documents, he must’ve been working on this for so long.

He really is a great Alpha King. Always working to improve the pack.

Pull Alaric’s arm over my shoulder and hobble him over to the bed for some rest. I sit down with him, trying to position his body, but he rolls over, laying his head on my thigh.

It’s such a small, intimate gesture and my breath catches. He’s never laid on me like this.

Gently, I adjust his body until he’s under the covers. I bring him some medicine and tell him to sit up.

I’m measuring the medicine into a cup, and he surprises me by leaning forward and kissing me. I nearly drop the cup, I’m so shocked.

“Shh… lay back and rest,” I say, trying to soothe him.

He’s probably just delirious from the sickness. But I can’t deny that my body clenched when he kissed me.

These physical reactions to him were so frustrating. My mind was made up, I didn’t love him. Now I just needed my body to get over him, too.

“Cara… I need you…” Alaric whispers, stroking my hand.

His eyes are barely open, he looks desperate for sleep.

“Shh… shhh…” I beckon him to surrender to sleep, rubbing his hair.

I look down at his body, thinking of all the emotional whiplash he’s caused me over the last few weeks.

“Did you ever even love me?” I whisper once he’s closed his eyes.

I don’t really even expect him to hear me, the question was just my own mental musing. I think I hear his breathing shift to soft snoring.

I’m startled when he answers me, “No, never…”

Well, there’s my answer, once and for all.

This is all just physical to him. He doesn’t love me. He’s never loved me.

Once he gets tired of using my body’s he’ll move on and find a new mistress. He’ll go back to thinking of me as the poor, money-hungry low-born orphan.

But this isn’t just about me now.

I have a child to think about now.

Our child.

For the good of the baby, I have to leave Alaric, and Pack DarkWood. And must soon...