I Loved You Through Seven Losses Chapter 02
After the procedure, they wheeled me into recovery.
There were over a hundred missed calls on my phone.
The last message was from Asher.
Asher: [Roxie, we’re home, waiting for you. Whatever happened, talk to me. Please.]
Something made me pull up the security feed from the pack house.
The second the audio connected, Asher’s shouting poured into my ear.
“Sienna, did you say something to Roxie behind my back?”
“I didn’t!”
Garrett moved fast and put Sienna behind him.
“Roxie’s the one throwing a fit out of nowhere, so why are you yelling at Sienna?”
“She loves the drama. Leave her alone and she’ll come crawling back in an hour.”
He paused, then went on.
“And the ceremony’s canceled anyway, so it’s not too late to change your mind. Sienna’s been waiting for you…”
Garrett didn’t get to finish because Asher cut him off, cold.
“I’ve told you already. The one I love is Roxie!”
“You love her?” Sienna’s voice went sharp with resentment. “Then what was our bet worth?”
Asher couldn’t even look at her, and his voice dropped.
“Don’t worry. A bet’s a bet, and I’ll never let her carry my heir.”
His choice hadn’t changed at all.
A bitter smile pulled at my mouth.
I opened my inbox and found the classified assignment the Wolf Council had sent out, the one deploying to the Badlands.
I sent: [I accept.]
Council: [Deployment in seventy-two hours.]
On the screen, Sienna tore a page off the notepad on the coffee table.
“Talk is cheap. Put it in writing!”
“If you break this deal, I’ll tell her everything about those nights we spent together.”
“I have it all on video, remember.”
Murder came over Asher’s face. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Sienna waved the paper at him with a mocking smile.
“What’s this? You’ll do it, but you won’t own it?”
“You weren’t this shy when you had me pinned underneath you.”
Asher’s chest heaved, and the veins stood out at his temples.
After a moment, he snatched up the pen and signed his name hard enough to tear the page.
“I’m warning you. Keep your mouth shut. If Roxie hears one word, you’ll regret it.”
Sienna laughed.
“Regret it how? The way you made me regret it last night?”
“So cold, Alpha. If your precious Roxie saw you like that, would she even recognize you?”
Something complicated and hungry crossed Garrett’s face. He leaned in and signed the page, too.
“Relax. When have I ever gone back on my word to you?”
“Asher and I have it planned out. Two days from now, right before her prenatal exam, I’ll give her a trace dose of wolfsbane. The results will show complications.”
“She trusts us completely. She won’t suspect a thing.”
“And since I’m handling it myself, what could possibly go wrong?”
Rage rolled up through my chest hard enough to crack the screen in front of me.
In my last life, they had used the exact same trick to talk me into ending the first pregnancy.
I had been floating on the happiness of being newly mated, and that forged report came down on me like a hammer.
But Garrett had been right about one thing.
I could have suspected every wolf alive, and I still wouldn’t have suspected them.
Reality had shown me exactly how stupid that was.
Two hours later, I came home, my body heavy with what was left of the pain.
My finger had barely touched the biometric lock when two men shouted the same thing inside.
“What? You’re pregnant?”
“Sienna, you’re actually pregnant?”
I stopped where I was.
Sienna let out a dramatic sigh.
“I took ten tests. How much more sure do you want me to be?”
“I didn’t expect it either. If I hadn’t gotten sick this afternoon, I wouldn’t have checked at all.”
The room went dead silent.
After a long moment, I heard Garrett speak, low and even.
“Asher, it’s done. What do you want to do about it?”
Asher didn’t answer, and it was Sienna who tested the water.
“Maybe I should get rid of it?”
Two voices came back at once.
“No!”
“Absolutely not!”
The pain in my chest went sharp enough to take my breath.
Asher’s voice came muffled through the door.
“Roxie is never going to give me an heir. That makes this pup the only blood I’ll ever have. It stays.”
Garrett backed him up right away.
“He’s right. Even with our healing, ending a pregnancy still tears the body up. I won’t let you hurt yourself, Sienna.”
It was almost funny.
They both knew the danger, and they had still shoved me into that fire seven times over and poisoned me on top of it.
The anger came up like a flame.
I reached for the door handle, ready to walk in and put it to their faces, and then Garrett said the thing that nailed me to the floor.
“This pup can’t be born with illegitimate stamped on it.”
“Here’s what we do. We say the baby is mine. Roxie won’t question it.”
In my last life, Asher and I hadn’t been mated long.
Then Garrett suddenly announced that he was taking Sienna as his mate, because she was carrying his child.
I didn’t know a thing back then, and I gave my blessing to both of them.
Later, once I had given up on ever having pups of my own, I poured everything into that boy. I called him my nephew and raised him as if he were mine.
And only today did I learn that he was my husband’s son by another woman.
“Then it’s settled. We’ll set up a full prenatal workup.” Garrett said it like it was already done.
Asher left no room for argument. “I’ll sit that one out. I’m going to find Roxie.”
His voice trailed off.
The door swung open from the inside.
Asher stood there, and the whole shape of him froze.