Chapter 74

Raphael continued to stare at her in a state of shock while Justas alternated between opening and closing his mouth, struggling to string together enough words to form a coherent sentence.

“How long have you known this?” Justas finally asked quietly, now more interested in listening to her story rather than watching the second half of the game that he had been watching previously.

“I only figured it out last week. Just as I went into labour.” She admitted, hoping that they didn’t pay attention to the way her face flushed at the memory or rather, exactly how she had gone into labour.

On top of Marcellus while he was balls deep inside her.

Squirming uncomfortably at the memory which caused her pussy to tingle and her lower lips to warm up, she continued to tell the story. “The funny thing is that apparently Marcellus figured out that we’re mates that first time we met.”

“When he threw you out of the pack?” Raphael asked with wide eyes, finally breaking his silence.

“Yes.” She nodded her head in confirmation and sighed. “It turns out that he’s known that we’re mates since the very beginning but decided to keep it a secret this whole time.” She paused to chuckle, though the glint in her eyes was far from humorous or comical. When neither of the others joined in, she pursed her lips and pushed herself to continue. “It turns out that he took one look at me, saw that I was pregnant, classed me a hoe for not waiting for a mate that I didn’t even know that I was going to have, and decided that I wasn’t worthy of him.”

“He did not!” Raphael exclaimed, a murderous look on his face despite the fact that she was talking about his Alpha. “Tell me you’re joking!”

“Unfortunately, I am not.”

“That explains why the council has really been pushing him to take a mate recently.” Justas sounded aloud in awe; his voice quiet.

“The council?” She questioned, faintly able to remember him mentioning something about the werewolf council – the very same one that she had complained to when he had kicked her out of the pack – but she was too mad at him to listen.

“We don’t know the full story but they’ve given him two months or something to take a mate.” Justas explained, sending her an apologetic look as now, they all knew that he had been doing all of this even after meeting his mate; Anastasia.

“Yes, and the fact that he’s been messing about with me while looking for a choice mate just makes things all that much worse.” Anastasia admitted, uncaring of the fact that she had basically admitted that she had been messing around with the Alpha, especially since there wasn’t much that she kept secret from Justas and Raphael, and vice versa.

“I’m so sorry, Ana.” Raphael sighed as he shuffled closer to her on the sofa and threw an arm over her shoulder, pulling her into his side as he gave her an apologetic, reassuring squeeze.

As much as she appreciated the gesture and the level of comfort that it provided, unfortunately, it didn’t make any changes to the current shit-show that she was bang in the middle of.

“What are you going to do?” Justas asked after a few moments, still struggling to believe that Alpha Marcellus would do such a horrendous thing but believing every single word that passed Anastasia’s lips with his very being. He knew her well enough to know when she was lying which, other than the odd white lie, was nearly never and there was also the fact that she had absolutely nothing to gain from lying about such a thing.

“I have no idea.” Anastasia exhaled deeply, shaking her head in hopes of clearing her mind. “I have no idea what I’m going to do about this whole thing, but I just need to get away from here, I think. Hopefully that will clear my mind.”

“Do you want to be with him?” Justas asked seriously, his eyes trained on her as he carefully watched for her initial, natural reaction to his question.

“Not when he’s lying to me and treating me like I’m not worthy of his mighty self, no.” She shook her head, meaning every word of it even though it made her heart ache to admit such a thing.

Satisfied with her response, Justas nodded.

“Have you thought about rejecting him?”

“No.” Anastasia shook her head and gulped, aware that rejection in the werewolf world was a very big deal, even more so when an Alpha or high-ranking wolf was involved. “I haven’t thought about rejecting him right now and I also don’t think I’m in the right place to make such a decision because if I do now, it will definitely be out of anger and desire to get him back for treating me like this.”

“I think that would be best.” He hummed and nodded. “This is definitely something that you would need to think through before making any final decision.”

Anastasia opened her mouth to say something further but when a loud, shrill cry sounded on the baby monitor, they all scrambled to their feet to go tend to the crying baby that had just woken up.

Holding baby Alistair in her arms, she was very tempted to drop her ego and stay, at least until the end of her maternity leave but Anastasia knew that she needed to be strong. She couldn’t let the Alpha continue toying with her as he had been doing for so long, and that would always be a possibility as long as she stayed here.

If she went back home, there was less of a chance of him getting to her. Or at least she hoped so.

And so that’s why, she cooed at the little boy one more time before strapping him into his car seat and handing him to one of his fathers before they all piled into the car and began the journey over to neutral territory. Despite their best attempts at keeping the conversation flowing, long bouts of silence filled the car which was perfect for Anastasia as she simply wasn’t in a very talkative mood.

“It’s not too late to change your mind, you know.” Justas murmured quietly as he wheeled her suitcase into the house and left it in the hallway, his gaze on her.

Anastasia sighed and nodded before she walked over to him and pulled him in for a hug before moving over to do the same to Raphael and placed a gentle kiss on sleepy Alistair.

“Do you want to stay for a coffee or something? Or maybe we could order takeout?” She asked, the hopefulness evident in her tone as she glanced between the mated couple.

Both Raphael and Justas frowned slightly and shared a knowing look.

“Sorry, babe. We can’t today. We’re supposed to be having dinner with some of the other new parents at the pack.” Raphael pouted, clearly not happy about leaving her hanging but since they already had plans, their arms were twisted and there wasn’t much that they could do.

“Oh, shit. I totally forgot about that.” She swore, but quickly pressed a hand over her mouth as she remembered she was in the presence of a child, even if he was currently asleep and there was no way of him remembering this moment when he was older. “Sorry.”

“No, we’re sorry, Ana.” Justas gave her a soft look before reaching out to give her a shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “How about we all go out for lunch tomorrow?”

“That sounds like a plan.” She forced a grin on her face and gave them both another hug, watching from the doorway of her house as they got into the car, offered her one more wave before driving away.

It was only when they had disappeared from her vision and she could no longer hear the quiet rumble of the car that she forced herself to stop looking.

Even though Anastasia had been determined and adamant that this was the right decision, that she needed to get away from him, now that she was alone and back home, she wasn’t so sure.

Turning around and closing the door behind her, staring into the dark, cold house which couldn’t compete with the vivacious life of the pack house, Anastasia had never felt so alone.