Chapter 4 Breeding Vessel

Lyra POV

"Someone's coming," my wolf warned, her senses sharper than mine.

Through the trees, I spotted the pack doctor returning, medical bag in hand. He muttered to himself, his voice carrying in the quiet forest.

"...ridiculous demands. As if I can wake her faster just because he commands it. Alpha or not, medicine has its limits..."

I pressed myself against the rough bark, praying he wouldn't notice my scent. The doctor paused near my hiding spot, his head lifting as he sniffed the air. My heart stopped.

"Who's there?" he called, turning slowly in my direction.

I held my breath, willing myself to become invisible. The doctor took two steps toward me, squinting into the shadows where I hid.

A bird took flight overhead, startling him. His attention diverted for just a second—enough time for me to slip away, moving as silently as possible in the opposite direction.

"Run faster. Don't look back," my wolf urged, her panic feeding mine.

My lungs burned as I navigated through the trees, taking a circuitous route to avoid being seen. Alpha house finally came into view. I slipped through the back door, barely making it to the kitchen sink before violent heaves wracked my body.

Nothing came up. I hadn't eaten since morning.

I gripped the counter's edge, my knuckles white as bone, and tried to make sense of what I'd seen. A woman with my face. Unconscious. In a cabin Dominic had forbidden me from approaching with an Alpha command.

Isabella. It had to be.

But how? Why did she look exactly like me? Or did I look exactly like her?

"I need answers," I finally decided, pushing myself up. "I deserve the truth."

"He'll punish us for entering the forbidden area," my wolf cautioned.

"I don't care." My voice sounded stronger than I felt. "I'm his mate. I have the right to know."

I forced myself to eat and went to bed, determined to confront Dominic tomorrow. Sleep eluded me as I rehearsed what I would say, exhaustion eventually giving way to resolve by dawn.

I showered and dressed with particular care, choosing a simple blue blouse and jeans that made me feel like myself—whoever that was now. Then I made my way to the pack hall, where he typically handled pack business in the morning hours.

My hand was raised to knock when voices from within stopped me cold.

"How's Isabella?" Dominic's voice.

"She's showing promising signs, though there's still a significant risk of cervical cancer," a male voice filtered through the heavy oak door. The pack doctor. "Her brain activity increased during your last visit. The new treatment appears to be working."

"How much longer until she wakes up?"

"Impossible to say. Could be days, could be weeks. But I've never seen better indicators. She's fighting to come back to you, Alpha."

I pressed my ear closer to the door, hardly daring to breathe. Isabella's in coma? My competition is a woman who couldn't even wake up?

"And what about her infertility?" Dominic asked.

"Sorry, Alpha. There's nothing I can do for now."

"Keep working on it. If it really comes to that, I still have Lyra."

My blood turned to ice. Infertility? Isabella's infertility? And what did he mean by "still having me"?

"Alpha, I doubt Luna will agree to this..." The doctor's tone was hesitant.

"Let me be clear one more time." Dominic's voice hardened to steel. "My Luna is Isabella, not Lyra. She's just my breeding vessel. If Isabella truly can't bear children, then I'll have Lyra carry my child. We're mates—she won't question it. Got it?"

"Yes, Alpha..."

"Therefore," Dominic continued, "we need to move quickly. Isabella is showing signs of waking..."

The world fell dead quiet around me. Breeding vessel. That was the use he had ascribed to me during our night of passion! That's all I was to him! A convenient body to house his children when his precious Isabella couldn't!

The room spun around me as I heard Dominic's voice again: "Marcus, keep a close watch on her. Don't let her get away or get suspicious. She still doesn't know about Isabella, and I need to keep it that way until I decide what to do with her."

"Yes, Alpha..." Marcus's reply confirmed my suspicions. My husband and his Beta were conspiring against me.

"We need to run, my wolf snarled," hackles raised. "Now."

I backed away from the door, careful not to make a sound. Panic clawed at my throat. How many people were involved in this deception? Marcus, the pack doctor, certainly. What about Serena? Had her kindness been genuine, or just another layer of surveillance? Who in this pack could I possibly trust?

I fled back to my room, locking the door behind me. My stomach heaved again, and I barely made it to the bathroom in time. This was the third morning in a row I'd been sick.

"Something's wrong," my wolf whined, pacing anxiously beneath my skin. This isn't just fear.

A terrible suspicion bloomed in my mind.

I remembered the small package tucked away in my dresser drawer—a pregnancy test from a women's health fair at the community college. I'd taken it as a joke, never thinking I'd need it. Wolves could sense pregnancy almost immediately, but with everything happening, I hadn't been paying attention to my body's signals.

With shaking hands, I retrieved the test and locked myself in the bathroom. Three minutes later, I stared at the result with a numb sort of detachment.

"What does it say?" my wolf asked, though she already knew.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I slid down against the bathroom wall.

"I'm pregnant," I whispered.

Carrying the child of a man who sees me as nothing but a breeding vessel.