Noah attempted to follow me, but Selene quickly tugged at his sleeve.
“Noah, Leo is crying too hard. He can’t breathe!”
Noah quickly returned his attention to Leo, picking him up and gently patting his back.
Leo wrapped his little arms around Noah’s neck and sweetly said, “Daddy!”
They looked like a perfect family.
My heart felt numb; perhaps I couldn’t feel pain anymore.
Noah, who had once promised to protect me, had disappeared. He now belonged to another woman and her child. He was no longer mine.
After the family dinner, I would put the bond-breaking potion in his drink. After he drank it, there would be nothing between us.
The cruise ship arrived safely at the Midnight Bloom Pack pier. As soon as Noah finished loading the luggage into the car, Selene dashed over, clutching Leo in her arms. “Leo’s stomach hurts. What if something’s wrong?”
Noah examined him quickly but found nothing obvious. “We should go to the nearby healer’s hut. Better safe than sorry.”
He lifted Leo into the car and then looked at me with guilt in his eyes. “Talia, can you take the luggage back to the villa for now? I’ll take Leo to the healer.”
Without waiting for my response, he removed all of the luggage from the trunk and placed it on the ground. He then helped me get out of the car and kissed my forehead.
“Go ahead and rest at the villa. We’ll be back soon. Thank you.”
He sped away, leaving me standing alone on the pier with three large suitcases and one small one.
In five years, he had never allowed me to carry a bag.
Now? He would dump all the bags on me without hesitation, all because someone else was more important to him.
My body was tense throughout the ride in the crowded economy cabin. My stomach had started cramping, and I had barely gotten off the boat alive. Now I didn’t even have a ride home.
My phone buzzed nonstop. Noah’s parents kept messaging, wondering when we’d arrive.
I picked it up, but then everything blurred. My vision turned black, and I collapsed. I awoke to find myself lying on a bed in the healer’s hut.
“A kind stranger brought you in,” said the healer.
Then he looked serious and said, “You are pregnant, but it is not going well.”
I looked at him, stunned. “I’m pregnant?” I touched my belly, feeling completely overwhelmed.
The healer sighed and gently explained, “Yes, it has been about a month, but your body is too weak; you are not in good shape to carry a pup.”
He paused, then added softly, “He may not make it.”
I couldn’t hear anything else. My mind repeated only one sentence.
“I’m pregnant.”
I never imagined that just as I was about to break the mate bond with Noah, I would be carrying his child.
I had long accepted that I might not have a child. All of this, as well as this little life, happened unexpectedly.
I experienced both joy and fear. I didn’t know how to handle it.
Should I tell Noah?
