When Natalie woke,she found herself in the pack infirmary,lying on a narrow cot beneath a woolen blanket.
A pack medic stood at her side,face heavy with regret.“I’m sorry,”he said quietly.“You’ve lost the pup.”
Tears filled her eyes before she could speak.
Because of Jennifer and Daniel,she had lost her child again.
Outside the infirmary corridor,she could hear the murmur of the medics and pack attendants.
“Did you hear?The Alpha’s mate scratched her wrist with a rope and he reserved the whole ward.”
“Which Alpha?”
“Who else?Daniel Chalamet.I wish I had a bond like that.”
From the moment she had been taken to the lair to the moment she lost the pup,Daniel had not once called her,not a single message.Jennifer,on the other hand,only bore a small scratch—and Daniel had commandeered an entire floor of the infirmary for her.
Natalie let out a bitter smile as fresh tears came to her eyes.
Her communicator on the bedside table buzzed.She picked it up.
“You found a compatible heart-source donor,right?Can you fly over now?”came the message.
She nodded to herself.“I’ve already booked the passage,”she told the pack medic.
At that moment Daniel walked into the room.“What passage?Where are you going?”he asked.
Natalie didn’t turn to him.Calmly,she said,“I bought it for a friend;his mark didn’t go through.”
He set a sheaf of lilies on the small table.They were Jennifer’s favorite flowers.
“I’m sorry about last night.Things moved fast and I had no choice,”he offered.
She gave him a cold look.“So your choice was Jennifer.You left your mate of three years with those savages?”
He opened his mouth to answer,but his communicator buzzed.Jennifer’s name flashed.His face shifted immediately.
“Didn’t I pick Jennifer because you staged all of this,Natalie?”he said,voice tight.“Aren’t you doing this to get my attention?Have you thought how much this hurts Jennifer?”
“She needs me now.Take care of her,”she replied.
He slammed the infirmary door and left without another glance.
So Jennifer had told him she’d fabricated the whole thing—he trusted her implicitly.
Her communicator chimed again:a blunt command from Daniel.
[Come to the eighth ward and apologize to Jennifer right now,or I’ll never forgive you!]
Natalie let out a cold laugh and blocked his mark.
What Jennifer did not know was that Natalie had already recorded everything Jennifer had said to her at the celebration—the entire conversation saved,word for word.
Before she left the cot,she placed the recorder and the pack medic’s report about the miscarriage on the bedside table.
Then she rose,took her father’s hand,and walked away without looking back.
