DON'T REJECT ME, ALPHA!

CHAPTER 11: FATHER’S STRENGTH

Maya’s POV

I knew that working during the last month of my last trimester was a bad idea, but I didn’t know how bad it really was till I forced my swollen feet to the hospital’s canteen after a back-killing surgery.

If I didn’t know better, I would say that I was growing three footballers inside me. My womb was their football field and restrictions they had none. Three tiny pairs of legs kicked me and it felt like a stampede of small, wild elephants was drumming against my abdomen.

‘Mommy loves you, but please let mommy concentrate on this surgery,’ was the only mantra I chanted and pleaded throughout the surgery. I had fled from the operating theatre the first chance I got. Now I wished that I had gone to the OB-GYN instead to get a few meds.

Tears sprung into my eyes when I felt that my back was on the verge of breaking and my stomach was ready to squeeze the life out of me. My eyes slightly widened as realization dawned over me. Oh no! Contractions.

“You need to eat up, Maya. I can see more plate than food,” Carl said, pointing at the whites with his fork. When I didn’t answer or make a move to eat, he placed his hand over mine. “Maya?” He softly prodded.

A deafening growl suddenly echoed across the white walls of the canteen before silence coated the room like a fresh coat of paint. Every person went statue-still.

Carl instantly removed his hand, and looked around for the source, like everyone else. When no one could find anything out of the ordinary, chaos reigned back in the canteen as voices crossed over each other and people clamoured for their orders.

I couldn’t bring myself to care about the growl as my stomach felt in my throat. Nausea. The mother of all sicknesses that makes every pregnant woman think twice before engaging in s*x again and cursing the manaconda that did this to her.

“Couldn’t sleep last night?” He asked when he noticed my red-rimmed eyes. He didn’t know I was pregnant. Guess he never suspected a thing when I was first brought to this hospital. It was a miracle that my stomach was not showing even after 39 weeks, but I could easily attribute it to the lack of food, the pain of rejection and long, stressful hours on my feet in the hospital. “Isn’t the spare room warm enough?” He asked, concerned.

I had finally taken Carl up on his offer, or rather Mr Lenox-Hill had, when he conveniently “overheard” Carl insisting that I stay with him the day after I found out about my guardian. The beaming man in the sharp, black suit came waltzing in and I instantly knew he was up to no good.

I inwardly sighed when he directly asked the man in white scrubs, where his house was and how soon could the packers and movers help me shift. It was safe to say that the pair of golden eyes that kept check on me, outside the window, behind the trees, every night, belonged to the man who owned this hospital and wouldn’t settle till I was out of the “dangerous” hut. Heaven knows when the lycan slept since he kept guard the whole night. He was taking his role as my guardian too seriously, for my liking.

I shook my head, ‘No, it was comfortable,’ and gave him a small assuring smile that didn’t really make my face muscles stretch. The raised eyebrow on Carl’s face told me that I was fooling nobody.

“Really? Because you look like a bug got to you,” he said and shoved his fork in his mouth. The scent of the greasy meat was making me flinch.

I direly wanted to tell him that, ‘I was pregnant. Not bitten by a radioactive spider,’ but I really couldn’t stand the smell of his food anymore and needed to get away from the place. Stat.

“Is something wrong? Your face seems to be turning yellow and you look like you are about to puk- … ”

I quickly put a hand on my mouth and sprang on my feet before dashing down the hall and falling to my knees to hug the toilet seat. My breakfast bar. No! That was the only thing keeping my stomach from eating itself. Soon enough, I found myself crying over the spilled breakfast bar and hurling throat-hurting, yellow acid.

Carl was instantly by my side. He rubbed my back with one hand and held my hair with another.

Cooing, he tried to stay civil, saying, “It’s ok. Don’t worry. We will get through this,” but even I could hear the anger in his tone with my face half buried in the seat. For some reason, it felt like I had betrayed a friend, but in my defence, I had never led him on or felt the need to share every aspect of my life.

As if my day hadn't been worse, it shot to hell when Nurse Valerie found us in a “compromising” position with Carl hugging me from behind and murmuring sweet nothings in my ear.

Nurse Valerie’s hackles rose like a wet cat, and she let out an indignant hiss. When I looked back, the fire in her eyes revealed her true emotions and thoughts. She thought that I was pregnant with Carl’s child! Carl’s hand supporting the weight of my womb didn’t help matters in the least.

“Nurse Valerie?” Carl looked back. “Good you are here. Could you please be a dear and get Dr Veneto a change of clothing? There must be a spare shirt in my room,” he said, completely disregarding the nurse’s fiery rage to nurture his own, the moment she was gone.

“You are pregnant!” He accused me, as if I had cheated on him. The bite in his tone made me flinch. However, I chose to ignore him for trying to get up, but to no avail.

I had no energy left. My arms failed to haul my body weight to my feet.

“Tsk, can’t even ask for my help,” Carl clicked his tongue and helped me up.

I flushed with shaky hands while Carl gave me space to exit the stall. Water in the sink outside, matched the pace of the whirling flush water but my feet refused to budge and walk towards the precious, running source. Looking in the mirror, I watched Carl’s eyes meet mine while he washed his hands.

His gaze was sharp. He had a surgery in a few minutes, yet he stood still, watching me like a hawk.

A wave of weakness threatened to buckle my knees. Ironically, the fear of falling down set my legs back in motion. Rinsing thoroughly and washing my sweaty face, I ignored the burning stare at my back as I dried my hands and face.

When I spun around, I suddenly found myself pushed against the wall, and my head bracketed with his hands on each side.

The shock sucked the air from my lungs for a moment before my eyes widened when I watched his slanting mouth inch closer to mine. Fury coursed through my veins and I slanted my face just in time, for his lips to miss mine, and instead land on my cheek.

Catching the hint, he pushed himself away from me.

“So that is what you want?” He looked at me with a frown deeper than mine. “Well, good luck taking care of yourself and the baby,” he bit out. “I will return your things to Mr Lenox-Hill,” he declared and strode towards the exit. He just couldn’t wait to get out of the washroom with his bruised ego fast enough.

Was he throwing me out of his house after insisting that I stay? Where was I going to go?

Carl suddenly froze at the door. Clearly, the nurse’s suspicions had been confirmed as she stood witness to Carl’s kissing attempt. Not feeling very friendly, he sidestepped the nurse and let her in.

“Please help Dr Veneto with the shirt, nurse. I have a surgery to take care of,” he said and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

When I saw the malice dancing at the corners of the nurse’s lips, my heart pounded in my ears. It refused to settle back to its normal rhythm and that is when I knew that I was in great trouble.

“Hate to break it to you, dumb-dummy,” she cooed. “But they shall find you in pieces and parts for the next few days,” her voice held promise before she shifted in front of my very eyes!

A dirty brown she-wolf stood in her stead, with red simmering eyes. A rogue! Aka barbaric, uncouth, lawless, murderous wolves who strove on terror.

A scream instantly tore out of my throat, my heart picking up pace but my throat constricted painfully, the veins in my neck straining. I, a mute, full-term pregnant, wolfless omega was easily towered by the monster in front of me, and I couldn’t even scream for help, leave alone lift a finger against the death machine intend on shredding me to bits and pieces.

Unable to maintain my hold, I crumpled to the floor. With a muffled cry of pain, I tried to absorb the pain trying to break my back and focused on slithering back, away from the rogue wolf.

It felt like my womb was on fire and with the messy red trail that I left in my wake, to escape my impending doom, I realized what was happening.

Nooooo! My babies!!

The evil wolf smirked when she saw the blood and put two and two together. Miscarriage! The stress and the fall were facilitating the process.

The fear in my eyes made the sadistic beast thrive on it and her walk turned slow and predatory, eager to enjoy every painful second that I went through as she inched towards me.

I tried to scream again, hoping for a miracle.

‘HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!! PLEASE HELP ME!’ I desperately mouthed the words.

However, not a sound came out, save for a scratchy wheeze which only pulled a deeper smirk on the rogue’s face when I went into a coughing fit.

‘My little ones,’ I internally sobbed. ‘Mommy is so useless. Please forgive her,’ I looked down at my abdomen and silently apologized to the unborn pups who were suffering for no fault of theirs because of my weakness.

Suddenly, I found myself helplessly backed against the wall opposite to the door, with a contraction threatening to rip me apart. If the rogue wolf didn’t kill me, the contractions would.

With pleading eyes, I begged for mercy, but that only seemed to aggravate her. I was stumped when I heard the same bone-chilling growl that had filled the canteen moments ago. The distinct sharp, scratchy note at the end of the growl was a dead giveaway that Nurse Valerie’s fury had unleashed her cacophonous voice pipes when Carl had placed a hand over mine and urged me to eat. Now she had seen worse, and won’t stop at anything less than turning me into her meal.

The she-wolf was bloodthirsty for my blood and her eyes didn’t hide the fact, nor did her gait when she suddenly bull-rushed towards me.

This was it. I was going to die. I gave into my feebleness as a single tear meandered down my cheek. Instead of looking at the devil hellbent on delivering me death, I softly looked between the red mess between my legs and smiled.

‘Mommy is so sorry that she couldn’t defend you in this lifetime. But don’t worry. The Moon Goddess will send you three to the best home possible, complete with a loving and caring father because you were there for me when no one else was. Mommy loves you no matter what. I love you…’

Four paws descended heavily on my sides, hot, pungent breath swirling down my neck before the wind was knocked out of them by a swift, blue blur.

“Master, are you ok?” I faintly heard as sweat trickled down my forehead and mixed with my tears, my consciousness fading fast. Dropping back against the wall limply, my blurring vision just caught sight of my saviour’s blue form turning into a white haze with the most magical silver-white hair, before the perfect image of all muscle and battle scars of royalty, turned into a red bath.

‘Pups,’ I mouthed and fell into an abyss of darkness, not knowing which tunnel I would emerge from. The last thing I remembered was the silver-haired royal walking towards me and taking me from someone else’s arms.

“Don’t underestimate a father’s strength, love. We will get through this. I promise.”

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