Carson followed the doctor into the office to collect my prenatal report; I watched the door with hollow eyes. When they reappeared, Alice’s languid voice floated into the corridor—more taunting than worried this time. “You can come out now. Haven’t you seen enough? Aren’t you satisfied?”
I walked up to them without a word. Alice’s gaze flicked to me, a calculated annoyance curling her lips. “What, have you grown a thicker skin? You know Carson never loved you. Still clinging to the title of Luna—how pathetic.”
My laugh was a dry, hard sound. “Isn’t it more pathetic to be the other woman fighting for a place that’s already taken?”
Alice smiled like she’d won. “I knew Carson before you did. If I hadn’t left Stormclaw, you would never have married him. Now I’m back, carrying his pup. You should step aside.”
The world contracted. From the moment I became mates with Carson I had sensed a ghost of a woman in his mind—a she-wolf who lingered in memory. But I had never thought she would return and claim everything. My fingers curled around the paper in my hand until the corners dug into my palm.
Alice snatched the report from me, peered at the numbers, then laughed out loud—loud, cruel, like breaking glass. “Carson? What, do you even plan to survive this? Will you live long enough to raise that bastard, or will you two die together?”
The laugh set something in me free. Before I could think, my hand rose. The slap landed with the crack of a twig. Alice staggered, then fell. Her scream was theater—too loud, too practiced. “Brianna! I’m pregnant—how can you hit me?” She sobbed, big, wet drops that I recognized as well choreographed.
A harsh shove sent my stomach slamming against tile. Carson’s hand seized my arm; his voice boomed, furious. “Are you crazy? How could you push Alice—she’s pregnant!”