Page 31 of Pucking the Enemy

She was going to have a baby.

How on earth had I fucked up so badly?

Someone else had knocked up Hazel.

My Hazel.

I had zero right to call her mine, but with the knowledge that someone else had gotten her pregnant swirling around in my brain, my stomach churned with the undeniable reality that something was very, very wrong with this situation.

My body was shaking in anger. I was doing my best to keep it contained, but Hazel knew me far too well. She could read me like an open book.

“You’re pregnant?” I asked.

Hazel swallowed, and instead of saying anything, she simply nodded.

I frowned. “Who? I thought you were on birth control!” Part of me wanted to know every little detail of what had happened, and part of me was terrified to know.

“I messed up a couple of months ago. My suppressants stopped working. I didn’t realize it, so I had a surprise heat, and I ended up sleeping with someone and… yeah.” The words tumbled out of her mouth.

“You had a heat?” I asked incredulously. “How did I not know this?”

I thought she and I were close. How on earth could she have had a heat and never told me? I knew that, one day, she would have heats when she went off her suppressants, but I’d assumed, by that point, she would have a long-term partner, someone I approved of, someone who was good for her, not a random hookup!

The idea of anyone else looking after her made my stomach turn sour.

“It was after one of the parties, when we got back from summer break. The one after the game against Glenfield.”

“Hazel, that was months ago. Why didn’t you come to me when it happened? I would have taken care of you!” As I shouted the words, the realization that they were the truth sank in. I would have taken care of Hazel through a heat.

“You had several puck bunnies hanging off your arm. I wasn’t going to disturb you!” she snapped.

Was that why she had chosen not to come to me? Because a few women were interested in me? My head hurt as I tried to remember that night. Sure, there had been a few women talking to me, and I had even taken one home—but it had been quick and meaningless, a way to scratch an itch.

“You know I would have told them to fuck off!” I cried. “You come before all of them!” I would have taken care of her. I would have gotten anything she needed and helped her ride out the heat. “Wait, you never went home to your parents, did you?”

“No, I didn’t! We are friends, Sebastian. I needed knots, not cuddles.”

I stilled, my heart sinking. “Did you just say knots? Plural?” I asked, my voice hoarse. My heart was in my stomach as I thought about that. The idea that she’d been taken advantage of by one alpha during her heat was bad enough, but multiple?

Hazel huffed, looking upward, like she was begging the gods for this to be over. “Yes, I slept with a pack during my heat, and it was a damn good time, and now it’s over,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Who?” I growled. Every time we had spoken about our future, Hazel had always talked about a singular male partner. She had never insinuated that she wanted a pack. I was the one who desperately craved a pack. I wanted that life, to have pack mates who would have my back through thick and thin, and an omega we could all cherish together.

“That’s not important,” she replied primly.

I snorted. “I would say it’s pretty fucking important, considering they knocked you up. I didn’t take you as the kind of omega who throws herself at a random pack!” The words left my mouth before I could even really consider what I was saying. My words were stupid, and I knew I was being irrational, but apparently, I was beyond reason.

Hazel was going after the life I so desperately craved, and she hadn’t even bothered to tell me? The idea of her with a pack felt so… foreign. If she settled down with one guy, like we had always talked about, then she would have had plenty of time for me. A pack, though… they took up a lot of time and energy.

If she was going to settle down with a pack, the future I had imagined for us was quickly slipping out of reach.

“That’s between me and them,” Hazel growled, her face filling with anger.

How had we managed to find ourselves in such a colossal mess? Sure, I dated, but I told Hazel everything, and I thought she did the same. We did everything together. We went out for dinner several nights a week. We attended games and parties together.

“You should have come to me. I would have kept you safe.”

“I was safe with them,” she cried.

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