Page 112 of As The Shifter World Turns

“Fine, call them and let them know you want your boss's pregnant omega taken out by force. That’ll go over well.”

Pregnant.

No!My wolf wasn’t having it.

Kellan was pregnant.

Ryder’s pregnant omega.

He couldn’t possibly mean…

“Liar!” I seethed. “Get the fuck out, you liar.”

“Whatever. Just tell Ryder. He’ll remember the condom breaking last time we were together. Don’t look at me like that. Of course my belly is still flat. I’m only six weeks along.”

I had to have heard him wrong. I had to. Six weeks would mean he was with Ryder when… no… fuck this… no…

“Do you want to see the test?” He swiped on his phone and turned it around. I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see anything, my eyes so full of tears.

“Get the fuck out.”

And by some miracle he did.

I crumbled to the floor sobbing. How could Ryder do this to me? No. That wasn’t even it.

“How could I have been so fucking stupid?” I forced myself up and went to the copier and emptied a box of paper. I was leaving. I couldn’t face him… couldn’t deal with him seeing me like this… couldn’t… I just needed to leave.

I started to throw my personal things in the box. I didn’t have much, but I had enough that I needed to remember it all, especially the food.

I’d been through the interview process for Archer’s old job and his boss had texted me early this morning to say it was mine. I had to give him my reply before five p.m. today. He wanted me to start immediately. I’d been going to discuss it with Ryder but now, thankfully, I had a well-paying position waiting for me and I could start Monday.

“What’s going on?” Ryder came in with a pizza box. He stuck his dick in someone else and he brought me pizza. Fucking pizza.

“I got a new job,” I told him. “Archer’s old one, really. I gotta go.”

I dropped the box and ran out of there. It was too hard.

Too fucking hard.

PART 2

41

A NEW ARRIVAL

Ivor

“I’m exhausted, but I love it.” That was my answer to Micah’s question of whether I was enjoying my new job. Archer’s former position. And I was telling the truth. I’d been so busy, I hadn’t had time to think about how my life had fallen apart in the past however many days it was. The unicorn shifter had been taking Elune and Patch for a walk and stopped at the gate as I got out of a rideshare. “I’ll see you on the roof once I’ve showered.”

Friday night on Sunshine Manor’s roof was my first since I’d discovered that the stag shifter had not only been sticking his dick into his ex, but had gotten him pregnant. Archer and Neil had done their best to support me and we’d had a night where we drank too much wine and threw darts—real darts—at a picture of Ryder that Neil had pinned on his wall.

I let my friends see my anger but not the hurt that was crushing the air out of my lungs and threatening to swallow me. Not wanting them to know how I cried each night with a pillow over my head because if Daire heard me, he’d try to make me feel better.

Ryder betrayed me and robbed me of what little confidence I’d built up. No. By believing him, I allowed him to do that. He didn’t have the power to just take it. That’s what Neil had drummed into my head. He was good like that. He wasn’t able to look at his own life the same way, but with his friends, he knew what to say.

But words were just that. Words. I heard what Neil was saying but my heart didn’t.I’m such a fool.Putting my trust in Ryder when I suspected deepinside that Kellan was a virus—one Ryder couldn’t rid himself of— was beyond stupid.

My wolf was trying to comfort me but he didn’t get it, not really. This was a human problem. I told him if Daire was free, we'd go to his parents’ place and I’d give him his fur. That'd be the only thing that would stop me thinking of Ryder. That and the new job.

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