Page 1 of Of Wolves and Wives

Alice

1

Rose

The silence is stretches until it’s almost sickening as we all work to process what Mistress Thompson has just said. I swallow, my mind blank as it fails to accept what I’ve just heard.

My stomach heaves, despite being completely empty. Closing my eyes, I press a palm to my middle as I inhale a long, shaky breath. Hunger and thirst claw at me, even through the waves of nausea, reminding me how long it’s been since I last ate … much less kept anything down.

She is with child … and it could be yours.

My heart races, my mind spinning as her words rattle around inside my head.

Pregnant?

Me?

It doesn’t make any sense. I can’t even remember the last time I bled … It shouldn’t be possible.

A shiver racks my body as it dawns on me what this means, not only for me, but for the Grey Prince as well.

An heir.

Disgust wells up in me at the thought, and I nearly dry heave again, until I realize what this could mean for the kingdom. For the women who lie awake in fear of being snatched away by the wolves each season. Perhaps, some good can come from this.

I still cannot bring myself to accept that I’m truly with child—that this isn’t some kind of ruse meant to stay the Grey Prince’s hand a little longer—my heart calms a beat. Though not enough to quiet my racing thoughts.

If I were anywhere else but here, being with child would be nothing short of a death sentence. It may still be.

I’ve heard far too often the horrors that come with pregnancy and childbirth. If this had happened on the streets, I would have been doomed to a life in the brothels, catering to the dark fetishes of wicked men … if I was lucky.

And even then, I’d still have to survive childbirth.

If I wasunfortunate, I’d be dead in a ditch from childbirth if not complications long before. Even if I somehow managed to survive childbirth, alone in some dingy alleyway, there’d be no way for me to raise the babe.

And so, another orphan would be born, forced to grow up on the unforgiving streets of the city.

But here, being pregnant is a different story.

Here, it’s the only thing keeping me, and my mates, alive. For now.

There’s a chance the child could be theirs, too. As much as I want the prince to have no more reason to steal women from their homes, I can’t stand the thought that I’m carrying anything of his.

I almost don’t dare to hope that the child is Heath’s, Pierce’s, or even Rykker’s. If it is, would it even stand a chance of surviving? Would any of us?

Glancing up, I take in the shock on the faces as they stare at me. Only Mistress Thompson seems unperturbed by this news, her cold eyes calculating as she watches me.

The Grey Prince’s wife, Helena, is the first to recover as she steps closer, giving me a reassuring smile that fails to soften her eyes. Across the room, my mates slowly come back to life as they shake the shock of this revelation from their shoulders.

“Could be isn’t good enough,” the Grey Prince growls, the blade turning in his hand as he steps over me toward my mates, but Helena stops him.

Stepping gracefully into his path, she stuns us all as she places a flat palm to his chest, her eyes flashing with warning as her lip curls up in a snarl.

“Youwillstay your hand, my love,” she says, her voice low and commanding. “Yes, the babe could be theirs, but that is a risk we must take. Until we are certain whose heir the human carries, you cannot kill these men. You know the law as well as I do, and I will not have the kingdom snatched away from us. Not like this. Not now.”

A low growl of frustration and rage escapes the prince as his grip on the blade tightens, his eyes flickering from his wife to the men standing at the far end of the room.

“High wolf law, theking’slaw, forbids you from killing her or any that may have sired the child until—” Mistress Thompson starts.

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