Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Aria’s POV

The pregnancy test felt like a bomb in my pocket.

Two days had passed since I found my pregnancy and left that divorce requirements. Two days of waiting for Finn to come home and see them.

He hadn’t.

I was folding laundry in the living room when I heard the front door open. Finn’s voice carried through the hallway. And another voice. Sharp. Familiar.

Irene.

My hands froze on Lilith’s tiny shirt.

They walked in together. Finn looked annoyed. His mother looked furious.

"There she is." Irene’s lips curled. "The broken incubator."

I straightened. The test burned against my thigh through the thin pocket fabric.

Five years of trying to be perfect. To be enough. To make him love me. But the mate bond was just chains to him. An obligation he resented every day.

Irene circled me like a predator. "Two days, Aria. Two days since ovulation. Please tell me you didn’t waste another month."

"Mother—" Finn started.

My hand moved to my pocket. To the proof. To the two pink lines.

"Still no boy?" Irene’s laugh was acid. "Of course not. Shadow Moon trash can only produce more trash. It’s in your defective blood."

Her finger jabbed toward my face. "You’ve been married to my son for five years. FIVE. And what have you given this family? A useless daughter. No heir. No value."

The words should have hurt. Maybe they did. But I felt numb.

"You know what your problem is?" Irene stepped closer. Her expensive perfume choked me. "Your womb is as worthless as your bloodline. Finn should have rejected you the moment he sensed that pathetic mate bond."

I looked at Finn. Waited for him to defend me. To say anything.

He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

"Maybe we should consider other options," Irene continued. Her voice turned calculating. "There are fertility treatments. Doctors who specialize in defective Omegas. Or—" she paused "—we could find someone else to carry the Nightfang heir. Someone with better breeding."

My stomach turned. Before, I would’ve stayed silent. Would’ve apologized. Would’ve begged forgiveness for daring to speak.

Not today.

"The baby’s gender isn’t something I control alone," I said. My voice came out steady. Clear.

The room went still.

Irene stood slowly. Her face twisted. "What did you just say?"

"I said—"

The slap came fast. Hard. My head snapped to the side. Pain exploded across my cheek.

"Kneel!" Irene’s pheromones crashed over me. Pure Beta rage. "How dare you talk back to me!"

My knees shook. Artemis whimpered in my mind. But I didn’t kneel.

I raised my hand. Ready to slap back. Ready to finally fight.

A large hand caught my wrist. Squeezed until bones ground together.

"Aria." Finn’s voice came from right behind me. Cold. Dead. "Do you really want to make this worse?"

I turned. Met his amber eyes. Looked for something. Anything. Any trace of the man I’d married.

Nothing.

He looked at me like I was a stranger. No—worse than a stranger. Like I was an insect. Something beneath notice.

"I don’t have time for this today." He released my wrist. Helped his mother stand. "I’ll come back next month."

"Finn, I need to talk to you. I want to—"

His phone rang. He pulled it out. His whole face changed. Softened.

"Celestia? I’m coming right now."

He walked toward the door. Didn’t look back. Didn’t wait for me to finish.

My words died in my throat.

He was gone before I could say the word. Divorce.

I stood in the empty living room. My cheek still burning. My wrist still aching.

I couldn’t even get him to stay long enough to hear one sentence. That’s how little I mattered.

That night, I sat at the kitchen table. Pulled out the papers I’d printed at work. Mate bond dissolution forms. Divorce papers.

My hand trembled as I signed my name.

I needed to ask my daughter Lilith if she wants to leave with me although she was already so clear about her preferences.

She likes Celestia, likes the expensive perfume over my moonflower scent, likes the woman who gave her candy and toys over the mother who gave her life.

The next day, exhaustion pulled at every muscle. But I went to work anyway. Had to.

My heart hammered. I couldn’t breathe properly. Couldn’t think.

He was tall. So much taller than I’d realized. Broad shoulders that blocked out the streetlight behind him. Muscles that shifted under his shirt with each small movement.

"Go on a date with me."

I blinked. Shook my head. Tried to make my brain work. "What?"

His eyes dragged down my body. Slow. Thorough. Like he was cataloging every detail. Every curve.

When he met my gaze again, something burned in those black-gold depths.

"I said—" he leaned in closer, voice dropping lower "—go on a date with me."

His hand came up. Braced against the bus stop wall beside my head. Caging me in.

"How much do you cost, little Omega?"

"I don’t... what?"

"How much money do you want? Name your price."

My brain finally caught up. "You want to pay me to go on a date with you?"

"Obviously."

Heat flooded my face. Anger. Shame. Confusion.

"No."

His eyebrows rose. Like that was a word he’d never heard before.

"No?"

"No." I gripped my bag strap. Hard. "I’m not... I don’t do that. I refuse."

Kael tilted his head. Studied me. His pheromones pressed harder. Made it difficult to breathe. Difficult to think.

"You’re married, right?" He said it casually. Like he was commenting on the weather. "How much does your husband give you? I’ll triple it."

"This isn’t about money—"

"Everything’s about money for wolves like you." He stepped closer. "Shadow Moon trash working at a Blood Crown establishment. Married to new money trying to buy respectability. You think I don’t know exactly what you are?"

Each word cut. But I’d heard worse. Been called worse.

"I said no."

Kael’s smirk widened. "Three dates. Five thousand each. Come with me to the mating ceremony as my date. That’s another ten thousand." He paused. Let the numbers sink in. "Twenty-five thousand total. Think about it carefully, little Omega."