Pregnant and Rejected by My Alpha Mate novel Chapter 22

 Pregnant and Rejected by My Alpha Mate Chapter 22

#Chapter 22 The Alpha is Dead

Selene’s POV

“Selene, are you ready?” Odette is knocking on the dressing room door, her kind voice unusually somber.

“Yes.” I call, smoothing my skirts. “You can come in.”

The door pushes open, and my mother-in-law’s lovely face peeks inside. She sidles through the narrow opening, approaching me with a wistful expression. “Oh my darling.” Odette murmurs bleakly, her eyes shining as she studies my reflection. “I really thought you two would make it.”

“I thought we might too” I admit, keeping my gaze high to ward off tears. “For a while.”

Her hand closes around mine, squeezing gently. “What happened, Selene?” She asks gently.

All at once it hits me that I’m not merely losing my husband, but the only parental figures I’ve known since my mother died. I swipe at an escaped tear, “It’s what Bastien wants.”

Odette frowns, the edges of her warm brown eyes crinkling beneath the weight of her drawn brows. She opens her mouth to speak but before any words can escape, all the blood drains from her face in a frenzied rush, leaving her white as a sheet. Her eyes go wide and her body crumples, bowing and bending against her will. Her mouth gapes open in a breathless gasp, emitting a strangled cry.

“Odette!” | exclaim, catching her by the arms so she does not fall. “What’s wrong?”

Her mouth is opening and closing soundlessly, her body trembling beneath my hands. “It’s Gabriel.”

Before I can stop her, Odette rips herself from my hold, flying out of the room and down the hall. I race after her, blood rushing in my ears. I’ve never seen someone look so anguished, so afraid.

We pick up a few sentries as we run, everyone jolting into action the moment they see the look on Odette’s face. She bursts into Gabriel’s office, freezing in the doorway.

I know the moment I hear her choked whimper. I do not need to see her stumble back against the door frame, sinking to the ground with shaking limbs. I do not need to hear the screams that follow, or the weeping. I do not need to see her crawling across the floor on her hands and knees, seeking something just out of sight of the hallway.

By the time I reach Odette she is lying in Gabriel’s blood, her body thrown atop his, wracked with violent, heaving sobs. The Alpha stares sightlessly up at the ceiling, his skin a garish shade of gray.

I clasp my hand tightly over my mouth, trying to hold back my own grief. I can’t fall apart, not when others are hurting so badly. Odette needs me to keep it together, Bastien will need… Bastien.

I know the guards have already gone for him, but in a fit of irrational panic I try to come up with any possible plan to stop them. He shouldn’t have to see this, he shouldn’t have to lose his father so young. I wrap myself around Odette, holding her while she cries and praying that it’s all a bad dream.

Hot, thick blood seeps into my wedding dress, smearing over my skin and pooling beneath our huddled bodies. The stench of death is thick in the air, and I can almost imagine I smell the salt of Odette’s tears.

The sound of heavy running footsteps meet my ears, and I know my prayers have not been answered. Bastien towers in the doorway, looking suddenly very young despite his intimidating appearance.

His silver gaze travels over his father’s body, to his mother and me. My lip trembles, I could cry from the look on Bastien’s face alone. He looks so lost, a child adrift in a sea of uncertainty. I can see the little boy he once was, the one who looked to his father to hang the moon.

He moves forward in a trance, his eyes never leaving his father’s body. Sinking to his knees by my side, Bastien roars with fury and despair. I watch helplessly as he sinks forward, lowering his head to Gabriel’s too-still form, his hands clenched in white knuckled fists.

I’ve never seen Bastien cry. He’s come close once or twice, but he’s never wept as he does now. The sight of my indomitable husband broken and helpless tips me over the edge. Tears stream from my eyes, and then Bastien is reaching toward me blindly.

His arm catches my waist and he hauls me into his lap, squeezing me like a security blanket while he pulls his mother into his other side. We lie in a tangled heap like this, sobbing and bloodstained, until the pack enforcers arrive.

Choking back his grief, Bastien nods, setting me on my feet. I stand protectively at his side while he attempts to rouse Odette, trying to pull her from Garbiel’s body as tenderly as possible. She won’t budge. She bares her fangs and snarls at her son, clutching her mate’s body so tightly her hands shake almost as violently as her quaking shoulders.

People are swarming around us on all sides: council members, enforcers, even Dr. Kane is here. Bastien and I help Odette to her feet, and Aiden asks Dr. Kane to administer a sedative. While the doctor speaks with her, I pull Bastien aside. His silver eyes move up and down my body, taking in the sight of my ruined wedding dress with a dreadful grimace.