CHAPTER THREE

ANNA'S POV

"Your test result says you are pregnant, Anna."

Katherine said with a look of surprise and amusement.

"What do you mean?"

I demanded.

She handed the result to me.

"You are fucking pregnant. I thought you were celibate. You don't even have a mate! Who in the bloody hell got you pregnant?"

She demanded. She was yelling and I could not even blame her. It was hard for me to believe I was pregnant too. 

" Katherine stop yelling, please."

"Well, you have to say how the hell you got pregnant. You are going to have to explain to everyone."

"No," I protested. " I don't owe everyone an explanation as to why and how I am pregnant."

She stopped for a while to regard me with a disdain that sliced at me.

"You are in a Lycanthrope community. Everyone knows that you are the girl without a mate and you somehow think you won't do any explaining?"

Her question made sense, but I gave the reply I knew was suitable, anyway.

"Katherine, it is my life. If it's messed up, it is still my life and I do not need anyone's help living it." 

I said. The doctor had since left us by the hallway to go and attend to other patients and it was just both of us standing there. My hands went to my head. I felt hot. There were too many emotions running through me and it was difficult trying to stay sane in the face of it all.

I said a desperate prayer to the moon goddess to change my fate. It was useless.

There was not going to be any reversal in my life. 

I started to cry even without meaning to. I was tough enough to handle things my own way, but the look of things did not let me remain chin up.

****

Snide remarks followed me everywhere I went. My aunt and cousin made my life a greater hell. 

"You are a slut, Anna. It is not a secret anymore because you have evidence now."

My aunt said usually.

" I am not a slut. I had only made a mistake. I had no idea...."

My words usually trailed off with tears in my eyes each time I made an attempt to defend myself.

" What excuse do you think will make you honorable again? You're nothing but a cheap whore! That is what you have always been!"

"And you got Rejected. You are pathetic!"

Katherine would add.

It continued for days and weeks and I hung my head in shame whenever I went out.

"She is pregnant without a mate!"

These were the kind of words I heard, spoken in the most derogatory manner and accompanied by taunts.

"She will never have anyone to claim her. She will have to carry her shame all her life."

"She had been rejected by her own mate. What good could possibly happen to her?"

The stares were enough to make me drop dead, but I did not. I put on a brave face every day and faced the members of my pack. 

After my parents passed, my aunt had moved into our home with her kid, Katherine so she could better take care of me and keep an eye on what my parents owned since I was only ten then, but I had grown up like a slave, having no access to what my parents owned except for the things she allowed.

I wanted to leave, but I had almost nothing, despite what my family owned.

I had often heard from my aunt that when I was old enough I would be duly handed over what my family owned, but as I began to grow older, she stopped talking about it altogether. I saw how Katherine had more privileges than I did.

I had to earn my meals every single day and she did not. 

****

When I crossed into the human territories, it was without fear. I was just an omega and could easily blend with the humans.

 I was already four months pregnant and it did not seem to me like things were going to be any easier, but it was a relief knowing I would no longer be stared at with disdain in the eyes of people who knew nothing about me. I would no longer have to cry my eyes out every night after being accorded the cruelest treatments and most scathing words from my aunt and sometimes from my cousin too whom I think loved me.

If she had never taken me out on the night of my birthday, I would never have met my mate, had sex with him, gotten rejected and only come back to find that I was pregnant for him. The same Lycan who had outrightly rejected me. It hurt but staying in the human city was about all I could do to help myself heal from all I had been surrounded with for the past few months.

"Hey, lady.. do you need any help?"

A female voice called behind me. The cab man had left me right in front of someone's lawn.

"Oh, yeah, I'm new to the neighborhood."

I replied as the young lady walked up to me. She had a pleasant smile that warmed my heart... I did not remember the last time I had been a recipient of such a warm smile.

" I was hoping there was an apartment I could rent around here."

I said when she reached me. She blinked back her surprise.

"You are new to town and you did not have your accommodation sorted out?"

She demanded.

"And you are pregnant. That is not exactly healthy for your babies."

She said.

Why had she assumed that I had babies in my womb, I wondered.

But she was already whisking me off before I could say another word.

"I'll let you stay over here for a while until you can get your apartment. Do you know anyone in town?"

I shook my head.

"I do not know anyone."

"Then you are welcome. I'm Ella."