Page 20 of The Alpha's Stolen Mate

“Don't we have to, uh, call my parents or something? I…I don't know…” I paused and bit my lip.

How could I be a good mother when I couldn’t even handle the news that I was pregnant? I could barely accept the fact that I was expecting a child.

“Your mother and father are out in the waiting room. So are Gabriel and Axel. I wanted to give you this news privately. Would you like anyone to come in, or do you need a moment alone?” Healer Elijah asked and subtly took the paper out of my hands since I couldn't seem to stop looking at my teardrops coating the black ink.

Sluggishly, my mind registered Gabriel's name. The bond between us pulsed painfully.

Could he feel it, too?

Part of me wanted to go out to the waiting room, fling my arms around my Mate, and tell him the news. I even started to sit up so that I could do just that.

“Woah, slow down, Summer,” Healer Elijah said and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder to guide me back down. “If you want to talk to anyone, I'll bring them to you. Your vitals are good, but you need to take your time before you get up and walk around.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to get Gabriel, but stopped short when a chilly realization washed over me. If I asked for Gabriel and not my parents, Axel might get suspicious. I didn't have the mental space to deal with Axel making a scene in the hospital waiting room on top of everything else.

“Um, can you tell Gabriel and Axel to leave?” I asked Healer Elijah in a small voice. “Just say that I'm really sick or something. And once they're gone, can you please tell my parents I, um, need them?”

Despite what I had just discovered, I felt more immature than I had in a long time. And all I wanted was my parents.

***

With tears running down my face, I told my parents how Gabriel and I discovered we were Mates a month ago and that we spent the night together.

Then, I stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t look at my parents because I was too afraid of seeing disappointment in their eyes.

“I’m…pregnant,” I revealed, my voice trembling.

“Oh, honey, come here, it’s all right,” my mom said, drawing me into a comforting hug.

Relief poured over me like stepping into a warm shower after a long day. My parents would help me get through this. Everything was going to be okay.

My dad closed the hospital room's blinds with a snap.

“We need to keep our voices down,” he said with his back to my mom and me.

The mood in the room changed. My mother and I froze with our arms still wrapped around each other.

My dad turned around and ran a hand through his dark curls. Since the Rogue wolf attacked me, patches of gray began to grow in my father's hair. His muscular build had shrunk over the last couple of years, stress causing him to barely eat my mom's delicious cooking. Each time one of our pack members died from a Rogue attack, it destroyed my dad. As Delta, he was responsible for the pack's protection. But the attacks weren't his fault. He didn't have the money, warriors, or resources to defend our territory.

As my dad walked toward me with an unreadable expression, my stomach jolted. Was he angry with me for putting a wrench in Gabriel's marriage deal with the Alpha King?

“Summer, it's going to be all right. I'm not going to let anything happen to you,” my dad promised and squeezed my hand.

Uh, what?

“What do you mean, Theo?” my mom asked, and her eyebrows rose in concern. “Why would anything happen to her?”

“I'll explain in a second, Vivian,” my dad replied and looked down at me. “Summer, are you completely sure that this baby is Gabriel's?”

Heat crawled up my skin, and my cheeks burned with embarrassment.

“Of course, Dad! He…he's the only one I've ever, you know, been with. When we discovered we were Fated Mates, the bond was, um, hard to ignore.”

“You didn't sleep with Axel before you and Gabriel bonded as Mates?” he pressed.

“What? No!” I said and took a sip from the cup of water Healer Elijah had brought me, wanting an excuse to look away from my dad.

My mom rushed around my hospital bed and stood in front of her husband with her hands on her hips.

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