Page 117 of Rejected By the Alpha

“Daisy!” I shouted as she hurried off into the forest. “Where are you going?”

She peered back at me and smiled, then disappeared behind a tree. I grimaced and glanced down at Pumpkin in my arms, her body covered in bandages and her little eyes closed softly. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that she was even snoring. But that little rascal was awake.

“Where is your sister going?” I asked.

She opened one eye and gave me a small smile.

“Don’t give me that look,” I said, playfully shaking my head. “Go back to bed.”

When I looked up, Hazel was smiling at me. “You’d be really good with a pup.”

“With a pup?”

“Yeah,” she said. “A baby wolf. I’ve always wanted to be an auntie.”

My mind flickered back to Davix, and I … I couldn’t explain the feeling inside me. Me being a mom? To Davix’s child? They’d be half wolf and half human. When did they start shifting? Would they howl back at me when I told them to go to their rooms?

I kicked my legs back and forth under my seat, the thought … making me happy.

For years, I hadn’t even thought about having a family. I couldn’t. I’d die in a year, maybe sooner anyway, so it didn’t really matter. But what if? What if Davix and I—or even Cade and I—had a baby together? What if we had a family?

“That will never happen,” I said, my throat tightening. “But I wish it could.”

“Me too.”

After sitting with the thought, I looked over at her with furrowed brows. “You know?”

“That you’re sick? Yes,” Hazel said quietly. “I read your reports at the medical center.”

“Does Davix know?”

“No, I haven’t told anyone.”

I released a breath, my shoulders rolling forward. “Thank you.”

The less Davix knew about my sickness, the better. Cade and Pavel already babied me enough because of it, and it was nice to know that everything Davix had done wasn’t because I was going to die in a short period.

He only knew me, not my sickness.

“No problem,” she said. “How’s it going with treatment?”

“Not good.”

“Do you want me to check you out?” she offered. “I don’t know as much about human physiology or human sickness as I do with wolves and animals, but I can try. But I also understand if you’re over it all.”

I sat quietly for a long few moments, my fork toying with some banana bread on my plate. I pushed it back and forth and back and forth, staring at the pieces as they turned into crumbs. “I’m tired, Hazel. I know that’s probably not what you want to hear, but …”

“No,” she said, placing her hand on my knee. “I get it. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

A branch snapped deep in the woods, and Pumpkin reopened her eye, peering over but staying calm, which meant that Daisy was back from wherever she had gone off to. I glanced toward the trees and spotted an orange patch of fur.

Daisy appeared a moment later with something in her mouth.

Pumpkin lifted her head and tried to stand on my lap, but I held her down so she would actually rest and recover because the last thing I needed today was for her to die on my birthday. I’d be fucking devastated.

Once Daisy finally approached, she leaped onto the table beside me and dropped it into my open palm. A moonstone, wrapped in pink ribbon, glowed in my hand. The ribbon was tied in a small bow at the top, punctured with tiny fox teeth and claw marks.

“Is this for me?” I asked, tears welling in my eyes. “For … my birthday?”