LENA'S POV
The hospital bathroom smelled like bleach and desperation.
Lena gripped the sides of the toilet and felt her stomach heave again. Nothing came up this time. Just dry retching that made her whole body shake. She'd already thrown up twice that shift. Once during morning rounds. Once when she was helping a patient eat lunch.
Now it was happening again.
She flushed the toilet and sat back against the wall. The floor was cold against her legs. She was so tired. Bone-deep tired. The kind of tired that made everything feel foggy and wrong. She'd been working extra shifts for the last month. Overtime. Double shifts. Anything to stay busy and stop thinking about the lake house and the man who'd vanished and the thing growing inside her that she still couldn't fully accept was real.
The bathroom door opened.
Blake stood in the doorway with his arms crossed. He looked angry. Actually angry in a way she'd never seen before. His jaw was clenched. His eyes were dark. He was still in his search and rescue gear from his morning shift. He'd probably come straight here after work.
"That's the third time today," he said.
"I'm fine. Just a stomach bug."
Blake walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. He pulled her up from the floor and held her face in his hands, studying her eyes like he was searching for something. Blake had always been able to read her. Even when she was lying.
"You're not fine," he said quietly. "You've been sick for a month. You've been working insane hours. You've been avoiding me. And you look like you haven't slept in weeks."
Lena tried to look away but he wouldn't let her.
"Talk to me," he said. "Right now. What's going on?"
She wanted to lie. Wanted to tell him it was just a virus. Just work stress. Just the weight of missing her parents finally catching up with her. But Blake had been her best friend since she was seven years old. He'd held her at her parents' funeral. He'd let her live in his family's house when she had nowhere else to go. He'd never judged her. Never abandoned her. Even when things got complicated.
She couldn't lie to him anymore.
"I'm pregnant," she whispered.
Blake's hands dropped. He just stared at her for a long moment like she'd just told him something impossible.
"You're what?"
"Pregnant. Two months. Maybe a little more than two months."
Blake leaned back against the bathroom wall and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He pulled her down next to him.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Okay. We can handle this. We figure it out together. That's what we do."
Lena felt tears start streaming down her face. This was why she loved him. This was why Blake was the only person she could trust with the most broken parts of her.
"Who's the father?" Blake asked.
She didn't answer. Her silence said everything.
Blake's whole body went rigid. When he spoke again, his voice was different. Harder. "Lena. Who is he?"
"Someone I met."
"Where?"
"The lake house."
Blake closed his eyes. "When?"
"Three months ago. The night of the memorial service."
She told him the whole story. About driving to the lake house to escape. About finding a man on the dock. About talking all night. About the sun coming up and the feeling like her entire world realigned. About the kiss. About the moment she felt something snap inside her like lightning.
About how his father called and he left and never came back.
Blake listened without interrupting. When she finished, he was quiet for a long time. Then he asked, "Did he know? About the bond?"
"He felt it too. I know he did. His eyes changed. He said my name like it meant something."
"But he left anyway."
"His father called. He said he had to go. He said he couldn't do this."
Blake's hands clenched into fists. "Do you know who he is?"
"Just that his name is Wyatt. He didn't tell me anything else."
Something flickered across Blake's face. Something that looked like recognition. Something that looked like fear.
"Blake?"
He shook his head. "There's only one Wyatt with a father controlling enough to interrupt him like that. One Wyatt powerful enough that someone would answer his phone at sunrise like that." Blake looked at her and she could see the worry in his eyes. The kind of worry that came from understanding something she didn't yet understand. "The man at the lake house. Was he an Alpha?"
Lena's stomach dropped. She'd tried not to think about what he might be. She'd tried to keep him in her mind as just some guy. Just Wyatt. Not Wyatt the powerful. Not Wyatt with responsibilities and family and a whole life she wasn't part of.
"I don't know," she said.
"His aura. Did he feel like power?"
She thought back to that night. The way he'd commanded the dock like it belonged to him. The way he'd spoken about his family with the authority of someone used to being obeyed. The way his presence had made her feel small and safe at the same time.
"Maybe," she admitted.
Blake grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Listen to me. If he's an Alpha, this changes everything. Pack law. Responsibilities. His family will try to control this situation if they find out. They'll try to control you."
"He doesn't even know about the baby."
"Which is the only reason you're safe right now." Blake stood up and pulled her with him. "We need to be smart about this. We need to protect you. And we need to figure out exactly who this guy is before anyone else finds out you're carrying his child."
They left the bathroom together. Blake walked her to her locker. She grabbed her bag. As they turned to leave, the charge nurse called out to her.
"Lena, hold up."
Lena's heart stopped. She walked back to the nurse's station. Her boss, Patricia, was standing there with a clipboard and an expression that didn't look good.
"Your schedule is changing," Patricia said. "Effective next week, you're being transferred to emergency room shifts. North Ridge Pack territory hospital."
The words hit Lena like a punch.
"What?" she managed.
"The ER at North Ridge is understaffed. They requested additional nurses from our hospital. You were recommended based on your patient care evaluations." Patricia smiled like this was good news. Like this was an opportunity. "It's a promotion basically. Better pay. Better hours. You should be excited."
Lena couldn't breathe.
North Ridge. The pack hospital. Where powerful Alphas brought their injured. Where pack medicine was practiced. Where Wyatt Sterling probably spent his time.
Wyatt Sterling.
Because as Blake's expression had changed when she'd described Wyatt's family, she'd put it together herself. There was only one powerful Wyatt whose father was controlling enough to interrupt him like that. Only one Alpha young enough to have spent a night at an abandoned lake house. Only one man whose name made Blake look terrified.
Wyatt Sterling. Alpha of North Ridge Pack.
The father of her baby had no idea she existed. And she was about to be assigned to work at his hospital.
"Lena?" Patricia was looking at her strangely. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Lena said, her voice sounding far away. "Yeah. I'm fine."
She wasn't fine.
She was so far from fine that she might never be fine again.
Blake appeared beside her and placed his hand on her back. His touch was grounding. Protective. He knew. He understood what this meant. They didn't have to say it out loud.
The walls were closing in.