Chapter 7 – Pregnant With his Pup!

Elara

The wind howls through the trees, biting through the tattered remains of my dress as I press my back against the rough bark of an ancient oak. My breath comes in ragged gasps, each one shallow and sharp, my chest clench, I as pant.

I squeeze my eyes shut, focusing on the sound of the night, on the whispers in the wind that carry the scent of my pursuers.

The ninja wolves.

Silent. Deadly. Unseen.

I can’t see them, but I feel them. The weight of their presence slinks through the trees, suffocating the air with an eerie, watchful stillness. They aren’t chasing me—not yet. They’re toying with me. Letting me know they’re there.

Waiting for me to falter.

And I will.

My legs tremble beneath me, the relentless days of running taking their toll. Every muscle in my body screams for rest, my skin scraped raw from twigs and stones, my stomach a hollow pit of pain. Hunger gnaws at me, twisting like an angry beast, and my vision blurs at the edges.

I can’t stop.

I won’t stop.

Because if I do, I die.

A week ago, I had a home—cruel as it was. A week ago, I had an identity, a place, even if it was at the bottom of the pack.

I was Elara. Wolfless. A nobody.

But now, I am something else.

Marked. Mated. Banished.

My fingers lift to the sensitive skin of my neck, brushing over the spot where his teeth had sunk into me, where his claim still burned through my very bones. I flinch at the memory, at the phantom sensation of his lips trailing over my skin.

Blayze.

His name is a curse and a prayer in my mind, a weight I can’t shake no matter how far I run.

I see him in the darkness behind my eyelids—the way his body had trembled beneath my hands, fevered and desperate. The way his breath had hitched when he whispered my name, his voice raw, broken. The way his lips had claimed mine, bruising, needy, like I was something sacred.

I’d told myself it was a mistake.

That it hadn’t meant anything.

That he hadn’t felt anything.

There was no bond. No pull. Just the delirium of his sickness, twisting reality, making him mistake me for someone else.

I had believed that.

But now, as I crouch here in the damp, rotting leaves, heart pounding against my ribs like a war drum, I feel something else entirely.

I feel him.

Not just the memory of his touch. Not just the ghost of his scent still clinging to my skin. But something more.

Something real.

A thread, invisible but tangible, tugging at the edges of my mind.

My chest tightens.

Why?

A sharp snap echoes through the trees, the brittle crunch of a twig underfoot.

Too close.

Panic lurches through me, shoving me into motion.

I break into a sprint, pushing my body past its limits.

My muscles scream, fire licking through my veins with every agonizing step. My lungs burn, dragging in mouthfuls of air that taste like damp soil and fear.

The ninja wolves are faster.

I can’t hear them, but I know they’re there, slipping through the shadows like wraiths.

A howl splits the night. Deep. Guttural.

The sound slams into my chest, sending ice-cold terror knifing through my ribs.

They’re close.

They’re hunting me.

A game of cat and mouse. And I am the mouse.

The world tilts, my vision tunneling. My body is failing me.

I stumble, barely catching myself against a jagged boulder. My fingers dig into the rough stone, nails splitting as I fight to stay upright.

Move. Move, damn you.

But my body won’t obey.

A shuddering breath rips through me, and then—

I see it.

A red mark.

Faint but pulsing against the skin of my palm. Like something alive beneath the surface.

My breath catches.

What the hell?

My fingers tremble as I trace the swirling pattern, confusion twisting through me like a blade. I’ve never seen this before. Never heard of anything like it.

And then—

A deep, real part of me knows.

Recognition slams into me, stealing the air from my lungs.

A red mark.

A wolf’s mark.

Everything inside me locks into place, a horrible, undeniable truth settling over me like a storm.

I know what this is.

I know what it means.

The mark of a true mate.

A mark that only appears when a female is both mated… and carrying her mate’s child.

The world tilts.

My breath shatters.

No.

No, no, no. It’s impossible.

My hands fly to my stomach, trembling.

It’s only been one night.

Blayze and I… we weren’t even mates. There had been nothing.

Except—

Except the bond I feel now. The heat flooding my chest, wrapping around my ribs like invisible chains. The undeniable pull.

A sob wrenches from my throat as I claw at the collar of my dress, yanking it down in desperation, needing proof.

And there—over my heart—

A wolf-shaped tattoo.

A mate’s mark.

A truth I can no longer deny.

"Blayze is my mate…?"

The words are barely a whisper, lost to the wind. My knees buckle, the cold earth rising up to meet me as I collapse, shaking.

But there’s no time.

A presence looms above me.

Dark. Heavy. Predatory.

A ninja wolf steps from the shadows, his glowing eyes locking onto me like a blade to the throat. His lips peel back in a snarl, fangs flashing under the moonlight.

Ice slides through my veins.

I force myse

lf up, swaying on my feet.

I have to run.

I have to survive.

Because now, it’s not just my life at stake.

It’s his child’s.

And I will never let them take that from me.