Feral Bonds: Claimed By Rogue Alpha Brothers
Chapter 149: Her Broken Mates

It was thick and cruel and endless.

Neither of them moved. Neither spoke. They just stared at me, like I had sprouted wings or grown a second head. And with every second that passed, fear wrapped tighter around my ribs until I could hardly breathe.

Then Oscar blinked, twice, like he was trying to wake himself up from a bad dream. He looked directly at me, and when he spoke, his voice soubded hollow. "What... what do you mean?"

I swallowed as I barely managed to push out the words again. "I’m pregnant."

Draven staggered back a step like the air had been punched from his lungs. He gripped the edge of the chair beside him so tight that his knuckles turned white. Saying it once had stunned them, but saying it again confirmed it. This wasn’t a joke. This wasn’t something they had misunderstood.

And Oscar...

His shock twisted into something else entirely within seconds. And then he snapped his gaze to Draven, narrowing his eyes with raw fury, and for a second, I genuinely thought he was going to lunge at his brother.

"Wait-what the hell?" I breathed. "Oscar, why are you-?"

But Draven beat me to it. "Oh my God," he muttered as horror washed over his face. "You think it’s me? You think I got her-? No! No, Oscar. I didn’t-I would never-"

Oscar didn’t say anything. His jaw was clenched so tight it looked painful.

"I swear," Draven said quickly, his voice rising with desperation. "We haven’t even done anything! Not at that level. We have kissed, sure- but that’s it! No heat cycles. No marking. No sleeping together. Nothing like that! I didn’t get her pregnant."

He looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded mutely but quickly.

Oscar’s fists slowly uncurled and he exhaled sharply, clearly trying to calm the rage coursing through him.

But Draven wasn’t done.

He turned the accusation back toward his brother. "Then you did it. Gods, Oscar, she’s barely eighteen, and you got her-"

"I didn’t!" Oscar snapped. His voice cracked with the force of it. "Don’t you dare throw this on me. I didn’t get her pregnant! I will never compromise her like this."

Draven stared at him. And Oscar stared back.

And then it happened... the realization.

It swept through them like an invisible wave. First confusion. Then dawning awareness. Then something far more terrible.

They both turned to look at me.

This silence... it was worse than any that had come before. Because this one demanded answers, and I owed them. I owed them the truth.

Even if it broke everything.

I folded my arms across my chest to still their trembling and forced myself to meet their eyes.

"I had a mate before I met either of you," I said quietly and watched as they received another shock.

I went on. "He rejected me the same night River attacked my pack. That’s who the baby belongs to."

The words burned.

I saw how Oscar’s face tightened and his jaw went rigid. The storm behind his emerald eyes was churning. Draven was no better. His breathing was sharp, and shoulders taut like he didn’t know what to do with the anger threatening to rip him apart.

"You are carrying the child of the man who rejected you?" Draven said. His voice wasn’t cruel, but it was devastated.

My heart cracked as I nodded. "Yes."

"Why?" Oscar asked, his voice too low for me to grab his real emotion. "Why are you keeping his baby if he’s no longer in your life? You are so young. You have just began a new life. Why do this to yourself?"

I watched him in silence for a few moments, trying to study him. I so badly wanted to know what was going on in his head. While Draven’s emotions of shock, confusion, anger, and denial were written all over his face, Oscar had stopped giving me anything at all, and that was scaring me the most. I would rather have him shouting at me then going this calm.

"I didn’t know at first," I whispered. "I suspected, but I wasn’t sure."

They both just stared at me, still not speaking, still trying to wrap their heads around it.

I went on, my voice shaking harder now. "After I lost my pack... after River brought me to the mansion... I was trapped there. I had no access to a doctor, no tests, nothing. But I started noticing the signs."

I paused to take a breath. My throat was tight. "And then I got into the Academy. It was the first time I had freedom again. And while I confirmed that I was pregnant, I still didn’t have any money to get an abortion. Once I received my first salary from the internship. I immediately went to a clinic."

Tears stung my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. "I was already three months pregnant by then. I knew I still had time. That I could terminate if I wanted. But when I heard it..." My voice broke. "The heartbeat."

I clenched my fists at my sides. "It was small. So small. But it was there. Alive. Real. And in that moment, I couldn’t go through with the idea of eliminating it."

I looked up at them then, at their stunned, horrified faces.

"I was going to," I admitted. "I didn’t have money. I didn’t have a home. I didn’t have anyone. No family. No friends. No one to turn to. And I knew... I knew I couldn’t do this alone. But when I heard the heartbeat, when I realized this baby was growing inside me despite everything..."

I closed my eyes. "I didn’t want to give that up."

The tears finally fell.

"It was the only thing that made me feel like I still had something worth protecting. Something worth fighting for. I was broken. Alone. Dying inside. But this baby... it reminded me I still had a future. A reason to survive."

The room was quiet.

So quiet.

Oscar had sat down at some point, hands over his mouth, elbows on his knees. He was like his world had been tilted off its axis. Draven was pacing slowly near the window, running his hand through his hair, again and again.

And I... I was watching their worlds crumble at my hands.