The Independence My Alpha Regretted novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Winter Ball
Hazel walks into the Winter Ball alone, the pack doctor mentions her surgery in front of everyone, and her husband leaves her mid-sentence for her stepsister; at the medical center the doctor finds she is pregnant, and Duncan walks in.
I walked into the Silver Ridge Winter Ball alone, and four hundred wolves watched me do it.
The Luna always enters on her Alpha's arm.
Mine was across town, signing something at the pack office.
That's what the text said, anyway.
"Running late. Start without me. Nothing to worry about, Hazel."
I read it twice on the steps and put my phone in my clutch.
My dress was new, dark green velvet with a low back.
I had bought it on a Tuesday and told no one.
Two months ago I would have sent Duncan six photos and asked which one he liked.
This time I just paid and carried it home.
My stepsister had zipped me into it that afternoon.
"You look like a queen," Chelsea said, and kissed my cheek.
She had been staying in our guest room since the ambush, and she was always sweet about it.
She brought me tea when my shoulder acted up.
She had done my hair that day, too, and her cheeks were pink from the heat of the iron.
Duncan had lost weight every month this year.
Chelsea had gained color every month.
I noticed it and went on with my night.
Inside, the hall smelled like pine and woodsmoke.
People turned and stopped talking.
A beta's wife looked at the empty space beside me and then very carefully looked at her drink.
"Luna," said the pack's doctor, coming through the crowd with his glass raised. "Good. I wanted to catch you."
"Hello, Doctor."
"Monday at seven, for the silver. I assume the Alpha has cleared his morning?"
He said it kindly, and he said it loudly, because the band had just stopped.
"Cleared for what?"
Duncan was behind me.
I hadn't heard the doors.
He was still in his coat, snow melting on his shoulders, and he was gray under the chandeliers.
"Your wife's surgery," the doctor said. His smile faded. "The fragments under her shoulder blade. Surely she told you."
Duncan looked at me.
His face went hard.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he said. "Give me the scans. I'll have the medical center rearrange everything."
"There's no need," I said. "I can handle it, and you're busy enough as it is."
Nobody breathed.
Duncan opened his mouth, and I watched him look for something to say.
He had always found words for the pack.
He had not found many for me lately.
Two weeks ago, I had still been sending him earrings to choose from before council dinners.
I had texted him at lunch to ask if he'd eaten.
I had stayed awake until his headlights swept across our bedroom window.
Now I stood in front of the whole pack and I did not reach for the bond.
It wouldn't have answered. It hadn't answered in two years.
"Hazel," he began.
The doors banged open.
Chelsea stood there in her cream cardigan with one hand pressed flat to her chest.
"Duncan," she said, in a very small voice, and her knees folded.
He caught her before she reached the floor.
The whole room gasped, and then the whole room watched him lift her.
"She needs air," he said over his shoulder. "Hazel, stay. We'll finish this."
He carried her out through the side door.
Clint, his beta, took one step after them and stopped.
He looked at me with the face of a man who had seen this before.
My shoulder throbbed.
The silver fragments sat under the bone.
Chelsea's cheeks, I thought, had been pink an hour ago.
I stood in the hall with four hundred people pretending not to stare.
My phone buzzed. "Don't go anywhere. I'm sorry. I'll make it right tonight."
I read it, and I thought about every night he had said that.
So I stepped out.
I gave the doctor my glass, and I walked to the front doors with my back straight.
The cold hit my bare shoulders and I didn't care.
I drove myself to the medical center, because the surgery was Monday and I wanted my bloods done early.
The doctor had left the party after me.
He sat me in his office and checked the results, and then he checked them again.
"Luna," he said. "Before we go near that silver, you should know you're seven weeks pregnant."
I put my hand on my stomach.
"Does the Alpha know?"
"No."
"I have to tell him. He's your mate."
"You don't have to do anything," I said. "Do the surgery Monday, and shield the pup, and keep your mouth shut."
He looked at the door, and then back at me.
"I think you have a visitor," he said.
The door opened.
Duncan stood there with snow in his hair and Chelsea's scarf in his fist.
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