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Tugging at my beard, I glare at her. “We don’t need you at training.”

She tilts her head. “Okay.”

I stand there for longer than what’s required. My anger for vampires is there right under the surface, but it isn’t as potent with these two as it was before. That’s how I know there is a problem. I’ve lost focus. For Ana, none of the bloodsuckers deserve my sympathy.

“Don’t leave pack lands again without letting me know.”

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever, wolf.” Even though she calls me wolf, it still doesn’t have the same bite as before, but isn’t as playful as the last time she used it.

She steps back and shuts the door in my face.

“Are we not friends with the Beta anymore?” I hear the younger one ask.

“No. I told you it wouldn’t last. Now go eat.”

I stand there at the door long after the noise behind the barrier has died down.

Finally pushing away, I walk back to my home. The ghost of my past chased me all night. Sleep never greeted me.

chapter fifteen

Trouble

Michaela

“Mizani, where are you?” Markis’s deep voice startles me.

I quickly hide the glass container behind my back. When he enters our bedchamber, his dark brown eyes scan the room as if he thinks someone is hiding up here with me.

“What do you have there?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

His gaze narrows. He steps further into the room. The Persian rug muffles his quiet footfalls. He stops in front of me. I start to feel the heavy weight of his presence in my head. It feels like a herd of elephants is stomping over my thoughts. I use all my strength to assure my shield is up and in place.

Markis chuckles. “Damn, you’re getting so much better at that.” he strokes the back of his hand down my cheek. “Unfortunately for you, you did not take into consideration that mirrors show reflections.”

I look to my right, and sure enough, he can see clearly what I am hiding through the mirror on my dressing table.

“Why didn’t you tell me you thought you were with child?” With a hand on my hip, he pulls me into his chest.

I look away from his penetrating stare.

“We have tried so many times, only to be disappointed. I did not want to get your hopes up for nothing.”

“Look at me, wife.”

I bring my gaze back to his. “You have never disappointed me. We will have a child.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Maybe the witch was right.”

Years ago, we came across a coven of witches that we believed knew the location of a key. They had no information for us. As Markis slaughtered the small coven, one of the witches told me that my womb was cursed. She said that I would never bear him a child. Before she could finish her sentence, I beheaded her.

“No,” he says, cutting me off. “She was not. Come now, let’s see the result.”

Sighing, I bring the jar of urine from behind my back. Placing it down on the dressing table, I grab the white wildflowers. I discovered the trick from a witch. If you place the crushed white flowers into the jar and the urine turns purple, you’re pregnant. If the urine turns bright yellow, you’re not. There’ve been so many yellow jars.

I crush the flowers in the palm of my hand before tossing them into the jar. Markis and I look over the urine intently in hopes of seeing the purple. However, as the crushed flowers settle to the bottom of the container, the urine slowly turns a bright yellow.