Chapter 153
Kara
I used the time to study the pregnancy test's packaging more carefully, looking for any detail that might be useful. That's when I saw it—a small price sticker on the back of the box, the kind that usually got peeled off at checkout but had been left on in someone's haste.
Frost & Pine Pharmacy
Suburban Plaza Store
$15.99
My heart started to pound for an entirely different reason. I knew that pharmacy. More importantly, I knew there were only two Frost & Pine locations in our territory.
The main store was downtown, on Main Street in the heart of the commercial district. Three floors, always crowded, the kind of place where you stood in line for twenty minutes and nobody remembered your face. I'd been there exactly twice in ten years, both times sent by Victoria to pick up prescriptions.
But the Suburban Plaza store was different. It was in Evergreen Heights, the wealthy neighborhood on the southwest side of pack lands, tucked into an upscale shopping center that catered to rich families and Alpha bloodlines. Single-story, boutique layout, marble floors, wooden shelves, perpetually scented with lavender. I'd been there exactly twice as well—once with Sophia and Emma before my eighteenth birthday to buy skincare products, once before the Hawaii trip to get sunscreen and travel toiletries.
I remembered the Beta female clerk, Claire, who'd been so kind to me, who'd congratulated me on becoming the future Luna with genuine warmth in her voice.
My mind started racing, the mathematician in me automatically building logical chains even as my hands trembled.
If the test was purchased at the Suburban Plaza location three days ago, then whoever bought it—Viktor or Alexei or one of Konstantin's other men—had been in that area recently.
They wouldn't drive across the entire territory for a single pregnancy test. It would be too risky, too time-consuming. They'd buy it somewhere close to wherever they were operating from.
The Suburban Plaza was on the southwest edge of pack lands, bordering what used to be an industrial zone before environmental regulations shut most of it down in the late '90s.
I remembered that area from geography class at Northern High. Old Mill Road ran along the western edge, with three abandoned factories. North toward the forest was a defunct cold storage facility. Southeast was a former lumber processing plant, five acres of rotting buildings and rusted equipment.
If they'd bought the test nearby, and if they'd needed to get me somewhere quickly after the abduction, then statistically, I was probably within a ten-to-fifteen-mile radius of that pharmacy.
The realization hit me like a physical blow. I had a lead. An actual, concrete piece of information that could narrow down my location from "somewhere in Alaska" to "somewhere within twenty square miles of southwest pack territory."
If I could just get this information to Asher, Blake, and Cole, they could focus their search. They could find me.
I clutched the packaging to my chest, feeling the sharp edges of the cardboard, and sent out another desperate pulse through our bond. Please hear me. Please. I'm in the southwest, near Evergreen Heights, near the old factories. Please be looking. Please don't give up on me.
But the collar around my neck remained ice-cold, and the bond remained frustratingly muted, like trying to shout through soundproof glass. I could feel them—barely, a whisper of sensation that told me they were alive and probably frantic—but I couldn't send coherent thoughts, couldn't share this crucial information.
A sound from upstairs made me jump—heavy footsteps, voices raised in Russian. I quickly stuffed the packaging under the thin mattress, hiding the evidence. If they knew I'd figured out anything useful, they might move me, might take away even this small advantage.
The three minutes were up.
I looked down at the test, my heart in my throat, and saw two pink lines staring back at me. Clear. Unmistakable. Positive.
I was pregnant.
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## Kara
The world tilted sideways, and I had to grab the edge of the metal bed frame to keep from falling. Two lines. Two bright pink lines that changed everything, that meant there was a life growing inside me, a tiny cluster of cells that was half me and half them—Asher's strategic mind, Blake's fierce protectiveness, Cole's gentle heart all mixed together with whatever I could contribute.
A baby.
Our baby.
The thought should have filled me with joy. In another world, in another circumstance, I would have run to find them, would have watched their faces light up with wonder and pride, would have felt their hands on my stomach and their lips on my forehead as they promised to protect us both.
Instead, I was sitting in a freezing basement cell, wearing borrowed clothes that smelled like other people's fear, with a suppression collar locked around my throat and armed men upstairs deciding my fate.
My hands moved to my abdomen without conscious thought, pressing against the flat plane of my stomach as if I could somehow feel the presence of this new life. Nothing yet, of course—it was far too early. But knowing it was there, knowing that I wasn't alone in this nightmare, made something fierce and primal rise up in my chest.
I will protect you, I thought, sending the promise inward. No matter what happens to me, I will keep you safe.
The maternal instinct was overwhelming, drowning out even my terror. This child hadn't asked to be conceived, hadn't chosen to come into existence in the middle of chaos and danger. But they were here now, and they were mine—ours—and I would be damned if I let Konstantin or anyone else use them as a pawn.
Which meant I had to survive this. Had to stay strong, stay smart, find a way out or hold on until Asher, Blake, and Cole found me. Because I wasn't just fighting for myself anymore.
I carefully wrapped the pregnancy test in toilet paper and hid it under the mattress alongside the packaging. Evidence. Proof. Something to hold onto when the fear got too overwhelming.
Then I forced myself to think, really think, about what this meant for my immediate situation.
If I told Viktor the test was positive, I became infinitely more valuable. A pregnant mate of three Alphas? That was leverage beyond measure. Konstantin could use me to extort the entire pack, could threaten the child to force compliance, could hold us hostage for years.
But it also meant they'd keep me alive, at least until the baby was born. Pregnant hostages were too valuable to kill.
If I lied and said the test was negative, I lost that protection. Konstantin might decide I wasn't worth the trouble, might order Viktor to dispose of me. Or worse, he might decide I had other uses—the kind of uses that made my stomach turn and my wolf snarl in helpless fury.
There was no good choice. Just two different flavors of nightmare.
I was still weighing the options when I heard footsteps on the stairs—heavy, measured, Viktor's distinctive gait. He was coming back for the answer.
I would tell the truth. I would give them the answer they wanted, and I would use every second of the value it bought me to find a way out of this hell. Because lying might save me in the short term, but the truth gave me a reason to fight that went beyond mere survival.
I had to live. For all of us.