This was wrong, so very wrong.

She knew it, she knew it perfectly well, but what else could she do? Let her heart die of sadness for the absence of that alpha? No, she couldn't, never.

They would learn to be happy, the princess repeated to herself as she gathered the courage to confess her mistake, a product of her selfishness.

“I'm pregnant.”

It was a necessary evil. The queen thought so with a hand on her still flat belly. The product of their secret passion, made flesh inside her womb.