POV Eva
I need help.
The realization settles over me like a death sentence.
For days, I've been drowning alone—carrying secrets that grow heavier with each passing hour, watching Matteo and Soren circle like sharks while an unknown threat lurks in the shadows.
Someone heard everything in that corridor. Someone knows.
I can't survive this alone anymore.
And there's only one person in this world I trust completely.
Convincing Matteo and Soren is harder than I expected.
We meet in my chambers after midnight, voices low and urgent. Matteo leans against the fireplace mantel, arms crossed, dark eyes skeptical.
Soren stands by the window like a sentinel, his pale gaze sweeping the grounds for threats.
"Absolutely not." Matteo's voice is flat. "You want to bring your bodyguard into this? A low-ranking wolf with direct access to your father?"
"Dominic would never…"
"He's pack, Eva." Soren doesn't turn from the window. "His loyalty is to the Alpha King first. That's how pack hierarchy works."
"You don't know him."
I stand my ground, refusing to waver.
"I've known Dominic my entire life. He carried me on his back when I scraped my knees as a child. He's lied to my father to protect me. He's covered for my mistakes more times than I can count."
"Covering for missed curfews is different from covering for a secret pregnancy."
Matteo pushes off the mantel, pacing. "What if he decides his duty to the pack outweighs his loyalty to you? What if he reports everything the moment we bring him in?"
"Then we're no worse off than we already are."
My voice sharpens with frustration.
"Someone already knows, remember? Someone was listening in that corridor. We need allies, and Dominic is the only person I trust to help us figure out who."
"You're asking us to gamble everything on your childhood bond with a bodyguard." Soren finally turns, frost-colored eyes meeting mine. "That's a significant risk."
"It's the only option we have."
I hold his gaze without flinching.
"Dominic would die before betraying me. I know this like I know my own heartbeat. Either you trust my judgment, or we continue stumbling blind while whoever overheard us decides our fate."
Silence stretches between us. Matteo and Soren exchange a loaded glance—the silent communication they've developed over shared secrets and mutual disaster.
Finally, Matteo sighs. "If this goes wrong..."
"It won't." I move toward the door. "I'll summon him now."
The wait feels eternal. I stand in the center of my chambers while Matteo and Soren position themselves in opposite corners—not quite hidden, but not immediately threatening either.
My heart pounds against my ribs as footsteps approach down the corridor.
Then Dominic enters, and everything I've been holding together threatens to shatter.
His dark eyes sweep the room, cataloging the princes with immediate wariness. "Eva? What's going on? Your message said it was urgent."
"Close the door." My voice comes out steadier than I feel. "Please."
He does, but his hand stays near the weapon at his hip. His gaze flicks between Matteo and Soren. "Why are they here?"
"Because they're part of this." I take a breath, forcing the words past the tightness in my throat. "Part of what I need to tell you."
"Tell me what?" Dominic's attention snaps back to me, concern replacing wariness. "Eva, you're scaring me. What's happened?"
"Do you remember that night? The club?" I watch his expression carefully. "The night you lost me in the crowd?"
His jaw tightens. "I remember."
"I left with them." I gesture toward Matteo and Soren. "I didn't know who they were then. Just two strangers who helped me escape. We went back to an apartment, and I..."
The words stick in my throat. "I spent the night with them. Both of them."
Dominic's face cycles through emotions faster than I can track—shock first, then confusion, then something that looks horrifyingly like his heart breaking.
His eyes cut to the princes, amber bleeding through the brown as his wolf surges.
"You touched her." His voice drops to a growl. "Before the courtship. Before any of this."
"We didn't know who she was." Matteo raises his hands, palms out. "None of us knew until the formal introduction."
"That's supposed to make it better?" Dominic takes a step toward him, hands curling into fists.
"Nic, please." I move between them, pressing my palm against his chest. "There's more. I need you to hear all of it."
He stills beneath my touch, but I can feel his heart hammering. Feel the tension coiled in every muscle. "What more could there possibly be?"
"I'm pregnant."
The word falls like a bomb. Dominic's face goes slack with shock. His eyes drop to my stomach, still flat beneath my nightgown, then rise to meet mine with devastation written across every feature.
"Pregnant," he repeats numbly.
"From that night. One of them is the father." Tears burn behind my eyes, but I force myself to continue. "I've known since the gala. I've been hiding it, lying about it, terrified of what happens when the truth comes out."
"Eva..." His voice breaks on my name.
"Someone overheard us discussing it yesterday. We don't know who. They could expose everything at any moment."
I grip his shirt, desperate for him to understand. "I need your help, Nic. You're the only person in this world I trust completely. Please, don't abandon me now."
For a long, terrible moment, Dominic is silent. I watch the war play out behind his eyes—hurt and betrayal battling against the loyalty that has defined him for years.
His wolf paces beneath his skin, agitated and confused.
Then his shoulders drop. His hands come up to cover mine where they grip his shirt.
"What do you need?" His voice is rough but steady. "Tell me what you need, and I'll make it happen."
The tears spill over. "We need to know who the father is. A paternity test."
Dominic nods slowly, processing. "I know a hospital outside pack territory. Discreet. They handle sensitive cases for wolves who need privacy." He glances at Matteo and Soren. "Fake names. Cash payment. No records."
"You can arrange this?" Soren's voice is carefully neutral.
"I can arrange anything for her." Dominic's gaze is hard when it meets the Nordic prince's. "I always have."
The hospital is sterile and anonymous—exactly what we need.
Dominic handles everything, just as he promised. False identities. Untraceable payment. A private room where a human doctor asks no questions and performs the necessary tests with professional detachment.
Then we wait.
The four of us sit in suffocating silence—Eva pressed between Matteo and Soren on an uncomfortable waiting room couch, Dominic standing guard by the door. Minutes stretch into hours. No one speaks.
When the doctor finally returns, my heart stops.
"The results are conclusive." She hands me a sealed envelope. "I'll give you privacy."
My fingers tremble as I tear it open. The words blur, then sharpen into devastating clarity.
"Soren." My voice comes out barely a whisper. "It's Soren."
The silence that follows is deafening.
Soren's cold mask cracks—something complicated bleeding through the ice. Possession. Responsibility. And beneath it all, an unexpected flicker of tenderness as his pale eyes drop to my stomach.
"My heir," he says quietly. "You're carrying my heir."
Matteo absorbs the news in stillness. I watch the rivalry drain from his posture, replaced by something that looks almost like relief. He's not the father. The burden isn't his to carry.
He catches my eye across the room and nods once—small, deliberate.
The message is clear.
He's fully my ally now.