After I Lost My Memory, I Stopped Loving My Alpha

The pregnancy test felt like a burning coal in my trembling hands as I pushed through the heavy glass doors of Eclipse, the most exclusive VIP club in the city. The bass thrummed through my chest, matching the erratic rhythm of my heart. Two pink lines. Two life-changing, terrifying, beautiful pink lines that I'd stared at for twenty minutes in my bathroom mirror.

I needed to find Ryker. My mate. The Alpha who would either celebrate this miracle with me or... I couldn't finish that thought.

The club's dim lighting cast everything in shades of amber and shadow. Pack members lounged in leather booths, their supernatural senses immediately picking up my scent. Conversations died as I passed, replaced by whispers that felt like needles against my skin.

"Isn't that Ivy? What's she doing here?"

"Poor thing. Doesn't she know?"

"Someone should tell her..."

My wolf stirred uneasily in my chest, sensing the pack's pity like a physical weight. I clutched the test tighter, the plastic edges digging into my palm as I scanned the room for Ryker's familiar broad shoulders and dark hair.

Then I saw him.

My world tilted on its axis.

Ryker sat in the VIP section's most prominent booth, his arm draped casually around a woman with platinum blonde hair and legs that seemed to go on forever. Vanessa. His ex-girlfriend. The she-wolf who'd left him two years ago to pursue her modeling career in Paris.

She was back.

And she was pressed against my mate like she belonged there.

My feet moved without conscious thought, carrying me closer even as every instinct screamed at me to run. The pregnancy test felt like it was burning through my purse, a secret that suddenly seemed foolish and naive.

"Ryker," I called out, my voice barely audible over the music.

He looked up, and for a split second, I saw something flicker in his dark eyes. Guilt? Annoyance? It was gone so quickly I might have imagined it.

"Ivy." His tone was flat, devoid of the warmth I'd grown accustomed to over our six-month relationship. "What are you doing here?"

Vanessa's perfectly manicured fingers traced patterns on his chest, her green eyes assessing me with the kind of cold calculation that made my skin crawl. "Oh, is this her?" She tilted her head, studying me like I was an interesting specimen. "The little omega you've been... keeping company with?"

The pack members around us had gone silent, their supernatural hearing picking up every word. I felt their eyes on me, waiting for the drama to unfold.

"I needed to talk to you," I said, my voice stronger than I felt. "Alone."

Ryker's jaw tightened. "Whatever you need to say, you can say it here. We're all pack."

The dismissal in his tone hit me like a physical blow. This wasn't the man who'd whispered sweet promises in my ear just last week. This wasn't the Alpha who'd claimed I was special, different from the others.

"Please," I whispered, hating how desperate I sounded. "It's important."

Vanessa laughed, the sound like crystal breaking. "Oh, honey. Don't you see? He's moved on. Back to where he belongs." She pressed a kiss to Ryker's jaw, marking her territory as clearly as if she'd scent-marked him.

The pack members around us began to murmur again, their voices carrying cruel amusement.

"Did she really think it would last?"

"An omega thinking she could hold an Alpha's attention..."

"Embarrassing."

Ryker's eyes met mine, and in them, I saw the truth I'd been too blind to acknowledge. The coldness wasn't new – it had been growing for weeks. I'd just been too hopeful, too in love to see it.

"Ryker," I tried one more time, my hand instinctively moving to my still-flat stomach. "I have something to tell you. Something that changes everything."

He stood then, his imposing frame casting a shadow over me. When he spoke, his voice carried the Alpha authority that made every wolf in the vicinity submit.

"There's nothing you could tell me that would change anything, Ivy." His words were precise, calculated to wound. "What we had... it was temporary. A distraction."

Vanessa's smile was triumphant as she slid her arm through his. "Some wolves are just forgettable, darling. No spark worth nurturing."

The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath from my lungs. Forgettable. No spark worth nurturing. The pregnancy test in my purse felt like a lead weight, a secret that would now remain buried.

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of the pack that was already whispering about my humiliation.

"I see," I managed, my voice barely above a whisper. "I understand."

I turned to leave, my legs feeling like they might give out at any moment. Behind me, I heard Vanessa's delighted laughter and the resumption of conversations, my heartbreak already becoming old news.

The cool night air hit my face like a slap as I stumbled out of the club. My hands shook as I fumbled for my car keys, the pregnancy test falling from my purse onto the asphalt. I stared down at it, those two pink lines now seeming like a cruel joke.

I was going to be a mother. And my child's father had just declared me forgettable.

Tears finally came then, hot and bitter as I collapsed into my car. I needed to get away, to find somewhere I could break apart in private. My hands trembled as I started the engine, my vision blurred by tears and pain.

The road stretched ahead of me, dark and empty. I pressed harder on the accelerator, desperate to outrun the humiliation, the heartbreak, the crushing realization that I'd been living in a fantasy.

That's when I saw the headlights.

They came from nowhere, blazing bright in my peripheral vision. I had just enough time to register the impact, the screaming of metal, the world turning upside down.

As darkness closed in around me, I heard something impossible – a wolf's howl, wild and mournful, rising from somewhere deep within my own chest.