Rejected as Barren, Pregnant with the Alpha King's Twins

The scanner at the East Wing guest house flashed red beneath my palm.

ACCESS REVOKED.

I tried my Pack token once more, not because I expected a different result, but because I wanted the denial timestamp saved in the system. Ethan had promised me one night in the outer residence before the Council hearing. Someone had already decided even that was too generous.

I walked straight to the medical wing.

Dr. Malcolm Voss was gone, but Dr. Aris was covering the night desk. He looked up when I entered, then immediately looked back at his monitor.

"I need my complete medical file," I said. "Every scan, prescription, lab order, and physician note from the last three years."

His fingers stopped above the keyboard. "Your chart has been restricted."

"By whom?"

He swallowed. "Alpha office."

"On what grounds?"

Aris rotated the screen a fraction, enough for me to read the administrative note.

RECORD FREEZE: SUCCESSION INTEGRITY. FORMER LUNA DENIED MODIFICATION ACCESS.

"They think I am going to edit my own scans?"

"Mia, please. I did not issue the order."

I took the amber bottle from my coat and set it on the counter. "Then verify the batch number. No chart access required. Just tell me where this came from."

Aris reached for it.

The moment he saw the silver leaf stamped into the glass, his hand jerked back.

I watched his face drain.

"Why are you afraid of a fertility tonic?"

"I am not afraid."

"You just recoiled from it."

He lowered his voice. "Take the bottle and leave."

"Who supplied it?"

"I cannot help you."

"Cannot or will not?"

A security door opened at the end of the corridor. Aris glanced toward it.

That was enough.

I picked up the bottle and left before the guards could be called.

The neutral commercial district began half a mile beyond Silvercrest's inner boundary. My phone buzzed as I crossed beneath the stone arch.

Ethan: Joint accounts, Luna allowance, transport access, and stable privileges are suspended. Sign the formal rejection tomorrow to release your settlement.

I stopped under a streetlamp.

Settlement.

Three years earlier, the Pack treasury had been weeks from collapse. I had negotiated grain contracts in freezing warehouses and sold my mother's pendant to keep antibiotics on clinic shelves. Now Ethan was describing my life as though I were an employee being terminated.

I walked to a private apothecary near the neutral market square. A brass bell rang as I entered.

An older woman with a scar across one cheek looked up from a mortar. "If you are here on Silvercrest credit, we stopped accepting it this afternoon."

"I am not."

I removed a slim gold band from my right hand and placed it on her scale. It had belonged to my grandmother.

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you need?"

"Anonymous screening. No Alliance certificate. I only need to know what is in this bottle."

She uncorked the tonic, tested the scent, then dipped a narrow reagent strip into the liquid.

The strip turned black-green almost instantly.

Her expression changed.

"This is not a conception tonic."

"What is it?"

"Silverleaf concentrate. A strong reproductive suppressant. The dose is high enough to stop ovulation if taken regularly."

My hand closed around the edge of the counter. "For how long?"

"Depends on the concentration and the patient. Months, possibly longer after discontinuation. It is controlled for a reason."

I heard Ethan's voice from every night he reminded me to take my medicine.

Don't skip it, Mia. We promised the elders we would keep trying.

I forced air into my lungs. "Can you document the reaction?"

"Not officially. But I can photograph the strip, concentration estimate, and supplier mark."

"Do it."

She slid my ring back toward me.

I pushed it away. "Keep it. I need you to forget my face after I leave."

The old guest house door had been manually unlocked by the time I returned. Someone had apparently realized locking me outside overnight would look bad at a Council hearing.

I had barely lit the fireplace when someone knocked.

Sophia stood on the porch holding a thick envelope. Oliver shivered three feet behind her in a tiny wool coat.

"Ethan asked me to bring the rejection papers," she said.

"He has guards, stewards, and a legal secretary. Why send you?"

"Because I hoped we could speak woman to woman."

I glanced at Oliver. "Then why bring a two-year-old into the cold?"

Her smile thinned.

She extended the envelope. "You are making this harder than necessary. If you care about Ethan, let him build a complete family."

I took the papers and opened them against the doorframe.

The third clause stopped me.

I admit jealousy toward the recognized heir and waive all claims against Silvercrest medical staff.

I looked up. "This is not a rejection agreement. It is a confession."

"It protects everyone from scandal."

"Everyone except me."

I drew a line through the clause, then wrote beneath it: Independent medical review required. Full asset inventory required. All medical waivers rejected.

Sophia's eyes hardened.

"You cannot win this," she said. "The Pack already knows what you are."

"Barren?"

Her gaze flicked to my coat pocket.

Only for a heartbeat.

But she knew exactly where I had put the bottle.

Oliver tugged at her skirt. "Mommy, I am cold."

I opened the door wider. "Take him home."

She snatched the papers and left.

Four minutes later, Ethan called.

"Are you trying to make this impossible?" he demanded.

"I am protecting myself."

"Do not involve Oliver in your fight with Sophia."

"She brought him here."

"You always have an explanation."

My grip tightened on the phone. "Did you know the medicine Voss prescribed contains silverleaf?"

Silence.

Not static. Not hesitation because he had not heard me.

Silence.

"Ethan?"

"You are looking for excuses because you do not want to accept the diagnosis."

"That was not an answer."

"Sign the papers tomorrow."

The call ended.

My phone vibrated again almost immediately.

The apothecary had sent three photographs. The reaction strip. The estimated concentration. The base of the bottle.

I zoomed in on a torn band of tamper-evident tape still clinging to the glass.

A black inventory code was printed across it.

SC-MED-409.

Silvercrest Medical Wing.

The poison had not come from some unknown enemy outside the Pack.

It had been dispensed from inside my own clinic.