Little Red and the big bad Alpha

Chapter 1 - Unease, the banana liking baby and rumours.

Lilia tried to settle into her life over the next six months, while she struggled with Emilia missing, and found that it was far too easy. She was constantly guilty, she'd laugh, and she'd feel bad, she'd enjoy a date with Edmund, and she'd feel bad. She kept thinking Emilia was in pain. Kept being deathly afraid for her.

Two months in, just after she graduated as a fully qualified midwife, and Lilia had found out the mating had been 'successful'. She was pregnant. Edmund was beyond delighted. Lilia took some getting used to, with this idea, and even when she'd reached the halfway part, she was still having issues enjoying it. She tried! But without Emilia here, Lilia struggled, she was constantly worried for Emilia's safety.

Luckily, there most of the Pack had warmed to her. There was a good number who hadn't though, who still treated her with open suspicion and loathing, and Kale spurned that on with rumours and whispers. That the baby wasn't Edmund's baby, that she was manipulating him, that she was taking advantage of his innocent youth. As if he was ten years old, not twenty eight, as if he wasn't able to think for himself. Those people flat out refused to talk to her and avoided her.

Lilia sat there, six months pregnant, anxious and hot. It was summer. The baby twisted and wriggled and squirmed a lot now, and Edmund had gone to the border to wait for Emilia. Not after spending all night with her, tending to her, trying to get the fan just right so she didn't feel so hot. He was a brutal Alpha, she'd started to see it in the way he treated his Pack, merciless and making everyone know who was in charge, but for werewolves this was respected. Edmund, when he was Alpha, was respected when he behaved like this.

When he wasn't Alpha, with his Pack, when he was Eddy, he was openly warm and friendly like he was with her. Maybe that was why people respected him. He could balance his warm friendly nature with 'Alpha'. Kale, on the other hand, was just cold and cruel all the time.

Eddy had been with her for six months now. They hadn't jumped back into bed, she hadn't been ready for it, and he'd more than happily re-wooed her the old fashioned slow way. They'd only just started to treat each other intimately over the past few weeks. It had been hard- Lilia felt self-concious about her new body- but he was endlessly fascinated with it, with the stretch marks, with the way her body changed, with the way he swore her hips were wider than the last time he'd seen her naked. If Lilia wanted to eat something, needed something, if she struggled with something, he was instantly there, using the mate-bond to know what and when and how she needed it. He still asked, she'd complained when he kept deciding he knew what she wanted, but they were connected in such a way that sometimes Lilia wondered if it was his thoughts, his hunger, his feelings.

Or maybe she was six months pregnant, hormonal, and trying to eat for two.

Kale didn't come near her now. He was disgusted with her, disgusted with her body, she saw it in the way he looked at her. Lilia had been relieved by that. The sexual smell he got around her, for the first few months, the attempts at 'pressing against' her or 'accidentally brushing her' vanished the second her pregnancy started to show. He clearly didn't find her attractive now. This was fine by Lilia.

Then, when Lilia was three months pregnant, Susan had returned from Hawaii. Also pregnant, four months in, arm in arm with Andy. They'd gotten married in Hawaii just after she graduated. She handled Kale like a pro. Stared him right in the face, hands on her hips, and informed him that she was rejecting him.