The Alpha's Unwanted Bride

Chapter 669: THE PREGNANCY

I heard a laugh.

A woman’s laugh.

Warm. Soft. Familiar in a way that sent a shiver down my spine.

I turned, looking around, but the forest around me was different.

Lighter , greener, as if touched by another world.

Sunlight spilled through the leaves in gold beams, and everything smelled of flowers and fresh water.

The laugh echoed again.

I knew that laugh.

I shouldn’t have, but I did.

My feet moved before my mind did, carrying me deeper into the forest. The sound pulled me like a thread, tugging me forward.

There were voices now.

A woman’s voice, light and musical.

A man’s voice, deeper, warm, laughing along with her.

I froze behind a tree.

They were close.

So close that if I breathed too loudly, they would hear me. I peeked out carefully, heart thundering.

The woman was sitting by a lake, water so still it looked like glass, her feet dangling above the surface. Her hair was the first thing I noticed.

Curly.

Wild.

Vibrant red.

Exactly like mine.

Or rather like it used to until I had become blonde.

A man lay with his head in her lap, his own hair a soft, bright blonde. He looked up at her like she had caught the sun itself.

I couldn’t see his face.

Just his blonde hair.

They were laughing, whispering things I couldn’t quite hear.

But the moment I saw her face properly

My breath left me.

It was her.

The girl in my dreams running and laughing.

The one who had called me my name.

Here I was once again with her.

Only this time... she wasn’t a blur.

She wasn’t distant.

I could see the curve of her jaw.

The shape of her lashes.

The faint freckles across her nose.

She was beautiful.

And she looked exactly like me, only older, softer, happier.

A wave of déjà vu crashed over me so hard my knees trembled. This didn’t feel like a dream.

This felt like a memory.

Someone’s memory.

Maybe... mine?

The lady suddenly stiffened.

Her head turned in my direction.

I gasped and ducked behind the tree so fast I scraped my elbow. My heart felt like it might burst out of my chest.

"What’s wrong?" I heard the man ask gently.

"I... I thought I felt something," the girl whispered.

His voice shifted as if he were sitting up. "Where?"

"Over there," she said. So close. Too close.

I pressed my hand over my mouth. My body wouldn’t move. The air felt thick, heavy.

I heard him stand and take a few steps.

Branches shifted.

Leaves rustled.

He was looking for me.

I held my breath until my lungs burned.

After a long silence, he spoke again.

"There’s no one here," he said finally, softer this time. "Come, love."

Their voices quieted again, falling back into their soft conversation.

Slowly, terrified, I peeked around the tree.

The man was back in her lap.

Her fingers were threaded through his blond hair, brushing it back gently.

They both looked so peaceful, so perfect, as though the world outside didn’t exist.

Then the girl began to hum.

No.

Not hum.

Sing.

The song.

The siren song.

The exact same one I had hummed without knowing where it came from.

The one Pearl had recognized instantly.

I froze, blood turning to ice.

Why was she singing that?

How could she know it?

Her voice carried softly over the water, and every hair on my body rose.

Then slowly, the woman lifted her head and looked up.

Looked right where I stood.

Looked at me.

Her eyes widened in shock.

Her lips parted.

Emotion flooded her features so quickly it broke something inside me.

"Jasmine?" she whispered.

The forest seemed to stop breathing.

And somehow by some impossible way the word left my lips without my permission.

"Mum?"

In the blink of an eye, she was no longer by the lake.

She was in front of me.

Right in front of me.

Her hands cupped my face. Her curls brushed against my cheeks. Her tears fell warm on my skin before I even realized she was crying.

"My Jasmine," she whispered, voice trembling with joy and heartbreak. "My beautiful girl."

Her arms wrapped around me, and the moment she held me.

I broke.

I didn’t even try to fight it.

I melted into her embrace, the warmth, the familiarity, the rightness of her touch.

She smelled like flowers and saltwater, sunlight and home.

I wanted to stay there forever.

"I have waited... my entire life..." she sobbed softly, "to do this."

I cried harder.

She pulled back just a little, her hands still on my cheeks. She studied me as if memorizing every feature.

Then she paused.

Her expression changed.

Her eyes dropped to my stomach.

Her breath caught.

"You..." She swallowed, voice cracking. "You’re with child."

My heart lurched.

I opened my mouth.

Mind raced with what?

But I couldn’t find a voice.

And the world shattered.

Darkness swallowed her.

The forest tore apart.

I gasped awake, screaming choking on air as the fire beside me crackled quietly, the dawn light peeking through the trees.

"Jasmine!" Otto rushed to my side.

He came by and held me while I tried to breathe.

"Are you okay?" He asked me. "Did something happen to you?"

I could barely find my voice.

Then I turned and said. "I think I saw my mother."

He stared at me blankly.

I swallowed hard, trying to decipher my dream as I pressed my fingers to my temples in anxiety.

"I thought your mum died while giving birth to you?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Exactly. But when I saw her. Something just..... I don’t know. I called her my mother without even thinking twice. I’ve been dreaming about her for a while now."

He went quiet.

And then I remembered the last thing.

I wrapped my hands around my tummy and looked up at him.

"She told me I’m pregnant." I said with a choked whisper.

He looked at me, his eyes not surprised and then I knew instantly.

Knew that he knew.