Pregnant by the Alpha King, page 1
part #26 of Forbidden Alpha Kings Series
Pregnant by the Alpha King
A Rejected Mate Shifter Romance
Noa Fyre
Copyright © 2025 by Noa Fyre
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
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Contents
Pregnant by the Alpha King
Content Warning
1. Verity
2. Verity
3. Maddox
4. Maddox
5. Verity
6. Maddox
7. Verity
8. Maddox
9. Verity
10. Maddox
11. Verity
12. Maddox
13. Verity
14. Maddox
15. Verity
16. Maddox
17. Verity
18. Maddox
19. Verity
20. Maddox
21. Maddox
22. Maddox
23. Verity
24. Verity
25. Maddox
Pregnant by the Alpha King
I’m just an omega.
But my fated mate is a powerful alpha.
His rejection destroys me…
Because I’m pregnant with his baby.
As a simple omega, I’ve spent my entire life in the shadows.
Until I meet Maddox, the alpha who’s engaged to my cruel cousin, Estella.
She’s everything I’m not: a powerful shifter from a high-class family who’s strong enough for the difficult task of having an alpha’s babies.
It doesn’t matter that fate seems to keep pushing Maddox and I together…
Even when I’m in heat, and it feels like burning alive would be easier than resisting him.
But when a lone wolf attacks, I’m forced to use my powers.
And revealing my true self makes the mate bond snap into place….
With Maddox, my cousin’s fiancé.
But after we finally give in to the passion simmering between us, Maddox changes.
He accuses me of using my powers to manipulate him.
And his rejection is burned into my mind forever: “Verity, I reject you and your falsehoods!”
Maddox is disgusted by me. Estella wants to tear me to shreds.
And I can’t hide from them forever…
Because I’m already pregnant.
Content Warning
This story is intended for mature 18+ readers and contains themes that may be sensitive to some. It contains explicit language and sex scenes.
Triggers: verbal abuse; bullying; classism; manipulation; alcoholism; injury/medical trauma; graphic violence and gore; death; murder.
1
Verity
Every pack needs an omega. That’s what was repeated ad nauseam to me on the rare occasion I would let a twinge of sorrow slip to the surface. It was meant to be a bracing comment—a reassurance given out like conciliatory coupons to someone who realized they’d fallen victim to a scam—but I saw it for what it was.
Everyone needed the ground underneath their paws. Everyone needed the bees pollinating the flowers, the deer to fill their bellies, and the blood they spilled for sport. Needed didn’t always mean respected.
I probably looked more like a half-dead wraith than a wolf shifter behind the coffee shop counter. I was already a small-boned, pale slip of a thing with white-blonde hair and steel-blue eyes—perfectly ghost-like, even on the days I wasn’t struggling not to fall asleep at my station. I was doing that now. I was sorely tempted to take another cup of coffee for myself, but I already had a caffeine headache. A handful of other shifters and I staffed a small café—it was a large pack, and anyone doing their rounds on the border was usually in need of chemical energy, especially on nights when the moon was hardly even a crescent in the night sky, like tonight.
The sky was on “low battery,” and generally, everyone else was as well. My fellow café staff had snapped several times tonight: “You’re not the only tired one, Verity. Have you seen the moon? Stop your slacking!”
But after staying up all night with General Hyala, weighed down and venting, I was scarcely standing. It hadn’t been the first time. Omegas had traditionally always been a support in the pack, and I found myself designated as a therapist, crisis management counselor, and secret healer.
The secret was in what I could do with music. I was a moderately talented musician—not enough to ever be invited to perform during ceremonies. To me, it was a tool. As a child, I’d always been able to see sounds. Anything—from a melody to a howl to a sneeze—rained down in my vision like shafts of light wavering in the water. The reason I’d even started learning the violin was that my first witnessing of the instrument at a performance seemed like a solar storm calling down the aurora borealis. With time, the sound waves in the air could bend to my will. At first, it was only as slight as changing the wind with a pointed exhale. But as my control grew, I could not only coax the lights and colors into dancing but also wrap them around the mentally and emotionally ailing, healing them from within.
The reason so many came to me was that everyone invariably left in higher spirits than they had been before, just as long as I played them a parting melody or whistled intermittently as I walked beside them. Or even when I howled as my wolf.
I’d never told anyone. I’d seen how certain pack members, those who could sense emotions or read minds, were shunned as manipulators by default. And I was already the omega; the only benefit was that those vying for dominance had dismissed me as perfectly harmless.
Though between my station as a café tender and other pack duties, my obligatory unpaid job wore thin on my energy. But it brightened my soul, at least.
At least my cousin hadn’t stopped by in a while—though I had been avoiding her to ensure just that. Her venting was more braggadocious than anything.
Estella was a healer in the more traditional sense. Hers was visible, not the strange manipulative hold that I could summon. Healers being as rare as they were, she was already quite the catch in their region. Not only that, but her mother had married well, managing to snag a gamma to increase their station. Estella had always been lucky, and she wasn’t exactly humble about it, either.
I had been quietly ducking her calls and visits. Estella had gotten engaged to an alpha and wouldn’t stop talking about it, flaunting how very fortunate her side of the family was while my own family scraped by. The alpha was young, returning from the wars to take a leadership role in the wake of his father’s death. Just another stroke of good fortune in that family’s long line of them. Must be nice.
I glanced at the clock. I had the distant idea that I might try offering it an espresso to motivate it to work faster. Less than a half hour before close. Just underneath was someone who—honestly, just by looks alone—was better at waking me up even more than any legal stimulant.
The young man was one of the last customers of the night, quietly reading a book while reluctantly checking his phone at every short vibration. His broad chest expanded with a sigh each time he unlocked the device, and whatever he typed seemed confined to only one or two words. He’d ordered a black hazelnut blend, kept it black, and sipped it with measured relish every few pages. His eyes were a deep gold. He’d held my gaze throughout the entire order as if he wanted to be certain I was seen. His dark hair was tapered tightly to the neck, but his long bangs framed his face and dipped just below the corners of his eyes. His face was a harmonious dichotomy, looking both youthful and rugged, with a cupid’s bow mouth and a strong jaw. His skin was a rich bronze, just a few shades too dark to be considered golden, but it gave the same effect.
When the man first perched on the loveseat, he still had errant snowflakes clinging to his hair and eyelashes.
I liked watching them melt.
“Since you’re not doing anything…” Ryn said, foisting a box full of milk cartons onto the counter just in front of the register. Her tone sounded resentful but singsong. It came across my eyes like a whip of magenta. “Can you go back and organize the walk-in? The rest of us are going to get out of here right at closing.”
I frowned at her. “I thought Mona said that putting away today’s supplies was all you.” I was, by far, the smallest of the staff who worked there. I could feel my tiny arms trembling in advance.
Ryn tossed her braided hair over her shoulder. “Well, I would’ve done it, but I had to do your side work.” She made a show of rolling her eyes. “Space case.” I frowned at the jab. Ryn raised her eyebrows. “Don’t just stare at me. Some of us have families to go home to!”
I tried to hold back a wince but wasn’t sure I managed. I slumped away to the walk-in freezer in the back. Most of the day’s shipment had just been haphazardly deposited on the floor, so I had my work cut out for me—not to mention how many of the milk jugs were well past expiration. By the time I had sorted everything into “keep” and “pitch” piles, I couldn’t s
tand one more minute without my coat.
I made my way to the staff closet. The café was dark, and the chairs were already stacked. I could hear the others outside, laughing, chatting, and probably smoking, by the smell of it. I pulled my old black wool coat around me, then scurried back to the walk-in, trying not to feel like some sort of rabbit darting back to a den.
Once settled, I began to organize. I was humming as I worked, idly pulling at my own sound waves to try to soothe my frustrations. It didn’t seem to work as well for me as for everyone else, but the slight relief it brought was always worth it.
Finally, after what felt like at least half an hour, I heaved a breath and stood up to my full height. My back ached. My eyes felt dry with exhaustion.
I pulled at the handle. It didn’t give. I pulled again, harder this time. No luck.
Cursing to myself, I yanked on the door with as much force as I could muster, even bracing my leg against it. Still, the door wouldn’t budge. My heart was sinking lower by the minute. I slapped the door. “Hello?” I hollered, “Help! I locked myself in!”
Human vocal cords couldn’t carry sound all the way from the back of the store, but a wolf’s howl just might. I was a born shifter, and the act of switching forms with my wolf came naturally to me. Reaching across that alternate reality to find my wolf in a world untouched by humans, matter exchanging in a matter of seconds with a brief blast of heat.
I wondered about that world sometimes. Some say it was a sort of spirit world. I bet it never had any moon-forsaken walk-ins. Surely, my wolf form looked right at home in the frosty atmosphere. My wolf was small, all white, with just little hints of gray to make her appear almost metallic in some places. Tilting my head back, I howled as loudly as I could.
I paused, ears perked to hear. Silence.
I whined. How long could someone survive in a walk-in? My fur was thick enough that I wouldn’t freeze to death, surely, but how long would it take to suffocate?
I had a feeling that whatever time limit I had would expire before the next shift found me.
Well, this is stupid, I thought. I won’t die in a territorial dispute. I won’t die protecting my pack. I will die from being stuck in a freezer. Hardly a wolf’s death, is it?
I drew in another lungful of limited breath and howled, trying to convey the notes of urgency. I pulled at the silvery sound waves, trying to project them further out, just in case there were any stragglers hunting game nearby.
At last, I heard a voice. One was female, sounding vaguely familiar—though Rhonda and Ryn always sounded vaguely the same to me, the same rouge and magenta tones. One was male—pale blue, like ice.
Oh, thank Luna. I stood on my hind legs and pawed frantically at the door. I’d resorted to giving short, loud noises, something between a bark and a howl. When the door opened, I was still leaning on it. I hadn’t had time to right myself; instead, my wolf snout was pressed into the chest and partially in the abs of a man. A man I was currently knocking over.
“Oh!” The sound had started wolfish but then ended in human. My wolf might have been small, but it was still heavier than her human form.
It was too late to correct myself.
The impact was lighter than expected. Whoever this was had been combat-trained well enough to know how to fall properly. I was relieved that he didn’t seem hurt.
It didn’t change the fact that I was still lying on his chest.
I sprang to my feet, trying to immediately stammer out an apology. Whatever I was going to say died in my throat. It wasn’t just a regular man—it was the man from earlier. I stared. “I… What?”
Mystery man didn’t look offended, at least. In fact, he seemed somewhat amused. He climbed to his feet, dusting himself off. “I had to come back,” he explained. His voice was soft, waving through the air like snow in a light gust of wind. Now that he was having a more personal conversation than just his coffee order, I could actually see the hue of it. It looked like starlight. “I’d left my phone here. I found Ryn just down the street and got her to unlock the doors for me. Lucky for you, huh?”
I thought of how often that phone would buzz and how reluctantly he’d picked it up to reply. I found myself wondering if he’d left it behind on purpose.
Ryn was standing beside him with her arms crossed. She had a sour look on her face, as if I had fully planned the entire encounter. As if I wanted my “damsel in distress” moment to be alongside stale croissants.
“Maddox was barely able to catch up to me. I was in full wolf mode, running through the trees because I wanted to go home.”
It was easy to catch the chide in the emphasis. If the man—Maddox, was it?—sensed it, he gave no indication. “Thank you,” I managed to squeak.
I was silent as I followed Ryn and Maddox out of the café. Ryn seemed to be trying to make small talk, asking how Maddox was settling in and how travel was. Maddox gave mostly short replies, but they seemed diplomatic enough. I found myself secretly wishing he didn’t like her.
There was a fork in the path. I could still see the pawprints in the snow from earlier, where Ryn had been galloping home and Maddox had to give chase to her. I sometimes went wolf to get home as well, but I lived much closer to the café than Ryn did.
“Well, I’m going that way,” Maddox said apologetically, pointing down the same path I was about to take.
Ryn’s face soured briefly, but she quickly straightened it. “That’s alright. I’m glad I was able to go back and help you get your phone!” From the tone she was using, it was as if she’d saved a burning orphanage.
Maddox nodded. “And your coworker.”
“Verity, yeah.” Ryn nodded at that, as if he had to remind her.
After she said goodbye, Maddox and I both watched Ryn’s reddish wolf bound away through the trees.
Meanwhile, I’d been rehearsing this question two dozen times in my head before I worked up the nerve to ask it. It apparently didn’t do much good. The jumbled mess that dropped from my mouth was, “Whiiiitslebookrooreading?” I cleared my throat and tried again. “What is the title,” I said, enunciating carefully, “of the book you are reading?”
Maddox blinked. “Silent Snow. I thought it appropriate for the weather, but I’ve read it before.”
I almost burst out of my skin. “Oh, I love that one! Usually, with murder mysteries, it’s easy to guess who did it within the first two chapters, but that one actually kept me guessing. And the part where the body ends up wrapped in a gift box was too good!” Okay, good, I was talking. Maddox was smiling slightly, even if it was in a bit of a broody way, like he found my enthusiasm endearing. Maybe I could stay on this roll, maybe even barrel through to actual connection, or even better. “Hey, also, this might be bold, but I overheard Ryn talking to you about how you’re settling in. Like you’re new here. If you want other recommendations, the library has a great coffee shop attached. If you wouldn’t mind going with me sometime?”
I was already scolding myself for my confidence when Maddox grimaced. “Ah, my apologies, I’m already spoken for…” Right on cue, his phone vibrated again. Not a text—a call this time. I was only halfway through visibly deflating as he took his phone out.
Then I froze. Lighting up his phone was a contact picture of a girl with steely blue eyes and dark, sleek hair. She looked like a model—clearly blessed with the better genes of the family. At least I always thought so.
It was Estella Selene. My own cousin.
The realization hit me like a train. How had I missed it? How had I gone the entire past fifteen minutes talking to him as if we were equals? Him, Maddox—the alpha. And I tried to ask him out?
I dug my feet into the ground; hopefully, I could burrow deep enough to disappear into the snow entirely. My mouth was already moving long before I could stop it. “You’re the alpha?”
2
Verity
Well, at least it was the most polite rejection I’ve ever received. It might not have stung so much if Estella Selene weren’t involved.
