Chapter 0465

Hannah

The doctor looked as if he were about to be sick when he turned to face us. His skin had gone pale, his eyes wide as saucers, his face drawn as if he’d just seen a ghost.

“Kill us?” I sat up a little straighter, my arms trembling. Viona moved to support me, but I waved her away. “Who? Marcus?”

Doctor Patel looked back and forth between us. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. He clearly had something to tell us, yet he seemed genuinely torn between revealing it and fleeing. Most of all, fear shone in his eyes.

“If I tell you,” he said hesitantly, “you have to promise not to tell him.”

Noah and I exchanged astonished glances. “What—”

“Promise me,” the aging doctor insisted, his cheeks trembling. “Please.”

Noah, despite Drake’s weakened state from the poison—though less so than me—stood on slightly shaking legs. “Whatever you have to tell us, Doctor Patel, your secret is safe here.”

But that wasn’t enough. Doctor Patel’s eyes darted to the doors and windows, terror etched on his features.

With a sigh, I nodded to Viona, who quickly secured the entrances. Once we were certain everything was locked and the curtains drawn, Doctor Patel seemed to deflate with relief. He sank into an armchair, burying his face in his hands and wringing his hair.

“Spit it out,” Noah said impatiently. “Whatever you have to say, now’s your chance.”

The doctor flinched, then nodded. “Very well. You see… Goddess, I shouldn’t even be saying this… He swore to kill me if I told a soul…”

Noah, Drake, Viona, and I stared at each other in shock, remaining silent, awaiting his confession.

Finally, Doctor Patel continued. “It started about eight years ago… shortly after you two married.” He glanced at Noah and me. “Your father, Marcus, came to me with a proposition; he asked me to ensure you two didn’t conceive. He told me there was a horrible defect in your bloodline, Hannah, that he didn’t want to pass on to his grandchild.”

He swallowed hard. “So I told Alpha Noah that you were too frail for intercourse. When Alpha Noah insisted Nightcrest needed an heir, I gave him a false ovulation date. I told him to try conceiving right after your menstruation, when you are least fertile. Since you had been starving yourself and missed your period, you two were none the wiser.”

“So you lied to us,” Noah growled, crossing his arms.

The doctor looked at Noah wide-eyed. “I wanted to tell you, truly. And I almost did. It never felt… right to do that to you, to take away your choice. But when I told Marcus we should tell you the truth, and that I didn’t believe Hannah had any defects, he threatened to kill me. Not just me, but my family.”

Doctor Patel hung his head again. “After that, I’m not sure exactly what Marcus did to keep you from getting pregnant, Hannah. Occasionally, he’d have me claim you had a UTI or some other infection to keep you from sleeping together.”

I frowned, recalling those days. There had been a year when things had been relatively good between Noah and me, and we’d been more attracted to one another. But we couldn’t have sex because the doctor kept claiming I had infections and needed to rest.

But I hadn’t, apparently. It was all a scheme by Marcus to prevent me from getting pregnant. And it had worked, for a while at least.