Chapter 292 The Malicious Headlines

Chapter 292: Chapter 292 The Malicious Headlines

Emilia’s POV

"Because if we had one right now, your focus wouldn’t be on me anymore." His lips grazed my collarbone. "Real life or those dramas Tiffany binges, it’s all the same. A Luna has a baby, and suddenly her Alpha doesn’t exist. All that energy goes to the pup."

He exhaled against my skin. "I run a pack and a company, Emilia. We barely get enough time as it is. A child would eat what little we have left of you."

I nearly laughed. So that was it. Pure, ridiculous possessiveness.

"You are unbelievable," I said, propping myself up. "You’re seriously jealous of your own kid? A kid that doesn’t even exist yet?"

He sat up too and pulled me back against his chest, burying his face in the crook of my neck. He nuzzled there, slow and warm, and I breathed him in. Minty and cedar. That scent had a way of unknotting something in my chest, of making the whole world feel safe for a few seconds.

"I’m dead serious," he murmured into my skin. "I won’t have you turning into every other Luna I’ve watched. The second there’s a pup, the Alpha becomes furniture."

I reached up and stroked his hair. My throat tightened, and I had to swallow hard around it. Crying now, in the middle of something this ordinary, would look insane.

"Fine. No baby now." I kept my voice level. "But someday? You know as well as I do that giving the pack an heir is our job. It’s what an Alpha and Luna are for."

His lips found my neck again. "Listen to you. You sound like you actually want one. And here you were, turning me down hours ago."

Thank the Goddess I’d killed the lights. My face had to be a wreck, and no amount of forced cheer would’ve hidden it in the open.

"Turning you down and wanting your pups are two very different conversations, Sebastian," I shot back. "One of them requires me to be conscious. The other you keep bringing up while I’m half asleep."

He gave a low laugh, then yanked me tighter, almost frustrated, wrapping both arms around me. "As long as I have you, Emilia, I don’t need anything else."

I bit down hard on my lip. Tears pooled and I forced them back before they could fall.

"I figured you, Sebastian Simons, would be like every other man who claws his way to the top. That you’d want a child of your own to carry it all forward."

"I’ve never once thought of myself as successful, so I’m not like those men. Call me selfish, call me heartless, I don’t care. I don’t want a child right now."

My tears finally slipped free, tracking down my cheeks in the dark. He didn’t notice.

His words should have been cruel. Somehow they were the kindest thing anyone had said to me in weeks. It was as if a mountain had been pressing on my chest, and he’d just reached over and shoved it aside, letting me breathe again.

That night, I slept better than I had in a long time. At dawn I opened my eyes to a thin blade of sunlight slicing through the curtains, falling right across my body. I stretched out my hand and let it pass through my fingers, then closed my fist as if I could hold onto it. From today, I told myself, I’d go back to being who I was. The kind of woman who was impossible to break.

"You’ve got that right," Eve murmured, a warm ripple at the back of my mind. "Nobody puts us down for long."

I got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the office in the best mood I’d had in days.

I’d been running the marketing department at Simons Corporation now, and I’d never worked harder in my life.

Genevieve, Sebastian’s old mentor, had agreed that she’d be stopping by to tour the company and discuss a partnership. That meant every projection, every pitch deck, every number had to be flawless.

I buried myself in it all morning, and for once, the work felt like solid ground under my feet.

Then my phone rang. Lily.

"Emilia," she said, breathless, "pull up your feed. Now."

"What’s going on?"

"Just look. You need to see it yourself."

A cold weight dropped into my stomach. I opened my browser, and the headlines hit me one after another like slaps.

"Silver Moon’s New Luna Dumps Disabled Fiancé to Marry Alpha Sebastian."

"Gold Digger: How She Traded a Broken Boy for a Billionaire’s Bed."

"The Frostridge Cinderella or a Cold-Blooded Climber? Insiders Reveal the Truth."

My head roared. I scanned the article, and rage climbed up my throat with every line. Somebody had dug up the arrangement between me and Richie Lind, and twisted every single fact. According to them, I’d taken a favor from the Lind family and promised to marry their mentally challenged son, Leighton, then abandoned him the moment I came of age. To land a rich Alpha, the story said, I’d thrown away the engagement without a shred of conscience. The Linds were painted as heartbroken victims. I was the shameless whore who’d used them and moved on.

Richie Lind. Of course. He’d been too quiet for too long, and now I knew why. He’d never planned to let go. This was him tightening the leash.

"Let me at his throat," Eve snarled. "One night. That’s all I’d need."

My hands were shaking, but I made myself set the phone down. He hadn’t come to me directly, not yet. Screaming into the void wouldn’t fix a thing. The only thing that mattered right now was getting to Sebastian and getting ahead of this.

I grabbed my things and walked out. On my way to the elevator I passed the marketing break room, and through the half-open door I heard my own name floating out on a wave of low, delighted voices.

"...engaged to a disabled guy, can you believe it? And she just tossed him aside—"

"I always knew there was something off about her. Nobody claws their way up that fast without stepping on people."

"Miss Taylor, our precious Luna. Wonder what the Alpha thinks now that everyone knows what he married—"

I pushed the door open and walked in.