Mated to Her Alpha Instructor Chapter 23

Eileen

I held my breath after the words left my mouth—*I don't know what to do*—and instinctively took half a step back, bracing for the moment when his expression would shift from shock to something worse. Regret, perhaps. Disgust. The cold, polite dismissal I'd seen on Derek's face a hundred times, the one that said *you're not worth the trouble*.

But the moonlight fell across Regis's features, and what I saw there stopped me cold.

His pupils flared with a brief flash of gold—something feral and wild that sent a shiver down my spine—before he forced it back down, his jaw clenching so hard I could see the muscle jump beneath his skin. His hands gripped the stone railing until his knuckles went white, and for a moment I thought he might break the ancient stone itself, but his eyes... his eyes were the thing that undid me.

Shock, yes. But beneath it, woven through it like silver thread through dark fabric, was something that looked almost like tenderness. Like he was looking at something precious and fragile and desperately afraid of scaring it away.

Not disgust. Not anger. Not the cold withdrawal I'd been dreading for two weeks.

My heart stuttered in my chest, confusion flooding through the fear that had been my constant companion since the healer's words had confirmed what my body already knew. This wasn't the reaction I'd expected. This wasn't the reaction I'd prepared myself for.

"Eileen," he said, and his voice came out rough and strained, like he was fighting to keep it steady. "You... what do you want to do?"

I stared at him, my mind going blank. *What do I want to do?* The question hung in the air between us, gentle and careful, and I realized with a jolt that he was asking. Not telling. Not deciding for me. Asking, as if my answer mattered more than anything else in the world.

I'd been so certain he would take control the moment I told him, that he would issue commands or make pronouncements or simply walk away and leave me to deal with the consequences alone. That's what Alphas did, wasn't it? They decided. They dominated. They took what they wanted and discarded what they didn't.

But Regis just stood there in the moonlight, waiting, and the scent of him—snow-touched cedar and wild mint, clean and grounding and impossibly safe—drifted toward me on the night breeze, making my wolf-less heart ache with a longing I didn't fully understand.

"I..." The word caught in my throat, and I had to look away from those ice-blue eyes before I could continue. My hands twisted together in front of me, fingers knotting and unknotting in a nervous rhythm I couldn't control. "I've been thinking about it all day, since the healer confirmed it."

The wind picked up, carrying the scent of pine and distant snow from the mountains, and I shivered despite my cloak. "If I... if I terminate the pregnancy, I'd have to lie to the healers about how it happened. I'd have to endure the procedure alone, and the pain, and the questions, and then pretend like nothing had changed." My voice was shaking now, the words tumbling out faster as if saying them quickly would make them hurt less. "But if I keep it, I'll lose my place at the academy. My family will disown me—not that they care much now, but at least I have somewhere to go during breaks. I'll have no money, no prospects, no future except as a disgraced woman with a pup and no pack to protect us."

The tears I'd been holding back for days finally spilled over, hot tracks down my cold cheeks, and my voice broke on the last word. "I can't... I can't bear this alone anymore. I've tried, but I just... I can't."

The admission felt like stepping off a cliff, like exposing the rawest, most vulnerable part of myself to someone who could destroy me with a single word. I'd spent my whole life learning to be strong, to endure, to never let anyone see how much their cruelty hurt or how desperately I wanted someone to care. And here I was, confessing my helplessness to an Alpha who had every reason to want nothing to do with me.

But something strange happened as the words left my mouth. Instead of the crushing shame I expected, I felt... lighter. As if naming the fear had somehow lessened its power, as if sharing the burden had made it fractionally more bearable.

I risked a glance up at Regis and found him watching me with an intensity that should have been frightening but somehow wasn't. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, his hands still gripping the railing, but when he spoke his voice was gentle.

"Then don't bear it alone."

The words were simple, direct, but they hit me with the force of a physical blow. I blinked, fresh tears blurring my vision, and he took a step forward before stopping himself, as if remembering that I might bolt if he came too close.

"We'll accept the bond properly," he continued, his voice gaining strength and certainty with each word. "We'll keep the pup. When you're ready to give birth, I'll petition the academy to maintain your enrollment status—they can grant leave for bonded pairs, and as the Alpha heir, my word carries weight."

He paused, his expression softening. "If you're willing, you could move into my residence. It's at the edge of the territory, quiet and private. You'd have space to rest and recover without dealing with gossip or judgment. As for resources..." His voice grew more tender. "You won't need to worry about money or your family's support. I can provide for you and for our little wolf."

*Our little wolf.* The casual possessive, the easy assumption that this child was *ours* rather than mine alone, sent heat flooding to my cheeks. I stared at him, hardly daring to believe what I was hearing. "You... you really mean that? You'd do all that?"

"Yes." No hesitation. No qualification. Just a simple, absolute yes.

I bit my lip, my mind racing through everything he'd just offered, searching for the catch, the hidden condition, the moment when he'd reveal this was all contingent on me being something other than what I was. "But... you haven't considered the other option? The easier one?"