MARIA.

Trust me when I say...I wasn’t expecting Noah to barge in like that, not at all.

Those words I had just uttered about the wedding? I had only said them to make my lie more believable and to push the quadruplets far away, to give myself a way out without further argument.

That was all it was supposed to be.

A bluff.

But the moment Noah stepped in, the memory of his earlier questions, his tone, the intensity in his eyes before I left his room, all came crashing down on me.

He hadn’t been joking, not even a little, because the look on his face showed he had been completely serious.

I swallowed hard.

"What?" Noah’s voice cut sharply through the room, his gaze sweeping across the quadruplets with clear irritation, no, anger. "You don’t believe my words?"

He let out a short, dry scoff, shaking his head slightly.

"Well, I never needed your approval," he continued, his tone firm, unwavering. "So you aren’t invited."

The audacity in his voice only made the tension in the room thicken.

"What do you mean by wedding...and we are not invited?" Adrien snapped, rising to his feet in one swift motion.

Before anyone could react, he closed the distance between them and grabbed Noah by the collar, pulling him forward roughly.

"Maria is still our mate!" Adrien growled, his grip tightening. "Don’t you have yours?"

Noah didn’t flinch, instead, he chuckled—A low, almost mocking sound.

"Who knows why I haven’t felt my mate all this while?" he replied casually, tilting his head slightly. Then his gaze sharpened. "Could it be that my wolf is just waiting for you to dissolve your bond?"

He raised his brows, the challenge in his words unmistakable.

"How dare you?" Damien barked, his restraint snapping instantly.

In the next second, he lunged forward, his fist connected with Noah’s nose with a sickening force.

"Noah!" I gasped, panic surging through me as I rushed forward without thinking. "Stop it...all of you!" I yelled, my voice trembling with urgency as I reached him.

Blood had already begun to trickle from Noah’s nose.

Quickly, I cupped his face, trying to steady him as I wiped the blood away with trembling hands, my heart racing wildly in my chest.

Everything was spiraling too fast and behind me, I heard movement.

Davian and Aidan.

They both rose almost at the same time, their presence closing in as they stepped toward me.

Toward us.

Toward him.

"Maria..." their voices came together, firm, resolute."You definitely can’t marry him."

I let out a soft, almost disbelieving chuckle, the sound slipping past my lips before I could stop it.

"And why can’t I?" I asked, raising my brows slowly, my gaze moving from one face to another. "If all of you can go ahead and marry Vanessa, then why can’t I marry someone else?"

My voice rose at the end, sharp and unyielding, the frustration I had been holding back finally seeping through.

"It’s different, Maria," Damien replied, his tone firm, like that single statement was supposed to settle everything.

I turned to him instantly with dsgust—Pure, unfiltered disgust settled on my face as I stared at him.

Different?

How?

In what world did that make any sense?

"Whereas..." Aidan’s voice cut in, drawing my attention back to him. "We aren’t marrying Vanessa anymore."

The words landed heavily.

And the way he looked at me, intense, unwavering, almost desperate, made something inside me shift slightly, even if I didn’t want it to.

"We have realized who we want, Maria," he continued, his voice lowering but somehow becoming even more powerful. "We want to marry you."

For a moment...I was completely dumbfounded.

My mind went blank.

What exactly was going on with the quadruplets?

One minute, they were pushing me away, making my life unbearable, acting like I was nothing more than a burden...and the next...they were here.

Saying this.

Claiming this.

Wanting me?

It didn’t make sense.

None of it did.

And for some strange, confusing reason, I felt something stir inside me. Not acceptance, not happiness—no.

Just... something I couldn’t quite place.

A strange, unsettling feeling that I couldn’t name but I didn’t have the chance to process it.

Because just as I parted my lips, ready to speak, ready to snap back, to put them firmly in their place...

The door opened again.

The sound echoed sharply in the tense silence of the room and then...A female voice followed.

"That won’t be possible, Aidan." The voice came calm and steady.

But heavy with something that made all of us turn at once.

It was Vanessa.

She stepped in slowly, her presence commanding the room without effort. Her expression was serious, no hint of hesitation, no softness, just something firm, something resolved. Her eyes moved across each of us, scanning slowly, deliberately, like she wanted to make sure we were all paying attention, more like she wanted us to understand.

The room seemed to hold its breath and everything stilled.

And then she said it.

"I’m pregnant."

The words landed like a final blow.

A complete, deafening silence followed, thick and heavy, crashing over the room like a wave, leaving everything frozen in its wake.

No one moved.

No one spoke.

It was like time itself had paused, suspended in that single moment.

And for reasons I couldn’t understand...Something shifted inside me. A dull ache spread slowly across my chest, not in a sharp nor overwhelming way. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

But it was there anyway, steady and unavoidable. It tightened gradually, subtle but undeniable, like something deep within me had just been struck in a way I couldn’t explain.

My gaze lingered on her, on her face, on her words and on what they meant.

The weight of it all pressed in, heavier with every passing second.

’Assholes!’

The word echoed bitterly in my mind, sharp and unforgiving because there was no misunderstanding this, no confusion, it was crystal clear.

They actually got her pregnant.