Kacie POV:
Pain was a color. It was blinding white, then throbbing red, then absolute black.
I woke up to the smell of antiseptic and the beep of machines. I wasn't dead. I had landed on a firefighter's rescue cushion that had been partially deployed. It had saved my life, but the impact...
I moved my hand to my stomach.
It was flat. Empty. The tiny spark I had felt on the roof was gone.
"No," I croaked. My throat felt like it was filled with glass.
A doctor walked in. He was a Beta from our pack. He looked at me with pity.
"Luna," he said softly. "You suffered severe internal trauma. We... we couldn't save the pup."
A howl built up in my chest, a sound so raw and primal it scared me. But I didn't have the strength to let it out. I just stared at the ceiling, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.
The door opened. Cedric walked in. He looked exhausted, his shirt torn.
"Kacie," he breathed, rushing to the bedside. "Thank the Goddess. You're alive."
I turned my head slowly to look at him. "My baby."
Cedric flinched. "I know. The doctor told me. It... it's a tragedy."
"You pushed me," I whispered. "You traded your child for her."
"It was a calculated risk!" Cedric insisted, pacing the room. "Jayden wouldn't have survived the stress of being a hostage. You are stronger. I knew you would survive. We can have other children."
"Other children?" I laughed, a dry, cracking sound. "You killed this one."
Mind-Link: Cedric... help me... the nightmares...
It was Jayden again. Calling him. Always calling him.
Cedric froze. He looked at the door. "I have to go check on her. She's in shock."
"Get out," I said. "And don't come back."
He left. He actually left.
The next morning, I forced myself out of bed. I couldn't stay in this place. I walked into the hallway, holding the wall for support.
I ran into Carol, Cedric's mother.
Slap!
Her hand connected with my cheek, snapping my head to the side.
"You useless girl!" she screeched. "You lost the Moon heir!"
"I..." I touched my stinging cheek. "Your son traded me to Rogues."
"Lies!" Carol hissed. "Jayden told us everything. She showed us the photo."
She shoved a phone in my face. It was a picture of me, standing in an alleyway, handing an envelope to the Rogue who had attacked us on the roof.
"I never did that!" I gasped. "That's Photoshop! Look at the lighting!"
"It's dated three days ago," Carol sneered. "You hired those Rogues to stage a kidnapping so you could play the hero. But it went wrong, didn't it? And your own scheme killed my grandchild."
"That is insane," I said, backing away.
"Cedric!" Carol shouted.
Cedric appeared from Jayden's room. He took the phone from his mother. He looked at the photo, then at me.
His eyes were cold. Dead.
"Is this true?" he asked. "Did you stage this? To get attention? To make me choose you?"
"You think I would risk my baby for attention?" I asked, my voice trembling with rage.
"You didn't know you were pregnant until the roof," Cedric reasoned, his logic twisted by grief and manipulation. "You thought you would just get 'rescued'. You are sick, Kacie."
"I didn't do it," I said.
"Jayden saw you meeting him," Cedric said. "She was too afraid to tell me until now."
Of course she was.
"I hate you," I said. "I hate you all."
14 Days.
