“I swear, Xaden. I didn’t—”
“Save it! You’re being unhealthy for our child. Fucking stubborn.” His words were sharp, cold—cutting deeper than I could’ve ever imagined.
And just like that, he stormed out of the room, taking her with him.
I felt like the floor had been ripped out from beneath me. Betrayed. Humiliated. Heartbroken. My best friend, my mate, were closer than I could ever hope to be with him.
It felt like I was nothing. His words, his dismissal—he didn’t even try to listen to my side. It didn’t matter.
How could he do this to me? My chest tightened. My wolf, Elena, howled in anger and sorrow, but there was nothing I could do. I wasn’t even allowed to speak.
I forced myself to pick up her discarded garments, the fabric somehow feeling heavier than the weight of the world itself. I tossed them into the trash like they were nothing. But I knew—I knew this wasn’t going to be the last of it. It never was.
The evening came, and still, no sign of Xaden. No call. No mind-link. Nothing. I sat on the edge of our bed, clutching my stomach, which was swollen with his child. Our son. Ace. The name we’d picked together. But somehow, in the back of my mind, it didn’t feel like it mattered anymore.
I mind-linked him again, but still, nothing. “Where are you?” My voice trembled with frustration, but I couldn’t even feel his presence anymore.
I thought I’d felt the connection slip away, but no—he was just ignoring me.
The silence stretched on, and then—something hit my back.
A sharp sting of pain shot through me, and I screamed, instinctively clutching at my spine, but before I could even process what was happening, it came again. And again.
My body recoiled in shock as pain exploded across my back. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t shift.
My wolf, Elena, tried to push through, but there was something else in my system.
A foreign substance—an injection—coursed through my skin. I couldn’t even feel my wolf anymore.
“No…” My voice was barely a whisper as I crumpled to the floor.
The pain in my body, the panic in my chest—it all centered on one thing: my baby.
“Xaden…” That was all I could get out, my words shaking as I fell into darkness.
“What a cute boy,” the pack doctor’s voice was the first thing I heard when I woke up, though it felt distant, muffled.
I blinked through the haze of confusion and dizziness.
My heart skipped a beat as I realized what was happening. “My baby…” I whispered, my voice hoarse from the fear I had felt just moments before.
I could hear him. Ace. He was alive. He was okay.
“My baby boy,” I cried, tears running down my face. My hands shook as I reached out, but the doctor didn’t hand him over.
“I want to hold him,” I demanded, my voice shaky, but stronger than I’d felt in what seemed like forever.
The doctor’s eyes hardened, and he stepped back slightly. “Of course, you can,” he said, but he still didn’t give me the baby.
“Give him to me,” I commanded, my voice tight with growing frustration. This was my son.
The doctor’s gaze hardened, and his lips twisted in an almost condescending way. “You should rest for now, Luna. The Alpha will be carrying the baby for now. He will be taken care of, don’t worry.”
What? I blinked in disbelief.
“Give me my son!” My voice was low and dangerous, but it felt like he was treating me like a stranger.
His refusal made my heart race.
“It doesn’t matter! I just want to hold him! He’s mine, too!”
The doctor hesitated, but before he could say another word, I heard a voice—Xaden—and for a moment, a brief surge of hope rose in my chest.
“Give me my son,” he ordered, his tone dark and commanding, and the doctor complied without a second thought.
But then Xaden looked at me. His eyes—they weren’t the same. Cold. Detached.
I took a step forward, hoping—praying—he’d look at me like he once had. “Xaden, baby. I want to hold him first…”
His gaze turned to stone. “No. You’re nothing but a mother biologically because Liora couldn’t conceive,” his words struck me like a physical blow.
“But she will be the mother physically and emotionally. Do you understand?”
The words slashed through me, and for a second, the world went still. My throat closed, my breath coming in jagged gasps.
I looked at my son, held tightly in Xaden’s arms, and everything—everything I had believed in—shattered in that moment.
His voice became a monstrous growl. “You don’t matter. She will raise him.”
That’s when everything went cold.
I woke up with a start, my heart pounding, my breath quick and shallow.
The reality hit me like a flood. It was all just a dream.
Thank Goddess. But even as I realized it wasn’t real, tears blurred my vision. My body trembled with the aftershocks of what I had experienced.
But then something else hit me.
Where was I? My surroundings were unfamiliar—icy. Cold. Empty. There was snow everywhere. No trees. No pack. Just endless, empty white.
I touched my stomach, but something was wrong. Blood. There was so much blood. It soaked through my legs, staining my skin.
“My baby…” I whispered in horror, my heart sinking.
“He’s gone.” My voice cracked, and I curled into myself, sobbing, the coldness seeping into my bones. He was gone.
And the last thing I know is that someone lifted me up but I’m already dead, along with my son.
