I stood at the doorway before speaking, yet Henry was already frowning at me.
“Why are you wandering around again. I told you to stay home.”
My throat felt blocked. I could not say a single word.
The bone diagnostic in my hand was crushed out of shape by my grip.
Demi glanced at me, let out a cold little laugh, and leaned even closer into him. Her voice softened into something syrupy.
“Her face looks terrible. Is she sick?”
Henry let out a sharp, impatient scoff. He picked up a heavy stone ash basin from the table and hurled it at me.
It hit my forehead. A burst of white exploded before my eyes.
Before I could react, my body fell backward and the back of my skull struck the corner of a table with a dull, brutal thud.
A ringing filled my ears. I collapsed on the floor, blood sliding down my forehead and dripping onto the wooden board beneath me.
I tried to push myself up, but I could not even lift my hand.
Henry stood, looked down at me lying motionless on the ground, and spoke with a coldness suited for speaking to empty air.
“I told you not to run around. Do you not understand simple words.”
As they walked past me, they even kicked me aside.
Demi wrapped her arm around Henry's, her voice tender enough to melt into his bones.
“Forget about her. Let us go.”
Henry held her by the waist. Neither of them looked back as they left.
The thud of the wooden door closing swallowed the last bit of my consciousness.
Blood kept flowing down my forehead, soaking my hair and collar. I struggled to keep my eyes open, but there was only darkness.
In the final flicker of awareness, I still felt the dull throb of the wound from the stone basin. Henry’s and Demi’s laughter drifted farther and farther away, like echoes from another world.
I closed my eyes and allowed the darkness to take me.
If I survived, I would cut this child from my bloodline, leave all of them behind, and begin a new life.
When I woke, dawn was only barely rising.
I changed my clothes and prepared to go to the Moonstone Healing Hall to schedule a fetal removal ritual.
When Henry returned to the clan house, the home was silent.
He tossed his bone key onto the table. His gaze swept across the surface and suddenly froze.
His eyes landed on the crumpled bone diagnostic, the edges warped from my grip, with dried blood staining its surface.
He picked it up and unfolded it. His entire body stiffened as if struck by lightning.
It was the Moonstone Healing Hall’s diagnostic bone.
The engraved words were unmistakable.
Pregnant for eight weeks.
The patient’s name carved clearly.
Aurora.
His hand visibly trembled.
Shock, panic, disbelief. They swept across his face one layer at a time.
All the secrets he hid, all the shame he feared facing, were exposed in that instant.
He knew about his weakened essence veins.
He knew he was barely capable of impregnating a she-wolf.
He knew Demi had never been able to conceive.
And now, I was pregnant.
A nearly impossible chance had somehow happened.
But then he realized the truth.
I had gone to the Moonstone Healing Hall to remove the child.
He grabbed the communication stone in a panic and called for me again and again.
I watched the stone vibrate endlessly yet did not answer.
Only when the missed calls reached double digits did I finally connect.
The moment the link opened, his voice tore in frantic desperation.
“Aurora, where are you?”
I stood outside the shaman’s treatment chamber, expression calm, my tone quiet and plain, as if discussing the weather.
“At the Healing Hall. I am about to enter the removal room.”
The other side went silent.
Then he suddenly roared.
“What procedure?”
I touched the wound on my forehead and let out a soft laugh.
“Fetal removal, of course. I will not keep this child.”
“No. Aurora, you cannot do this.”
His voice shook.
“That is my child. That is our creation. You cannot get rid of him.”
I let out a low, cold laugh.
“Henry, do you deserve to say the word creation.”
“When you and Demi were rolling on my bed, did you think of the child.”
“When you threw a stone basin at my head, did you think of the child.”
There were a few seconds of silence on the other end. Then his voice changed into something I had never heard.
It sounded like a man begging to survive.
“Aurora, I know I was wrong. I truly know I was wrong. Give me another chance. Please. We can start over. I will treat you well. I will treat the child well.”
I did not listen anymore.
I hung up the communication stone, turned it to silent mode, and handed it to the shaman.
I lay down on the Moonstone surgery platform and closed my eyes.
In that moment, I had no hesitation at all.
After the procedure, my body remained weak.
As soon as I stepped out from behind the treatment curtain, I saw my father pacing anxiously outside.
At the sound of movement, he stopped at once and turned toward me.
The next second, he opened his arms, his eyes reddened.
“Child, I came to take you home.”
