Genevieve’s POV
The room went completely still.
Doctors and nurses exchanged uneasy looks, disbelief written plainly across their faces.
“Alpha Virelli,” one of the senior nurses began carefully, “your Luna cannot donate. You heard the diagnosis. Her pregnancy is unstable. Even minor strain could cost her the pup.”
Nikolai’s expression didn’t shift.
“I heard you,” he replied calmly, stepping forward with quiet authority. “Continue.”
The attending physician hesitated. “Sir, this goes against medical protocol. We risk losing both mother and child.”
“I’m not concerned about protocol,” Nikolai interrupted, his tone turning razor-sharp. “You’re compensated generously. Do what you’re instructed to do.”
The air felt thin in my lungs. I stared at him, disbelief hollowing out my chest.
This was the male who had once sworn before the Moon Goddess to protect me. The Alpha who had promised my safety above all else. Now he was ordering a room full of professionals to gamble with our unborn child as if it were nothing more than a strategic inconvenience.
Nikolai’s jaw tightened as his gaze swept across the staff. “If anyone here refuses, I’ll have this hospital shut down by sunrise. I sit on half the board. Don’t test how far my reach extends.”
No one doubted him. The Virelli name carried weight in every corner of the territory.
The nurse turned back to me, her voice gentler. “Luna… we require your consent.”
I couldn’t look away from Nikolai.
“You said you wanted a pup,” I said slowly, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it. “Now that you finally have one, you’re willing to sacrifice it over a convenient fever?”
His eyes darkened. “You were scheduled to terminate it this morning.”
“I changed my decision,” I shot back. “You heard the doctor.”
He exhaled in frustration. “Sabrina’s pregnancy is strong. Yours is fragile. The specialists already warned you that you may lose it regardless.”
My stomach dropped.
“So you’re choosing hers.”
“It isn’t about choosing,” he replied, though his tone suggested the opposite. “She’s unstable and needs blood. Your pregnancy may not even survive the first trimester.”
The words echoed emptily inside my skull.
This wasn’t clinical judgment.
It was preference.
And I wasn’t the one he preferred.
“You’ve already decided,” I said quietly.
For a brief second, something unreadable flickered across his face. Before he could respond, Sabrina let out another faint cough from the bed.
Nikolai turned instantly, returning to her side.
That was answer enough.
A strange calm settled over me.
Arguing would change nothing. His mind was made up. The staff were bound by his influence, just as I had been.
The nurse squeezed my arm gently. “Luna… we need a clear answer.”
I looked at Nikolai one final time.
He didn’t even glance back.
My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. “Do it.”
The doctor moved quickly. The needle pierced my skin, and dark red flowed through the tubing.
I didn’t flinch.
I didn’t cry.
I stared at the glossy white tiles beneath my feet and focused on breathing evenly.
At first, it was only a slight wave of dizziness.
Then it deepened.
My chest tightened sharply, and an icy weakness spread through my limbs.
Something was wrong.
I tried lifting my head, but my vision blurred at the edges. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, erratic and far too fast.
The nurse monitoring me glanced at the screen and paled. “Her blood pressure is dropping!”
“Stop the transfusion,” the doctor ordered urgently, rushing toward me. “She’s crashing!”
Sabrina whimpered from the bed.
“No!” Nikolai barked, shoving the doctor aside hard enough to make him stumble. “Keep it going. She needs it!”
“She’s stable!” one of the nurses shouted. “Her vitals are completely normal!”
“You don’t know that!” Nikolai roared. “Look at her. She’s in pain!”
A searing cramp tore through my abdomen, and a cry escaped me before I could suppress it.
Nikolai didn’t turn toward me.
Not once.
Every ounce of his attention remained fixed on Sabrina.
The room spun violently. My body felt distant, as if I were slipping outside of it. The taste of iron flooded my mouth.
So this was how it would end.
Not in battle. Not through a coup.
But in a hospital suite, discarded for another wolf’s deception.
Regret surged through me as Kael’s face rose in my mind. The way he had said finally, as though he had always known this reckoning would come. I had told him to wait.
I had hesitated.
Voices rose around me—doctors arguing, nurses protesting—but Nikolai stood unmoved, staring at Sabrina like she was the only life in the room that mattered.
My lips parted weakly.
“Moon Goddess… please…” I whispered, barely audible. “Protect my pup…”
The lights above me blurred into white streaks.
The shouting grew distant.
And then everything went dark.
