Pain tore through me, sharp and unrelenting. I barely had time to process what was happening before the world around me blurred. The contractions came in waves, each one stronger than the last, stealing my breath and leaving me weak.
I was giving birth.
The realization sent fear and exhilaration coursing through me all at once. I clutched my stomach as another contraction hit, my knees nearly buckling from the intensity. The Sinclair pack’s sentinels didn’t hesitate. They rushed me into a car, driving recklessly through the dark roads to get me to the Sinclair pack hospital.
This was it. The moment I had been waiting for.
The twins were coming.
I barely registered the chaos around me as doctors and nurses swarmed the room, shouting orders and preparing for the delivery. Sweat beaded down my forehead as pain wracked my body, but I held on. I had to. My babies were coming into this world, and they needed me.
"You're doing great," one of the nurses encouraged, but her words barely registered.
My vision blurred as another contraction ripped through me, and all I could do was push.
Minutes felt like hours. The pain, the exhaustion, the unbearable pressure—it all built into something almost unbearable. But then, a sharp cry pierced the air. Then another.
My heart clenched as I heard them for the first time.
My babies.
Tears blurred my vision as I turned my head, desperate to see them. A nurse handed me the first baby, and as soon as I held them against my chest, an overwhelming sense of love washed over me. They were so small, so perfect.
I barely had a second to take it all in before another set of arms reached forward.
Noah.
I froze as he took one of the babies from my grasp, holding them with an expression I couldn't read. For a second, just a second, I saw something flicker in his eyes. Something almost familiar.
But then it was gone.
"This changes nothing," he said coldly. "They're mine. The heirs of the Sinclair pack."
My blood ran cold. It was happening.
The deal. The moment I had feared since the beginning.
Noah looked at me as if I were nothing, as if the life we once had together had never existed. He held his child in his arms, but his gaze carried no warmth for me.
I reached out, desperation clawing at my chest. "Please, Noah. Let me stay. Let me be with them."
"You knew the terms," he said. "You give birth, and then you're gone."
Tears burned in my eyes. "They're my children too. You can’t just take them from me."
He barely flinched. "I can. And I will."
A choked sob slipped past my lips. My body was weak, my heart shattered. I had thought that maybe, just maybe, seeing the twins would make him remember. That something inside him would wake up and see me.
But I was wrong. Noah turned away, cradling the child in his arms. And then Caroline stepped in. Her smirk was cruel, victorious.
"Don’t worry," she said sweetly. "I'll take good care of them."
Something inside me snapped.
"You can't even have children of your own," I shot back, my voice trembling with rage. "You think that makes you a mother?"
Her face twisted in fury. Noah didn’t react. He didn't even look at me.
Instead, he nodded toward the sentinels. "Take her away."
I barely had a second to react before strong hands grabbed me, dragging me from the hospital bed. My body was still weak, but I struggled, screaming, pleading.
"Don't do this," I begged. "Please, Noah. Have mercy on me!"
But he didn't stop them.
I thought this was the worst of it.
But then Noah's voice rang through the air.
"Kill her."
My entire body went numb.
Kill me?
My breathing turned shallow as I turned my head, my heart pounding.
I swallowed, my throat dry. "Hendery—"
"I suggest you keep quiet," he muttered.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. Noah had ordered my death.
Tears blurred my vision.
"Please, Noah. Don’t take my baby from me!"
But he didn’t stop them.
As I was hauled from the hospital bed, Caroline stepped forward, her smirk cruel. She tilted her head, feigning sympathy. "Oh, Audrey. You should have known better. You were never meant to stay."
Something inside me snapped.
Before I could think, my hand lashed out, striking Caroline across the face. The sharp sound echoed in the room.
Caroline gasped, staggering back as if I had shattered her entire world. She clutched her cheek like I had inflicted a mortal wound. "Noah!" she whimpered, her voice trembling. "She—she hit me!"
I barely had time to react before Noah moved.
Fury blazed in his eyes. Before I could step away, pain exploded through my stomach. A cold, sharp agony.
I gasped, my breath hitching as I looked down.
Noah stabbed me.
The room swayed. My knees buckled, but I couldn’t look away from him. His hand trembled around the hilt of the blade, his chest rising and falling in ragged breaths.
His expression shifted—anger fading, replaced by something else. Horror. Regret.
And then, in a voice so low I almost didn’t hear it, he murmured, "Pumpkin?"
