The sun beat down with an unforgiving, dry heat against the hard-packed dirt of the village path, but to Aria, the world felt entirely frozen. She walked with her head bowed, her vision blurred by the lingering fog of the pack doctor’s words. Pregnant.
The word echoed in her mind like a death stance, a beautiful, terrifying tragedy as her hand hovered just an inch above her lower abdomen, wanting so desperately to press down, to feel the tiny life hidden beneath her fabric, but she forced her arms to hang lifelessly at her sides.
The fear was a physical weight, a suffocating presence that made every single breath feel like a struggle.
Suddenly, a heavy thud against her back shattered the fragile silence of her thoughts as Aria let out a sharp, strangled gasp, her heart violently leap
