Rise of the Forbidden Luna

Chapter 28: A Dead Woman Walking

The terrifying whisper echoed inside my soul like a deafening, inescapable death sentence.

I am already pregnant. I am carrying his firstborn heir. If this curse is real... I am already a dead woman walking.

I sat completely frozen on my knees beside the medical cot, the sterile white walls of the infirmary blurring before my eyes. My hand remained flat over my stomach beneath the heavy linen sheets, my fingers trembling violently as a suffocating, icy dread paralyzed my lungs. My entire universe was tilting dangerously on its axis. My mind desperately clawed for an escape, but the hard, physiological reality was absolute– Ethan’s child was already thriving deep within my womb.

"Aria? Look at me," my father’s rough, strained voice suddenly sliced through my thoughts.

Marcus gently jerked his fingers against my wrist, pulling me back from the edge of the abyss. As a former pack leader, his battered features no longer held the weakness of a helpless prisoner; instead, they were hardened with the stern, calculated authority of a seasoned Alpha who recognized a lethal threat. He stared into my wide, shell-shocked blue eyes, entirely unaware that his desperate warning had arrived two months too late.

"You understand what I am telling you, don't you?" Marcus croaked softly, his gaze darting toward the closed partition door before locking back onto my pale face. "I am not telling you that Ethan is an evil man, or that he means us harm. He saved my life, and he gave us asylum. But this generational bloodline curse does not care about love or mercy. It demands a fatal price from the mother." I just got you back, Aria. You are the only family I have left in this world, and I cannot lose you again."

I swallowed hard, forcing my defensive walls to snap back into place through sheer, agonizing willpower. "I understand, Dad."

"Good," Marcus murmured, his breathing stabilizing as his monitors leveled out. "Because as soon as I am back on my feet and my strength is fully recovered, we are leaving this territory. We will thank the Lycan King for his hospitality, pack our things, and migrate far beyond his borders permanently. I will not sit idly by and watch my daughter walk into a death trap just because of love."

"We will leave," I lied deathly softly, my heart shattering into jagged pieces.

I carefully slid my hand beneath the heavy linen sheets, my fingers trembling violently as I flattened my palm over my stomach. Two months. The baby was already two months along.

The clock was ticking, and my ultimate quest to execute my revenge on Alpha Richard and reclaim my father's stolen legacy had just become a desperate race against death itself.

Suddenly, the heavy glass partition doors slid open with a smooth, mechanized hiss.

I pulled my hand out from beneath the blankets as Alpha King Ethan strode back into the room. He had shed his heavy tactical gear, wearing only a tailored black shirt that highlighted the massive, dangerous perfection of his broad chest. His gold-flecked amber eyes locked onto me instantly, his dominant Alpha aura flooding the room and turning the air thick with his scent of cedar and dark ash.

"The head physician assures me that your father's internal vitals are stabilizing rapidly," Ethan murmured, his deep baritone dropping into a rough, gravelly rumble that sent an unwanted shiver down my spine.

He closed the distance between us in three slow, predatory strides, looming directly over my space. He reached down, his large, calloused hand firmly anchoring around my waist to lift me effortlessly to my feet. He pulled my frame flush against the radiating heat of his solid chest, his touch triggering a violent, blinding shockwave of white-hot electricity that surged through my veins, making my stomach flip with a fresh wave of pregnancy nausea.

"Thank you, Alpha Ethan," Marcus muttered, his voice tightening with a hard, defensive edge as he watched the King possessively hold me against his side.

Ethan didn't look at my father. His intense, burning gaze was locked entirely on my pale face, his nostrils flaring slightly as he openly scented the air around us, trying to read the sharp panic lingering in my scent. "You look faint, little bird. The infirmary air does not suit you. I am escorting you back to the suite to rest."

"I am fine," I shot back defiantly, my hands instinctively pressing against his hard chest to create a fraction of distance between us, even as my inner wolf whimpered restlessly at his proximity. "I want to stay with my father."

"It was a command, Aria, not a request," Ethan whispered deathly softly against my lips, his jaw setting into an iron mask of stone as his grip on my waist tightened in a fierce, absolute claim. "You have pushed your body to its absolute limits since the extraction. You will rest today, or I will have the guards lock the suite doors from the outside."

I turned away from the bed, casting one final, lingering look over my shoulder as Ethan began to guide me toward the exit. Meeting my father's anxious eyes, I forced a small, reassuring nod to lock onto my features–a silent, calculated promise that I would do exactly as he asked and flee when the time was right.

But as the double doors clicked shut behind us and Ethan led me out of the medical wing under the watchful eyes of his elite enforcers, a suffocating, chaotic vortex of conflicting thoughts violently tore through my soul.

My mind spiraled out of control in the heavy silence of the corridor. I thought of the unborn child thriving secretly in my womb, a precious miracle I might never live to hold or meet if this ancient birth curse claimed my breath. I thought of my father, a proud former Alpha whom years of brutal bondage and merciless torture had slowly worn down into a protective, cautious man. I thought of the beautiful, gilded life I could have easily lived wrapped inside Ethan’s dominant shadow if I simply surrendered to our fated connection and became his true mate. And finally, a cold, lethal spark of venom ignited in my veins as I thought of Alpha Richard–the monster who had stolen my first life from me and destroyed my family.

Ethan's large hand remained firmly anchored on my waist, his heavy warmth anchoring me to his side as we walked back to his suite. Beneath my quiet mask of compliance, was a woman drowning in a sea of secrets, desperately calculating how to claim my ultimate revenge before the clock ran out on my own life.