Chapter 7
1021 Words
Chapter 7:
XENOIS
The accusation was hurtful but true. I'd turned my phone off during the party, not wanting interruptions from the pack and Lumina. I knew deep down she would call and I turned off the phone because I felt Riley was more important at the moment.
I'd ignored Beta's attempt to speak with me, assuming it was pack business that could wait until the next day.
"This is your fault," I whispered looking at her, desperate to push away the crushing guilt that I felt in my bones.
"You were supposed to take care of him. Why didn't you notice he was so sick?"
Lumina moves faster than I've ever seen her, her hand cracking across my face with supernatural strength. "I BEGGED YOU!" she screams, her composure finally breaking as she launched herself at me hitting me, crying as she kept speaking.
"For months, I told you something was wrong! I asked you to help me find better doctors, to use your connections! But you were too busy with Riley and Sophia to care that your own son was dying!"
She's right. God help me, she's right.
The fever. The weight loss. The fatigue Lumina kept mentioning. I'd dismissed it all, told her she was overreacting, that it was just a sickness. A mere ailment that would soon go. But it didn't and the pain of seeing me with another kid must have caused a heart attack he didn't survive.
"Where is he?" I ask, my voice breaking, as I ran a hand over my face.
"I need to see him."
"You're too late," Lumina says, clutching her chest suddenly. "You're always too late."
She staggered a bit, her face frowning in pain as she gasped. I reached for her instinctively, catching her as she collapsed against me.
"Lumina? What's wrong?" I started panicking once more as I realize something is terribly wrong.
Her heartbeat is erratic, her breathing labored.
"Heart attack," she gasps, her fingers digging into my shirt. "Mate bond...breaking."
"No, no, no," I pleaded gathering her into my arms.
"Stay with me, Lumina. Please. I can't lose you both."
Her eyes were on mine and I could see the resolution and gratefulness in her eyes despite the pain.
She was happy she was dying, leaving me for good. Happy that I lost both my mate and son.
"You never deserved us. We were too good for you. If I had another chance," she whispered slowly pausing to breathe,
"I would never stay with you. I would save my son from your indifference. I would spare us both the pain of loving someone who never loved us back."
"I did love you," I insisted, tears rolling down my face. "I do love Ollie. Please, Lumina."
But she's slipping away, her body growing heavier in my arms. With her final breath, she looked behind me, perhaps to where Ollie is waiting for her.
"Next time," she promised, a smile on her lips and tears running down freely her side of her eyes, "we'll be free."
And then she's gone, my mate's body turning cold in my arms as the bond between us breaks completely, leaving a gaping void in my soul.
I howl my grief into the empty house, but there is no one left to hear.
"Please don't do this to me. Lumina please. You can't leave me." I begged her as I rocked her from side to side, pressing kisses down her face as she doesn't respond.
I took a deep breath and gathered my wits.
No, she was still sleeping. This was all a prank. Ollie would come out of hiding and she would wake up.
Or.....this was a doppelganger. My mate was out there hiding from me and I would find her.
I just needed my phone.
The object rings as if listening to me and I picked it up. It's my Beta Thorne.
"Alpha." His voice is low, sounding grieved.
"I don't have time for pack business. I need you to find my son. Lumina is here...or maybe a doppelganger and is playing dead in my arms and I know it's not true. Gather all the men, lock down the city." I said as there was a sob from the other end of the call.
"Lumina went back home to wait for you.... she's....dead?" His voice broke on this.
"Stop playing these tricks with me, Thorne..she is not dead. Find my son. She will wake up once she sees him.
Maybe Alpha Zade or Alpha Elijah kidn*pped him. Yes they did. I just need to start a war. They will bring him out. Gather my men."
"Alpha Xenois, your son is in the morgue. There was a video that went viral, a child dead in the square and we found it. We searched the CCTV camera and found the footage. I went to the morgue and confirmed his body. Lumina was too shook up to say anything. She said she wanted to go home and wait for you. I tried calling but it was picked up by Sophia who told me not to disturb you that you were putting Riley to sleep. She left and went home." He said as each word is breaking me even further.
"No, you are lying. Is this all a game?! You f*****g a*****e. Are you sleeping with my mate? Is that why you are saying all this?" I yelled.
"I'm so sorry Alpha" He said as the call ended as I smashed it on the ground yelling as I held on tight to Lumina.
"Okay, you win. You win. Just come back please. Come back to me. We will go to Disneyland with Ollie tomorrow.....no tonight. They will open it for me. And....and ... We will taste all the different kinds of cotton candy. All those things, remember. We did them. We always did them..why did it stop? Why can't I remember? God what did I just do?"
I yelled as I held on tight to her, her body cold to touch as I break down completely, realization dawning on me.
I had lost them both.
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