chapter 4
1017 Words
I pushed open the mahogany doors and stepped into the Luna's chambers.
The room was heavy with the stench of decay and twisted energy. Cassandra lay in the center of the massive bed, skin pale and translucent, dark veins spidering up her neck. She looked nothing like the radiant woman who had taken my place three years ago.
I approached slowly, pulling a small silver phial and diagnostic needles from my belt. Renner stood near the foot of the bed, his presence heavy and suffocating, but I ignored him entirely, focusing my attention on the patient.
I pressed two fingers against Cassandra's wrist, channeling my senses into her pulse. The moment my blood instincts touched her internal energy, a sharp shock ran up my arm.
This wasn't an ordinary toxin. It was a severe magical rejection.
Her body was tearing itself apart because her wolf was unnaturally forced into a bond with a mate who wasn't truly hers. Renner and I had already acknowledged our fated bond before everything shattered three years ago. Because that true bond was ripped away without being naturally resolved, Cassandra’s body was rejecting Renner's mark—and the strain was rapidly crushing the life out of the unborn child.
Cassandra’s eyes fluttered open, glassy and unfocused, until they landed on me. Tears pooled in her sunken eyes.
"Romona..." her voice was barely a raspy whisper.
Renner took a step forward, but Cassandra feebly waved her hand, her eyes locked onto mine. "Leave us. Please... Renner, leave us."
Renner hesitated, looking between us with clenched jaws, before stepping back and reluctantly slipping out of the room, closing the heavy doors behind him.
The moment the door clicked shut, Cassandra broke into ragged, desperate sobs.
"It's the bond... isn't it?" she wept, grabbing the edge of my sleeve with trembling fingers. "My body is fighting it... because he was never meant to be mine."
I pulled my sleeve out of her weak grip, keeping my posture straight. I didn't hate her anymore, but I wasn't going to pretend we were friends. "Your body can't handle an unnatural mark, especially while supporting a pregnancy. The strain is killing the baby."
"I know... I know!" she choked out, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "I don't care about myself anymore, Romona. But please... the baby. The baby is innocent. If Renner finds out my body is rejecting him, he’ll think the child isn't his... he'll tear everything apart. Please... don't tell him. Save my child... please."
I looked down at her frail, trembling frame, the silence stretching between us.
I knew the pain of carrying a child in secret, of fighting tooth and nail to protect an innocent life from the chaos of pack politics. The unborn baby hadn't chosen this mess. It was entirely unfair for a child to suffer just because the adults made terrible decisions.
"I will save the child," I said quietly, my voice steady. "Not for you, and not for Renner. But the baby lives. And your secrets stay quiet... for now."
Cassandra sobbed in sheer relief, closing her eyes as I prepared the transfusion kit.
The heavy doors suddenly burst open.
"I thought I told your guards to keep out!" Renner's loud, authoritative voice boomed from the hallway, followed by the heavy thud of someone being shoved back.
"And I thought I told you three years ago to go jump off a cliff, brother," a deep, familiar voice drawled back.
My breath caught in my throat.
Gideon pushed his way past the threshold, casually rolling up the sleeves of his dark leather jacket. Renner’s exiled younger brother looked as recklessly handsome as ever, his sharp jawline set in a lethal grin as he blocked Renner from stepping further into the room.
Gideon’s eyes swept past his brother and locked directly onto me. Instantly, the hard, dangerous look on his face melted into pure, warm mischief.
"Well, look at you, Mona," Gideon smirked, leaning against the doorframe as if he hadn't just barged into an Alpha's private quarters. "Still letting my bro play doormat to your dramatic entrances?"
A genuine, irrepressible laugh bubbled up from my chest before I could stop it—a sound I hadn't let anyone in Ash River hear in three years. My cold warrior mask completely crumbled.
"Gideon, you absolute i***t," I snorted, shaking my head as a wide smile broke across my face.
He grinned back, his eyes dancing with affection. Gideon had always been the one. When the whole pack turned their backs on me during the public rejection, Gideon was the only one who stood up, drew his sword against his own Alpha brother, and got himself exiled for defending me.
And he hadn't just disappeared after that. Over the last three years, while I was building my life as a royal elite, Gideon had snuck past King Alistair's intense border guards four separate times just to check on me. He’d bring terrible jokes, stolen sweet pastries, and sit on my cottage porch for hours just to make sure I was still smiling. He was my absolute best friend, my safe space, and the only person who could effortlessly pull out the relaxed, funny side of me I thought had died three years ago.
"Step away from her, Gideon," Renner growled, his voice laced with Alpha authority as he stepped up behind his brother, his green eyes flashing with intense jealousy at the sight of my laugh.
Gideon didn't even flinch. He didn't turn around, simply dropping his arm to casually shield me from Renner's line of sight.
"Make me, Alpha," Gideon said smoothly, his tone laced with a razor-sharp threat as he threw a wink over his shoulder at me. "Because the last time you made a choice regarding Romona, you threw away the best thing that ever happened to this pack. I won't let you push her around ever again
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