Chapter 2

I had heard those words too many times before.

Every time, Rowan came back bruised and bloodied.

Not once had he ever managed to bring me home.

I quietly eased my hand out of his and stepped away.

“It’s all right. I know you did your best.

“Once I give them the heirs they want, they’ll let me go.”

I had repeated that comfort countless times.

But this time, Rowan stared into my eyes for a long moment.

Something in me had changed. He could sense it.

He just did not know what it was.

Carefully, almost nervously, he tried to soothe me.

“The strawberries in the back garden are ripe. I’ll pick some for you tomorrow, all right?”

I blinked in surprise.

Hadn’t he planted those strawberries especially for our rabbit babies?

Before I could answer, Fenrir stormed over.

“Rowan, what are you doing here? Ayla is with me now.”

Kael followed behind him, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. His usual carefree smirk was already back in place.

“With you?” he drawled. “She’s carrying a child of the fox clan too.”

Rowan went still.

“What does that mean?”

Kael seemed to think Rowan was upset because the fox clan had not yet delivered the resources promised in exchange for me.

“Relax,” he said. “Once the child is born, the fox clan will give you everything we owe.”

“No.”

Rowan’s expression tightened.

“Ayla, don’t listen to him. I don’t know what he means.”

I held his gaze.

Fox shifters were clever by nature.

Kael saw Rowan’s guilt at once, but he did not expose him.

Rowan tried to say more, but I cut him off.

“I’m tired. I want to rest.”

After that, I stopped showing my hatred toward the shifters.

They thought I had finally accepted my fate.

They thought I was willing to cooperate and become the bloodline breeding tool for their clans.

So they stopped watching me so closely.

They let me move freely between their territories.

They even began discussing, openly and without shame, which clan would claim me next.

Rowan finally panicked.

He said he would take me away.

I gave a quiet, bitter laugh.

“Where would we go? Every time we run, they find us.”

“There has to be a way,” Rowan said. “This time, I swear I’ll protect you.”

I did not believe him.

But I agreed to leave with him anyway.

I wanted to know how he would betray me this time.

That night, Rowan took me and our three rabbit babies deep into an empty forest.

For a while, the five of us lived as though we had returned to the life we once had.

But the peace lasted only a month.

Our three little ones fell ill, one after another.

Rowan left to search for healing herbs.

He never came back.

In the end, Fenrir and Kael came for me.

I did not say a word on the journey back.

Kael’s ears twitched uneasily.

After a long silence, he finally told me the truth.

“Ayla, Rowan traded you to us for medicine to save the rabbit children.

“Wake up. To shifters, bloodlines come first. Love…”

He could not bring himself to finish.

Later, Kael told me the medicine had not saved them.

All three rabbit babies died.

When I saw Rowan again, he was kneeling before three small graves, burying them with his own hands.

Grief had hollowed him out.

His head remained lowered as he spoke.

“I’m too weak.

“I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t protect our children.

“Ayla… what am I supposed to do?”

I placed flowers before the graves and spoke softly.

“Rowan, then become stronger.”

“Only the strong can protect the people they claim to love.”

For a while, he said nothing.

Then he slowly raised his head.

A strange smile appeared on his face.

“I’m the only one without a child now.

“I can’t fall behind them.

“Ayla, you’ll help me, won’t you?”

Before I could move, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside.

I stared straight into his eyes.

“Rowan, I’m already carrying two children.”

For one brief second, hesitation crossed his face.

Then it disappeared.

“It’ll be fine,” he said hoarsely. “I need this child.”

The system’s voice erupted in my mind.

[Host, I cannot sustain three bloodlines at once. Reject him immediately.]

I did not fight.

I only closed my eyes.

One tear slipped down my cheek.

It was disappointment.

And relief.

I had believed Rowan had betrayed me only because he had been forced into it.

I had believed that beneath his weakness, he still cared for me.

But I had only been deceiving myself.

One more month.

In one more month, I would finally leave this world.