NO BABY FOR YOU

MAYA

The palace had finally fallen into a quiet rhythm, but the calm was nothing more than the silence before a storm.

I sat near the tall stained-glass window in the drawing room, sipping warm chamomile tea, watching the afternoon sun cast long shadows across the courtyard. Edward was always away handling pack business, and for a few days, I thought I could breathe.

Then Maria walked into the room.

She looked battered, her palms still calloused from sweeping the stone streets, but her face held that same insufferable, arrogant sneer. She held a thick leather binder under her arm and threw it onto the table in front of me with a heavy thud.

"What is this?" I asked, setting my cup down with a cold stare.

"Options," Maria said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The Alpha is not getting any younger. A pack cannot survive without a strong, blood-line heir, and since you seem to spend your nights casting dark spells instead of producing a child, I have taken matters into my own hands. I have selected a new surrogate for Edward."

My blood boiled in an instant. I stood up so fast my chair scraped loudly against the floor.

"This is the third surrogate, Maria!" I snapped, my voice ringing off the stone walls. "I will not tolerate you bringing another woman into my husband's bed!"

Maria let out a sharp, mocking laugh that made my skin crawl. "This is the third surrogate? Oh, you naive little girl." She leaned across the table, her dark eyes gleaming with pure malice. "No. This is the twentieth."

"Twenty?" I stood stunned, the air completely leaving my lungs. My knees felt weak as I stared at her. "Twenty women?"

"You may be the only surrogate the Alpha agreed to sleep with," Maria corrected with a sickening smirk, "and yes, he married you out of some foolish, blinded passion. But before you, and alongside you, we kept trying. We brought in girls from neighboring packs, noble daughters, healers... twenty women in total over the years. All  he refused to touch and thus failed to conceive, and some simply vanished. But the pack needs an heir, Maya. And if you cannot give him one, someone else will."

"No more surrogates in this house!" I insisted, stepping right into her space, my hands balled into tight fists at my sides. "I am his wife! I am the Luna of this pack! You will not bring another woman near Edward!"

"You think you can stop me?" Maria yelled back, her composure shattering into raw rage. "You are a barren curse! Look at you! Months of being with him, and after the death of the unborn one and your womb is as cold and empty as a tomb! The elders are demanding a child! If you don't step aside, I will have the council force his hand!"

"I love Edward!" I screamed into her face, tears of pure fury burning in my eyes. "I love him, and I will tear this entire palace down before I let another woman touch him!"

"And I know you love him!" Maria hissed, her voice dropping into a cruel, venomous whisper. "That is why this gives me so much pleasure. I know it rips your heart out to imagine him with someone else. And I am going to break that precious love of yours piece by piece until there is nothing left."

She pulled a sealed document from the leather binder and slammed it onto the wood between us.

"You have three months," Maria declared, her voice cold as ice. "You have three months to get pregnant, or we get a surrogate. The Alpha is not getting any younger, Maya. Give him an heir, or watch another woman take your place."

She turned on her heel and glided out of the room, leaving her cruel threat hanging in the heavy air.

That night, I couldn't sleep.

I paced the floor of our bedroom, my mind spinning in absolute terror. The thought of Edward touching another woman, of him holding someone else in the dark while I sat alone in my room, felt like a physical blade twisting in my heart. I loved him too much. I had suffered through death, rebirth, abuse, and dark magic just to be in his arms—I could not lose him now.

I walked over to the open balcony, looking up at the full, silver moon hanging in the dark sky. The cold night wind whipped my dark hair around my face as I dropped to my knees on the cold stone floor.

I closed my eyes and folded my hands tightly against my chest.

"Goddess of the Moon..." I whispered into the night, my voice cracking with desperation. "And Philomena... the spirit that has been protecting me, guarding me, and fighting for me... hear my prayer. I need you now more than ever. You gave me my life back. You gave me my strength. Now make me whole. Make me pregnant. Give Edward the child he has bled for, so we can finally be free."

I stayed on my knees until my legs were numb, weeping and praying to the stars, begging the ancestral forces of my bloodline to bless my womb.

Eventually, exhausted beyond measure, I dragged myself back to the bed and fell into a deep, heavy sleep.

While sleeping, I saw her.

The dream was not like a normal dream. The room was bathed in a strange, golden mist, soft and warm, smelling of dried lavender and fresh rain. Standing at the foot of my bed was a woman bathed in gentle, ethereal light.

I saw Philomena.

She came in the form she was in her past life. She was breathtakingly beautiful, wearing a royal gown of deep crimson and gold, her dark hair crowned with silver leaves, her brown eyes filled with an ancient, unbearable sorrow. She looked exactly as she had before the betrayal, before the blood, before the grave.

She stepped closer to the bed, her bare feet making no sound against the floor. She reached out her pale, luminous hand, gently brushing her thumb across my cheek. Her touch felt icy cold, yet strangely comforting.

"Philomena..." I whispered in the dream, my voice sounding small and fragile. "Please... help me. Give me a child for Edward."

Philomena looked down at me, tears of silver light welling in her royal eyes. She shook her head slowly, her voice echoing in my head like soft chimes in the wind.

"My sweet soul," Philomena whispered, her tone filled with deep, heartbreaking pity. "You ask for a blessing that would become your execution."

I frowned, confusion tightening my chest. "What do you mean? The pack needs an heir... Edward needs a child—"

"Listen to me carefully, Maya," Philomena cut me off, her hand resting gently over my stomach. "You are never to conceive in this world."

A cold terror washed over my dreaming mind. "Why? Why can't I have his baby?"

Philomena leaned closer, her eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made the golden light around us flicker.

"Because your rebirth was incomplete," she revealed softly. "Your body was restored by the sacred tomb to seek vengeance, not to create new life. The magic keeping your heart beating in this world is tied to the debt of blood Maria owes our family. The birth of a baby will put an end to your life—and my revenge on Maria."

My breath hitched. "It... it will kill me?"

"The moment a new soul takes root inside your womb, the ancient magic sustaining your body will pour entirely into the child," Philomena explained, her tears falling onto my blanket like tiny drops of silver. "You will die bringing that child into the world. You will leave Edward alone once again, and Maria will win. She will raise our child, she will rule this pack, and our vengeance will be buried forever."

She leaned down and kissed my forehead, a wave of profound sorrow washing through my soul.

"Choose wisely, my sweet shell," Philomena murmured as her form began to fade into the golden mist. "Do not let her trick you into trading your life for a promise. Destroy her first. Only then will the bloodline be truly free."

I jolted upright in bed with a sharp, gasping scream, my heart hammering wildly against my ribs, cold sweat dripping down my back.

The bedroom was dark and silent. The full moon was still shining through the window, casting long, silvery beams across the empty sheets beside me.

I pressed my trembling hands against my flat stomach, tears spilling over my eyelashes in the quiet dark. Maria's three-month ultimatum echoed in my mind, fighting against the terrifying warning of my past self.

I was caught in a deadly trap. If I didn't get pregnant, Maria would force another woman into Edward's bed. But if I did get pregnant... I would die, leaving my husband and my unborn child at the mercy of the very monster who destroyed my life.