MasukXXX: What About The Past?
~XENOS~“You should walk into that hall with a smile, Xenos." Lowell patted my shoulder.I stared at his reflection in the mirror. He looked happy— everyone was. King Xenos Nikolai was finally announcing his mate after many years.I was… maybe, though."Xenos.” He held my shoulder, looking at me through the mirror. I kept my face straight and tight, not even the smallest smile evident on it."You're not goingL: Think!~XENOS~Lowell had been staring at me for the better part of a minute.I knew that look. It was the look he usually wore when he had something unpleasant to say and was deciding whether I was in the right mood to hear it. Apparently, he had finally decided that my mood was irrelevant.“What?” I asked.He folded his arms across his chest. “I might not have enough evidence. I might not have any evidence at all, Xen. But what has happened in the last five years? Or have you suddenly forgotten?”“What's that supposed to mean?” My eyes narrowed slightly.“You know exactly what I mean.”I looked away from him, my attention drifting toward the closed door behind which Roenna was being attended to. I could still hear the faint movements inside the room, the occasional murmur of Franca's voice, but I couldn't make out their words.My mate was in there, recovering from an episode that had nearly driven me out of my mind.Our child was in there, too and somewhere in the middle of all
XLIX: Is It Random?~ROENNA~"She told me my baby would die." My voice trembled as I repeated the words, my hands tightening around Xenos's."Who told you that, Roenna?" His eyes searched mine, desperation evident in every line of his face. "Tell me what you remember."“I…” I swallowed, struggling to steady my breathing. "I don't know who she was. I couldn't see her face.""Then tell me what you saw.""She was tall, fair, and beautiful. At least, I think she was. She had something covering her face, an ancient cloak that made it impossible for me to see her properly."Xenos's jaw tightened as his palm grazed my skin. "Did she touch you? Did she mention her name?"I shook my head."No. But there was something about her voice..." I paused, trying to find the right words. "She sounded so certain, Xenos. She didn't say my baby would die like someone predicting the future. She said it as if she had already decided it. Like she was demanding something.""Demanding something?” His expressio
XLVIII: Who Told You?~XENOS~I hadn't moved from Roenna's bedside since morning. Not when Lowell came in twice to ask about the council or when the palace guards came to inform me that several matters required my attention.Nothing mattered. Not while she was lying there unconscious.The first time this happened, I had been there when Roenna lost consciousness, but I hadn't stayed until she woke. I had convinced myself that there were things I needed to handle, that the kingdom couldn't stop because my mate was sick, and that Landrace and the rest of the medical team could take care of her.I had been wrong. By the time she opened her eyes that day, I wasn there, but after she woke up was the exact moment she needed me the most… and I was gone. I wasn't making that mistake again.I sat beside her bed, my eyes fixed on her face as I watched every movement of her chest.She had barely moved for hours.
XLVII: Surviving Everything, But This~XENOS~I stared at Landrace. For a moment, I couldn't understand the words he had just spoken.The curse. Again.It was the only thing I could hear loudly in my ears, despite the chaos around me.Lowell had just walked into the room, and his eyes immediately went to Roenna lying unconscious on the bed. His expression changed when he noticed the state she was in, but he didn't ask me anything.He looked at me instead. I must have looked worse than I felt because Lowell walked straight toward me and pulled me into his arms.I didn't move. I simply stood there, allowing him to hold me for a few seconds while I stared over his shoulder at Roenna.He didn't ask what happened. Perhaps he already knew that whatever had brought me to this point wasn't something I could explain without breaking apart.He eventually released me and turned toward Landrace. "What happened?"Landrace explained everything.He told Lowell about Roenna's sudden pain, how none o
XLVI: What I Fear~XENOS~The moment Roenna groaned, I knew something was wrong.It wasn't the kind of sound someone made because they were uncomfortable. There was pain in it, deep enough to make my entire body tense."Roenna?" She didn't answer me. Her hands immediately went to her stomach, and she bent forward, squeezing her eyes shut as another wave of pain passed through her."Roenna." I caught her before she could lose her balance. "What's wrong?"“I…” She shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered, but even those words sounded strained.Then another cry escaped her. I didn't think."Get the royal doctor!" I barked immediately. My voice cut through the corridor, and the guards moved immediately. "Get Landrace. Get the entire medical team. Now."I turned back to Roenna. She was crying.I had seen her cry before. I had held her while she cried only moments ago, but this was different. There was no sadness in her tears now. She looked terrified, and every time the pain tighten
XLV: What Is Wrong?~ROENNA~"What condition?" Xenos was still holding me when he asked, his eyes searching mine as though he feared the answer might take something away from him.I blinked back my tears. For a brief moment, I considered keeping the words to myself. I could have told him I wanted time, that I needed space to think, or that I wanted him to make me feel like the only woman in his world again, but those were not the things frightening me most.I could survive being angry with him and the awkwardness of having Odessa and Xenon in the palace. I could even learn to live with the fact that the man I loved had a child whose existence I had never known about.What I didn't know how to survive was loving someone who had stopped loving me without telling me."I might sound a little insecure," I began, my voice unsteady, "and perhaps as though I'm giving up on us before anything has even happened."He didn't interrupt me, but I noticed the way his arms tightened around me. I sa







