Chapter 2

"Daphne!"

A familiar voice cut through the darkness.

"Daphne, open your eyes. Come on, please!"

Someone was shaking her gently.

Daphne forced her eyelids apart just as Gina's face hovered above her, pale with panic. Her dark curls had escaped their usual bun, and her work jacket was streaked with grease.

"What happened?" Gina demanded.

Daphne tried to answer, but a fresh wave of pain stole her breath.

Gina looked down at her stomach.

"Oh, hell."

She slipped one arm behind Daphne's shoulders and the other beneath her knees.

"Don't move. I've got you."

"The clinic..." Daphne whispered. "I can't pay."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not asking you to."

Gina lifted her with a grunt.

Daphne cried out when her abdomen tightened, instinctively curling around her unborn child.

"Easy. Easy, girl. Just hold on."

Gina carried her out of the apartment, shouting at a passing delivery drone to clear the building entrance before calling an autonomous medical transport.

By the time they reached the clinic, Gina had already authorized payment through her own credit account.

The receptionist barely looked up.

"F-Class?"

"She's in labor!" Gina snapped.

"Please keep your voice down."

"Then move your fingers and get a doctor!"

Something in Gina's expression must have convinced the receptionist that arguing wasn't worth the trouble. Within minutes, Daphne was on a medical bed, connected to a scanner that projected her vital signs above her chest.

A doctor arrived and examined the readings.

"Her core stability is dangerously low. The abdominal trauma may have accelerated the onset of labor, but the fetus's heartbeat is currently detectable."

Daphne clutched the edge of the bed.

"My baby is okay?"

"For now. You'll likely deliver within the next few days. We need to monitor you closely."

"Then I'll stay here," she said quickly. "Please. I'll pay when my mate comes back."

The doctor's expression changed.

"Your account has insufficient credits for extended inpatient care."

Gina stepped forward. "I paid the admission f*e."

"For the initial examination and stabilization. Continued care requires a credit upgrade within twenty-four hours."

Daphne stared at him.

"Twenty-four hours?"

"After that, the clinic cannot guarantee you a bed."

"But I can't go home!"

"Then you need to arrange payment."

The doctor moved toward the door.

"Try to rest. Stress isn't helping your condition."

When he left, Daphne slowly turned her head toward Gina.

"I can't ask you to do this."

"Good thing I didn't ask for permission."

"Gina, you barely have enough for yourself."

"Then I'll work."

"Where?"

"Anywhere that'll pay."

"Gina—"

"Don't start." Gina pulled her jacket straight and checked the balance displayed on her wrist device. "I've got a shift at the recycling plant tonight. They'll pay an advance if I take the overnight slot. I'll see what I can get."

Daphne tried to sit up.

"You can't work all night and come back here. You haven't slept properly in days."

"And you shouldn't be worrying about me while you're trying to keep a baby alive."

Gina leaned over and squeezed her hand.

"Listen to me. You helped me when nobody else would. I'm not going to stand by and watch you suffer because some useless man disappeared."

Daphne's lips parted.

"He's not useless."

Gina gave her a long, disbelieving look.

"Of course. He's just mysteriously unavailable while his pregnant mate gets kicked in the stomach over his debts."

Daphne looked away.

"He'll come back."

"It's been three weeks." Gina protested.

"Give him time."

Gina's expression softened, but only slightly.

"Maybe he will. But until he does, I'm here."

She tucked the thin clinic blanket around Daphne's legs.

"Don't try to be brave for me. Just stay alive, okay?"

Before Daphne could answer, Gina was already heading toward the door.

"Gina!"

Her friend turned.

"Don't do anything stupid," Daphne pleaded.

Gina managed a tired smile.

"That's my line."

Then she left.

Daphne lay still, listening to the clinic's ventilation system hum above her.

Somewhere beyond the walls, an automated announcement reminded patients that medical services were subject to rank eligibility and available credit.

She closed her eyes.

A strange warmth stirred beneath her breastbone.

It was faint, like a spark buried beneath layers of ash. Daphne pressed her palm against the spot.

For a moment, she thought she felt something answer.

Then it vanished.

She was too exhausted to question it.

Instead, her thoughts drifted backward, to a time when she had still possessed enough strength to believe she could change their lives.

Four weeks earlier, Trent Cooper had sat on the floor of their apartment with his back against the wall, staring at the results of his latest core assessment.

F-CLASS. GENETIC DEFECT DETECTED. ASCENSION PROBABILITY: NEGLIGIBLE.

He had laughed when he first read it. Then he had thrown the device against the wall.

Daphne had found him there an hour later, his hands clenched so tightly that his nails had broken the skin.

"Trent."

He had looked up at her, his eyes red.

"Everyone else gets stronger. Everyone else moves forward. What did I do wrong?"

She had knelt beside him.

"Nothing."

He had shaken his head.

"I'll be stuck here forever, Daph. Omega City. F-Class jobs. F-Class housing. A lifetime of being told I'm not good enough."

Daphne had taken his hand.

"Then we'll find another way."

He'd stared at her as though she had offered him something impossible.

"You can't fix a defective core."

"Maybe I can."

She remembered the silence that followed.

Then she had told him the truth about the energy she had been accumulating in secret.

About the strange core that responded to her training in ways the medical scanners couldn't explain. About the ability to transfer that energy to another Werewolf.

Trent had refused at first. He had begged her not to risk it.

But the night before the Trials, Daphne had made her decision.

She remembered the pain of the transfusion, the sensation of something precious being torn from the center of her body, and Trent's voice breaking as he held her.

"Daphne, stop! Please!"

She had been too weak to answer.

When the procedure ended, her once-stable D-Class core had collapsed to F-Class. Trent's defective core, however, had begun to evolve.

He had held her against his chest, trembling as the first wave of unfamiliar power moved through him.

"I'll come back," he had promised. "In Three days. I'll win the Trials, get us into Twilight City, and give you everything I should have given you already."

Daphne had touched his face.

"I don't need everything." She whispere, "I just need you to come back."

He had kissed her forehead.

"I will."

And she had believed him.

The clinic lights dimmed as evening approached.

Daphne opened her eyes and looked toward the empty chair beside her bed.

Three weeks ago, Trent had won the Ascension Trials. His rank had risen from F-Class to A-Class, and his new citizenship entitled him to a residence in Twilight City, where established Betas and Gammas lived beyond the crowded streets of Omega City.

He had everything they had dreamed of.

Daphne reached for her communication device one more time. Her message history was full of unanswered calls and texts.

"Trent, the baby is coming soon.", "Please call me.", "I don't know what to do."

Her last message had been sent two days earlier. She opened a new one.

"I'm at the Omega clinic. I need you."

Then she sent it. The device chimed.

For one hopeful second, she thought he had answered.

Instead, a system notification appeared.

DELIVERY FAILED. RECIPIENT HAS RESTRICTED INCOMING COMMUNICATIONS FROM OMEGA CITY.

Daphne stared at the message. Her hand slowly lowered to her stomach.

Outside the clinic window, Twilight City's distant towers shone beneath the evening sky, their upper levels bright with the promise of a life she had sacrificed everything to give him.

She had saved Trent Cooper from a lifetime of powerlessness. Now, three weeks after his victory, she couldn't even reach him.