5

I heard Adrian before I could open my eyes.

"How long has it been in her blood?"

It was the voice from the council hall, the one that made glasses turn, but now it shook.

"Hours, I think." Dr. Hallam sounded old and tired. "She's an Omega, so it didn't kill her. An ordinary wolf would be dead. But I have to be honest with you, Alpha. Whatever she took, it reached the pup. If her fever doesn't break, we may lose it."

Something heavy hit the wall. A chair, maybe. Nobody said anything about it.

"Seal the estate," Adrian said. "Every gate. Nobody goes in or out, not a maid, not a cook, not the gardener. Not until I have a name."

I tried to lift my hand and my body didn't answer. I sank back down.

When I floated up again, there were heels in the corridor, running. A woman's voice broke on the first word. "Is the baby alive? Adrian, please. Tell me the baby is safe."

Celeste was crying hard.

"Dr. Hallam is doing everything possible."

"That's not an answer."

"It's all I have."

A wet breath. Then, much smaller: "Will she live?"

He didn't answer. I counted five slow beats of my own heart, lying there in the dark, and the silence went on and on. When Celeste spoke again, she sounded afraid, and I couldn't tell what of.

* * *

When I woke properly, the ceiling was white and my mouth felt full of dust. My hand went to my stomach before I knew I'd moved it.

"The baby." My voice cracked. "Is the baby?"

Dr. Hallam leaned into my sight. "The pup survived, Miss Vance. Your fever broke an hour ago." He didn't smile. "But I want you here for three days, under watch. No arguments."

I nodded. Then I realised my face was wet, and I was angry about it, and I couldn't stop. I thought of the heartbeat on the screen, the bird knocking on glass. For one night it had been the only thing in the world I was responsible for, and I hadn't even known.

Adrian sat in the chair beside the bed. He was still wearing the shirt from the hall, creased now, with a brown stain on one sleeve where I must have bled or been sick. His hands hung between his knees. He looked like he'd been sitting there a very long time.

He didn't touch me. At one point he reached out and pulled the blanket straight over my feet, then sat back fast, like he hadn't planned to.

"Whoever did this will pay," he said.

I wiped my cheeks with the heel of my hand. "Do you think someone did it on purpose? To kill your baby?"

"I don't think so." He met my eyes. "I know."

My wolf, who had been silent since the hall, pressed hard against my ribs. She was thinking what I was thinking. Somebody had wanted the baby dead, and they hadn't cared what happened to me.

He stood. At the door, he stopped with one hand on the frame. "Rest, Nora." Then he was gone, and I heard his voice go flat and quick in the corridor, giving orders to the guards.

The room was quiet for a while. Then the door opened again, softly.

Celeste had washed her face, but her eyes were still red. She sat in the chair Adrian had left. It was still warm. She didn't look at me right away. She straightened my pillow, then smoothed the blanket he had already straightened.

"Thank you for surviving," she said.

I had braced for something else. Not for this.

"Do you understand what would have happened if that baby had died?"

I looked at her.

"Adrian would never have recovered." She said it quietly. "I would have lost him."

My throat was dry. "I'm not trying to take your place, Celeste. I need you to know that."

She smiled.

"I know. That's what frightens me."

She left before I could ask what she meant.

I turned her words over for a long time. They didn't sound like a woman afraid for a baby. They sounded like a woman afraid of me.

* * *

I lay there with my hand on my stomach and listened to the corridor.

"The supplement, Alpha." One of the guards, young, nervous. "Dr. Hallam's prenatal blend, the capsules by her bed. The wolfsbane was in the powder."

"Who handled it?"

"Only three people have keys to the cabinet. Dr. Hallam. Lady Celeste. And your aunt."

The silence that followed was long.

"Investigate all three," Adrian said at last. "Quietly. Nobody tells them."

I stared at the ceiling. A little glass jar sat on my nightstand at the estate, and I had swallowed one capsule from it every night since the transfer. I had never once wondered where it came from. Odile had told me to eat nothing I hadn't watched being poured. I hadn't watched anything. I had just trusted them.

Footsteps came back toward my room. Then another voice stopped them.

"Alpha. A word, please. Privately." Dr. Hallam. "It can't wait."

"Not now."

"It has to be now. It concerns the child."

Doors opened and shut. They had gone into the room next to mine, the supply room, with one shared wall and no glass. I held my breath and pressed my ear toward it, not caring how that looked.

"The scan," Dr. Hallam said. "When the pup's heartbeat changed around Miss Vance's wolf. I went through the old records last night, the Blackthorne archives, the founding scrolls. I wasn't sure. I am now."

"Get to the point."

"It isn't a coincidence, Alpha. Your son or daughter's wolf has formed a bond with her. A protective bond. Very rare. I have only seen it written down once, in the early records of your own bloodline."

"A bond with the carrier. That's good. It means the pup is strong."

"Not like this."  He paused. Something creaked, like a man sitting down heavily. "And there's another problem. If the bond keeps growing, taking the baby from her after birth could be dangerous."

Nobody spoke. I heard a pen click in someone's pocket.

"Are you telling me," Adrian said, very slowly, "I might not be able to take my child away from her?"

Dr. Hallam hesitated.

"I'm telling you, Alpha, that your heir may not survive the separation.”