LOGINALICE'S POVThe spoon hit the kitchen floor and slid under the table. I stood there staring at it with one hand on the counter and the other resting on my big belly. It had not even gone far. I could still see the honey on the handle. But to pick it up I had to bend, and bending had become a real fight between my back, my hips, and the baby who took up all the space inside me.I tried anyway.A sharp pain shot across my lower back. I stopped halfway down and held the counter until the room felt steady again."Don't," Benjamin said from behind me.He stood in the kitchen doorway with a dish towel over one shoulder. His face looked completely serious, and that made me feel even more annoyed."I only dropped a spoon. I am not fighting for my life.""I know." He walked across the kitchen and crouched down to pick it up. "But you almost folded yourself in half just to reach it."He washed the spoon, put it beside the sink, and went straight back to the pan on the stove. He did not give me
BENJAMIN'S POVThe meeting was only supposed to be about the eastern patrol routes. Nothing else.Alice stopped me at the bedroom door that morning and smoothed her dress over her growing belly. “Just talk about the patrol routes, Benjamin. Don’t let the elders turn it into a discussion about our family.”“I can handle the patrol routes,” I told her.“You can handle anything as long as you remember to breathe between your sentences.”I kissed her because she was right, and because kissing her always helped calm the restless feeling inside me. Lucian’s fever had broken two days ago. He was still tired, but he had eaten breakfast at the table and argued with Callum about painting a wolf on his soccer ball. Hearing my son argue again made something tight in my chest finally loosen.The council had different plans for the morning.We finished talking about the cut fence in less than twenty minutes. I was collecting the reports when Elder Sorin leaned back in her chair and folded her hands
Benjamin’s POVLucian’s fever was still there in the morning. It had gone down a little during the night but then it climbed back up again, and now he looked flushed and tired under the blankets. He barely ate any of his breakfast. Every time I moved in the chair next to his bed, he watched me, and even when he was half asleep he kept holding two of my fingers with his hand.I stayed right there with him the whole time.My phone buzzed again. The border patrol had stopped two strange wolves near the eastern road, and they also found a section of fence that someone had cut open past the creek. No one got hurt, but the patrol leader wanted me to make a decision before the next shift started. Callum sent a text that said the guards were gathering and they expected me in the meeting room.I looked at Lucian, at his dark eyelashes resting on his hot cheeks, and I typed back that they should send me the reports and I would join the meeting by video.Someone knocked on the door before I cou
ALICE’S POVThe house felt too quiet that morning, and that was strange because Lucian was never quiet. I went into his room and found him curled up under his blanket with red cheeks and damp hair at his temples. His favorite soccer shirt was still sitting on the chair, untouched. I sat down on the edge of his bed, and he opened his eyes and looked up at me.“Mom?” His voice sounded rough and small. “My head hurts. And I’m cold.”I brushed his hair away from his forehead and felt how hot his skin was, and right away my stomach dropped because I knew something was wrong. Even though his face was burning, he pulled the blanket up to his chin like he was freezing.I took the thermometer out of the drawer by the bed, shook it, and put it under his tongue. He let me do it without asking any questions, and that scared me more than if he had complained. While we waited for the result, I rubbed his back and counted his breaths.The thermometer beeped, and the number was high enough to worry m
ALICE'S POVBy the time the clock went past midnight, I had turned over so many times that the sheets were twisted all around my legs. My belly got heavier every week, and the baby seemed determined to ruin every position I used to like. When I lay on my left side, my hip started hurting. When I lay on my right side, the baby pressed so low that I had to move again. Lying on my back only lasted as long as it took Benjamin to wake up and ask if I could still breathe.“I’m breathing,” I whispered into the dark.He pushed himself up on one elbow and looked at me. “You moved. Do you need water? Another pillow? Should I call Morwen?”I pushed a pillow between my knees and tried again. The baby rolled inside me, and I took a sharp breath.Benjamin sat straight up. “What is it? Is it pain? Are you sure it’s nothing?”“Benjamin.” I turned to face him, and my voice came out sharper than I meant it to. “Please stop asking me every time I move. Now I’m awake, you’re awake, and I’m lying here wa
BENJAMIN'S POVThe first delivery truck pulled up at eight in the morning.I signed for the white crib with the rounded corners and checked the box carefully to make sure nothing was damaged. The delivery men carried it upstairs to the nursery, and they were still bringing in the changing table when the next van arrived. That van brought a rocking chair and a nursing chair, and it also brought a second rocking chair because the first one did not have an adjustable footrest. After that came two bassinets, a stroller, and a portable crib. A bottle sterilizer showed up too, along with a baby monitor that had a camera and a second monitor that tracked the temperature in the room and every movement inside it.Alice walked down the stairs and stopped so suddenly that she had to grab the railing to steady herself.Boxes filled the hallway, and half of the sitting room had disappeared behind packages. One of the delivery men was trying to move a flat-packed wardrobe around the sofa.She look
ALICE’S POVThe days that followed had a rhythm I didn’t trust.Benjamin came every morning. He actually sat at the table — something I still hadn’t gotten used to — and ate whatever I put in front of him. He returned every evening and stayed until Lucian’s eyes drifted shut.Four mornings in a row
ALICE’S POVBy the time I walked into the hospital room, I had composed myself completely. My face was set.Lucian was awake, sitting up in bed. His face brightened the moment he saw me."Mommy. You came back.""I came back." I lifted him into my arms. He smelled like baby shampoo, antiseptic, and
Alice’s POV"What?""Is this your new plan? To trap me again?" Benjamin’s voice dripped with contempt. "Did you run out of tricks, Alice? Is faking our son’s terminal illness really the best you could come up with?"I couldn’t breathe. The hospital hallway seemed to close in around me, the walls pr
ALICE’S POVI hadn't slept. I'd counted his breaths instead.It had been four hours since Lucian collapsed at breakfast. Four hours since I’d screamed loud enough to wake every wolf on our floor of the western wing. Now the monitors did the counting for me — soft, steady, mechanical as my son slept







