Chapter 3: Two Cries in the Dim Room

"Please... don't do this..." I whispered raspily into the thick darkness.

My voice was swallowed by the heavy, ragged breathing of the man behind me.

Ignoring my plea, his strong fingers gripped the thin fabric of the dress clinging to my body, wrenching the cheap material off my shoulders.

"Ngh...!" A stifled gasp escaped my throat as my fingers dug into the silk sheets beneath us.

My body trembled violently—not just from the bone-crushing terror, but from an intense surge of heat that suddenly exploded across my skin.

The electric current from his touch scorched my veins, stirring an unfamiliar, intoxicating hunger and longing. How was it possible for my mind and soul to scream in terror while my body burned, completely unable to reject him?

The pureblood Alpha’s crushing aura radiated through the room, suffocating my mind and overwhelming my inner wolf until I melted into a heart-wrenching surrender.

In the total darkness, bereft of even the faintest flicker of light, I allowed myself to drown in an unfamiliar fate that stripped away every last shred of my dignity.

Cold tears streamed down my face, soaking the pillow as every agonizing second of that dark night altered the course of my life forever.

Before dawn broke over the horizon of Silver Falls, I was moved once again, my eyes still bound by the black silk blindfold. The jostling van finally came to a stop in front of an old wooden building isolated deep at the edge of a pine forest.

It was a two-story villa surrounded by towering iron gates, heavily guarded by silent men in black suits.

"You will stay here until the baby is born," a cold-faced, middle-aged woman announced, locking the front door from the outside.

My phone was confiscated, my internet access severed, and I was strictly forbidden from stepping beyond the backyard.

My world suddenly shrank into nothingness, leaving behind a deafening silence that eroded my soul day after day.

The single beacon of hope that kept me tethered to sanity in this gilded cage was a slip of paper thrown to me by a guard during the first week.

Maya Vance's plasma isolation surgery was a complete success. The patient has been transferred to a VIP recovery room.

I clutched the crumpled note to my chest, weeping softly in the corner of the bed. At least my suffering and the surrender of my body hadn't been in vain—Maya was alive and breathing out there.

Months passed in agonizing solitude. But as time wore on, my lower stomach slowly began to swell and firm up.

My maternal instincts bloomed fiercely within my chest, gradually washing away the trauma and humiliation of that dark night in the penthouse.

Every night, as the forest wind howled against the windowpanes, I gently stroked my rounded belly.

"Don't be afraid, my sweet baby," I whispered softly, smiling through tears streaming down my cheeks. "Even if the world rejects your existence and your father never cares to know who you are, I will love you as vast as the ocean."

The baby inside me responded with a warm, gentle flutter of a kick. That small sensation became my sole reason to keep breathing and stay healthy.

Nine months later.

The fiercest thunderstorm of the year battered all of Silver Falls. Jagged lightning ripped across the black sky, followed by deafening rolls of thunder that rattled the villa's windowpanes.

"Aarghh...!"

I groaned in agony, clutching my stomach as a violent convulsion tore through me. My water broke suddenly, soaking my cotton dress, immediately followed by relentless waves of powerful contractions.

Two female guards burst through my bedroom door and dragged me down to the basement. There, a hidden medical room reeking of pungent antiseptic had been prepared.

A glass-shielded overhead light cast a dim, eerie glow, reflecting the rigid shadows of a three-person medical team clad in green scrubs and masks.

"Breathe evenly, Elora," the stone-faced female doctor ordered, her eyes entirely devoid of sympathy.

There were no reassuring smiles, no warm hands to hold, no comforting words. They treated me like a laboratory instrument being forced to yield an expensive specimen.

"Nghhh! It hurts... Doctor, it hurts so much!" I screamed, tears flooding down my temples.

The labor pains felt as if my entire pelvis was being crushed into tiny fragments. My hands gripped the cold metal sides of the delivery bed so hard my knuckles turned stark white and my nails nearly snapped.

I fought alone in that dim room, suspended on the edge between life and death.

"Push now! The baby's head is crowning!" the doctor commanded sharply.

"AAAGHHH!"

Gathering every last drop of strength in my body, I pushed with everything I had, clinging to the thought of Maya and my baby. A long, agonizing scream tore from my dry throat.

WAAAH! WAAAH! WAAAH!

A sharp, piercing cry shattered the tension in the room. I panted heavily, my chest heaving as a wave of immense relief washed through my body.

"My baby..." I whispered raspily, my lips trembling with tears of joy.

A nurse snatched the squirming, newborn baby, wrapping it in a sterile cloth without letting me touch it for even a second.

But before I could draw a breath of relief, my stomach suddenly seized in another excruciating contraction.

"W-wait... why is my stomach still cramping?!" I gasped in panic.

The stone-faced doctor's eyes widened as she realized my lower abdomen was still distended.

"Quickly, prepare additional medical equipment!" the doctor barked at her assistant.

"Aaghhhh!" I screamed hysterically once again, enduring another violent wave tearing through my body for a second time.

With one final push and the very last thread of my fading strength, I pushed with everything left inside me.

Waaah... waaah...

The sound of a second baby crying echoed from the examination table.

This second cry was much softer, smaller, and slightly raspy compared to the first. My tear-blurred eyes locked onto the stainless-steel examination table in the corner.

Under the dim light, there were two sterile cloth bundles.

Two tiny newborn bodies!

"T-twins...?" I whispered, overwhelmed by a flood of emotional tears. "My babies... I had twins?!"

An indescribable surge of joy swelled in my chest, completely eclipsing the agonizing pain that had just wracked my body.

I tried to lift my heavy head, reaching out with a trembling finger toward the two babies being cleaned by the nurse.

"Please... let me hold my babies..." I begged, my raw voice breaking into sobs.

The cold-faced nurse yanked a sedative syringe from the IV tube in my left arm and snapped at me without a shred of expression, "In your dreams. You only gave birth to one child!"