Chapter 5: The Night She Left

Serena

Kael hesitates, and for one second I think he's actually going to stay.

"Serena." He crouches in front of me, his hands settling on my shoulders. "The healer couldn't confirm anything. This could just be stress. Your body's been through so much these last two days."

"It's not stress, Kael. Something is wrong."

"I'm not betraying you by going tonight. You know that, don't you?"

*Gentle. He's being gentle with me right before he walks out the door to go get another woman pregnant.*

Another knock. The messenger again, apologizing through the door, saying the elders and Lyra have been waiting nearly twenty minutes now, that any longer will raise questions he can't answer for.

Kael looks at the door, then back at me.

"Please," I whisper again, gripping his hand tighter.

"You don't have to do this," he says, and for a second I don't understand him.

"Do what?"

"You don't have to make yourself ill to keep me here, Serena. You're still my Luna and I still love you. Nothing about tonight changes that."

*He really does think I'm inventing this. Even now, with my hand shaking in his.*

"I'm not…" The words catch in my throat.  I want to make him understand, I want to shake him and tell him he has to believe me.

But what’s the point if he's already made up his mind?

I swallow hard. "Go, then."

He calls a servant to stay near me, promises he'll be back as quickly as he can, and then he's gone. The door closes behind him with a sound that feels louder than it should.

Something in me goes quiet after that. I stop waiting for him to fix it, I stop waiting for him to believe me.

Whatever happens next, I'll have to find my way through it.

...

The cramps get worse as the night stretches on. Sharper.

When I finally look down and see blood, the heartbreak I've been carrying all evening disappears completely beneath something far more urgent. Fear.

"Hello?" I call out for the servant Kael assigned to me. Nothing. "Is anyone there?"

No one answers. The house has emptied itself toward the Covenant chamber, toward Lyra, toward the one thing everyone in this pack has decided matters more tonight than I do.

I get up anyway, one hand pressed hard against my stomach, and make it as far as the inner corridor before two guards step in front of me, blocking the route that leads toward the healer's wing.

"I need to get through." My voice comes out weaker than I want it to. "My stomach hurts."

One of them hesitates, glances at the other. "Luna…"

"Alpha's orders." The second one doesn't move at all. "The route near the Covenant chamber isn't to be disturbed tonight."

"I am your Luna!"

"Tonight," he says, and there's something in the way he says it that tells me exactly how little that title is worth to him right now, "the Covenant takes priority."

"Did you hear what I just said to you? I am in pain and I'm bleeding. I need a healer, not a guard telling me about his priorities."

"I can't let you through."

"Move."

I try to push past him anyway. His hand closes around my arm, and when I wrench away from him, I lose my footing on the top step and fall down.

Pain tears through my abdomen so violently that for a second I can't even scream.

They both realize what's happened. Neither of them helps me first.

"She slipped." One of them spits, already talking himself out of blame before I've even caught my breath.

"Get the healer." I force the words out through my teeth. "Please. Get someone, anyone…"

Silence. A long, useless silence, both of them just standing there staring at me.

Then I see blood, more than before. Something in me goes very still and very clear, understanding dawning.

*If I stay, no one is coming. Not tonight, maybe not ever. I need to get somewhere safe. That's all. Just somewhere safe for me and my child.*

I drag myself back to my room, moving slower than I want to, gathering what I can carry in both arms. Money, some papers, the ultrasound image, the clinic report, folded inside my coat.

*I'm not doing this for revenge. I'm doing this so my child has a heartbeat left to hear tomorrow.*

Still bleeding, I slip out through the quieter side of the estate, past the stables, past the old gate no one bothers guarding anymore.

I don't stop walking until Blackthorn's borders are somewhere behind me.

...

KAEL'S POV

I come home lighter than I've felt in days, telling myself the worst of this is behind us, that I'll go straight to Serena and finally end this properly.

Her room is empty.

A coat gone from the closet and the drawer left open.

I look around for her, then I notice the blood in the corridor, dark against the stone floor, and every calm thought I walked in with disappears at once.

"Where is she?" I have both guards from that corridor in front of me within minutes.

"Alpha, she…" The first one won't hold my eyes. "She said she was bleeding and then she tried to get past us."

"And?"

"We had orders. The route near the Covenant chamber…"

"I didn't ask you what your orders were." My voice comes out low, too low. "I asked you what happened to my Luna."

Both of them start talking at once.

“Alpha, she fell—”

“We didn’t touch her—”

I cross the space between us and seize the first guard by the collar, yanking him forward so hard his words choke off.

“She fell, Alpha,” he manages, panic flashing across his face. “On the stairs. We didn’t touch her. She lost her footing when she pulled away—”

The other guard rushes to speak. “Alpha, we tried to—”

“She told you she was bleeding,” I snarl, tightening my grip. “And you stood in front of her.”

Neither of them answers.

I stare straight into the guard’s terrified eyes.

“You thought wrong.”

I release him with a violent shove. He stumbles back, nearly hitting the wall.

I storm back to her room and search it properly this time. That's when I see what's missing from beside her bed.

The ultrasound, the clinic report.

*She took them with her. She believed it enough to leave in the middle of the night, injured, alone, rather than stay here in this house that treated her as less.*

"Gamma." My voice doesn't sound like my own when it finally comes out. "Wake every warrior we have."

"Alpha, it's past midnight, the borders…"

"I want every route beyond our borders searched before sunrise." I'm already moving toward the door. "Now."

Gamma doesn't argue again, he just nods and turns to give the order.

I stand there a moment longer, staring down at the blood on the floor, at the space where my wife should be.

"Find my Luna!"