Semua Bab The Alpha's Breeding Pet : Bab 131 - Bab 140

ARIA'S POV"I could be. But I'm not." She pulled out a small object, pressing it into my hand. "This belonged to my child. The only thing I have left of them. If I betray you, if this is a trap, I swear on their memory that you can destroy this. It's the only thing I have that matters."I looked at the object. A small carved wooden wolf, worn smooth by years of handling. The kind of toy a parent might make for their child."The Council took them when they were three," Lysandra continued. "Said I was unfit because I questioned breeding quotas. Argued that forced pregnancies were wrong. They took my baby and I never saw them again. Never knew if they grew up happy or broken or if they even survived."Her pain was raw. Real. Impossible to fake."I'm sorry," I said quietly. "No one should go through that.""No. They shouldn't. Which is why I'm trying to prevent it from happening to you." Lysandra met my eyes. "I can't undo what I did. Can't take back the testimony against you or the month

CAELAN'S POVThe cell was the same as every other night.Cold stone. Distant footsteps. The smell of damp and iron that had soaked into everything after weeks of captivity.Except tonight, something was different.I felt it before I understood it. A pull in my chest. Faint but insistent, like a thread being tugged from far away. The kind of feeling wolves described when their mate was in danger.Or when their mate was gone.I was at the cell bars before I'd fully processed the thought. "Guard."The wolf posted outside my cell didn't look up from whatever he was reading. "Quiet.""I need to speak with someone. Damon. Or Darius. Anyone from my pack.""No visitors after dark.""Then get me Magnus."That made him look up. "You want Magnus.""I want to know where my mate is. And I want to know now."He studied me for a moment, then went back to his reading. "She's in her quarters. Same as always."He believed that. I could tell from his voice, the ease of it, the boredom. He hadn't been to

ARIA'S POV Callow market smelled like livestock and smoke. We'd arrived before the morning rush, hoods up, moving close to the stalls where the crowd was thickest. Renn had been right about one thing — the noise helped. Hard to track a scent in a place where everything smelled like something else. "Don't stop walking," Renn said quietly, just ahead of me. "Even if you see something that worries you. Keep moving." "I know how to not look suspicious." "You're a very pregnant woman in a hood walking through a market at dawn. You're already suspicious. Just don't make it worse." Mira pressed close on my left side, her bag over her shoulder, eyes moving constantly. She'd been quiet since we left the safe house. The kind of quiet that meant she was thinking hard about something she hadn't decided to say yet. The baby was quiet too. That bothered me more than anything. After the candles, after whatever that ripple had been, they'd settled into a stillness that felt different from sl

ARIA'S POVThe contractions were seven minutes apart.Mira had been timing them since we reached the farmhouse, her expression doing the thing where it stayed very calm on the surface and said everything underneath."Talk to me," I said through the tail end of one."You're progressing. Faster than normal for a first labor." She adjusted the blanket beneath me. "The baby is positioned well. That's good.""What's not good?"She hesitated."Mira.""We're six weeks early. Their lungs may not be fully developed." She kept her voice even. "It may not matter. Some early babies come out screaming and perfect. But I want you prepared."I pressed my hand flat against my stomach. The baby was very active now, moving in a way that felt purposeful rather than random. Like they were arranging themselves. Getting ready."They're strong," I said. "You've said so yourself.""I know. And I meant it."Renn appeared in the doorway. She'd been watching the road since we arrived, moving between the window

ARIA'S POVEverything narrowed.The farmhouse. The blanket beneath me. Mira's voice, steady and low, telling me what to do and when. Caelan's hand, which I was probably breaking, and which he didn't mention once.The pain was nothing like I'd expected. Not sharp. Not dramatic. Just enormous. Like my whole body had decided it had one job and everything else, fear and cold and the smoke on the southern road, had been filed away for later."Don't fight it," Mira said. "Let it move through you.""Easy for you to say.""I know. Do it anyway."Caelan said nothing. Just stayed exactly where he was, solid and present, his thumb moving in slow circles on the back of my hand. I focused on that when the contractions peaked. That small movement. Proof he was still there.Renn had gone quiet by the window. Watching the road, watching outside, watching everywhere except the corner where I was falling apart and being put back together in the same breath.Time stopped making sense.At some point the