All Chapters of The Moon Chose Me Twice: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

KalebI find Charlie in the nursery.The hallway is quiet, but the air inside the room is vibrating with a frantic, jagged energy that makes the hair on my arms stand up.Sophie, the young nanny, is pressed against the wall by the rocking chair, her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror. She looks like she wants to run but is too afraid to move.And Charlie...Charlie is hunched over the changing table, scrubbing our son’s foot.She isn't using a cloth. She’s using her thumb, rubbing the skin of his heel hard enough to turn it red. She’s muttering to herself, a low, broken stream of denial."Get off," she hisses, her voice cracking. "Get off him. Get off."The baby starts to cry. A sharp, startled sound of pain."Charlie!"I cross the room in two strides. I grab her wrists, pulling her hands away from him."Stop," I command, my voice rough. "You’re hurting him.""It won't come off!" she screams, fighting my grip. Her eyes are wild, the pupils blown so wide the blue is almost

CharlieThe medical wing smells like antiseptic and steel. Like the world has been scrubbed clean so violence can happen neatly.Elara’s monitors keep their steady rhythm. The ventilator hisses and releases. The lights overhead hum with that cold hospital patience that makes time feel different, stretched thin and sharp.My son stirs against my chest, warm and heavy in that newborn way that makes my arms ache and my heart tighten at the same time.Ezra sits beside Elara, too rigid to be comfortable. His eyes keep flicking to the toy, then to my baby, then away again like he can’t make himself stare at the whole picture for too long.Kaleb stands near the door, one hand braced on the wall, his gaze fixed down the corridor beyond the glass panel.“We should move,” he says quietly. No panic or doubt in his voice. Just pure strategy. “Valerius will want instructions. Aris needs to know what’s sealed. The pack needs to see me.”He looks at me then, and I see the strain under the control. H

CharlieMadilyn has been given the kind of captivity Bloodmoon likes to pretend is mercy.A guest suite with soft lamps. Clean linen. A low fire. A tray of untouched food that smells expensive. Two warriors outside the door, polite as statues, deadly as a promise.I leave Orion in the medical wing with Kaleb and Ezra. The rule stands. Only Kaleb and I touch him. Only Kaleb and I hold him.Every instinct in me hates walking away, even for a minute, but this is part of it too. A siege does not end because you cling to the safest room and hope.The guards at Madilyn’s door straighten when they see us.Madilyn sits in a high-backed chair near the fire, one hand resting on the curve of her stomach like she’s posing for a painting.“Charlie,” she says warmly. “You look exhausted. Almost haggard.”I step inside and let the door close behind me, determined to give her nothing soft to pull apart.“Madilyn,” I say, calm and flat.Her smile widens. “Still so formal. Still trying to be in control

CharlieThey keep the intruder alive, because I said so.Valerius has him bound in silver chain in the corridor outside the medical wing, a leather gag cutting off anything he might try to spit into the air.Orion sleeps against my collarbone, warm and heavy, like he belongs there and nowhere else. I don’t hand him over. Not now. Not after the way that man’s gaze snapped to my baby like a magnet finding iron.Kaleb walks with me into the old strategy room and shuts the door. Two warriors take position outside.Ezra and Valerius are already inside, and Aris follows a moment later, his medical bag thumping onto the table like a warning.Valerius doesn’t waste time. “He didn’t come through the front. No badge. No key. Someone opened a staff door for him.”The words settle into my bones. Someone from Bloodmoon let him in.Ezra’s eyes are sharp and focused. “The blankness around him is a veil. A suppression ward. Whoever sent him didn’t want us tracking his scent back to their lair.”Aris’

CharlieKaleb stays behind when the others file out.He doesn’t try to stop me. He doesn’t try to steer me. He just watches me with that brutal stillness that always means he’s choosing control instead of letting instinct take over.His gaze drops to my bruised hands and I see the moment the anger hits him. It’s a flicker, contained so tightly it’s almost invisible.His fingers curl once, like he wants to break something.I meet his eyes and give him nothing soft. Nothing that asks to be protected.My need for him is suddenly deep and undeniable.I lay Orion down in the warded cot with hands that are steadier than they have any right to be. I smooth my thumb over his cheek once, and the tenderness wants to crack me open.“Don’t let anyone near him,” I tell Ezra.“I won’t,” Ezra promises and I turn away before I can linger.Who knows when Kaleb and I will have this opportunity again?I don’t speak. I just walk out the door and he falls into step with me.Not in front. Not behind like a