All Chapters of Rejected and Pregnant: The Alpha King’s Forbidden Heir : Chapter 191 - Chapter 200

Aira did not turn around.The voice behind her had spoken in her mother’s tone, close enough to make her blood go cold, but she kept both hands on Kael and tightened the bond between them until it felt like her own ribs were pulling shut. He was still there, but only barely. The blackness at the edge of his eye was trembling, unable to settle into place, and the mark on his palm burned like a wound that could either open or close depending on her next breath. Aira forced herself to breathe slowly. Forced herself to stay in the room, in the corridor, in her own body. “Kael,” she whispered, pressing her forehead to his. “Listen to me. You are not the root. You are not the first body. You are here with me.” His breath hitched hard. The thing inside him fought back at once, but the bond answered her with warmth, with memory, with the fierce stubborn love that had saved them too many times to count. The baby inside her stirred, then went still again, as if it too were waiting to see whethe

Aira did not let the word nursery break her.The pale marked hand rising from the darkness below the floor was only a few inches from her ankle, and the voice that came with it sounded like her mother’s grief dragged through stone. She could feel Kael wavering beside her, feel the corruption still clawing at the edges of his thoughts, but she refused to give the fear room. She tightened both hands over his chest and shoved warmth into the bond between them like a lantern held over black water. “Kael,” she whispered, her voice shaking but clear, “stay with me. Do not listen to the house. Do not listen to the thing below. Listen to me.” His breathing hitched. The blackness in his eye shivered and held. The little hand in the floor twitched, as if frustrated by the sound of her voice. Aira pressed closer to Kael, forehead nearly touching his, and let every memory of him flow through the bond. His hands on her when she was trembling. His voice when she was afraid. His fury when the world

The words the father is not the one above us hit Aira so hard she nearly forgot how to breathe. Kael was still shaking in her hands, the blackness in his eye fighting to spread, but the bond between them had not broken. Not yet. She held on to that with everything in her, with the heat of her fear, with the fierceness of the love that had dragged him back from the dark again and again. The child inside her womb was alive now in a way that made her skin prickle, alert and listening, and when the voice came again from deep below the house, it was not aimed at Kael this time. It was aimed at her. He is here. Aira’s heart clenched. She looked down at the hand reaching up from the floor, at the broken ring on its wrist, at the hidden room below where the witness child and Mira stood frozen under the weight of the house, and then she felt it. The truth. Not a man. Not a monster. A presence. A name buried so deeply it had become blood.Kael’s face twitched and the blackness in his eye surged

I am here.The answer rose from beneath the floor in a voice that made Aira’s blood run cold, because it was not the root gate now, not fully. It was older than the corruption, deeper than the house, and when it reached Kael his whole body went rigid in her arms. The blackness in his eye surged so violently that Aira felt the bond stutter, and for one breathless moment she thought she had lost him again. No. She seized the bond with both hands in her mind and pulled hard, throwing everything she had into him, every memory, every touch, every promise, every wild helpless moment when he had held her as if his life depended on it. “Kael,” she said, voice shaking but fierce, “look at me. You are not that voice. You are here with me.” His jaw clenched. His fingers trembled around her wrists. The tiny pale hand in his palm jerked as if it had heard her too, and the corruption inside him recoiled for a heartbeat. Aira leaned closer, pressing her forehead to his, and fed the bond with the war

The hand rose from the black opening below the floor, small and marked, the broken ring glowing on its wrist, and Aira felt every muscle in her body lock. It was not the father’s hand this time. It was smaller, younger, but the shape of the mark on it hit her like a punch to the chest. The witness child below had gone pale with terror, Mira was crying out behind it, and Kael had gone rigid in her arms, the blackness in his eye flaring again as if the sight of that hand had hit some buried fracture inside his blood. Aira did not let him fall. She tightened both hands over his chest and forced herself deeper into the bond, sending everything she had into him, every memory, every touch, every moment he had held her like she mattered more than the house. “Kael,” she whispered, voice trembling but fierce, “stay with me. You are here. You are with me.” His breath hitched. The corruption in him shuddered like a living thing denied its mouth, and the dark at the edge of his eye faltered by a