All Chapters of PREGNANT AND BANISHED : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

. Lana's POV. The silence that hung in the air after I spoke was unlike the usual quiet you find in empty hallways or deserted rooms. This silence felt heavy. Asher looked at me with the familiar expression he wore when piecing together what I had just shared, sorting through the fragments in his mind until they formed a coherent picture. I had learned to recognize that particular stillness in him. It wasn’t the kind of stillness that suggested doubt; rather, it was the stillness of someone who fully believed what they were hearing and found it deeply unsettling. Jacob stirred against Asher's shoulder, prompting him to adjust slightly to prevent the boy from slipping. His hand instinctively moved to support Jacob's weight. Even amidst all the chaos, that reflex was still there. He handled them with a care that felt instinctual, as if he had always been a protector of children rather than just someone managing them. "Can you describe the person?" he asked softly. "The person you s

Lana's POV.The corridor didn’t stay quiet for long. It wasn’t because anyone came back; rather, silence has a way of filling itself with all the feelings I had been too preoccupied to acknowledge until now. I stood there, all alone, and the whirlwind of the last few hours surged up, demanding my attention all at once.I couldn’t shake the image of that small, deliberate footprint on the lab floor, nor could I forget Amelia’s alibi, which she offered up before anyone even thought to ask. The locked door loomed in my mind, along with the fever that shouldn’t have spiked and the guard who had slipped away from my side without a sound. But beneath all of that, quieter yet more insistent than any threat from the pack, was a thought I couldn’t seem to escape: I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up. Watching everyone and trusting no one. Holding my breath in every room, waiting to see who would flinch first.I thought of my mother, how she used to hum while stitching wounds in o

Lana's POV.The scream cut through the corridor like a knife, and for a brief moment, neither Asher nor I moved, as if any motion would make it all too real. Then, in an instant, he sprang into action, and I was right on his heels, my bare feet slapping against the cold stone floor, my mind racing ahead to every horrifying scenario.We turned the corner by the east stairwell, and to our greatest surprise it was Amelia. She was crumpled against the wall, one leg twisted at an angle that made my stomach churn even from afar, her hair cascading over her face in a dark, chaotic mess. She was clutching her arm to her chest, and when she lifted her head to see us, her eyes were wide and glassy, filled with just the right amount of tears."Asher," she gasped, and the way she said his name felt like a plea she had rehearsed a hundred times before finally letting it slip out.He was at her side before I could fully grasp what I was seeing, dropping to his knees, his hands hovering over her as

Lana's POV.The candle refused to reignite. I stood there, watching the thin wisp of smoke curl up from the charred wick, hoping for some logical explanation to pop up, maybe a draft, a defect in the wax, anything at all. But nothing came. The room felt like it was holding its breath alongside me, and Asher's hand rested on the small of my back, steady and grounding, though I could tell even his fingers had gone quiet."Wards," he finally murmured, his voice so low it felt more like a thought than a statement. "Something brushed against the wards. That’s all."I wanted to trust him. But deep down, I wasn’t sure he believed it himself.I was still fixated on the candle when a knock echoed through the room.Three sharp raps, deliberate and commanding. I glanced at Asher. He didn’t seem surprised, not exactly, but there was a shift in his expression."Come in," I called out, since he seemed hesitant to respond.The door swung open, and one of the guards, who also served as Asher's perso

Lana's POV.“My phone." Asher's voice sliced through the air before he even fully stepped inside, sharp and urgent enough to make the guard behind him flinch. His gaze darted around the workbench, the shelves, the broken cabinet—anywhere but at me. "Where's my phone?"I blinked, quickly masking my expression into something neutral, something that suggested I was unfazed, the same careful facade I’d maintained throughout that call. "Your phone?" I echoed, furrowing my brows as if I genuinely didn’t understand. I raised both hands, palms up, and shrugged slightly. "I don’t know. You had it when you left, right?"He didn’t respond. Instead, he was already moving, striding over to the chair he’d been sitting in before the knock had interrupted him, before everything had spiraled out of control. His hand found the edge of his cloak, still draped over the workbench where he’d left it, and he lifted it in one swift motion.There it was the phone, screen dark, exactly where I’d tucked it back