Chapter 197
Deckard
We are not expecting labor for another few weeks, so when Leonard calls to inform me that Amica has given birth, the shock–and the joy–is overwhelming. I can barely contain myself. I abandon everything and rush back home as fast as I can, my heart thundering with excitement at the thought of seeing my wife and meeting our child.
But when I arrive at the manor, the atmosphere feels… off.
Strange. Heavy. Like something terrible has happened.
Leonard is the first to meet me at the entrance, and the look on his face unsettles me immediately. His features are drawn tight, his eyes darting with emotions he’s struggling to hide.
“What’s wrong, Leonard?” I demand, “Where is Amica? Is she okay?”
For a terrible moment, my heart nearly stops.
“She’s okay, Alpha,” Leonard says quickly, raising his hands as if to calm me.
“What about the baby?” I press, stepping closer. “Is she okay?”
“They are both okay,” he assures me again.
But it doesn’t ease the storm brewing inside me.
“Then why do you look like that?” I growl. “You worry me, Leonard. What the hell is going on? I need to see my wife. Now.”
“Yes, Alpha. Please–this way.”
He leads me swiftly down the halls toward Amica’s room. My boots hit the stone floor harder with each step. Something is wrong–I’can feel it in the walls, in the way the servants lower their gazes as I pass,
When I push open the door, I find her.
Amica.
I reach the room and find Amica on the bed.
She looks broken–like she has cried herself dry, her eyes swollen and red, her skin pale.
Panic seizes me.
“What is going on? Amica? My love!”
I rush to her, wrapping her in a warm embrace, but she feels stiff in my arms, too scared, too fragile to even hold me back.
Then she whispers, her voice cracking and filled with devastation,
“I’m sorry, my Alpha… please forgive me… I lost our baby…”
The words tear through me, shredding my heart into pieces.
“No… no, Amica,” I say quickly, pulling back to look at her, brushing the matted hair from her face. “Our little baby is right here. Look- she’s beautiful. I am afraid she even looks more beautiful than you.” I try to cheer her up.
1 cradle her trembling face in my hands, trying to console her.
“You’ve done an amazing job, my love. She’s perfect… our little heiress. Please, tell me what you need. Anything. Just say it, and I’ll do it right now…”
I think exhaustion… maybe postpartum despair. It happens sometimes, I know that. But seeing her like this, utterly heartbroken, is more painful than anything I have ever faced.
And then Freya steps into the room.
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“If you could find her son… maybe she would feel better,” she says carefully.
I stiffen and slowly turn to face her.
“What are you talking about?” I ask,
Freya’s eyes flicker, just for a second, but it’s enough for me to know that whatever this is… it’s far worse than I imagined.
“The Luna claimed she had twins. A boy and a girl. And now the other one is nowhere to be found,” Freya says carefully.
“What?”
I whip around to look at Amica.
She is shuddering like a frightened child, her body wracked with silent sobs, as if she still has an ocean of tears left to spill.
“Amica,” I say, my voice softer now. “Is it true?”
She doesn’t answer.
But her silence screams louder than words ever could.
Fury ignites inside me.
“Leonard!” I roar, my voice shaking the walls. “How the hell did this happen? I put you in charge of her!”
“It isn’t really Leonard’s fault,” Freya says quickly, her voice syrupy with false concern. “The Luna decided to take a walk by herself… beyond the walls of the manor. I didn’t even know that place existed, but I… I felt a strange urge to look for her. Something led me there.”
She lowers her eyes, pretending to be humble.
“By the time I got there, she already had a baby girl in her hands… but she had passed out from weakness and blood loss. All I found was the baby girl.
I had to alert the guards and doctors to bring her back. We cleaned her up… we saved her.”
She sighs, as if carrying a great burden.
But something about her words, her tone, itches under my skin
I clench my fists, struggling to keep control of the rage storming inside me.
“But since the Luna woke up, she has been asking for her son,” Freya says, her voice coated in mock sympathy. “She claims she conceived two children.., but there are no traces of that. At this point, it’s beginning to look like she is hallucinating. Or–if she isn’t- then perhaps something must have taken her baby while she lay unconscious in the wild.”
Hearing her words, every pore on my skin seems to open, releasing the searing rage building inside me.
“What the hell are you even talking about, Freya?” I snarl, my voice vibrating with fury. “How the hell could that even happen?”
I whip around to Amica, forcing myself to soften my face so she doesn’t see how close I am to losing it.
“Baby,” I say, kneeling in front of her, gripping her trembling hands in mine, “did you really have twins? Is it true what this damn witch is saying?”
Amica’s tear–soaked eyes lift to mine. She looks broken.
“I had a little baby girl…” she whispers, her voice cracking. “And then… I felt the urge to push again… and I bore a son. I carried him in my arms, my Alpha… I fed him.”
Her breath hitches.
“I… I passed out… and by the time I opened my eyes… I was here… with just my little girl.”
She breaks into another wave of heart–wrenching sobs,
“Oh goddess…. Oh goddess, save me from this madness,” I mutter under my breath, trying to contain the storm of emotions raging
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inside me.
“Only if the Luna had stayed here, where clear eyes could see her… we would not be in such a confused situation,” Freya says with a smug little sigh.
“Shut up, you damn witch!” I snap, my voice cutting through the room like a blade.
“Shut up and let me think!”
The room falls into a heavy silence at the force of my rage.
Slowly, I walk over to where my little girl lays.
I pick up the tiny, beautiful creature from the cradle, cradling her against my chest.
“Serria,” I whisper beneath my breath, her name tasting both sweet and bitter on my tongue.
I press a soft kiss onto her head. She coos and grunts, a precious sound, and for a moment, she soothes the storm in my chest.
Gently, I place her back in her court.
Take me there, Leonard,” I say, my voice sharp and cutting, leaving no room for questions.
Without even sparing a glance back at Amica, I leave the room.
I cannot look at her. I do not know what to say to her.
I do not even know how to feel.
As Leonard leads me through the manor gates and toward the hidden place beyond the walls, my mind races.
How the hell did Amica even find this place?
I put a little gate there because I thought the manor was already big enough.
I planned to build something else on the rest of the hectares… someday.
But how did Amica even find this place?
Why would she come here of all places?
It is hidden well enough, and it leads straight down to the river… yet what would bring her here alone?
“Leonard,” I call out sharply as we walk, my boots crushing dry twigs underfoot.
2 side.
“Yes, Alpha?” he responds, quickening his pace to stay by
“What do you think about all this? Do you think tight with worry I refuse to show.
“Yes, Alpha. I spoke to the doctor earlier. He cautiously, glancing sideways at me.
ica might be hallucinating? Could it be… an effect of the pregnancy?” I ask,
my voice
aid she might be experiencing trauma because of how difficult her labor was.” Leonard says
“We didn’t find any traces of a second umbilical cord… or even a second placenta,” he adds, almost as if it pains him to say it.
I curse under my breath.
Damn it all.
I should have stayed behind.
I should never have gone to that damn meeting.
What kind of Alpha am I if I cannot even protect my own mate when she needed me the most?
As we reach the small gate and push it open, the wind blows harsh and cold against my face, like the land itself is mourning.
The fields stretch wide and empty beyond the gate, the scent of the river faint on the air.
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We go further, and finally, we reach the place where it all happened.
Even before getting there, I perceive it – a strong scent of blood heavy in the air.
Yes, it’s Amica’s blood… but there’s something else.
Something stronger.
Something unnatural.
A strange chill creeps up my spine.
Maybe Amica isn’t hallucinating after all.
I know the connection I felt when I held my little girl
–
Serria
–
in my arms.
But now, standing here, breathing in the charged air, something else stirs in me.
Another bond… faint but real.
Another life.
Do I really have a son?
If so… what the hell happened to him?
Did a wild animal truly snatch him away like Freya suggested?
I feel sweat dripping uncontrollably down my forehead, cold and hot at the same time.
The pain in my chest is unbearable, as if claws are ripping straight through my heart.
My own son.
Barely hours old.
Where the hell is he?
I push the thoughts aside and join the search team.
I throw myself into the thick brush, combing every inch of the property, clawing through the dirt, turning over every rock and branch.
Anything that might give me a clue.
#th
