Alpha’s Rue: His Shunned Luna (Athena Enchanted) novel Chapter 431

“Don’t leave,” I beg.

“I’m not leaving you,” he tells me, his hand steady over my trembling one. “I am right here, breathe. Come on, pay attention to me..like this.” He says, but I’m choking, I’m trying so hard to breathe out the air suffocating me, and it’s not working. My body seems to have forgotten how.

“You found her,” another familiar voice says, but I can’t place it. “You’re a wild one, Riley.”

“She’s not breathing,” another voice gasps, this one I know. It’s unmistakable. Evelyn. “Put her down, Alpha Kingston.” She says, “Riley, breathe through your mouth, you need to let it out. Try…”

She keeps talking, they all do, but I can't hear anyone, they fade, and I stop fighting it. The darkness overpowers me.

The voices return, slow, hushed and clear. I’m no longer in Kingston’s arms, I’m somewhere soft and comfortable. The air smells like bleach and pine, just like my room.

“She’s waking up,” Kingston says, their hands on me before I can open my eyes.

My eyes flutter open, and my body tenses. “Don’t touch me.”

“It’s just me, baby,” Kingston says.

Still, I push him away, sitting up a little too fast, which makes the room spin for a moment.

“How do you feel, Luna?” Evelyn asks from across the room, sitting on a sofa next to Maddox. Both of them stare at me with worried faces.

“My head hurts,” I tell her.

“Does your stomach hurt too?” Kingston asks. I pause, slowly looking down at the hand on my belly. I didn’t consciously place it there, my subconscious instinctively drove it there. Moments from earlier today flicker through my mind. Evelyn dragging me out for some sun, Petra insisting I’m pregnant, and Evelyn drawing my blood for the test.

I move my hand instantly out of the fear of Kingston’s gaze. “What is this room?” I frown, unerved by the white walls. “I don’t want to—”

“I know,” Kingston nods. “You don’t want to stay here, but you fainted, so you have to stay here for a few hours.”

I fainted? But when?

“I don’t like—”

It is. But why is he saying it like that? As if he can’t recognise me and needs me to confirm it. I’m confused. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what he wants me to say.

“You’re my Aeliana, right?” He leans in, his gaze hopeful. Wrongly so, it unsettles me even more. I shake my head.

I’m not his Aeliana. He wouldn’t have left me here if I were his Aeliana, that Aeliana ceased to exist the day he dragged me back to this shit hole, and I didn't even fight it. “Aeliana Hartley Vale.” He whispers.

This time, I nod. That is my name, all of it, with no claim attached to it. Something in him shifts, his eyes gleam with recognition. I watch as relief slips into every fibre of his being, and I feel it in mine too. But why?

“Oh God,” he finally speaks, his eyes watering. “Is that really you, baby?” He swallows, reaching for my cheek with a trembling hand. “Is this happening? You’re Aeliana.” He whispers, a lone tear rolling down his cheek.

“Are you okay?” I frown, my gaze dropping to his bandaged arm, which has a clear stain of red seeping through. “Did you lose too much blood?”

“Say it,” he swallows, his gaze unwavering.

“What?”