Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Chapter 85

Elara’s POV

“Mommy, I already know about wolf spirits.”

Valerius said it with the casual authority of a child who had recently learned something monumental and now considered himself an expert. He sat cross-legged on the bed beside me, his too-long sleeves bunched around his wrists, his dark gold eyes bright with importance.

“Daddy told me everything,” he continued. “While you were sleeping these past ten days. He said everyone has a wolf inside them, and the wolf is like a best friend who lives in your heart. And your wolf was sleeping too, just like you, but now she’s awake.” 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

I looked at Kaelen over our son’s head. He leaned against the bedpost, arms crossed, a faint smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. The smile didn’t erase the shadows under his eyes. But it was real. Warm.

“He asked questions,” Kaelen said simply. “Many, many questions.”

“I was very thorough,” Valerius confirmed. He patted my stomach once—gently, deliberately—then turned to Brenna, who stood by the window braiding and unbraiding a loose strand of her dark hair. “Brenna, can we go get honey cakes? I want to tell the kitchen lady about the baby.”

Brenna glanced at me. Her eyes were still swollen from crying, but she managed a soft, encouraging nod as if to say: I’ll keep him safe. Take your time.

“Honey cakes sound perfect,” Brenna said. She crossed the room and held out her hand. “Come on, little wolf. Let’s give Mommy and Daddy some time to talk about grown-up wolf things.”

Valerius hopped off the bed with the boneless agility of a four-year-old. He paused at the edge, though. Turned back. His small face was suddenly serious.

“Mommy?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“When your wolf wakes up all the way, will you show me?”

My throat tightened. “I promise.”

He grinned—wide, incandescent, his father’s stubborn jaw softened by baby roundness—and grabbed Brenna’s hand. They disappeared through the door. Physician Whitmore gathered his scrolls with a quiet bow and followed, pulling the door shut behind him with a soft click.

Silence settled over the room.

Not empty silence. Full silence. The kind that holds its breath.

Kaelen moved from the bedpost to the chair beside my bed. He sat slowly. The wood creaked under his weight. His hands found mine again—both of them, wrapping my fingers completely—and his thumbs resumed their steady rhythm across my knuckles.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. “Truthfully.”

I considered the question. My body ached—a deep, marrow-level soreness that pulsed with every heartbeat. But beneath that ache, the new energy hummed. Constant. Alert. Like a second circulatory system running parallel to the first.

“Overwhelmed,” I admitted. “The baby. Moonlight. The—” I gestured vaguely at myself. “All of it. It’s a lot to wake up to.”

“I know.” His thumbs paused. Then resumed. “Take whatever time you need.”

“It’s not that I’m afraid. It’s that everything feels different. Inside.” I pressed my free hand against my sternum. “Like my body isn’t quite the same body I fell asleep in.”

“It isn’t,” he said quietly. “Not exactly. Your wolf has been transforming since the moment you collapsed. She was pulling energy from the healing surge, reshaping herself. Growing.” His dark gold eyes held mine. Steady. Patient. “Moonlight has been reaching for Alex for days now. Calling to him. He’s been answering.”

A shiver traced down my spine. Not cold. Electric.

“Reaching how?”

“Through our bond.” He lifted my hand and pressed it flat against his chest. Beneath my palm, his heartbeat was strong. Measured. But underneath that steady rhythm, I felt something else—a pull. A magnetic tug that originated somewhere deeper than muscle or bone. It radiated from him and answered something inside me that I hadn’t known was calling.

“Feel that?” he murmured.

I nodded. My mouth had gone dry.

“That’s Alex. And this—” He moved my hand back to my own chest, pressing it gently over my heart. “That’s Moonlight answering.”

She was.

I closed my eyes and turned inward. It was like stepping through a door that had always existed but had never been unlocked before. The corridor of my consciousness widened. Deepened. And there, at the far end—not huddled in a corner, not trembling—

Moonlight stood waiting.

She was nothing like I remembered.

The wolf I had known was small. Hesitant. She moved through my inner landscape like a creature perpetually expecting to be struck. Her voice, when she spoke at all, had been thin. Apologetic.

This wolf was none of those things.

She stood tall. Her fur was a deep, rich chocolate brown—darker than I expected, with undertones of warm amber that caught the light of whatever ethereal illumination existed in this inner space. Her eyes were green. Vivid. Luminous. They held mine with quiet, unshakable confidence.

Hello, Elara.

Her voice was clear. Musical. Like water running over smooth stones.

Moonlight. I reached toward her with my mind. You’re—

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