Escaping the Alpha, Claimed in the End novel Chapter 69

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Chapter 69 The bat ur Airli

Chapter 59 The baby or Amelia

“Amelia’s POV

The silence after the heater’s pronouncement was prolonged. The only voice that could be heard was the almost inaudible grow! vibrating in Ryder’s chest.

“What do you mean?” Ryder asked.

Ryder’s voice wasn’t loud. He hadn’t moved from beside my bed, but he had somehow become larger, the air around him

tense

The healer flinched but held his ground. “Alpha, the scans are unequivocal. The fetal nourishment is entangled with Luna’s life-force in an unusual symbiosis. Her systems are being cannibalized. Her wolf’s essence is being siphoned to fuel a growth rate that is biologically impossible.”

“Can’t it be fixed?” he asked.

“There is no ‘fixing’ this, Alpha,” the healer said, “The only way to stop the drain on Luna is to… to terminate the pregnancy”

I hadn’t even thought of that.

Termination meant taking the desperate hope living inside me and turning it into nothing.

A sound escaped me, a whimper that was pure animal denial. My hands flew to my stomach in a primal, protective clawing, as if I could physically shield the life within from the verdict being passed in this room.

Ryder’s head snapped toward me, and for the first time since the healer spoke, I saw past the Alpha’s fury to the man beneath. He looked from my face, down to my guarding hands, and back again.

I saw the war erupt within him, the Alpha who needed an heir, the mate who worshiped his Luna, the man who had already begun to love the idea of a child with the woman he adored.

He closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them, he had already made the decision. He took a slow, shuddering breath and turned back to me, lowering himself to one knee so his face was level with mine.

“Amelia,” he began, his voice rough. He reached for my hand, the one not clenched over my belly, and his touch was trembling. “My love… we can’t keep this pup.”

The words were a physical blow. I jerked back as if scalded. “No,” I breathed. “No, Ryder, we won’t terminate it.”

“I understand that it’s killing you!” The control snapped. “I see you fading away! I feel your exhaustion like a sickness in my own soul!”

“I can’t end it!” I shot back, maternal defiance cutting through my weakness. “It’s our child! Our baby! We can find another way.”

The lie of the old woman’s ‘blessing’ choked me, but I pushed past it. This was my fault. I had to save us both.

“There is no other way!” He surged to his feet and raked a hand through his hair, pulling at the roots. “Do you think I want this?” His voice cracked. “Do you think I want to choose?”

“You’re not choosing!” I cried, tears spilling hot and fast. “You’re giving up! This is our baby, Ryder! A piece of you and me! How can you just… just discard it?”

He stared at me, and the look in his eyes was one of utter devastation. He took a step toward me, his frame trembling with the force of his emotion.

“Amelia, look at me. That ‘piece of us’ is stealing the whole from you. Every day it grows, you diminish. So you want me to stand by and watch? You want me to risk losing you?”

His voice escalated, each word louder than the last “How could an embryo without a heartbeat ever replace you?”

I froze.

His chest heaved. He watched the shock and pain wash over my face, and some of the fury drained from him, leaving him in exhausted despair. He closed his eyes, visibly wresting the mantle of the Alpha around his shattered emotions. When he spoke again, his voice was a command that brooked no argument.

“I’m the Alpha. This is my decision. The healer will make the preparations.” He did not look at me again. He turned on his heel and walked out of the infirmary.

The door clicked shut behind him.

The silence returned, but now it was a vacuum. The healer stood awkwardly, then murmured something about giving me time and slipped out.

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life inside me that was both my deepest desire and my executioner. My hands still pressed against my

the subtle, firm curve. Our pup. The one we had dreamed of in quiet moments. The one Dasha had whose future I had poisoned with my naivety.

rolled over me.

crushing weight of grief, made me uncomfortable.

was choosing me. But by choosing to end this pregnancy, he was, in a way I knew he couldn’t yet see, reak a part of me that might never heat: A part that believed in the life we could create together, despite all the

not come back to the infirmary. He didn’t for the next few days. I was moved back to my suite, but it felt like a The bed was too large, too cold. Ryder’s scent on the pillow was a constant, aching accusation.

ery night, as the exhausting day finally pulled me under, I felt it. His warmth, his care, his love. We disagreed about up but he was still there, emotionally. It was the only thing that kept me from splintering apart.

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