Mated to Her Alpha Instructor (Eileen and Regis) novel Chapter 245

Chapter 245

Eileen

I stayed with Nina until her tears finally subsided into exhausted silence, her breathing evening out against my shoulder. When I helped her lie down to rest, she clutched her mother’s handkerchief like a lifeline, but there was something different in her eyes now–not peace, exactly, but the first fragile shoots of hope pushing through frozen ground.

“Rest,” I whispered, tucking the blanket around her. “You’re not alone anymore.”

She nodded, eyes already drifting closed. I slipped out of her room and made my way back through the quiet quarter.

Back in our room, I lowered myself onto the bed with a weary sigh. My body still ached from the transformation, from channeling that impossible power. But more than the physical exhaustion, I felt the absence–Regis was still out there, hunting down the last of Cornelius’s conspirators. Through our bond, I could sense him moving, focused and determined, but the distance made my chest tight with worry.

Come back safe, I thought, sending the feeling through our connection. Please come back to me.

I lay there in the lamplight, one hand resting on my rounded belly, feeling the baby’s occasional flutter. Soon. So soon now. And I wanted Regis here, wanted him safe, wanted-

The door opened.

I sat up so fast my head spun. Regis stood in the entrance, still in his battle leathers, streaked with dirt and dried blood. But his eyes–his eyes found mine and lit with such fierce relief that my breath caught.

“You’re awake.” Three strides brought him to my side. He knelt beside the cot, his hands framing my face, trembling slightly as though he needed to confirm I was real. “I felt you through the bond. I tried to get back sooner, but-”

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