Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 500

Chapter 500

XENOIS

I couldn’t explain. Didn’t have words for what I’d just experienced. A vision? A memory from another timeline? Precognition of something that could happen?

We rushed Lumina through the portal to the hospital in Zade’s territory-their medical facilities were more advanced than ours. The emergency team took over immediately, wheeling her away while Lynn provided rapid-fire updates about her condition.

I stood in the waiting area, still seeing double. Conference room and bedroom. Present and past. Two versions of the same terrible moment overlapping in my mind.

“Dad?”

I turned to find Riley, Lake, and Ollie standing with my parents. All three boys looked terrified, their young faces reflecting fear I recognized from that other timeline.

Ollie. Alive. Healthy. Not dead in a morgue somewhere while I celebrated another child’s birthday.

I dropped to my knees and pulled all three of them into a crushing embrace, needing to feel their solid reality. Needing confirmation that this was real, that they were here, that I hadn’t lost them.

‘Is Mom going to be okay?” Ollie asked, his voice small.

“Yes,” I promised, though my heart was pounding with the memory of vision-Lumina’s last words. “She’s going to be fine. The doctors are taking care of her.”

“You don’t sound sure,” Riley observed with that unnerving perceptiveness he’d developed. His precognitive abilities were probably showing him possibilities I didn’t want to consider.

‘I’m sure,’ I lied. “Your mother is strong. She’s going to be fine.”

Lake pressed against me, his small body trembling, “I can portal to her. Help her. I can-”

‘No,’ I said firmly. “The doctors have her. They know what they’re doing. We just need to wait.”

But waiting was torture.

I sat in that sterile waiting room, my children clustered around me, and couldn’t stop thinking about the vision. That other timeline. That other version of events where everything had gone so catastrophically wrong.

“Xenois.” Silvia appeared, looking more shaken than I’d seen her since the kidnapping. “What happened? They said Lumina had heart attack. She’s twenty five years old and in perfect health. How is that possible?”

‘I don’t know,” I admitted.

But that was a lie too. I knew exactly how it was possible because I’d seen it happen before. In that other timeline, that other version where I’d failed my family so completely that Lumina’s heart had literally broken from grief.

Samuel sat beside me, his warrior’s composure cracking to reveal genuine concern. “The doctors are good. Lynn’s the best healer in the region. If anyone can stabilize her, he can.”

I nodded mutely, unable to voice the terror clawing at my throat.

What if this was fate correcting itself? What if no matter what choices I made, no matter what timeline we were in, I was destined to lose her?

“Alpha Xenois?” A doctor appeared, and I was on my feet instantly. “Your mate is stable. The heart attack was severe but we caught it in time. She’s unconscious but her condition is no longer critical.”

“Next time,” she’d promised in that vision, “we’ll be free.”

Next time.

Was this the next time? Had Lumina somehow lived through that nightmare timeline, died, and been given another chance?

The thought was insane. Impossible. But I’d seen too much in the supernatural world to completely dismiss it.

Time manipulation existed. We had a five-year-old who could open portals through dimensional space. Riley saw multiple possible futures. Why couldn’t someone-or something-have sent Lumina back?

I studied her face, looking for some sign that she knew. That she remembered. That she’d been carrying the weight of that other timeline this whole time.

Three months ago, when I’d woken from that nightmare, Lumina had held me. Had soothed my panic. Had assured me it was just a bad dream.

But what if it wasn’t? What if I’d somehow glimpsed the timeline she’d already lived through? The one where I’d failed so completely that it killed both my son and my mate?

‘Dad?” Riley’s voice pulled me from my spiraling thoughts. “Your heart rate just spiked dramatically. What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” I lied automatically.

“That’s demonstrably false, Riley said with his usual directness. “You’re experiencing significant emotional distress beyond what the current situation warrants. There’s something else happening.”

I looked at my five-year-old son-my brilliant, tactical, precognitive son-and wondered if he could see it too. If his abilities showed him that other timeline, that other version where everything had gone wrong.