Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 392

Natalia’s POV

The great hall was bustling with the sounds of conversation and laughter, the air smelling of roast meat and fresh vegetables. Off in the distance, some of the Bloodmoon warriors had challenged our own to a drinking contest, making Andrei shake his head in disapproval as he watched our warriors stumble and spill wine down their shirts.

For a little while, the world felt almost normal.

If I imagined that my father wasn’t an eighty year old man in the blink of an eye, of course. And if I pretended that, when I looked into Celeste’s eyes across the way, she was still the same young woman I had last seen. Not aged beyond her years by a madwoman who never should have been allowed to become a mother.

“Here you go, Dad,” I said, forcing a smile as I lifted the spoonful of broth to my father’s mouth. “It’ll keep your strength up.”

My father didn’t respond–just stared off into the distance, blinking slowly as if the broth wasn’t even there.

“Dad?” I waved the spoon in front of his mouth a little, nudging it against his lips.

Nothing. His tongue didn’t even dart out to lick the salty broth.

It didn’t even seem like he was in there anymore. If I was being honest, I almost hoped that he wasn’t. Maybe it was better if he was fully unconscious, nothing more than an empty husk. Perhaps his mind was elsewhere, somewhere pleasant and warm, somewhere that his body wasn’t broken and he didn’t need to be pushed around in a wheelchair all day or fed fucking broth to sustain himself.

When he continued to show no reaction whatsoever to the broth, I sighed and set the spoon back down in the bowl, glancing around. Catherine, sitting beside me, nudged my knee beneath the table with hers and caused me to look at her. The sympathetic expression on her face made my shoulders sag.

“There must be a way to cure him,” she said quietly, leaning in so I could hear her over the din. “Her, too.” She nodded toward Celeste, who was sitting stoically at the other end of the table, staring out over the sea of people. Karl was beside her, chattering away. I thought I saw a hint of a smile tugging at her lips, but she still looked like she was on the verge of tears.

I winced at the sight and turned back to Catherine. “Let’s hope so.” My hands curled around my skirt under the table at the thought of not being able to find a cure. What if there were no rubies that could reverse what had been done to Celeste and my father? What then?

Andrei, appearing out of nowhere behind me, touched my shoulder. I looked down at his hand, at the weathered skin, and felt my stomach drop further.

But before I could speak, he set something in front of me: a small scrap of paper. It looked like a small, hastily written letter. Curious, I picked it up and read its contents.

“Awaiting news of the woman,” it read. “Where are you? If no response in three days, will assume you’re finally dead.”

I frowned, glancing up at Andrei as I handed the note to Catherine. “My Beta just found this in Helena’s study,” Andrei explained quietly. “Seems like her accomplices might not know that she’s dead just yet.”

I looked at Catherine, who had just passed the note on to the others. “Perhaps the element of surprise is in our favor,” she mused, shooting us both a meaningful look.

Andrei nodded curtly. “Which is precisely why I’m thinking we should march tomorrow morning instead of the

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Chapter 302

+25 Bonus

day after. If they don’t know Bloodmoon was taken back, we might be able to give them the jump.”

I considered our options, realizing that Andrei was right. Catherine seemed to realize it, too, and said, “Meeting in the morning?”

“Before dawn, preferably,” Andrei said. “We can all sleep on it, but I want to be gone before sunrise. For now, I’m going to join a search party for Damon. Shouldn’t be gone more than an couple of hours.”

“I should get the twins to bed.” I stood, turning to him. Honestly, I was exhausted, and the idea of marching again when we hadn’t even had a full day of rest yet, was even more exhausting. But I said firmly, “I want to go with you tomorrow.”

“No.” Andrei’s expression brooked no argument. “We talked about this already, Natalia. You have to stay here with the twins. Where it’s safe.”

“It won’t be as safe here once half the warriors leave,” I pointed out. “It’s safer with you.”

Andrei gave me a look that said that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and splayed his hand across the swell of my belly to drive the point home. I cursed under my breath and bit the inside of my cheek, knowing damn well that he was right but I was too stubborn to admit it.

“We’ll talk about this in the morning,” I whispered, turning to leave. “I’m putting the twins to bed now.”

Andrei’s jaw tightened at my stubbornness, but he nodded and stepped out of the way. We both knew he would get his way in the end, regardless.

The twins protested when I told them it was time for bed, but they were yawning already. Taking both of their hands, I guided them out of the great hall and through the corridors toward our suite.

“Mommy?” Jane asked, tugging on my hand as we walked. “Are we gonna stay together now?”

“Uncle David said we’re staying here,” Max pointed out. “Does that mean you and Daddy are staying too?”

My chest tightened. Logically, I knew that I would wind up staying here with them. I was pregnant, and the twins needed me. Even if I could somehow be useful in battle with a swelling belly and exhaustion seeping into my bones, it was too dangerous to leave the twins here alone. If something were to happen, we couldn’t turn the twins into orphans. One of us had to stay alive.

But… dammit, if it didn’t terrify me to no end. Having to sit idly by while Andrei went off into those mountains made my heart lurch with fear. I had already spent five years without him; how could I handle a lifetime of it with no chance of seeing each other again? If I had been childless and even more reckless than I already was, I would have preferred to die alongside him.

Still, although my mind was swirling with all of the horrifying possibilities, I forced a smile onto my face, if only for the twins‘ sake. “Don’t worry your little heads about that right now,” I said gently, reaching for the doorknob to our suite. “Right now, you both need a bath and some sleep.”

The twins whined in protest as I opened the door. “No! I’m not tired!” they cried out in tandem, yanking on my skirt. “Can we at least read some bedtime stories?” Jane pleaded.

“Fine, but just one,” I chuckled, shaking my head as I stepped into the room. “You two were already up way too late last night-”

My laughter died in my throat as I stepped into the room and saw him.

A man I didn’t recognize.

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Chapter 3p2

Standing in front of the bed with a ruby glowing in his palm.

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