Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 472

Chapter 472

His eyes were shut.

“Is he…?”

“He is alive, Miss Natalia,” one of the healers whispered, moving aside. “But he is barely conscious, and may not recognize you.”

My throat tightened. I rushed forward, and suddenly saw Karl sitting there. He shot to his feet when he saw me and embraced me without a word.

“Natalia,” he whispered into my hair. “You’re back.”

I nodded and pulled back. There was so much I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t. The words would come.

Karl seemed to understand. Without speaking, he squeezed my arm and left. The healers followed behind him, leaving me alone with my father.

I crossed the room and dropped into the chair beside his bed, taking his hand in mine. It felt so small. So fragile. I’m here, Father,” I said. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me or not, but I made the words come out anyway.

To my surprise, my father’s eyes flickered open at the sound of my voice. They were still cloudy with cataracts, but he’d heard me. “Natalia…”

I choked down a sob and clasped his gnarled old hand in mine. Tears slipped down my cheeks and plopped onto his papery skin. He looked so old, so… broken. And there was nothing we could do. Forty years had been stolen from us in the blink of an eye, and that was that. There was no magical cure. No special ruby to reverse the aging effects.

My father would die tonight, just a few months after I got to meet him.

“Father,” I whispered. “I’m here.” I looked up at David, who had just slipped in quietly.

My father didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure if he could speak that much; when he did speak, his voice sounded raspy and raw, like he’d swallowed hot coals.

“Your… ability…” He inhaled with a rattling wheeze that made my chest tighten. “I can… sense it.”

I dipped my head. “It… I don’t know what it is.”

He squeezed my hand, but it was so faint I almost didn’t feel it. “Tell me… About it…”

I took a deep breath, glancing uncertainly at David, but he nodded, silently encouraging me to go on. I told him everything. As I spoke, his eyes fell shut, and I feared he had fallen asleep, or worse. But when I finished, he nodded, and said quietly, “Ah… The Guardian Mother Gene…”

I furrowed my brow. David leaned forward with a sparkle in his eye I’d never seen before. “It’s a very rare gene,‘ he murmured. “And a highly treasured one, at that.”

“What does it mean?” I whispered.

“Your children…” My father reached up with a trembling hand to cup my face. “As long as you are near… Will

never… Die…”

I stared at him in shock. He was already sleeping again, his hand falling back to the blankets, but David’s expression was resolute. “My children are… What? Invincible?” I asked. It sounded absurd. “Because of this… ability?”

“(

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Chapter 472

+25 Bonus

“Sort of,” David said. “It’s one of the most ancient genes in Bloodmoon–said to belong only to direct female descendants of the Guardian Mother, the matriarch of Bloodmoon. It’s said that whoever possesses the gene will produce strong, healthy offspring against all odds, and her children will always be protected by her golden light that lives within her so that the bloodline may continue forever. The universe will bend in mysterious ways to protect the offspring, as long as their mother is near.”

“That makes no sense,” I blurted out.

David shrugged. “Most things never do.”

Furrowing my brow, I thought back to the moments in the palace, when I’d felt that surge of strength and righteous fury. How I could have taken down that entire place with my bare hands if it meant protecting my children.

And then in the mountain…

David was right. Most things didn’t make sense. But my children were safe, and that was all that mattered to me.

We stayed there for the rest of the night, holding my father’s hand and remaining by his side. He slipped away around midnight.

There were no final words, there was no drawn–out agony. He just… didn’t wake up again, and when the healers came to check on him, they said he’d peacefully passed on.

D

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