Elowen

The thunder crashed outside like it was determined to split the world in two. I woke up gasping, clutching my abdomen as pain tore through me.

Not a normal pain—this was different. Sharper. More urgent.

“Ah! No… not again!” I cried out, my voice drowned by another roar of thunder.

Lightning flashed, illuminating my small bedroom in the isolated cabin where Dorian had insisted I stay. “For your protection,” he’d said. What a cruel joke that seems now.

The pain intensified, radiating through my lower body.

Something was terribly wrong with my baby.

Our baby.

“It’s worse this time… so much worse…”

Then it happened—the thing that always happens when he’s with her. Our mate bond, something that should be sacred and beautiful, turned into an instrument of torture.

Vivid images flooded my mind: Dorian’s hands tangled in Selene’s hair, his lips on her neck, her smug smile as she looked up at him.

“Goddess, no… I can see them. I can SEE THEM!”

The physical pain of the mate bond tearing at me combined with the fresh wave of agony in my abdomen. I reached for my phone with trembling hands, nearly knocking it off the nightstand. The screen illuminated my tear-streaked face as another flash of lightning revealed something that made my heart stop—blood. So much blood soaking through my nightgown, spreading beneath me on the sheets.

“Someone… anyone… the storm…”

The call went straight to voicemail. Of course it did. He always silenced his phone when he was with her.

“Dorian, please…” My voice broke as I recorded a message. “I know you’re with her, but something’s wrong with the baby. There’s so much pain…”

Another vision hit me so forcefully I dropped the phone. Dorian’s voice, clear as if he were standing next to me, whispering in Selene’s ear.

“You’re perfect. You’re strong, unlike her. You’re the only one who deserves to be my Luna.”

Selene’s smug reply cut through me like a knife. “What about your little secret? The weak one?”

His laugh—the same laugh I once thought was only for me—echoed in my head. “She serves her purpose for now. She means nothing.”

“Stop touching her like that!” I screamed into the empty room.

My body convulsed with another wave of pain. The blood was flowing faster now, forming a growing pool beneath me. I knew what was happening—I was losing our baby. The tiny life inside me, only a month old but already everything to me, was slipping away.