Selene's POV
I stared at him, the weight of his words looming over me like a rogue wave. Cousin? He was Rael's cousin. The man who has saved me…was Rael's blood.
I staggered backwards, my heart pounding in my chest, pain blooming in my belly like a blade. No. No, this couldn't be happening. The fragile safety I thought I had found…shattered.
"You lied to me," I gasped. "You lied…."
"I never lied to you," Kaelen interrupted, "I just didn't want to tell you."
"That's the same thing," I hissed, trying to push myself up from the bed. My arms are shaking under me, too weak to hold my weight. "You're his blood. You could've….could've been leading him here this entire time!"
"I'm not," he snapped. "If I wanted him to find you, you'd already be at his doorstep by now." Those words hit me hard. Too hard. Something twisted deep inside me as I clutched my belly in pain. Sharp, hot—sliced through me again.
No.
Not now.
Another cramp worse than before, coiled and clenched in my womb, my vision began to fade. Kaelen moved towards me instantly, all anger gone. "What's wrong Selene?"
A low moan escaped me as I bent over. The pain came again, wicked this time. My body trembled, and a sweat broke out across my forehead. "What's happening?" His voice cut through the haze.
"I think…. I think the baby's coming."
For a moment Kaelen just stood there, saying nothing. But then the Alpha in him took over immediately. He was at my side in seconds, scooping me into his arms like I weighed nothing.
I didn't fight him, even though I wanted to. But I couldn't. My body was on fire, raging with agony and fear. "I need to get you to someone," he murmured, pushing through the cabin door into the night.
The cold air hit my face, shocking me fully awake. I saw the trees blue past me, moonlight fading through their branches as Kaelen ran—faster than I thought a man his size could move. My hands gripped his shoulders, digging into his clothes for every new contraction.
"Hold on," he growled, more to himself than me. "Just a little longer."
Everything else began to disappear. Time dissolved into flashes—his footsteps echoing through the forest floor, the wind howling past while my pain started to twist even tighter and tighter.
At some point, I was about to give up. Darkness wrapped around my mind like cold water, dragging me down. Then light again, before I knew it we were standing at the front of a stone building.
The door flung open. Voices—shocked, frightened, and muffled. "I don't care who sees. Wake the midwife. Now." Kaelen's voice came out sharp, commanding. The next thing I could hear was a woman's gasp, footsteps fading. Before the pain dragged me under once more.
When I woke, I was on a different bed, this one was different. Clothes soaked with sweat clung to my skin. Warm hands pressed to my abdomen, voices murmuring nearby. "She's in labor," someone said. "The baby is full term. She just needs time before it comes out."
"She doesn't have time," Kaelen barked. "You'll have to deliver that child the easy way or the hard way, and trust me you don't want me to do it the hard way." Silence fell over the room..
"I'll do it", the midwife whispered. My head shifted to the side, Kaelen stood in the shadows, arms crossed, his jaw tight. His shirt was airway soaked through, his hair still damp with sweat, but his eyes were still locked on me.
A scream ripped from my throat before I could voice out his name. The midwife sprang into action, barking orders I couldn't understand. Asking for towels, water, and pressure.
I screamed again as my body ached in pain. So much pain. It felt like I was being ripped open. "You're doing well," the midwife said, even though I knew it was all a lie.
My vision began swarming with stars, and I gritted my teeth at the thought of Rael. His hands, his lies. His betrayal. I thought of the coldness in his eyes for me when he announced his engagement.
I thought of the child he left behind. And I pushed. The scream that tore from me was primal, raw.
And then—
A cry. High and thin.
My head fell back as tears poured from my eyes. "It's a girl," the midwife whispered. I turned my head, barely able to breathe. The woman wrapped the child in a cloth and handed her to me. My arms trembled, but I took her.
She was so small, so warm, too good to be real. Her tiny fingers curled around mine, and something inside me changed—then stitched back together in a way I hadn't known was ever possible.
Kaelen stepped forward slowly, his shadow falling over us. "She's perfect," I whispered. He said nothing at first, only stared down at the child with a look I couldn't quite figure out—past shock, part surprise.
Then he turned to the midwife. "If a single soul hears of this," he said, voice low and deadly, "I will paint your doorstep in blood." The midwife quickly nodded, as if she knew the consequences of going against him.
My daughter.
Tears clung to my eyes, but I didn't blink them away. She was proof that I didn't die the night Rael had betrayed me. Proof that even with everything I had been through, something beautiful still came out of it.
But just as I let the quiet wrap around me, Kaelen stepped closer to me like a shadow reborn from the dark—his eyes sharper now, burning with something unreadable, his face flickering to the child in my arms.
"She looks nothing like him," he said, voice rough, low.
"She has my eyes," I murmured. He nodded once, then knelt beside the bed, like a warrior preparing to go to war. His hand rested lightly on the blanket, near hers.
"I meant what I said, Selene," he said, his voice low but carrying something edged with steel. "You don't belong to any Alpha. Not him. Not even me."
I swallowed hard, the closeness between us made my heart skip—but this wasn't lust. It was something else. Something deeper, more dangerous.
He leaned in closer, so only I could hear. "I swear to you now… on the blood I share with him… I'll never let Rael lay a finger on you or this child."
"If he crosses into my land, I will spill his blood before he ever speaks your name again," he promised, his eyes still locked to mine.
"You're under my protection now, Selene. And I will burn this entire fucking territory to the ground before I let him take you."