When the rogue wolves surrounded me, their alpha immediately struck me across the face with his claws. I reeled back, dizzy from the blow.
Through my disorientation, I heard his snarling voice: “Your mate expelled my entire pack from our territory! We lost everything because of him! Our hunting grounds, our den, everything gone!”
“We heard your mate’s brother holds significant territory to the north. Once we have you, he’ll surrender those lands to us in exchange!”
Hearing they only wanted territory, I felt a small surge of relief.
At least there was a chance they might spare my baby.
But after nine desperate mindlinks and only silence, the tenth brought nothing but Alexander’s cold rejection.
His words stripped away any value I had in the rogues’ eyes.
I had never known such terror before.
I fell to my knees, begging and pleading repeatedly.
I would do anything if they would just spare my unborn child.
But my pleas meant nothing. The rogue alpha’s claws tore into my stomach with savage precision.
A pain like nothing I’d ever felt before ripped through me as my blood poured onto the forest floor, warm and sticky.
My baby was gone, just like that.
Yet only this morning, I had felt those tiny kicks inside me.
I began to lose consciousness as my body temperature dropped with each passing moment.
Without my baby, I had no will to live anyway.
Just as I was surrendering to death, Aurora crashed through the trees.
She glanced at my bloodied form and the still-active mind-link connection glowing at my temple. Her face contorted with rage as she screamed, “Why didn’t you call me? If I hadn’t sensed your pain through our sister bond, what would have happened to you? ”
She lifted me carefully, frantically sending a mind-link to Ethan.
“Looking for Vicky. Don’t bother me.” Those six words left her frozen in shock.
She tried to call for the pack guards, but we were too far from pack territory for the telepathic connection to work.
With no other choice, she half-carried, half-dragged me through the forest as the rogues pursued us.
They caught up quickly. One drove a silver dagger deep into Aurora’s abdomen while others bit into her arms and legs.
Still, she fought on, protecting me even as silver poison spread through her system.
By some miracle, we stumbled upon the border patrol.
The rogues scattered, but the damage was done.
Perhaps fate had written this ending for us. As I slowly closed my eyes in the pack hospital…
The pack healer confirmed what I already knew. My child was gone, torn from my womb by vengeful claws.
What I didn’t expect was the news about Aurora. The silver had penetrated too deeply into her system. She would never shift again—her wolf permanently suppressed by the poison.
She had sacrificed her wolf form—the most sacred part of any werewolf’s identity—to save me.
