Chapter 117
Chapter 117
The rain was still coming down when Alice disappeared with my baby.
5 vouchers
For one second, my body forgot I had just given birth. I shoved Damien’s hands off me and tried to get off the bed. Pain ripped through my stomach so hard I folded forward, but I still grabbed the edge of the mattress and dragged one leg over.
“Sienna, stop,” Damien said, catching my waist.
“No.” I pushed at his chest, nails scraping his shirt. “Move. She has her. Damien, she has our baby.”
His arms locked around me before my feet touched the floor. “You are bleeding.”
“I don’t care.” I twisted hard, trying to get past him. “Move.”
Linda slammed the door shut behind us, shouting orders into the hallway. “Seal the east stairwell. Nobody leaves the floor. Find Alice now.”
Damien kept one arm around my waist and the other across my shoulders. “Sienna, look at me.”
I jerked my head away. “No. Don’t make me look at you like this is normal.”
“It is not normal.” His voice cracked, but his grip did not loosen. “But if you run right now, you will collapse before you reach the gate.”
“Then let me collapse.” I hit his chest with my palm. “Let me do something.”
The healer pushed closer, cloth pressed in her hands. “Alpha, she is still bleeding.”
“Do not talk about me like I am not here,” I snapped, trying to stand again.
My legs shook under me. Damien caught me before my knees hit the floor and lifted me back onto the bed. I screamed, grabbing his arm, trying to pull myself back up.
“No. No, no, no.” My breath came out broken. “She is crying. I can hear her. Damien, she is crying.”
His face went white. “You can hear her?”
I pressed both hands over my chest. “I don’t know. I think so. I felt her. She is scared.”
Damien turned toward Linda. “Send trackers to every exit. Now.”
Linda nodded and ran out.
I tried to follow, but Damien blocked me with his body. I shoved at him with both hands. “You let her take
her.”
His eyes froze on mine.
11:53 Thu, May 21 J
Chapter 117
X60
5 vouchers
The words came out before I could stop them, ugly and sharp and soaked in pain. “You let Alice take our baby.”
Damien flinched like I had hit him with a blade. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
The healer reached for my arm. “Sienna, please lie back.”
I slapped her hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
Damien took one slow step closer. “Sienna.”
I backed against the headboard, clutching the bloody sheets to my stomach. “No. Don’t come near me.”
His throat moved. Rain battered the windows behind him. Silver powder still clung to his cheek, and one eye was red from where Alice had thrown it at him. He looked ruined. I did not care. I cared, but I could not reach that part of myself.
He held both hands up. “I am going to bring her back.”
“Then go.” My voice shook. “Go now.”
“If I leave you like this and you bleed out,” he said, jaw trembling, “I lose both of you.”
I stared at him, tears sliding down my face. “Don’t make this about me.”
“It is about you.” He stepped closer, then stopped when I pulled away. “It is about her. It is about both of you.”
“She was in my arms.” I grabbed my hair with both hands and pulled. “She cried, and I held her, and then Alice took her like she was nothing.”
Damien’s eyes filled, but he blinked it back fast. Alpha first. Father later. I saw the switch happen, and it made me hate the world even more.
He turned to the guards rushing in. “No one enters this room except Linda or the healer. If anyone tries, you cut them down.”
“Yes, Alpha,” one guard said.
I laughed once, bitter and breathless. “Now you guard the room?”
Damien’s face tightened. “I deserve that.”
“Yes, you do.”
The healer pressed a cloth against my thigh, and this time I did not have the strength to fight her. I stared at the empty blanket where my daughter had been lying. It still had a tiny dent in it.
My chest caved in.
Damien followed my gaze. His hand curled into a fist at his side.
11:53 Thu, May 21 ♫
Chapter 117
I whispered, “Did she even have a name?”
He looked at me.
:
I wiped my face with the back of my wrist. “We did not even name her.”
His jaw shook once. “We will.”
I shook my head. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like promises can fix this.”
He swallowed and looked down.
I turned away from him, hugging myself. “Don’t touch me unless you’re bringing her back.”
The room went silent.
Damien’s face broke for half a second. Then he nodded, slow and painful. “Okay.”
5 vouchers
I expected him to argue. I almost wanted him to, because rage was easier than the hole in my chest. But he stepped back. He gave me the space I asked for, even though every part of him looked like it hated obeying.
Linda came back soaked from the rain, hair stuck to her face. “We found tracks toward the east gate.”
Damien straightened. “With me.”
He looked at me one more time. I did not look back. If I did, I would beg him to stay and go at the same time.
He left.
The room felt colder the second the door closed. I leaned forward, gripping the sheets, listening to rain, footsteps, shouting, anything that might tell me my baby was still close.
Minutes dragged.
Then Damien returned, breathing hard, rain dripping from his hair. His hands were covered in mud.
He held something dark in his fist.
Alice’s cloak.
My stomach dropped.
Damien opened it slowly.
The healer gasped behind me, and I stopped breathing completely there.
The fabric was soaked in rain and covered in blood.
11:53 Thu, May 21 J
Chapter IIS
