Chapter 191

Kayla

Light filtered through my eyelids, hazy and blurred. Everything felt heavy. Sore. But alive.

The first thing I saw was Nicholas hunched over me, clutching me so tightly I could barely breathe.

“Kayla,” he murmured against my throat. “Kayla, please come back…”

My shaky hand came up, my fingers finding his hair and tangling weakly in the dark strands. Nicholas froze, his entire body going rigid against me. Slowly, he lifted his head to look at my face.

The expression I saw there nearly broke my heart. His eyes were wild, his face pale and drawn with grief. For a moment, he just stared at me, disbelief written across his features. Then his hands were cradling my face.

“Kayla?” he whispered. “Are you—”

“I’m here,” I managed to croak. “I’m okay.”

A sound tore from his throat, somewhere between a sob and a laugh. He pulled me against him, burying his face in my hair, his entire body shaking.

“You were gone,” he said. “You were gone, and I—”

“I know.” I wrapped my weak arms around him, holding him as tightly as my limited strength would allow. “But I came back.”

The room erupted in chaos around us. Jade collapsed to her knees on the bed, sobbing with relief. Emma wheeled closer, her own tears streaming silently down her face. Noah and Marcus stood frozen in shock, as if they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.

“It’s a miracle,” the doctor said, appearing at the bedside with a stethoscope already in hand. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Her heart stopped completely.”

Nicholas pulled back just enough to let the doctor examine me, but he kept hold of my hand, his grip painfully tight, as if he was afraid I might slip away again if he let go.

“The baby?” I asked, my free hand going instinctively to my stomach. “Is the baby—”

“Fine,” the doctor said, sounding bewildered as he pressed his stethoscope to my abdomen. “The heartbeat is strong. Stronger than before, in fact. I don’t understand how that’s possible.”

But I did. I understood perfectly.

My wolf.

…

Later that night, after the doctor had run what felt like a thousand tests and finally pronounced both me and the baby miraculously healthy, Nicholas and I lay tangled together beneath the blankets of our bed. His body was curled protectively around mine, one hand resting possessively on my stomach where our child grew, stronger now than ever.

“Tell me again,” he murmured against my hair. “About your wolf.”

I smiled in the darkness. This had to be the tenth time he’d asked to hear the story, but I didn’t mind telling it again. Each retelling made it feel more real, less like a dream and more like the truth I knew it to be.

It still seemed almost too incredible to believe, but the doctor’s amazement at my recovery had been genuine. He’d run test after test, each one confirming what should have been impossible: not only was I alive after clinical death, but the baby was thriving in a way it hadn’t been before.

The pregnancy, he’d declared, would likely progress normally—maybe even more smoothly than most wolf pregnancies.

A miracle, he’d called it. But I knew better. It was my wolf, lending me her strength, making sure both the baby and I survived.

“I’d never been so terrified in my life,” Nicholas admitted quietly, his arms tightening around me. “When you drew your last breath, when your heart stopped beating… I felt like my own heart had been ripped out of my chest.”

I turned in his arms to face him, my fingers tracing the strong line of his jaw. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” he said fiercely. “It was Isabella’s.”

The name sent a chill through me despite the warmth of our bed. “You never did finish telling me exactly what happened in the woods.”

Nicholas’s jaw tightened, his eyes darkening with anger. “That bitch,” he muttered. “She took some kind of potion to disguise herself as Anna. She tried to make me think we were fated.”

“But why?” I asked, feeling sick just at the thought of a stepmother trying to seduce her own stepson. “What could she possibly gain from that?”

“Revenge,” Nicholas said flatly. “After we thwarted her plans with your father and William, she lost everything. Her home, her status, her power. She’s basically been living as a rogue, moving from place to place with nowhere to call her own.”

“So it was one last-ditch effort to ruin our lives?”

Nicholas nodded. “She was furious. All she cared about was destroying everything we’ve built together.”

“What did you do with her?”

“She’s locked up in Nightshade’s prison for now,” Nicholas said grimly. “I’m going to speak to the guild to decide her fate.”

I shivered. I couldn’t believe it, and yet… Somehow, I could. Because Isabella had done so much worse. This was just the cherry on top.

My thoughts drifted back to what my wolf had told me in that strange, foggy place between life and death. Nicholas is our mate. The words had filled me with a warmth that lingered even now, hours later.

I think I had somehow always known, deep down, that he was mine, but to have it confirmed by my wolf… it felt like the final piece of a puzzle slotting into place.

I considered telling him, sharing this last precious detail of my experience. But something held me back. I wanted it to be a surprise, something special to reveal when my wolf finally emerged after the baby was born.

A gift for both of us after the long months of waiting that still lay ahead.

Instead, I leaned up and pressed my lips to his. Nicholas responded immediately, his hand sliding up to cradle the back of my head, fingers tangling in my hair.

“I love you,” I whispered against his mouth. “So much.”

“Fuck. I want you again,” he murmured, and I felt his smile against my lips.

I laughed softly, remembering how we’d already made love twice since I’d woken up. The first time had been desperate, almost frantic, both of us needing the reassurance of skin against skin, heartbeat against heartbeat.

Moments after the doctor had confirmed me healthy, Nicholas had sent the others away with a warning growl, and had barely made it to the shower to clean off the blood before he was all over me.

The second had been slower, more tender, but just as passionate.

Nicholas rolled over me now, his weight supported on his forearms as he looked down at me with such love it made my chest ache. He lowered his head, pressing kisses to my forehead, my cheeks, the tip of my nose, before capturing my lips once more.

I sighed into the kiss, my hands sliding down his back, feeling the powerful muscles shift beneath my fingertips. He pulled back slightly, trailing his lips down my neck, across my collarbone, lower still until he reached my breasts.

I arched against him, a soft moan escaping me as his mouth closed around one nipple, his hand coming up to caress the other.

He looked up at me, his amber eyes glowing in the dimness of our bedroom. “I could spend hours just like this,” he murmured. “Tasting every inch of you.”

Heat pooled low in my belly at his words. “I’m not going to stop you. I’m healthy as an ox now, remember? I could go all night.”

And it was true; I felt like I’d shot straight silverbite into my veins, like every color and sound and smell was intensified, like I could fly to the moon and back. Sleep was far away still, even though it was well past midnight.

His chuckle vibrated against my skin as he continued his journey downward, pressing open-mouthed kisses to my ribcage, my stomach, the curve of my hip. When he reached the apex of my thighs, he paused, his breath hot against my most sensitive flesh.

“Beautiful,” he whispered, before lowering his head and tasting me.

I cried out, my hips bucking involuntarily as pleasure shot through me. Nicholas’s hands gripped my thighs, holding me open for him as he worked his tongue against me with devastating precision.

He knew exactly how to touch me, how to drive me to the edge and keep me there, trembling on the precipice of release.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, when I was about to shatter into a thousand pieces, he pulled away. I whimpered at the loss, but then he was moving up my body again, positioning himself between my thighs.

“I need to be inside you,” he said roughly, his eyes locked with mine as he pushed forward, filling me in one smooth thrust.

We both groaned at the sensation, the perfect fit of our bodies coming together. Nicholas began to move, setting a rhythm that had me clutching at his shoulders, my nails digging into his skin.

“I could do this all night,” Nicholas panted against my ear. “Every night. After nearly losing you, I want to make love to you forever, nonstop, for the rest of our lives.”

I laughed breathlessly, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him deeper. “We have time, Nicholas,” I whispered against his lips. “We have time…”