Chapter 192

Lila

The world had narrowed to pain. Endless, merciless pain.

Each contraction ripped through me like claws, shredding me apart from the inside. My body convulsed against it, my screams scraping my throat raw until I could barely make a sound. Sweat poured down my face, soaking the blanket beneath me, but still the fire burned in every muscle, every bone.

I couldn’t catch my breath. My chest heaved, lungs struggling, but the air slipped away faster than I could take it in.

My vision blurred at the edges, dark spots dancing before my eyes. I was slipping, falling into some void where there was no return.

“Her pulse is fading,” the midwife’s voice cut sharply through the haze. “She won’t last another hour like this.”

I barely managed to lift my head, but I saw Ronan then, crouched at my side, his face grim and pale. He was speaking to me, steady and calm, but his words were lost in the roar of blood in my ears.

The midwife’s hand pressed hard against my wrist, measuring the faint flutter of my pulse. Her eyes narrowed. “Unless she takes the antidote, both she and the children will die.”

The words struck like lightning.

Die. Wait, children… not child. My mind raced with first stroke of clarity in hours.

I’d refused again and again, terrified of what the antidote might do to the life inside me. I couldn’t risk it. Better I die than gamble with her life. But now? Now the choice wasn’t mine alone.

My hand trembled where it clutched the sheets. The babies moved faintly inside me, weak but alive. My child. My children. I had promised them life, promised to fight for them, even when all I wanted was to give up.

If I refused now, I would be breaking that promise.

Tears blurred my vision. I tried to shake my head, to cling to the fear, but the truth rang louder than my terror. I was already dying. If I did nothing, we all would.

“Lila,” Ronan’s voice pierced through, low and fierce. His hand slid into mine, grounding me. “Choose life. For them. Please.”

The next contraction seized me, forcing a scream that shredded what little strength I had left. My body buckled. I couldn’t fight anymore.

“Yes,” I rasped, my voice barely a whisper. “Give it to me.”

The midwife moved swiftly, pressing the vial into Ronan’s hand. He uncorked it, tilting my head back gently. His hands shook as he brought it to my lips. “Drink.”

The liquid was bitter, burning down my throat. For a heartbeat I gagged, nearly choking, but Ronan tipped the rest in, steadying me until I swallowed every drop.

Then, the world shifted.

Heat exploded in my veins, racing outward, burning away the weakness that had chained me for so long.

My heart stuttered, pounding hard enough to shake my chest. Breath rushed back into me like I had been drowning and finally broken the surface.

And then I felt my wolf.

Lila.

Ruby’s voice roared through my mind, fierce and bright, so sudden I sobbed aloud. She flooded me with her strength, her fury, her wild, untamed power.

Every nerve blazed with her presence. My muscles, moments ago trembling with exhaustion, shuddered with new strength.

I arched against the surge, gasping, eyes flying open. Light, silver and blinding, flickered at the edges of my vision. My skin hummed with it, every breath vibrating with power.

She was back. She was whole.

I clutched at Ronan’s hand, my nails digging into his skin as tears streamed down my face. “She’s here,” I choked. “Ruby’s here.”

Another contraction hit, but this time I met it head-on. The pain was still brutal, tearing me apart, but now there was something else beneath it; strength, the steady beat of my wolf rising with me, no longer silent, no longer chained.

For the first time in so long, I didn’t feel like I was dying.

I felt fully alive.

And gods help anyone who tried to take that, or my children, from me now.

Ronan

Her screams shredded me from the inside out. I’d heard warriors cry out when steel pierced them, when fire took their skin, when death clawed at their throats.

None of it compared to the sound of her breaking apart under the force of her labor.

She was slipping. I could see it in the color of her skin, in the shallow rise and fall of her chest, in the faint flutter of her pulse beneath my fingers. For the first time in years, fear truly shook me.

Not the kind that makes a man fight harder, but the kind that leaves him hollow and desperate.

The midwife’s verdict was merciless: Unless she takes the antidote, she and the children will die.

I had prepared for this moment, but still the words struck true. I turned toward Lila, and Gods, the sight of her nearly broke me: eyes glazed, body trembling, lips barely able to speak beyond screams.

“Choose life,” I whispered, pressing her hand tight in mine. “For them. Please.”

For her, I wasn’t above begging.

Her voice, faint and raw, rasped the word I’d being waiting months for. “Yes.”

The midwife shoved the vial into my hand, and for a moment I just stared at it. The antidote glimmered, the weight of every gamble I’d made contained in a few ounces of liquid.

My hand shook – me, who had held a blade steady in the worst battles, who had risked death by betraying by King and closest friend…

“Drink,” I urged, tilting her chin carefully, bringing the glass to her lips. She coughed, gagged, and my heart lurched into my throat. “Please, Lila, just a little more. You can do this.”

She swallowed, every last drop. Relief crashed through me so sharp it nearly knocked me back.

And then it began.

Her body arched, shuddering as heat flooded through her. I held her shoulders, terrified it was killing her instead, but then, then the light came.

It started in her eyes, a flicker of silver like the glint of a blade. Her breath surged, deep and strong, her chest heaving as though she had broken free from invisible chains.

Power rolled off her in waves, prickling my skin, raising the hairs on my arms.

“Luna,” I breathed, unable to look away.

Her fingers clawed at mine in relief and strength. Tears ran down her cheeks, and when her gaze locked on me, it burned fierce and untamed.

“She’s here,” she gasped. “Ruby’s here.”

The air itself seemed to hum with the force of it. I remembered this once before—months ago, in the clearing, when her wolf had surged through her. She didn’t know I saw and back then, it had startled me. Now, it shook me to the core.

Her glow wasn’t gentle. It was wild, furious, alive. This was the Lila who had been denied too long, who had clawed her way through poison and fear only to rise stronger.

This was why she had been poisoned in the first place. She was a Queen in her own right with that kind of power.

My throat tightened, and for the first time I couldn’t keep the mask in place. My composure cracked. A sound – half laugh, half sob – escaped me as I pressed my forehead to her damp hair. “Thank the Gods.”

The midwives moved around us, their voices sharp, guiding, preparing for what came next. But I stayed kneeling by her side, my hand locked in hers, unwilling to let go.

Her cries still shook me, but now they weren’t the cries of someone fading, they were the battle-cries of someone fighting, and winning.

She was alive. She was terrifyingly, beautifully, alive.

I clutched her hand tighter, whispering a plea I hadn’t meant to speak aloud. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave them.”

If she heard, she gave no sign. Another contraction tore through her, her body curling in with the force of it, but her strength didn’t falter this time. She met the pain head-on, her wolf howling through her, and the sight seared into me.

The room glowed with her.

For the first time in hours, hope gripped me hard and refused to let go.