Chapter 149 Kaden's POV
We returned to the pack house covered in blood and exhausted to the bone.
The moment I walked through the doors, I knew something was wrong. Servants were running. Guards were shouting and the air was thick with panic.
"What happened?" I demanded.
A nurse came rushing toward me. "Alpha! It is Elara! She's been attacked! She's in surgery now!"
My blood turned to ice. "Attacked? By who? How?"
"Selena she went into Elara's room tried to take the baby beat Elara badly tore all her surgical stitches she has lost so much blood-"
I didn't wait to hear more. I ran toward the medical wing, Ethan right behind me.
Damian was already there, scrubbing in, preparing for emergency surgery.
"How bad?" I asked.
"Critically, all the internal repairs I did after the birth are destroyed. She is hemorrhaging again. I have to go back in immediately or she won't make it."
He looked at me with exhausted, haunted eyes. "I don't know if she'll survive this, Kaden. She's been through too much, lost too much blood, her body might just give up."
"Save her, do whatever it takes."
"I'm trying. I've been trying." He disappeared into the operating room.
I turned to find Selena.
She was in the hallway, being held by two guards. Her head was bandaged from where Kira had hit her with the vase blood stained her clothes and Elara's blood.
I stared toward her, my claws extending, murder in my eyes.
Ethan grabbed my arm. "Don't be here, not now."
"She tried to kill my mate! I tried to take my son!"
"I know and she will pay for it but if you kill her now, in front of witnesses, while you're covered in enemy blood and clearly not thinking straight, the elders will use it against you. They will say you are unstable and unfit to lead."
"I don't care-"
"You should care! For Elara's sake! For Adrian's sake!"
Ethan's grip tightened. "Let the law handle this, let the pack decide her punishment. Do this right."
While we argued, Selena saw her chance. She wrenched free from the distracted guards and ran down the hallway toward the exit.
"Stop her!" I roared.
But she was fast desperate; she made it to the doors and disappeared into the night before anyone could catch her.
"Find her!" I ordered the guards.
"Search every inch of pack territory! I want her found and brought back in chains!"
They scattered to begin the search.
I stood there shaking with rage and helplessness. My mate was dying in surgery. My enemy had escaped and everything was falling apart.
Then I heard crying.
A baby's cry. Adrian's cry.
I turned to see Kira walking down the hallway, cradling my son. She looked barely strong enough to stand but she held him carefully, protectively.
"He won't stop crying," She said. "I've tried everything. I think he needs his father."
She handed Adrian to me.
The moment I held him, the moment he felt my presence, his cries quieted slightly. He looked up at me with those green eyes and made a small, distressed sound.
"I know," I whispered.
"I know you want your mother who is fighting to come back to you, you just have to be patient."
But Adrian wouldn't be comforted; he cried and cried, sensing that something was terribly wrong.
Hours passed. I paced the hallway with Adrian, trying to soothe him while waiting for news about Elara.
Pack members started gathering and word had spread about the attack about Selena's betrayal about Elara's condition.
And about Adrian.
I heard them whispering pointing at the glowing crescent mark on his chest that was visible even through his blanket.
"The prophecy," one elder murmured.
"It's true. The child of two bloodlines. Born under the crescent moon. Bearing the mark of the heavens.”
"What prophecy?" I demanded.
Elder Miriam stepped forward. "An ancient prophecy recorded in texts older than our pack. It speaks of a child who will be born carrying the power to either save or destroy the wolf packs of a child blessed.”
"And you think that's Adrian?"
"The signs are unmistakable. The Silvercrest and Xandros bloodlines combined. The crescent mark. The lunar pulse. The timing of his birth during a period of great darkness."
She looked at Adrian with something like awe. "He's the one the prophecy speaks of."
"We need to convene an emergency council meeting," Elder Marcus said. "Tonight to discuss what this means for the pack."
"My mate is dying in surgery and you want to have a meeting?"
"This is bigger than one person, Alpha. This is about the future of all wolf packs about the war with Erebus about-"
A sound interrupted him, a deep, resonating hum that made the windows rattle.
Dark energy swirled in the center of the hallway, coalescing into a shimmering portal.
Everyone backed away, weapons drawn, a figure appeared in the portal not fully corporeal, just a projection.
But I recognized the dark robes, the three-lined symbol. Erebus.
"Kaden, Alpha of Blue Moon Pack." The voice was distorted, ancient. "I came with a message."
"I don't negotiate with cowards who hide behind projections."
"This is not negotiation, this is declaration."
The figure raised one hand. "You possess something that belongs to me. A blood debt owed by your bloodline to the child must be surrendered."
"Adrian is my son, he belongs to no one but himself."
"Incorrect the Xandros line made a pact centuries ago. Promised the firstborn of the blessed bloodline to Erebus in exchange for power that debt has come due."
"I made no such pact-”
"Your ancestors did and blood debts pass through generations. The child is mine by right. Surrender him willingly, or I will take him by force for three days."
The portal started to close.
"Wait!" I stepped forward. "What pact? What debt?"
But the figure was already fading. "Three days, Alpha, then the true war begins."
The portal vanished, leaving only the echo of those words.