Chapter 71 Blood in the Snow

Chapter 71 Blood in the Snow
71: Blood in the Snow

The final collision between Lucian and Rowan sends a shockwave so violent it knocks the breath from my lungs. Snow whips around them in a spiraling vortex, firelight flickering off their massive forms black against white, fury against fury.

I take one step forward.

One step too close.

“Milady—NO!” Elijah’s voice cuts through the chaos.

But it’s too late.

Rowan’s wolf lunges, claws outstretched, aiming for Lucian’s throat. Lucian dodges, barely but one of Rowan’s massive paws slashes through the air and strikes me instead as I try to reach them.

The world tilts. Pain erupts across my side. Then… A deeper, sharper pain slams through my abdomen like a lightning bolt. I gasp, no sound comes out.

My knees buckle.

The cold snow hits my palms as I collapse, the impact sending another violent jolt up my spine.

Something warm spills beneath me. Warm. Thick. Terrifying. Blood. My blood.

“No,” I whisper. “No, no, no!”

A searing, unbearable cramp twists violently inside me, tearing a scream from my throat.

The war stops. Everything stops. Lucian’s black wolf skids to a halt, golden eyes widening with horror as the scent hits him. Rowan freezes too, chest heaving, blood dripping from his fangs.

I open my mouth but only a choked cry escapes. Elijah appears at my side, falling to his knees. “No… gods, no… milady, stay with me.”

My breath trembles, my fingers shaking uncontrollably as more blood stains the snow. “Elijah… the baby…”

Rowan’s wolf form flickers, then collapses into his human body. “Keira?” he whispers, his voice breaking.

Lucian shifts too but barely makes it two steps before falling to his knees beside me, his hands trembling as they hover over my blood-soaked clothes.

“Keira,” he chokes. “Keira, look at me.”

I try. The world blurs.

Tears roll down my cheeks as another wave of agony rips through me. My body curls instinctively, but Lucian gently pulls me into his arms, cradling me as if I’m made of glass.

“Don’t move,” he whispers. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you—” His voice cracks.

Elijah’s breathing is ragged. “We need to stop the bleeding, we need… gods, she’s losing too much.”

But I know. I know what’s happening. My body knows too.

A sob tears out of me, raw and broken. “I’m losing him, Lucian the baby…”

Lucian’s entire body goes stone still. Then…

He breaks. A sound leaves him. Not a growl. Not a roar. But a strangled, soul-crushing whimper.

“No,” he begs, his forehead pressing against mine. “No, please… please Keira, hold on, our child—”

Our child. The words carve themselves into my bones.

Another flood of pain hits me. My vision whites out, and when the world returns, Rowan is kneeling on my other side, his hands shaking.

“Keira,” he whispers, voice trembling. “Stay with us. Stay with me.”

Lucian snarls, a sound born of grief. “Don’t touch her!”

“She wouldn’t be bleeding if you didn’t chase her!” Rowan snaps, anguish poisoning every word.

Lucian lunges, teeth bared but Elijah stands between them like a wall. “ENOUGH! She doesn’t need your pride. She is dying!”

The words echo across the battlefield. Dead silence follows. The wolves around us lower their heads. Even the flames seem to quiet. I clutch Lucian’s arm, tears spilling down my cheeks. “Lucian…”

“Yes, love?” His voice is barely human.

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t know… I didn’t know the truth…”

His face collapses. “Keira, look at me. Please. Look at me.”

I do. My vision shakes. His eyes, those gold eyes are filled with a grief so vast it could swallow the world.

“I should never have let you go.” His voice fractures. “I should have fought harder. I should have told you, protected you, kept you safe.”

My lips tremble. “I thought… you didn’t want us…”

“Us?” he chokes. “Keira, I wanted nothing more than the life inside you. Nothing more than you.”

The pain hits again. My breath shatters into pieces.

Something breaks beneath my ribs, something deeper than bone.

Then Rowan rises slowly to his feet, fists shaking. “This is your fault.”

Lucian lifts his head, pupils narrowing into slits. “Say it again.”

“You brought war to her,” Rowan snarls. “You dragged death to her doorstep. You condemned your own child—”

Lucian attacks first.

Elijah tries to stop them but the two Alphas are no longer wolves, no longer rivals, no longer men.

They are grief. They are rage. They are destruction given form. They crash into one another with a sound like the sky breaking. Snow explodes around them. Blood flies. Bones crack.

My vision blurs. My ears roar.

“Elijah…” I whisper. “Help… please…”
He kneels beside me again, hands covered in my blood. “Milady, stay with me, stay awake, don’t close your eyes.”

But the world is going dark. Dark and cold. Then a sound cuts through everything. A scream. A roar. A death cry. I turn my head weakly and the sight carves itself into me forever.

Lucian falls.

Rowan’s claws tear through him, crimson spraying across the snow like spilled stars. Lucian collapses onto the ground, body limp, blood pooling beneath him. A silent, empty cold fills my chest where my heart should be.

“No…”

My voice is a ghost.

“No, no, Lucian—” I crawl.
Every inch agony. Every breath a knife. I reach him and pull his head onto my lap. His breaths are shallow. Labored. Slow.

“Keira…” he whispers, eyes barely open. “I’m sorry…”

Tears fall onto his cheeks. “Don’t, don’t leave me, Lucian, please, please—
”

He lifts a trembling hand. “I… love…” The words die on his lips. His chest rises, falls and does not rise again. Something inside me shatters so violently I think the sound echoes across the forest. My scream tears through the night as the snow falls.

Elijah collapses beside me, his face pale with horror. “No…”

Rowan steps back, chest heaving, blood dripping from his claws. His face is unreadable: shock, triumph, heartbreak, I don’t know.

I look down at Lucian. At the man I broke. The man I loved. The man I lost. Tears blur my vision and suddenly, for the briefest second, something flickers before my eyes.

Not fire. Not snow. A screen. A phone screen. A video. A spoiler I had forgotten about.
“In Chapter 88 of Blood Moon Requiem, the villain Alpha dies a tragic death.”
A cold wave crashes over me. This is the scene. This is the ending. This is the spoiler I saw. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t meant to exist in this world. I am just a reader. A reader who changed the plot. A reader who tried to save the villain. A reader who failed.

The world around me flickers again like a glitch in a game. The trees blur. The snow warps. The wolves distort. Reality is unraveling. My reality.
Elijah grabs my shoulders. “Milady, stay awake… Keira!”

But I’m slipping. Slipping between worlds. My voice is barely a whisper. Barely air. Barely hope.

“I… want to go back…”
The world turns white. Then nothing. Nothing at all.