Chapter 28 The Baby's Gone
Chapter 28 The Baby's Gone
Serena
The room was cold. My body sore from restless sleep. And endless nightmare.
Xavier was still by my side, he was sleeping but his hand was still holding mine, like even in his dreams, he would protect me.
Everything seemed quiet. Too quiet.
Something isn't right.
It was silence.
I turned my head slowly toward the crib.
And it was empty.
I gasped.
Is she taken?
No...my mind refused to understand. My heart didn’t catch up. I blinked once. Twice.
But, the blankets were still there... creased, warm, faintly smelling of lavender and milk. But the space where she should’ve been... was empty.
My heart stopped for a minute. “Xavier.” I called him, my voice was a whisper. Then louder, “Xavier!”
He wake up instantly. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s gone.” My hands trembled as I pointed. “The baby. She’s gone!”
His eyes went to the crib. Confused. “What do you mean gone?”
“She was right there. She... she didn’t cry. There was no sound. I just woke up and”
I couldn’t finish. My voice cracked, breaking...
Xavier stand up, scanning the room like a predator cornered. “No breach. No scent. Nothing.” He pressed his palm to the panel by the door. The Reaper alarm flared red.
Instantly, the hall outside burst into motion...shouts, boots, steel hitting steel.
Kansas ran in first, hair tangled, datapad in hand. “What happened?”
“She’s gone!” I said again, voice shaking. “She was right here, Kansas. Right next to me.”
Mira appeared behind him, still in her medic coat, eyes wide. “Did you check... everywhere?”
“Do you think I didn’t?” I snapped, terrified. “She’s gone! She didn’t even make a sound for us to be alerted.” I mumbled, heart aching.
Xavier barked orders into his comm link, his voice straight. “Seal the east wing. Scan every corridor. No one in or out without my clearance.”
The Reaper guards scattered like shadows.
Kansas typed furiously. “All security sensors show no movement. No entry. No breach from outside.”
“Then where the hell is she?” Mira demanded.
No one answered.
I walked to the crib. Brushing my fingers over her blanket.
She was here last night.
Who took her?
"Check the CCTV and the drones. Let's see who took her." Xavier ordered Kansas and they walked out.
My knees gave out, and I fall on the floor.
“Lyra…” I whispered to my wolf. “Tell me I’m dreaming.”
Her voice was low. I wish you were, Serena. But we all dont know.
I let the tears slide. “What if the triplets finally get to her? How can't you know, you’re supposed to feel her.”
Lyra hesitated. I can’t sense her anymore. It’s like… she disappeared.
“What do you mean disappeared?” I asked out loud, my voice breaking.
Xavier that was coming in said. “What did you just say?”
“My wolf can’t feel her,” I sobbed. “She’s gone… disappeared, Xavier.”
He squat in front of me, holding my face in his palms. “Listen me, Serena. We’ll find her. I swear it on my life.” He promised, his eyes were dead serious.
But I could see he was panicking too.
The way he gulped hard. The way his hands shook just slightly.
He was terrified too. But he tried as much to comfort me. I nodded.
Hours blurred.
The Reaper base turned into chaos. Search drones filled the halls. Soldiers marched through corridors. Kansas’s said the CCTV was off the time she was gone. Like 15 minutes.
Then it was restore. Whoever took her was a professional.
Kansas screens flickered with maps, codes, and heat signatures as he search for anything theat would help.
Mira tried keeping me calm, but I couldn’t stop pacing.
“She’s part of me,” I whispered again and again. “I should feel her. Is this the triplets doing.”
Lyra murmured, You do. Its just hidden.
“What does that mean?” I asked confused.
Her energy isn’t gone, Serena. It’s… moving. Like light bending through glass.
I closed my eyes. Moving where?
Lyra didn’t answer.
That's when the comm device on Kansas’s wrist buzzed sharply. He put it on speaker. “Kai? Report!”
A voice crackled through, Kai, the same beta that didn't wanted here. “We found a baby outside the border wall… glowing.” He said and I frozed.
“Repeat that,” Xavier snapped.
“She’s glowing, Alpha. Floating above ground.”
My heart stuttered. “Outside the wall? That’s impossible!”
Xavier was already moving, grabbing his blade. “Stay here,” he ordered.
“The hell I will!” I shouted, chasing after him.
He didn’t argue this time. He just took my hand. “Then stay close.”
....
The wind outside the Reaper base was cold, the night was so dark it felt alive. My boots sank slightly into the muddy earth as we ran across the border field, following Kai’s beacon.
“Over here!” Kai called out.
When I saw it, I stopped breathing.
The world went silent.
My baby was floating several feet above the ground, wrapped in silvery glow. Her eyes were open, silver light pulsing from within them.
And around her… were wolves.
Not flesh and bone. Not living.
Ghosts.
Their forms flickered like mist, translucent and glowing faintly blue. Dozens of them... wolves long dead, their eyes hollow but peaceful. They circled her in obedience, bowing their heads.
I could smell earth and cold wind and the faint, wild scent of fur and rain.
My heart was beating hard.
“Serena,” Xavier called, his hold on my hand tightened. “are you seeing that?”
“I'm seeing everything clearly ” I whispered.
Lyra’s voice shaked. They were warriors once. From the old battle with Marcus’s pack. They shouldn’t be here.
“Then why are they?”
Because she summoned them here.
Did you see who took her?
No it seems came by herself.
I walked toward her, my body shaking. The glow around my daughter pulsed once, like a second heart.
“Baby…” My called, my voice shaking. “Please. Come back to me.”
Her eyes turned to me.
The ghost wolves parted, forming a path.
I walked to her, my legs trembling. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here. Mommy’s here.”
As soon as my fingers touched her, a spark shot through me. Making me gasped.
It felt like lightning, but not pain. It was memory.
Flashes of things I don't know and couldn't explain. It's a battlefield under two moons, there was a woman with silver hair, and a voice whispering...“The prophecy Luna is rising…”
Was the thing I heard before falling.
“Serena!” Xavier shouted, catching me beforei hit the ground.
The glow dimmed slowly. My baby’s lips quivered. And then, she cried.
The sound echoing throughthe woods. The ghost wolves around us howled in unison, their voices echoing like music through the night.
And then her eyes rolled back, her tiny mouth opened, and in a voice that was not hers, deep and ancient and echoing, she spoke.
“The prophecy Luna is rising. And she wears my face.”
The ground trembled. The wolves vanished... disappearing into mist and moonlight.
I hugged her tight in my chest, trembling. “Wears your face?” I whispered. “Who are you?”
But the glow faded from her eyes. She looked up at me, normal again, just a baby, breathing softly against my chest.
Xavier’s place his hand on my shoulder. “We need to get her back,” he uttered, his voice low and urgent. “Now.”
I nodded numbly. Turning to walk but the sudden pain I feel in my stomach, made me stop.
I gasped, holding my stomach with my free habd before I fell.
“Serena!” Xavier called as he caught me “What’s wrong?”
I pressed a shaking hand to my belly. The skin beneath it moved.
Something kicked.
Inside my womb...
Mira’s voice rang through the comms, faint with static. “Xavier? You need to come back. Now. Her vitals..."
The signal cut off.
The baby in my arms whimpered softly, and I could swear the air around her whispered back.. like the world itself was listening.
Lyra’s voice came, trembling. Serena… you’re not the only one who gave birth that night.
My blood ran cold.
“What are you saying?” I whispered.
Her answer was a growl wrapped in sorrow. Something ancient was awake inside of you.
I looked up at Xavier. “We need to go. Now.”
He didn’t ask questions. He just lifted me into his arms, the baby safe between us, and started running back toward the dome...
The prophecy Luna is rising.
And somewhere deep inside me, something moved again.
It can't be. A twin?