Chapter 347

Chapter 347

I mull over what Scarlette says, turning her words over in my mind as we walk. Then, without warning, a thought strikes me so hard that I come to an abrupt halt.

My breath catches.

Blood wolves are cursed to conceive once they meet their mate. Reproduction is part of the curse itself. Protection doesn’t matter. It never has.

So why…

I’ve been sleeping with Drix without protection since the very beginning.

Why haven’t I conceived?

A chill tears down my spine.

My hands instinctively wrap around my stomach as dread settles like lead inside me.

What if…

What if I’m already pregnant?

Or worse…

What if I’m barren?

Scarlette glances back over her shoulder, immediately noticing the change in my expression.

“Saff? What’s wrong?”

“Just… a horrible thought,” I murmur.

My stomach twists violently, and I swallow against the nausea creeping up my throat.

Closing my eyes, I slip into our shared mental space. “Can I ask you something?”

Zinnia doesn’t even bother lifting her head. “You can,” she replies flatly, lazily licking one paw, “but I won’t answer.”

“Sapphire,” Scarlette says more softly now, stopping beside me. Her hand settles gently on my shoulder. “You’re starting to worry me.”

I keep my eyes closed, focusing on Zinnia’s enormous wolf instead.

“I just realised…” My voice catches. “I might already be pregnant… or I might be barren.”

Scarlette falls silent.

When I finally open my eyes, she’s staring at me with an odd expression, as though she’s trying to work out whether I’m joking.

Then she blinks.

“Hendrix didn’t tell you?”

I frown.

“Tell me what?”

In my mental space, Zinnia cracks one ruby eye open. She watches me with unmistakable amusement, the corner of her wolfish mouth somehow curling into a smug grin.

I still have no idea how a wolf manages to smirk.

It’s infuriating.

Scarlette exhales. “…Wow.”

Without another word, she turns and starts walking again.

“Hey!” I hurry after her. “Answer me!”

“When you see Hendrix, ask him.”

She doesn’t even slow down.

“It’s not a secret, but it’s something you should hear from him. If you end up having a complete mental breakdown, I’m not volunteering to deal with it.”

She shoots me a sideways glance.

“Especially when I’m not the one sleeping with you.”

Despite the noticeable swell of her stomach, she somehow walks even faster. I rush ahead and plant myself directly in her path, forcing her to stop.

“Just tell me,” I plead, my voice rising despite every effort to keep it steady. “Am I barren?”

The question has barely left my mouth when another possibility crashes into me so hard it steals the air from my lungs.

“Brie…” I whisper.

My blood turns to ice.

Brie lost her womb and I absorbed her wounds and death.

A shaky gasp escapes me as I clap a hand over my mouth, my eyes widening in horror. Scarlette glances back over her shoulder, one eyebrow arching as she takes in my expression. Then, to my utter frustration, she chuckles. It isn’t mocking or cruel, just maddeningly knowing. A lopsided smile curls across her face before she simply walks past me as though nothing has happened.

She doesn’t answer.

Which means that isn’t it.

Then what is?

“Scarlette!”

I hurry after her, refusing to let it go. I plead, bargain, threaten, reason—anything that might make her crack—but she remains infuriatingly silent. Every time I think she’s about to speak, she only smiles to herself and keeps walking. Zinnia is even worse. She lounges in our shared mental space with one eye half-open, wearing that insufferably smug expression as she watches my panic unfold. She isn’t merely refusing to help; she’s thoroughly enjoying every second of my torment.

By the time we find our way back towards the temple, I’ve worked myself into a complete state. My heart hammers so violently it hurts, each frantic beat echoing in my ears. Despite the cool air drifting through the cave, sweat clings to my skin and dampens my clothes. My thoughts race so wildly that they blur into one another, leaving me light-headed, nauseous and barely able to think straight. At any moment, I feel as though I’m either going to throw up or collapse where I stand.

I’d never wanted children.

At least, that’s what I’d always told myself.

Somewhere along the way, without me even noticing, that certainty had quietly slipped away. I’d started picturing a life beyond the curse, a future where Drix and I weren’t constantly fighting to survive. It was never some grand fantasy—just something simple. One child, maybe two. A home. A family. A chance to live instead of merely enduring.

If that future had already been taken from me…

The thought squeezes painfully around my heart.

Is that why Drix never once suggested using protection?

Is that why he’d never hesitated, never worried, never even raised the subject whenever we ended up in bed together?

Of course he hadn’t.

He’d known exactly how I’d react.

He’d known I’d spiral.

But even knowing that doesn’t stop the sting.

Why didn’t he trust me enough to tell me?

“Sapphire!”

My name tears through the forest like a crack of thunder.

“Aah!”

I yelp, jumping so hard my entire body jerks. My heart slams painfully against my ribs as I whirl around, only to find Drix and Gillian charging towards us at full speed. They’re both drenched in sweat, their chests heaving with every breath, panic carved so deeply into their faces that my own anxiety evaporates on the spot.

Before either of them can reach us, Scarlette throws both hands into the air and hurriedly backs away.

“Before you attack me, I didn’t do anything!”

Drix doesn’t even acknowledge she exists.

He closes the remaining distance in two long strides and pulls me into his arms with such force that my feet nearly leave the ground.

His embrace is desperate, almost crushing, and I immediately feel the violent tremors running through his body. His fingers clutch at my clothes as though letting go would make me disappear again, and then I hear it—a muffled, broken sob against my shoulder.

Every trace of confusion vanishes, replaced by a sharp stab of alarm.

“Drix…” I murmur, easing back just enough to see his face. His eyes are red, his breathing uneven, and tears still cling to his lashes. My chest tightens. “What happened? Why are you crying?”

“Luna.”

Gillian’s voice is strained, still rough with the panic he hasn’t managed to shake off.

The title alone tells me he’s speaking as my guard, not my best friend.

“Where did you disappear to?” he demands, his chest still rising and falling heavily from the run. Sweat glistens across his forehead and neck, and his usual easy-going expression has been replaced by something raw and shaken.

“You nearly gave every one of us a heart attack. Your connection to all of us vanished without warning. One second you were there…” He swallows hard, his jaw tightening as he forces the next words out. “…and the next, it was like you’d died.”

The blood drains from my face.

“W-what?”

Scarlette folds her arms across her chest with an exaggerated sigh, clearly unimpressed by the emotional reunion unfolding in front of her.

“So nobody cares that I disappeared too?” she grumbles. “Honestly, what am I? Chopped liver?”

Her complaint barely reaches me.

My mind is already racing as my gaze drifts from Gillian to Drix, then back again. The pieces begin slotting together with sickening clarity.

Liviana’s cave.

I’d thought it was strange that we’d simply walked between two trees and found ourselves somewhere completely different. There hadn’t been any portal.

Now it finally makes sense.

The cave hadn’t merely been hidden from the world.

For those few hours, Scarlette and I had stepped completely outside the mortal realm, into a place that didn’t exist alongside it.

To everyone we’d left behind…

We hadn’t gone missing.

We had simply ceased to exist.