Chapter 69 Kaden and Elara
Kaden's POV
"Kaden!" Ethan's voice, sharp with alarm.
I didn't look at him and kept my eyes locked on Marcus's terrified face.
"My mother.” I said, my voice coming out as a growl, "Was a good woman a strong woman. She loved us more than you could ever understand.”
“And if you ever…ever….blame her for what happened to our family again, I will tear your throat out. Do you understand?"
Marcus's eyes were wide with fear. He tried to nod but couldn't with my hand around his throat.
"Kaden, let him go." Vera said carefully.
"You are proving their point you are losing control-"
"I am in perfect control. I could kill him right now if I wanted but I'm choosing not to control."
"This is exactly what we are talking about," Rowan said. "You're violent, unstable just like your father became-"
I released Marcus and turned on Rowan so fast he stumbled backward.
"My father was never violent, never lost control. He was just broken by grief. There's a difference."
"Is there? Because right now you look pretty broken to me."
The words hung in the air and I realized they were right.
I was broken since the day my mother died and my sister disappeared and my father became a ghost.
I had built walls to protect myself from ever feeling that kind of pain again. Had deliberately avoided emotional connections and treated women as disposable because the alternative of actually caring about someone was too terrifying.
And then Elara had come along and had broken through those walls without even trying. Had made me feel things I had sworn I would never feel again.
And I'd rejected her because it had pushed her away because I was too scared to be vulnerable.
Just like my father had been too broken to function after losing my mother. I really was repeating his mistakes.
But not the way Marcus thought.
"You're right," I said quietly.
"I am broken but not because I'm choosing Elara. I'm broken because I have spent my entire life running from what happened to my family. Running from love because I was terrified it would destroy me like it destroyed my father."
I looked around the table at each elder.
"But I'm done running. Elara is my mate, she is carrying my child and I will not abandon her the way my father abandoned us when he retreated into his grief. I will not let history repeat itself."
"Then you are a fool," Marcus said, rubbing his throat. "And you will regret this decision for the rest of your life."
"Maybe. But at least I'll be able to look my child in the eye and say I chose love over fear."
Before anyone could respond, the door burst open. One of my guards stood there, his face pale with panic.
"Alpha! It's Elara! She's gone!"
Everything else disappeared. "What do you mean gone?"
"She's not in her quarters, the window was open we found-" He swallowed hard. "We found blood on the ground outside and signs of a struggle."
My world tilted.
Then I heard it faint but unmistakable through the bond that still connected us.
A scream.
Elara's scream.
I was running before anyone could stop me running toward the sound of my mate in mortal danger and praying I wouldn't be too late.
Again.
Elara's POV
The man's hand was inches from my stomach when survival instinct kicked in.
I twisted away, ignoring the screaming pain in my broken leg, and started crawling. Dragging myself across the ground with my arms, trying to put distance between us.
"Stop running," The Erebus follower said, his voice calm. Almost amused.
"You will only make this harder on yourself."
I didn't stop, couldn't stop my baby, I had to protect my baby.
My fingers dug into the dirt, pulling my body forward. Every movement sent agony through my shattered leg. But I kept going.
"I admire your determination," He said, walking beside me easily, not even hurrying.
"But it's pointless if you are injured alone, no one even knows you are out here."
He was right. I had made sure that I had waited until the guards changed shifts. Had climbed out the window specifically to avoid being seen.
I had trapped myself.
"Please," I gasped, still crawling.
"Please don't hurt my baby."
"The baby is the whole point without the child, you are just another omega. Worthless. But that blessed child you're carrying? That's valuable. That's something my master wants very badly."
"Why? What does Erebus want with my baby?"
"To kill it, of course to snuff out the blessing before it can grow into something that threatens his plans."
He crouched down beside me. "But first, I need to make sure you are really carrying what we think you are carrying the lunar pulse.”
His hand reached for my stomach again. I rolled onto my back and kicked at him with my good leg. The impact was weak, useless, but it bought me a second.
"Enough of this," He said, his patience clearly running out.
He grabbed my broken leg.
The pain was so intense I almost blacked out. I screamed, tears streaming down my face.
"Stop fighting," He said. "You are only making this worse."
Then I felt cold metal against my injured leg. Right where the bone had broken through the skin.
Silver.
The blade pressed into the wound and I screamed again. Louder this time. The silver burned like acid, like fire, like my entire leg was being consumed.
"Silver hurts, doesn't it?" He said conversationally.
"Especially in an open wound I could make this stop. Could make the pain go away. All you have to do is hold still and let me examine the child."
"No," I sobbed. "No, please-"
He pressed the blade deeper.
I had never felt pain like this, never imagined pain like this was possible. The silver was burning through flesh, through bone, poison spreading through my body.
I screamed until my throat was raw. Until I had no voice left. Until the world started to go dark around the edges.
"That's better," he said. "Just let go, let the darkness take you. It will be easier that way."
He pulled the blade out and reached for my stomach one more time. Then something slammed into him from the side.
The Erebus follower went flying, his body hitting a tree with a sickening crack. The silver blade fell from his hand, landing in the dirt beside me.
I blinked through tears and pain, trying to focus on what was happening.
A man stood between me and the follower. Tall broad-shouldered moving with the fluid grace of a trained fighter.
The follower recovered quickly, launching himself at my rescuer. They collided in a blur of movement punches, kicks, grappling. Both of them were fast, skilled and dangerous.
I tried to focus and tried to see who had saved me. The moonlight caught his face for just a moment.
Alpha Xavier.