Chapter 79 Elara's POV
By evening, the pain had gotten worse.
I had pushed myself too hard on the trip to the courtyard. Getting Xavier settled. The confrontation with Selena. All of it had taken a toll my body couldn't absorb.
Damian came to check on me before dinner and clicked his tongue when he saw my vitals.
"Your blood pressure is up and your leg is swelling from overuse."
He gave me a look that was half concerned, half reproachful. "I told you to rest."
"I know but things need to be done."
"Things that couldn't wait another day while you recovered properly?"
"Some of them."
He gave me stronger pain medication and elevated my leg, adjusting the cushions until I was comfortable. "No more wheelchair excursions today tonight you rest. Kara will bring your dinner here and you'll eat every bite of it."
"Yes, Doctor," I said.
"I mean it, Elara you have a broken leg and your body is still fighting the remnants of silver poisoning. The baby is healthy but pregnancy puts its own demands on you. You can't keep pushing yourself like this."
"I understand. I will rest."
He looked at me skeptically but seemed to accept it.
After he left, Kara brought dinner. Simple food: soup, bread, fresh fruit. The baby seemed happy with it, making its presence known with flutters and kicks as I ate.
"Was Selena awful to you today?" Kara asked, collecting the empty bowl. "I saw your face after that hallway encounter."
"She tried to be I don't think it worked as well as she hoped."
Kara smiled. "Good, the servants are talking about how you stood up to her in front of Alpha Xavier. You should have seen their faces. Three of the kitchen girls actually cheered."
"They cheered?"
"Quietly when Selena wasn't around. But yes." Kara straightened the blankets. "People are starting to talk differently about you. It's working, Elara. What Ethan suggested. It's working."
After Kara left and the pack house grew quiet, my symptoms got worse.
The nausea came from the first waves of it, rolling through my stomach without warning. I made three trips to the bathroom in an hour, my broken leg making each trip a painful ordeal.
Then the aches not just my leg but everywhere. My back, my hips deep inside my bones.
The baby, who had been calm all evening, was suddenly restless. Moving constantly, pressing against my ribs, my bladder, everywhere at once.
"I know," I murmured, my hand on my stomach. "I know, baby. I'm sorry. I pushed too hard today."
A flutter of movement that felt almost like a response. Around two in the morning, the room had grown cold.
The window was closed and the heating in the pack house was running. But the cold was persistent and strange, like it was coming from inside the room rather than outside.
I pulled the blankets tighter, shivering then the moonlight moved.
Not the way moonlight moved when clouds passed over. This was different because the silver beam coming through my window shifted not across the wall where it belonged, but inward toward me.
I watched it, too tired and sick to be properly afraid the cold intensified and then I saw it.
A shape, a figure standing at the far end of my room near the dresser. Dark, still just darker than the shadows around it.
I went rigid, pain forgotten, heart slamming against my ribs.
The figure didn't move immediately. Just stood there. Watching me the way I was watching it.
I opened my mouth to call for the guards. It moved toward me one step two.
I pressed myself back against my pillows, hand protective on my stomach. "Who's there?"
Three steps, four.
Close enough now that I should have been able to make out features: a face, clothing, something. But there was nothing. Just darkness shaped like a person.
"What do you want?" My voice came out steadier than I felt.
The figure stopped at the foot of my bed. The cold was unbearable now. My breath was coming out in visible puffs.
I reached for the lamp on my bedside table, fingers scrambling for the switch. I found it, clicked it on, and the light flooded the room.
And the figure was gone.
Just gone, no movement , no sound of footsteps or a door. Just gone like it had never been there. I sat there in the lamplight, shaking, the cold already beginning to recede.
I looked at every corner of my room, every shadow, every space between furniture.
Nothing, no one.