Chapter 31 Chapter 31

Chapter 31 Chapter 31
Lyra
My body knows before my mind does.
Something is wrong.
I wake before dawn with nausea burning my throat, my stomach twisting so hard I curl onto my side. The mountain air feels too thin, too sharp. I barely make it to the bathroom before I’m on my knees, retching until my ribs ache and my vision blurs.
Again.
And again.
By the third time, there is nothing left inside me but bile and fear.
I grip the cold edge of the sink, breathing shallowly, staring at my reflection. My skin looks pale, almost translucent. Human weakness clings to me like a second skin. My hands tremble.
“Please,” I whisper, pressing a palm to my stomach. “Stay with me.”
No answer.
Riven is gone, called away before sunrise. Security is lighter than usual. I hate myself for noticing too late.
By midday, I can barely stand. Every step feels like wading through water. My head swims as I move through the villa, sunlight spilling through tall windows that suddenly feel exposed.
Too exposed.
The smell hits me first.
Not wolf.
Not human.
Female wolves.
My heart stutters.
I turn—
Too late.
The first blow comes from the side. I cry out as I hit the floor, the impact stealing my breath. Pain blooms sharp and blinding, radiating through my spine.
Two women stand over me.
Both tall. Both beautiful in the cruel way wolves can be. Their eyes glow with jealousy and hatred, mouths curled in satisfied smiles.
“Look at her,” one sneers. “So fragile.”
The other tilts her head. “This is what they chose over us?”
I try to crawl back, panic clawing through me. “Please… I’m human.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” she replies coldly.
They grab me.
The world spins.
My body slams down again, harder this time. Something inside me breaks—not bone, but something deeper, something sacred.
Pain detonates.
I scream.
The sound tears out of me, raw and animal, echoing across the mountains, carried by the wind through forest and stone.
I feel warmth spreading beneath me.
Blood.
Too much.
“No,” I sob, shaking uncontrollably. “No no no—please—”
The women step back, suddenly wary.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” one mutters.
But it has.
I curl inward, clutching my stomach, screaming until my voice shreds, until the world fades at the edges. Grief crashes into me so violently it steals my breath.
Inside me, something goes silent.
Far away, I feel it.
A howl.
Then another.
Riven.
Kael.
They come like death itself.
The doors explode inward. Power floods the room so violently the air vibrates. Riven shifts mid-stride, fury incarnate, eyes glowing molten silver. Kael is right behind him, already half-wolf, his roar shaking the villa to its foundations.
The women don’t even try to run.
They die quickly.
When the noise stops, when the bloodshed ends, there is only silence.
And me.
Riven drops to his knees beside me, hands shaking as he gathers me into his arms. “Lyra,” he whispers desperately. “Stay with me.”
Kael freezes a few steps away.
He sees the blood.
He knows.
The sound he makes is not human. It is grief given voice, tearing out of his chest as he collapses beside us, hands hovering uselessly, terrified to touch me.
“I heard you,” he chokes. “I heard you scream.”
I look at them through tears that won’t stop. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I couldn’t protect our baby.”
Riven presses his forehead to mine, shaking. “This is not your fault.”
Kael’s hand closes around mine, firm, grounding. “They will pay,” he vows softly. “Every pack. Every wolf.”
My body trembles as the reality settles in.
The life inside me is gone.
The future I never got to choose is gone.
All that remains is pain, and two Alphas kneeling in blood and grief, bound to me by loss that can never be undone.
The mountain echoes with mourning that night.
And somewhere beneath the moon, the goddess watches in silence.