Chapter 181 Dragon POV

Chapter 181 Dragon POV
I spent the whole day with Alpha Taylor.With my father there beside me, I took the Oceanside Pack oath.I'm officially not a Rogue anymore.

I thought I would feel different after that.

I don't.

The same strength still courses through my veins.The same grief still sits heavy in my chest.We had a couple of beers afterward and spent the rest of the day messing around in the garage, trying to make the hours feel normal.

But nothing about today feels normal.

I still can’t believe it’s been a year since my brother was killed.

A year.

And somehow the pain hasn’t dulled.It still feels just as sharp, just as vicious.Losing Dimitri ripped something out of me, and I know now that I’m never getting that piece back.I can learn to live with the hole he left behind, maybe.But it will always be there.

Sometimes I think about the hard times Lilith and I had—everything we said to each other, everything we did when pain made us cruel.Those memories don’t make me angry anymore.They just make me sad. They make me wonder how close we came to ruining ourselves before we finally found our way back.

And I always wonder the same thing: what would life look like if Dimitri were still here?

Then the anger comes.

Why haven’t they caught Moon yet?

She should have been captured already.Every time the news reports another sighting, it twists something ugly inside me. At least they haven’t stopped hunting her. At least the story hasn’t died.

The ache in my chest rides with me all the way home to Lilith.She mindlinked me earlier and told me to meet her at the beach. As I get closer to the house, something else starts to mix with the grief.

Something warm.

My whole body reacts to it with confusion.Dread stirs inside me, almost rolling in the feeling like he understands it better than I do.

I park in the garage and just stand there for a moment, staring at Dimitri’s motorcycle.

It hasn’t moved.

The keys are still in the pocket of his pants, and those pants still hang in the closet.

Walking through the house is worse. I see him everywhere. Kissing Lilith on the couch.Eating breakfast in the kitchen.Storming out of the little patch of forest in the backyard, pissed off.

By the time I reach the edge of the cliff, I spot the candlelight below.I make my way down to the beach where Lilith is waiting for me.

Candles burn inside glass holders around an oversized blanket spread over the sand.The stars are bright above us.The waves crash against the shore in a steady rhythm.But beneath all of that, I hear something else.

Something other than Lilith’s rapid pulse.

She smiles at me, her hair glowing in the candlelight.She’s standing there in a black bikini, beautiful enough to knock the air out of me, with her hand stretched toward mine.

But when I reach her, she doesn’t take my hand.

She places it over her stomach.

At first, I can’t even process it.Sparks skate over my skin the second she touches me.The pull toward Lilith is so strong it makes my skin pebble. I can barely breathe through it.

“Do you hear him?”

I let the sparks move over me. I let myself sink into the strange, beautiful feeling wrapping around my body.

“Dragon,” she says again, her voice softer this time, “do you hear your son’s heartbeat?”

My whole world stops.

My son.

“Lilith…” I stare at her, hardly able to get the words out. “Are we pregnant?”

She nods, a huge grin breaking across her face.

I cup her face with both hands and kiss her like my life depends on it.Dread goes wild inside me, shouting "Pup" over and over.My hand slides back to her stomach, and I rub it gently, almost reverently, before dropping to my knees in the sand and pressing kiss after kiss to her skin.

There are no words for what I feel.

Nothing big enough. Nothing honest enough.

Just wonder. Relief. Joy so sharp it hurts.

“You loved me when it wasn’t easy,” she says, her voice cracking.

“You stayed when I gave you no reason to,” I tell her, tears burning my eyes.

We sink down onto the blanket and hold each other, staring up at the stars. For one last moment, I let myself wonder if we would still be here if Dimitri were alive.

Then I look at Lilith’s face, glowing with love, and I know this moment belongs to us.

“I don’t want to name him Dimitri,” I admit, crying harder now.

“Me neither,” she says, giving me a sad, gentle smile. “We can pick a name when he’s born.”

Then a hard cough breaks through the night.

A choking sound follows.

Reality slams back into us.

I sit up and turn toward the water. Moonlight brushes over a figure stumbling through the dark. Lilith and I stand, and I immediately pull her behind me. She lets out a soft little giggle at my protective instinct, but it dies quickly when the figure keeps coming—slumped over, dragging itself closer.

Then I see the speedboats out on the water.

And then I see her face.

Moon.

The one time I actually need a gun, it’s not on me.

“Dragon!” she begs, collapsing and reaching toward me. “Please kill me!”

Lilith is stiff behind me—confused, afraid. I throw an arm back around her and pull her tight against me, shielding her with my body.

Moon keeps crawling closer.

She looks wrecked. Exhausted. Thinner than I’ve ever seen her. Dark circles hang under her eyes, and whatever madness used to drive her has burned down into something ugly and empty.

“I thought… I thought…” she stammers, gasping for breath. “If I couldn’t have him, then no one should. But…” She drops her head. “I don’t want to live without him.”

Oceanside guards flood the beach with guns drawn, surrounding her in seconds.

Moon reaches for me again.

She keeps begging for a quick death.

She does not deserve a quick death.

For a long time, I thought if I ever found her, I’d put a silver bullet between her eyes and end it. But seeing her now—reduced to this, begging for mercy, a shadow of the monster she was—I know death is too kind.

She deserves slow.

She deserves agonizing.

I recognize James among the guards. He took over after Dustin left to serve in the council guard.

“Are you guys alright, Dragon?”

“Yes,” I say, pulling Lilith even tighter against me. “We’re good.”

“We’ll handle this trash that washed up on shore.”

He snaps silver handcuffs onto Moon’s wrists. She screams instantly. The silver burns her skin with a sharp sizzling sound that cuts through the crash of the waves. They bind her legs next, and the rest of the guards start cheering.

The chase is over.

She’ll be locked up until the council guard comes for her. Then they’ll drag her away and bury her somewhere dark, damp, and forgotten—some tower, some underground cell, some place where time rots people from the inside out.

And there she can waste away slowly.