I hid my power. I chained the wolf within. All for him. My blood-bound mate, Lord Caius. But when I went into labor and the contractions hit, I was locked away in the abandoned altar beneath the castle. Magical restraints carved with confinement runes bound me tightly. The contractions were getting worse. I cried, begging Caius. “The baby’s coming, Caius. Please, get me to the Sanctuary… It’s our child…” He just stepped forward, elegant and cruel. He forced a black pill into my mouth. “The Blood-Binding Elixir,” he said. “It will delay your labor. Be a good girl. I have to make sure you give birth after Isadora.” Instantly, invisible threads seemed to tighten around my veins, strangling them. Blood soaked my dress. The pain was so intense my wolf spirit screamed, a howl trapped in my throat. “Why…” I whispered, my voice breaking. “You are a wolf. An outsider,” Caius’s voice echoed in the cold abandoned altar. “Isadora carries the true heir. A pure-blood. My dead brother’s only legacy. Tonight is the Blood Moon’s Blessing, granted once in a thousand years. Only a child blessed tonight can become the next Lord. I won’t let you steal that from her.” Then he dissolved into black mist, leaving me behind to go to Isadora. I closed my eyes. The tiny life force thrashing inside me suddenly went still. I slipped into darkness. …… A tearing pain in my belly ripped me from the darkness. The cold stone of the magical array was hard against my back. I struggled to sit up. Another contraction slammed into me, harder than anything I’d ever felt. My wolf spirit whimpered in agony. “The baby… My baby is coming! Help me!” I screamed, biting back the pain. “Still putting on a show?” Lilith stepped into the dim light, her crimson eyes glittering with malice. Caius’s little sister. “Isadora’s potions never fail. She made that Blood-Binding Elixir herself. It will stop your labor for four hours, guaranteed.” She lifted a finger, her hand open in the air between us, aimed at my heart. She slowly made a fist. “The Ancestor’s Blessing, the title of Lord… it all belongs to Isadora!” A roar filled my ears. My own blood turned on me, boiling and surging backward through my veins until I thought they would burst. I gagged, coughing up a clot of blood that felt like ice. A deep chill settled over me. “I never wanted to be Lord!” I shook my head, desperate. “Don’t lie!” Lilith’s fingers snapped shut. Invisible magic choked me, forcing my head up to meet her gaze. “You think we’re all fools? The moment you learned the blessed child would be the next Lord, you started hurting Isadora! Your ambition is pathetic. Obvious.” She released me, and I collapsed. She stood over me, looking down. “You tricked Isadora. Lured her to the Star-Gazing Tower. You used your wolf strength to open the sun-shielding dome, didn’t you? You tried to burn her and the baby alive!” No… that’s not what happened! Isadora came to me that day. Crying. She said she missed Liam’s presence so much, and begged me to go with her to the tower, to feel closer to him. The moment we got there, she used her vampire speed to push me away, threw open the dome herself, and held her own arm in the sunlight until it burned. Then she clutched her stomach and screamed that I was trying to kill her child. … I had a thousand things to say, a thousand ways to defend myself. But the agony from the elixir intensified, and all I could do was curl into a ball. “Please… let me go… The baby is really coming…” I sobbed, reaching for her. Lilith slapped my hand away. “Why are you still acting?” “The Blood-Binding Elixir doesn’t fail,” she sneered. “You’ll wait your turn. After Isadora is finished, you can have your little mutt.” “No… please…” I struggled, but the magical restraints only bit deeper, the energy searing the skin on my wrists. “Isadora warned me you’d pull a stunt like this.” A dark red light glowed at Lilith’s fingertips. “If you try another one,” she said, her voice low and dangerous, “I’ll drain every drop of blood from your body and leave you a dried-up corpse. Understand?” She motioned to the blood-servants behind her to watch me. Then she turned and left. As the heavy door slammed shut, I felt the warm, sticky wetness spread beneath me. Blood. So much blood. My dress was soaked, my limbs bound by magic. I couldn’t move. The lock clicked. The finality of it hit me. I was completely, utterly alone. Three months ago, Caius had taken my communication crystal, claiming it was to “prevent hunters from tracking me.” Now I knew the truth. He was cutting me off from everyone. I was a lone wolf with no pack, no status. I was never truly one of them. I tried to stop crying, to focus, but the pain made it impossible to breathe. A new wave of contractions hit, stronger than the last. My head spun. I was about to pass out. I remembered the nightmare seven months ago. Caius’s brother, the Lord, was ambushed and killed on a hunt. When Isadora announced she was pregnant, the whole coven breathed a sigh of relief. The bloodline would continue. Overnight, my child and I became a threat. A sin. They all watched me, terrified the outsider would harm Isadora. Every time she accused me of something, Caius believed her without hesitation. The pain made me thrash, fighting against the magical restraints until my wrists and ankles were burned raw and bleeding. And then, a miracle. The confinement runes on one of the restraints shattered. I dragged myself across the floor, leaving a trail of blood. I pounded on the door with my free, bleeding hand. “Please! The baby’s coming!” “Shut up in there!” a guard yelled back. “Wait until Lady Isadora is done!” Then I heard voices. A magical projection. Caius and Lilith. “How is Isadora?” Lilith asked. Caius’s voice was tired. “Another two hours, at least. How is Rowan? Is she behaving?” “Don’t even ask,” Lilith scoffed. “She’s locked in the abandoned altar, and she’s still putting on a performance. Crying that she’s in labor. What an actress.” Her tone turned venomous. “Wait, Caius. Are you actually worried about her? Don’t forget she’s the one who stole the labor-inducing potion from Isadora’s room, trying to force an early birth to steal the blessing.” “No… I never stole anything…” I whispered to the empty room. “I haven’t forgotten,” Caius’s voice was laced with disgust. “Isadora promised me the elixir would only delay the birth, not harm her. Let her suffer. It’s a lesson she needs to learn. Nothing can happen to Isadora, or to Liam’s child.” The voices cut off. The abandoned altar was silent again. I collapsed on the floor, cold to the bone. I closed my eyes and surrendered to the despair.
I don’t know how long I lay there. The pool of blood beneath me grew larger. I was fading, drifting away, when the door suddenly burst open. “Gods above!” a familiar voice cried out. Healer Alistair. The Alucard family’s head healer. The only one who had treated me throughout my pregnancy. He rushed to my side, dropping to his knees in my blood. His trembling hands felt for my pulse. “Lady Rowan!” His face was white with horror. “What in the gods’ name are you doing down here?! Lady Lilith told me you were merely anxious and resting!” “Lilith—” I gasped. “She locked me in here—” “Don’t talk.” Alistair lifted my blood-soaked skirt to check me. His expression turned to one of pure terror. “Gods, you’re fully dilated! Your water has broken… and you’re hemorrhaging! We have to move. Now!” He tried to use his communication crystal. The screen flashed: NO SIGNAL. “Damn this shielding matrix!” he swore. He looked at me, his eyes wide with urgency. “My Lady, I have to get you to the Healing Sanctuary. Right now.” The vampire guards outside tried to stop him as he carried me out. “Halt! Lady Lilith said—” “Lady Lilith said WHAT?” Alistair roared, his voice filled with a healer’s authority. “To let a woman in labor bleed to death in the abandoned altar? Get out of my way!” The guards actually flinched and stepped back. Alistair stumbled through the halls with me in his arms, a gruesome trail of blood marking our path. “Hold on,” he panted. “The top floor has the best equipment. We’re almost there.” The castle stairs seemed to stretch on forever. Every step was a new wave of agony. My vision was blurring, but I could feel my baby fighting, struggling to be born. “How much longer?” I whispered. “Two minutes,” Alistair said, his eyes fixed on the top of the spiral staircase. “Just two more minutes.” We finally reached the top floor. He kicked open the door to the private, luxurious Healing Sanctuary— It was open. We burst inside, and then we both froze. The room was empty. The state-of-the-art magical medical equipment—all of it was gone. The life-monitoring arrays, the shadowless light orbs, the auto-regeneration blood pool, even the birthing bed. Gone. Nothing remained but four bare walls and a few shattered power crystals on the floor. “This is impossible,” Alistair whispered, standing stunned in the doorway. “Where is the equipment?” Footsteps echoed from the hall. Lilith appeared, flanked by her servants. “Oh, the equipment?” she said breezily. “It’s all been moved to Isadora’s suite.” Alistair’s face went even paler. “What?” “Isadora is birthing the one true heir of the Alucard line,” Lilith said, her words sharp. “A pure-blood. She gets our best resources. Obviously.” “But Lady Rowan is also in labor!” Alistair yelled. “She needs an emergency intervention!” Lilith glanced at me, then shrugged. “Stop the act, Rowan. The elixir is harmless. You’re just desperate for attention. Trying to disrupt Isadora’s moment.” I stared at her perfectly made-up face. I suddenly remembered a year ago, when I gave her a rare, ancient book from my collection to help her with her blood magic. She had hugged me, her voice filled with joy. “Rowan, you’re like a real sister to me!” How ironic.
Alistair laid me on the bare floor of the empty sanctuary and ran out to find supplies. He came back two minutes later. Empty-handed. His face was ashen. “The potion storage is empty,” he stammered. “Not even a basic hemostatic herb. No bandages. Nothing.” Lilith let out a small, cruel laugh. “Oh, those? Also sent to Isadora. Caius’s orders.” “This is murder!” Alistair shouted. “She’ll die! The child will die!” “Then that is their fate,” Lilith said with a cold shrug. “The coven comes first.” Alistair knelt beside me, taking my hand. “My Lady, I am so sorry,” he said, tears welling in his eyes. “I have no equipment, no potions, nothing.” “Then use your hands!” I screamed, grabbing his collar. “Use anything!” “I can’t risk it. Without a magical barrier, without tools to stop the bleeding—” “Enough of this pathetic drama! Take him away!” Lilith suddenly barked. Two guards entered the room, grabbed Alistair by the arms, and began to drag him out. “Listen to me!” Alistair yelled back at me. “Remember the pressure point I showed you? The one on your abdomen? Push on it! It will stimulate the contractions! You have to push with everything you have on the next one—” The door slammed shut. It was just me and Lilith again. She took out a scrying mirror made of blood-crystal and opened a channel. “Caius?” Her voice was instantly wounded and frail. “You need to see this. Your precious mate is putting on another show for us.” She turned the mirror towards me. I saw Caius’s face. He was standing in the bright hallway of another, fully equipped sanctuary. His expensive clothes were disheveled, his brow furrowed with exhaustion. When he saw me lying in a pool of my own blood, a flicker of shock and horror crossed his face before it was replaced by ice. “What is going on with her?” His voice was tight, cold. “What do you think? It’s an act,” Lilith said casually. “She’s bled a little, but Alistair is always so dramatic. I think she’s just trying to force you to come to her.” Caius’s jaw tightened as he stared at me through the mirror. Just then, a weak voice called from his side of the connection. Isadora. “Caius… who is that…? Is it Rowan? Is she… is she blaming me again?” “It’s nothing. Don’t be distracted,” Caius soothed her instantly, but his eyes on me grew colder. “Caius!” I screamed with my last bit of strength. “Help me… the baby… the baby is really coming!” “Rowan, stop it,” he said, his expression unchanged. “Isadora is struggling. The Ancestor’s Blessing… it’s causing a bloodline rejection. The healers are fighting to save her. She is the coven’s priority.” “But I—” “I’ll deal with you when I’m done here,” he cut me off coldly. Through the mirror, I saw him turn to stroke Isadora’s forehead. “You deserve to pay for what you’ve done.” The mirror went black. Lilith put it away, looking pleased. “See?” she said, squatting down in front of me, her eyes filled with triumph and cruelty. “In Caius’s heart, what are you? A pathetic lone wolf who slept her way into his bed for protection. A birthing tool. And now, you’re not even useful for that.” She stood up, her voice a final judgment. “You thought marrying into the Alucard Coven was your ticket to the top? You and your mutt are just trash that needs to be taken out.” I closed my eyes, refusing to look at her anymore. My body was soaked in blood, but my hand secretly moved to the necklace around my neck. The moonstone pendant my father gave me. My last resort. They all thought I was just a lone wolf. No pack. A nobody running a broken-down bookstore. Of course they did. They couldn’t sense the royal blood sleeping inside me. The Alpha blood I had sealed away. I loved him, so I chose to give up my birthright. What a stupid joke that turned out to be. “If you are ever in danger from which there is no escape,” my father had told me on the day I left my pack, “crush this. Every wolf of our kind will feel your call.” My fingers found the tiny trigger inside the pendant. Lilith’s voice was still droning on. “…Isadora always said you were manipulative. I actually defended you. I was such a fool. A stray wolf who married for power. Who knows what you were really plotting.” With the last of my strength, I crushed the trigger. There was no sound. No flash of light. But I knew. The signal had been sent. “In half an hour,” my father’s voice echoed in my memory, “my Royal Guard will tear this world apart to find you.” But my baby… Could my child hold on until my people arrived?
Watch👉 https://cps-front.novelix.live/app-api/ext/new/20260701KCUYu1tmGc 🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “Novelix” app 🔍 search for “ni712284”, and watch the full series ✨! #Novelix
Leave a Reply