Betrayed Luna's New Life

The pain tore through me like claws ripping apart my very soul. Each contraction felt like my body was being turned inside out, and somewhere deep within, my wolf whimpered in distress—a sound I hadn't heard from her in years.

"Luna, you need to breathe through this one," Healer Elara Vance's voice cut through the haze of agony as another wave crashed over me. Her weathered hands pressed against my swollen belly, her healing energy flowing into me in warm pulses. "The pup is in distress. We need to get him out soon."

I gripped the edges of the medical bed, my knuckles white as bone. "Where is Dorian?" I gasped between ragged breaths. "I need him here. I need my mate."

Elara's gray eyes flickered with something I couldn't quite read—worry, perhaps, or was it pity? "I've sent word to the Alpha. He'll be here soon."

But even as she spoke, I felt it through our mate bond—that initial surge of concern when Dorian first sensed my distress, followed by something else entirely. A pulling away. A distraction that made my chest tighten with more than just physical pain.

Another contraction seized me, this one so violent that I screamed. The sound echoed off the medical wing's sterile walls, raw and desperate. My wolf stirred restlessly, more active than she'd been in months, as if the life-or-death struggle was awakening something that had long been dormant.

"Luna!" Elara's voice sharpened with alarm as she pressed her stethoscope to my belly. "The heartbeat is dropping. We need the Alpha's strength to boost the healing process. Where is he?"

I reached out through our bond, calling to him with everything I had left. *Dorian, please. I need you. Our pup needs you.*

For a moment, I felt his attention snap back to me, felt his wolf respond to my desperate plea. But then, like a door slamming shut, that connection grew distant again. Cold. Distracted.

"He's... he's not coming," I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "Something else has his attention."

Elara's jaw tightened, but she didn't waste time on words. Her hands glowed brighter as she poured more of her healing energy into me, sweat beading on her forehead from the effort. "Then we do this without him. You're strong, Luna. Your bloodline is strong."

But I could feel it—the way my pup's movements were growing weaker, the way his heartbeat stuttered against my ribs like a bird with a broken wing. My wolf began to pace frantically in my mind, her distress bleeding into mine until I couldn't tell where her panic ended and mine began.

Hours crawled by in a blur of agony and fading hope. Elara worked tirelessly, calling in two other healers to assist, but without an Alpha's power to strengthen the process, we were fighting a losing battle. I drifted in and out of consciousness, my wolf's mournful howls echoing through my mind as she sensed what I couldn't bear to acknowledge.