Chapter 5
Pain greeted me before consciousness fully returned. A deep, gnawing ache that seemed to consume my entire body. I tried to move, but my left leg screamed in protest, sending fresh waves of agony through me.
"Easy, Rose. Don't try to move yet."
Dr. Elena's voice broke through the haze of pain. I forced my eyes open, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights of the pack hospital. The sterile white ceiling swam into focus above me.
"Dr. Elena," I whispered, my throat raw and parched. "What happened?"
Tears streaked down her face as she adjusted the IV drip connected to my arm. "You fell from the cliff during the festival. Three days ago."
Memories crashed back—Milani's face twisted with hatred, her hands against my chest, the sickening sensation of falling through empty air.
"My baby," I gasped, instinctively reaching for my stomach.
Dr. Elena's hand caught mine, her grip gentle but firm. "I'm so sorry, Rose. The fall was too severe."
The words didn't make sense at first. Then understanding hit me like a physical blow, and a keening sound filled the room—my own voice, raw with grief.
"No," I moaned, trying to curl forward despite the pain. "No, please, no."
"The trauma caused a miscarriage," Dr. Elena continued, her voice breaking. "There was nothing I could do."
I turned my face to the wall, tears streaming silently down my cheeks. The tiny life I'd protected for two months—gone. The future I'd imagined for my pup—shattered.
"And your leg," Dr. Elena said softly, her hand moving to the cast that encased my lower left limb. "The damage is... extensive. The fall caused multiple fractures that went through the joint."
I looked down at the bulky cast, understanding dawning slowly through my grief.
"The pack healers tried," she continued, wiping her eyes. "But the injury is beyond magical repair. You'll... you'll always have a limp, Rose."
A broken leg. A broken womb. A broken future.
"I'm sorry," Dr. Elena whispered, genuine anguish in her eyes. "If I could have saved your pup, I would have."
I closed my eyes, unable to bear the pity in her gaze. "How long will I be here?"
"A few more days, at least. Your body needs time to heal what it can."
Before I could respond, the hospital room door burst open with such force that it slammed against the wall. Jacob stood in the doorway, his massive frame vibrating with barely contained rage. His eyes were golden—his wolf close to the surface.
"Alpha," Dr. Elena acknowledged, rising quickly. "She just woke up. She needs rest—"
"Leave us," he commanded, his Alpha tone brooking no argument.
Dr. Elena hesitated, looking between us with concern.
"Now!" Jacob roared.
She fled, throwing one last sympathetic glance my way before disappearing through the door.
Jacob stalked toward my bed, each step deliberate and threatening. "How could you be so clumsy?" he snarled, looming over me. "So weak?"
I stared at him in disbelief. "Clumsy?"
"Milani told me everything," he continued, his voice cold as ice. "How you've been acting strange lately. How you threw yourself off that cliff to spite me."
"What?" I whispered, shock rendering me nearly speechless.
His hand shot out, gripping my jaw with bruising force. "Did you think I wouldn't figure it out? That I wouldn't realize what you were trying to do?"
"I didn't—"
"You killed my heir," he hissed, his face inches from mine. "My pup. Our pup."
The accusation hit me like a physical blow. "You didn't even know," I whispered.
"I know now," he snarled. "Milani told me everything. How you got pregnant to trap me. How you decided to kill our child rather than let me have any part of it."
His words were so absurd, so twisted by Milani's lies, that I could barely comprehend them. "Jacob, please—"
"Guards!" he shouted, not taking his eyes off me.
Two Delta wolves appeared instantly at the door.
"Lock her in," Jacob ordered, finally releasing my jaw. "She doesn't leave this room until I decide what to do with her."
"Alpha," one guard began hesitantly, "Dr. Elena says she needs fresh air for recovery—"
"She needs to learn her place," Jacob cut him off. "Post a guard at her door. No one enters without my permission."
As he turned to leave, I found my voice one last time. "Jacob, please believe me. I would never hurt our pup."
He paused at the doorway, his broad shoulders tense. For one heartbreaking moment, I thought he might listen.
Instead, he spoke without turning around. "You're not useful to me anymore, Rose. Not as a Luna. Not as a mate. Not as anything."
The door closed behind him with finality, leaving me alone with my shattered body and broken heart.
Outside my window, the moon rose over the Moonstone territory—the same moon that had witnessed my fall, my loss, and now my imprisonment.
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