Page 98 of The Pregnancy Pact

“Lorelai,” I said, slowing now that I was inside her room. I took the time to carefully sidestep the contraptions that were assisting her healing. Sinking down in the chair beside her bed, I carefully picked up her hand, cradling it in both of mine. “My love,” I murmured. Emotions overwhelmed me at the touch of her skin, the light in her eyes that spoke of life. She was here, with me. Harmed and injured, but alive. I had lost one wife. I knew full well what it was like to visit these sterile corridors, smelling of antiseptic, sickness, and medicine, wondering if the female who shared my name would live to walk out. I knew the fear of having a wife on the brink of death—then watching her slowly slide over the cliff towards the inescapable dark bottom. I had lived it once, and that very recently. I could not face it again.

“You are here,” I said, clutching her hand to my chest. “You are still with me.”

“Ellax,” she murmured, toiling to pick up her other hand and touch my cheek with her fingertips. Her face was swollen. Her voice was strained. Clearly, it was difficult for her to speak.

Witnessing her struggle brought tears to my eyes.

No.

It would not do for these Asterions to see their Elder, their Lead Advisor, weep. Thankfully, out of the corner of my eye I witnessed the lead physician signal to his crew and they quickly filed out. There came the metallic ring of the curtains being jerked closed over the rod, meaning Lorelai and I were alone. Permitting myself to feel—to truly feel—all of the sentiments I’d spent my entire life burying, I stood up to lean over my wife, gently planting kisses on her bruised face, her forehead, her cheeks, and finally her lips, mindful of the slim tube connected to her nose, helping her breathe, and the delicate and yet strong hand that I clutched to my chest.

“My love, my wife, my little star, all is well,” I murmured, in-between kisses. “All is well now. You are here. You are with me. You’ll live. I’ll take you home soon and we will put these wretched events behind us. I will spend my life making this up to you. I vow it.”

“Ellax.”

I drew back to gaze into her face, surprised to see tears welling in her beautiful blue eyes.

“What is it, my love?”

“Ellax.” The tears bubbled over the rims of her eyes, spilling one by one down her cheeks. “Don’t s-say that. You c-can’t say that.”

A frown creased my features, even as I gently wiped her tears away.

“Why would I not say that? It is the truth. I should never have left you, Lorelai. I should have known something was amiss. Due to my negligence, I put you in Sirena’s power. It is my fault you are inured. My fault—”

“Stop!”

This time she was insistent. She squeezed my fingers with all the faint strength in hers.

“N-not your fault. Sirena’s. H-have to establish that now. You’re n-not required to stay with me due to…misplaced guilt. Don’t want that, Ellax. I’ve been in one…loveless marriage. Can’t take be-being in another. Not now. Not when—I know…know what it’s like to l-love you. D-don’t do that to me. Let me go now.”

“Let you go?” My bewilderment must have been written on my face. How could it not be? Had the beating rendered her mad? “You are my mate. I will never let you go.”

“You will,” she sobbed, “once you hear what—what happened. The pact is broken, Ellax. O-over. Done.”

“That pact?”

My mind raced, attempting to decipher her meaning. “Our pregnancy pact? That silly agreement?”

“It’s not s-silly,” she insisted. “It’s legal. B-binding.”

“It was a personal agreement between the two of us,” I said. “No one else besides a lifeless mecha knows. Anyway, what has the pact to do with this?”

“D-don’t you get it?” In her frustration, she attempted to tug her hand free. I would not release it. “I broke…the pact, Ellax. I can’t—I can’t get pregnant. Sirena got what sh—she wanted. It’s over between us.”

I felt my entire body freeze in shock and dismay.

Chapter 57

Lorelai

Isaw it. I saw it the instant the news of what I was saying hit home. The instant he finally grasped what I was trying to tell him. He’d married me in a drunken state and stayed married to me because of his peers. However, the overarching drive to all of it had hinged on my ability to conceive and give him an heir. That’s what our relationship was actually built on—my getting pregnant.

And I couldn’t do that.

Sirena might have failed to kill me. She might have failed to use me to coerce Ellax into swaying the Council, the Coalition, into voting the way she wanted; I wasn’t entirely sure about that. But what she hadn’t failed to do was enact her own sneaky bit of revenge. Revenge against me for being one of the humans she hated so badly, and who had taken her place as Ellax’s wife. Now, I might be his wife, but not for long.

I couldn’t get pregnant.

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