Page 29 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

"Finish that sentence and I'll tear your throat out. You will find another solution or I will have you carved up in the same manner you have suggested."

The woman shudders and for a second, I see my reflection in her eyes—something wild and monstrous, barely holding itself together.

"Alpha can offer blood for transfusion," Olga interrupts, before I can rip the doctor apart. "Since feeding it to her doesn't work, we'll need direct volume replacement. Alpha's blood may work for an Omega's body. We need to start now."

"Soren," Seraphina breathes and I drop the doctor, moving to her side instantly. Seraphina's eyes are unfocused, sweat glistening on her pale skin. A tear slips down her cheek, and a moan of pain escapes her lips.

I brush damp hair from her forehead, my fingers gentle where my heart is anything but. She leans into the touch, fragile and weak, and I know—I'd do anything. Give anything.

"Take mine," I say. "Take however much you need to help her."

Drawing my blood is the easy part.

Letting them force me from the room is not.

Rayne and Eric shove me into the hallway, their excuses grating against my nerves.You're in the way. They can't work on her if you keep threatening to kill them.They think I'll be useful out here? Pacing the fucking floors like a caged animal while she fights for her life?

I hadn't wanted to leave Seraphina's side. It kills me not to be able to see her. Touch her. Instead, I'm here, drowning in despair and the knowledge that this should have never happened.

Dystocia.

Even now, Callahan haunts her. Even now, that bastard still finds a way to hurt her. Why did everything they shared always end up putting her near death?

It didn't take long for Eric to find the rogue by Seraphina's descriptions. And the bastard did sing when he saw whose hands he had been delivered into. I didn't mind getting my hands dirty with his blood. Frankly, I wish I could say I remembered it and enjoyed doing it. But it came as an instinct the moment heconfessed to heading the attack that had left her dying on the streets.

An attack orchestrated by Kaida Callahan to hide Ronan's one mistake.

Of course, I haven't told her. Seraphina is a smart woman. She'd see through any half-truths. If I tell her Matt is dead, she'll ask why. If I tell her we found him, she'll demand to know what else we uncovered. She'd look me in the eyes and know. And I can't let her.

I wonder how many more lies I'll have to tell to keep her safe from that cursed family.

Heels click distantly and I turn around in my pace to find Lilia barreling towards us, worry in her light blue eyes. She wraps an arm around Eric's side in a firm hug. "I came as soon as I heard. Is she alright?"

I cannot respond without having the murderous urge to rip the door from its hinges and ask why the fuck the light outside the theater still blinks red. So I don't.

"She'll be fine, Soren. Your panic isn't helping anyone," Rayne mutters without hiding her irritation. "I could've handled the surgery, but you forbade me from going near her."

Of course, I did. Once, I had been beguiled by her ruthless nature, entranced by how similar we both were. Had Rayne been in there, it would very much have been a case of saving the child and letting the mother bleed out.

A cry—that of a child's pierces the air.

The doors to the theater swing open before I can so much as take a step, and Olga is the first to emerge. Blood stains the front of her uniform, dark and wet, but her expression is one of relief.

"It's a boy?—"

I shove past her, barely registering the footsteps that echo behind me. I shove past the hands reaching to stop me, past the wailing child being held by the doctor. The acrid scent of blood is strong enough to choke me but...

My knees weaken at the sight of her. She's...okay. Pale, exhausted...but alive.

"Hey," she croaks, barely able to manage a smile without looking half dead. "You're here."

If Callahan were here, I'd fucking kill him.

My fingers move, even if I'd sworn to stay away until she wanted me to, even if I'd fought Kaelin for control over our urges and yearning for this woman. I wipe the tear from under her eye with a thumb. "Where else would I be?"

Tired violet eyes search mine and she swallows before whispering, "He's blonde."

Confusion furrows my brow at first before I look back at the nurse holding the crying child. I still. It isn't his blonde tuft of curls reddened by blood, or the bow-shaped lips that distinctively resemble Callahan's. But it is his teary vivid blue eyes with a slight tinge of violet that makes warmth fill my insides. It is the arch of his brow, his small pert nose and ears.

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