Defying the Rogue Alpha
Chapter 53: Dying

Chapter 53: Dying

Sarah crossed her arms, completely unbothered now. With the Alpha alive, her plan hadn’t fully failed. And as far as she was concerned, Ava dying was good news.

"What the hell is going on in this place?" Nelly hissed, rubbing her temples as though speaking to Sarah was giving her a migraine.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "What’s going on? I’ll tell you what’s going on. The little bitch is cursed, that’s what."

Sarah sighed dramatically, twirling a strand of her hair between her fingers.

"Honestly? I’m not even surprised anymore," she continued, eyes glinting with malice. "The Alpha should’ve known better than to bring a walking disaster into our lives. She’s nothing but trouble."

Deep down, however, she was relieved.

She was safe.

The Alpha was alive, yes but Ava was dying.

*****

Lucas watched as Doctor Mary and Lanaya hovered over Ava.

Why the fuck weren’t they doing anything?

Ava lay unmoving, her face deathly pale, her breathing shallow. The stark contrast between the vibrant, defiant woman he knew and the fragile, motionless figure in front of him made his chest ache.

His patience was razor-thin, his temper simmering and he was one second away from erupting.

The two women exchanged confused glances.

His jaw clenched.

"If someone doesn’t tell me something right this instant..." Lucas growled dangerously.

Lanaya, the braver of the two, stepped forward, shifting uncomfortably. She looked like she’d rather walk into a burning house than deliver this news.

"Alpha, she really was poisoned."

Lucas stilled.

The words didn’t register at first.

His mind rejected them outright because they didn’t make any damn sense.

"That’s impossible," he said, shaking his head. "She was here all through yesterday. She left for her room last night. She texted me before going to sleep. How could she have been poisoned?"

Lanaya shrugged.

Lucas’ eye twitched violently.

He exhaled slowly, reigning in the primal urge to shake some damn answers out of someone.

"Okay," he said, forcing himself to focus. "She has healing powers. She can heal herself or... or do that thing you did last time, draw out her wolf."

Lanaya hesitated.

"I cannot..."

Lucas’ hackles rose.

His fists clenched, his breathing sharp and ragged.

"Lanaya, I swear to God..."

"I cannot because she is still weak from all the power we drew out of her yesterday."

He felt his control slipping.

"So what are you saying?" His voice was a low, deadly whisper.

Lanaya took a breath, her expression grim.

"Only Doctor Mary can help her now."

Lucas’ gaze snapped to Mary, the gold behind his eyes flashing.

Mary finally spoke, her voice careful, as if she were walking across thin ice.

"I will run an IV, try to counteract the poison in her system. I will need to run some tests to find out exactly what kind of..."

Lucas snapped.

"I need you doing something right now." His voice was thunderous, vibrating through the walls.

Mary’s lips pressed into a thin line. "Alpha, that’s... not the only thing."

Lucas’ eyes narrowed.

The way she said that, the hesitant pause, the shift in her stance made his stomach turn ice cold.

Mary glanced at Lanaya, then back to him.

"The source of the blood..." She took a breath. "She lost the baby."

Lucas went completely still.

A terrifying kind of stillness, the kind that preceded a storm.

He felt nothing at first.

Just cold.

A strange, sinking coldness that started in his chest and spread outward, paralyzing every limb.

"Baby..." His voice was hoarse. "What... baby?"

Mary and Lanaya exchanged a horrified glance.

Oh, shit.

They had assumed he knew.

That assumption was a grave mistake.

"She was pregnant," Mary said gently. "The fetus couldn’t handle the poison in her blood. It had been in her system for too long."

The words crashed into him, knocking the breath out of his lungs.

The world blurred.

His ears rang. His vision tunneled.

The walls seemed to be closing in, the weight of the revelation crushing him from all sides.

His baby.

Their baby.

Gone before he even knew it had existed.

The agony was sharp and suffocating.

It was in that horrific moment that Lucas understood what it truly meant to be an Alpha.

Not the strength.

Not the power.

But the sheer, impossible burden of not being able to break.

Not in front of his pack. Not in front of his people.

His breathing became shallow.

The walls of the room were too tight and suffocating.

He turned on his heel and stormed out, barely registering Dorian’s narrowed, concerned gaze as he passed through the living room.

He needed air.

He needed out.

The second he stepped outside, he shifted.

Bones cracked. Muscles twisted. His clothes shredded away as his wolf exploded forward.

He didn’t stop to think.

Didn’t pause.

He just ran.

His paws thudded against the earth, fast and relentless, as if he could outrun the grief tearing him apart.

Through the buildings, past the gardens, through the bushes and up the hill to the very edge of the fortress.

There, beneath the moon’s cold light, he finally let it out.

A long, anguished howl ripped through the air. It was a sound so raw, so filled with pain, that even the trees seemed to shudder.

His massive wolf body finally collapsed to the ground, spent and broken.

The weight of what he had lost settled heavily on his soul.

*****

Sarah scanned the hallway, her sharp eyes flickering from left to right. She wasn’t about to get caught not when she was this close to tying up a loose end. The entire wing was eerily quiet, save for the sound of the guards she had distracted with a bottle of expensive wine at the far end of the hall.

With careful precision, she turned the brass doorknob and slipped inside Ava’s bedroom. The scent of blood still lingered in the air, making Sarah wrinkle her nose. Ava was barely alive last she heard, but that didn’t concern her.

What mattered was the tiny, inconspicuous black card she had clutched in her sweaty palm. The embossed letters gleamed under the dim bedroom light: Alpha Lucas Raventhorn.

She moved swiftly to the dresser, pulling open the drawer with delicate fingers. This was exactly where she had taken it from. No one needed to know she had been snooping.

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