Chapter 196: Child

I grabbed a plush, clean towel from the shelf and ran it under warm water, but finding no basin, my eyes caught a deep ceramic fruit bowl resting on the bedside table back in the room. Unceremoniously dumping the fruit onto the nightstand, I filled the bowl with warm water and brought it to the bedside.

"So, are we transitioning into medical roleplay now?" the Alpha teased, his eyes tracking my movements as I set the makeshift basin on the nightstand.

Wringing out the cloth, I began meticulously wiping away the dark traces of soot and ash from his sharp features. As I smoothed the damp towel across his heated skin—carefully navigating around his fresh bandages—a profound, aching tenderness bloomed in my chest.

To care for him with my own hands felt deeply intimate. Every gentle stroke over his powerful frame sent a tremor through me, matched only by the darkening hunger in my husband’s eyes.

"No, this is care. Not a game..." I whispered directly against his parted lips as I set the towel aside, pressing a soft kiss to his mouth. "I’m going to wash up. I’ll be right back."

But the moment I was alone behind the glass of the shower, with scalding streams of water pounding against my shoulders, the composure shattered. I clamped both hands over my mouth to smother a wail, sliding down the wet tile until my knees hit the floor.

The terrifying realization that his body—as indestructible as it seemed—could simply give out shattered me to my core. I had grown so used to treating my man like an unshakeable fortress. I believed there wasn’t a force in the world capable of breaking him. But bullets didn’t care about strength, and seeing his blood had unleashed a sickening, suffocating dread.

The thought of him ceasing to exist left an agonizing emptiness in my lungs.

It was one thing to know he was breathing somewhere far away. It was an entirely different nightmare to realize that this vast world could be stripped of his scent, his piercing gaze, his voice.

That he could simply be gone.

The true-mate bond was the universe’s greatest blessing and its most devastating curse. With one hand, it lifted you to the heights of euphoria; with the other, it could tear your heart from your chest, plunging you into an agony so profound that death felt like mercy. I shook, paralyzed as fear wrapped its vice-like claws around my mind. Love was so terrifyingly painful—because I couldn’t conceive of a life without him anymore.

Stepping out of the shower and drying my trembling skin, I returned to the bedroom to find Magnus looking lethal. He sat on the edge of the rumpled mattress, glaring at a small glass vial with absolute hatred. As I approached, I sat down beside him on the edge of the bed in silence.

"This is an abomination," he rasped, setting the vial down on the nightstand with revulsion. "It reeks of a child. I can’t fathom what kind of scum is capable of this. Bastards like that deserve to be flayed alive and thrown to the maggots."

"Magnus... the boy sleeping in our guest wing... that scent gland belonged to his friend. I promised him I would help," I said quietly, lacing my fingers tightly in my lap.

Cold drops of water dripped from my hair onto my husband’s oversized cotton shirt—the one I had thrown on after drying off. Wrapping myself in his scent was the only thing keeping my nerves anchored.

"Then we’ll track her down. Do we know anything about his family?" he asked, his arm instinctively wrapping around my waist to pull me tight against his side.

"Magnus... he and that girl... they came from a laboratory. They don’t have parents. He told me before we were rescued."

The broad palm resting against my hip instantly went rigid.

"A laboratory... You’re telling me they were experimenting on children?" His grip tightened, and I could feel the violent rise and fall of his chest as his blood began to boil.

"From what I gathered, they weren’t physically tortured, but the children were raised there in pairs. Damian had a girl assigned to him—Amelie. She’s a couple of years younger," I explained, trying to find a way toward the harder truth. But Magnus beat me to it.

"If this is what I think it is, we can’t hand this child over to state services or foster care. His options are limited unless we keep him," Magnus’s voice turned deadly serious.

"He’s genetically unstable. A couple of years ago, a child with similar modifications lost control during a panic attack and leveled a commercial center with his aura alone... A leak confirmed his genetic makeup had been altered. A child like that needs precise, intense guidance. Researching his condition and stabilizing him will cost an astronomical amount. Nobody in the public system will take that on. A weak werewolf of alpha blood couldn’t handle him, and an ordinary human would be crushed to death during his very first spike of rage."

"You’re... saying we’re keeping him? Adopting him?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat, never doubting the choice for a single second.

"If you don’t want to, then—"

"I do," I interrupted firmly, pushing myself up to stare straight into the metallic depths of his eyes. "I want to help him."

"Good. My lawyers will handle everything cleanly. We’ll figure out the right legal angle and start searching for the girl immediately. Now we just have to hope she’s as resilient as he is and managed to survive."

Closing my exhausted eyes, I took a deep breath of my husband’s scent, sinking closer into his warm embrace. In that fleeting second, I felt whole, completely happy. But the fragile peace didn’t last. Magnus’s next words sliced through my calm like shards of ice, leaving a slick trail of fear down my spine.

"Jane. Tomorrow, you and I need to have a very serious conversation. And it concerns the choices you made while I was gone."