Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Chess was the last thing I expected to be caught up in after hearing the news of my pregnancy.

But who knew it actually had the spirit to clear my mind and soothe my worries? The pieces sat quiet on the board. My thoughts, for once, sat quieter with them.

The doctor had me on sleeping injections for most of the first seventy-two hours. I kept sleeping and waking, and gracefully, I had no nightmares or else I’d be strangling the man for making me feel like a corpse when my body finally wore off the injections.

However, I now felt alive. The fog in my head had thinned. My limbs answered when I asked them to move.

The infirmary looked out toward the castle in the far distance, beyond a thick, mist-laden forest. I hadn’t wished for anything more than to be able to portal myself. I’d have appeared at the Castle, in Kai’s arms.

I missed him dearly, so much it hurt. The ache sat under my ribs and did not ease when I looked at the trees.

The morning had no scorching sun. The weather felt wonderful, and I enjoyed the warmth it brought. And under the peaceful open sky sat Clawface and me.

A small table was between us and on it was a chessboard. The wood was smooth. The pieces were already mid-war.

"Checkmate." He claimed for the... umpteenth time, I’d like to say by now.

"Fuck!"

"A Luna doesn’t curse. A Luna says good words. From his mouth comes the Moon Goddess’s grace to protect, nurture, and protect his babies."

I stared at Clawface with a stupid look. The words sat between us like something he had practiced.

"If you were my toddler, I’d be beating the shit out of you, and I’d be winning with grace and a go-to-hell smirk. You’re cheating, and I just can’t prove it. You’re not playing fair. I don’t trust you." I squinted at the game. The board looked innocent. It was not.

Clawface only tsked, and then we played again.

I hadn’t even gotten to moving my knights before he’d already won. My hand hovered and then dropped.

"You have much to learn about how running a kingdom works." He mocked, and he was being much livelier today.

"Yea, tell me about it." I rolled my eyes.

"I could begin with the fact that you thought you were poisoned by one of the castle’s mixologists."

I pointed a finger at Clawface. "Fuck you. In fact, fuck you a lot."

He shook his head as he chortled. I continued, "That wasn’t for you to answer. And don’t blame me. I’m sure Kai thought the same."

"Then perhaps you both still need to learn more." Clawface stated.

I shook my head this time and got back into the game. A few minutes later, seeing as he’d almost won again, I raised my hand from the board.

"Disinterested now." I muttered and stood up. The chair scraped softly. My legs still felt a little unused.

As I turned, the doctor was approaching. His steps were measured. His coat was too white against the green.

"Luna, I hope you’re enjoying your afternoon."

I shifted my tone, carrying the weight of the authority I now held.

"I’d enjoy it better if I were spending it with Alpha Kai."

"I’m sure he feels the same." The doctor sighed. "We have one last test to do, and then I promise you, you’ll be discharged."

I hadn’t traced his words to their roots when Clawface appeared behind me. I felt him before I saw him.

"If the Alpha King were here, would you have such confidence?"

"Pardon?" The doctor’s voice tightened. The poor man’s face was drained of blood, but he held his ground.

Clawface was mad on my behalf, I could tell. The air around him had gone sharp.

"You’ve been doing so many tests at this point you’d drain all of Luna’s blood."

"I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. About five liters of blood in the body and the heart keeps pumping thousand more, and the bone marrow keeps producing more blood cells, and we’re merely taking..."

"That wasn’t for you to answer."

Clawface got a taste of his own medicine and now he seemed even more enraged than he had been a few seconds ago. His jaw worked once and then stopped.

"Well..." I raised my brows at him before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Leave the doctor alone. I’m sure he’s only doing his job."

"Thank you, Luna."

"You better have Luna discharged by tomorrow."

The doctor simply bowed. "We’ll pay attention to that, sir."

As I left with the doctor, I found myself wondering when Clawface had become someone who truly cared about me.

Did it have to do with the title I now wore, where the care really wasn’t for me but for the Luna I’d become? Or was I merely misreading the situation again? The question followed me down the corridor and did not answer itself.

∆∆∆

Two more days reeled by quite quickly, and I was finally on the verge of being discharged. The walls of the infirmary had started to look smaller. The window had started to look larger.

It was midday, and the doctor came back with my reports. He stated words that confused me more than they clarified the situation, but from what I could gather, I was hale and my body was fit to carry our baby. I held onto that part and let the rest of the medical language slide past.

The sun shone scorching overhead, and I squinted as I met with Clawface, who had finished readying the car for our departure. But as I neared him, he lowered his phone.

It was Kai.

"Hey, baby. Rate my thrill?" Kai began.

"Um, a full blast of energy spinning you to cloud nine." I mused, lost in the bright smile dancing on my face. Hearing him made the heat of the day feel lighter.

"Gosh, I miss you so much. Can’t wait to have you in my arms, and I get to listen to our baby. Oh, the baby bump too."

Kai stretched the words out and it made me laugh even harder as I entered the backseat, helped by Clawface.

My body was lightly sore and sensitive. The seat took my weight carefully.

"Oh, please. Calm down. You’re such a hasty first-timer." I claimed, and he snorted.

"Can’t blame me."

I settled into the seat. The leather was warm from the sun.

"Please focus on the last ritual. It’s all ending today, yes?"

The car had started, the engine humming as we moved. Clawface drove with precision, subtle in his steering, and soon the infirmary disappeared behind the fog. On either side of the road stretched the thick mist laden forest, with more fog ahead and the silence that came with being the only occupant of a royal private asphalt road. Trees stood close. The mist did not lift.

Kai’s words brought me back to the moment.

"Yea, it’s all ending today, and then we can have all the time in the world to ourselves."

"As long as you don’t enter another rut and destroy me entirely."

"Well..." He dragged out the word, and I widened my eyes as though he could see my expression.

"You better hold that tongue." I snapped, causing him to snicker.

Kai briefed me on more of his past rituals and the challenges he’d passed through. I’d learned he’d even been a gladiator at some point and fought in an arena. Unlike before, he didn’t spare me the details this time. Now that he had, I laughed my ass off at the bizarreness of SilverFang. The pictures he painted were too strange to sit still in my head.

The conversation soon leaned toward its end.

"I love you, and I can’t wait to see you." Kai told me.

I felt the truth behind it. Even though our bond was faint due to the distance, I could tell he was sincere. It reached me anyway, thin and sure.

"I love you, my ass King."

The call ended, and just as I slid the phone beside my thigh onto the empty seat, I turned toward the window.

My sight soon caught the dark ominousness of the forest, and then out of the blue, I almost believed I caught something moving toward us from within the trees.

Then it turned out to be a car.

Much larger than ours.

The wheels screeched once it burst onto the asphalt.

It wouldn’t stop. The brakes weren’t being pressed.

Instantly, the realisation dawned on me. One thing was clear in that moment: it was going to crash into us.

And when it did, all went numb and silent...