CHAPTER 17.Rex(2)

>>>>>Rex(2)

Dominus sat there, staring at his arrogant son. He wished Rex weren't so hotheaded and arrogant, but at this point, it was too late, he had been over-pampered from birth. A deep wave of regret settled in his gut as he kept his eyes on Rex. He wasn't ready for a child when Akira got pregnant. As a naive she-wolf back then, Akira knew nothing about her pregnancy or how it came about,she never even realized she was pregnant to start with. The symptoms were there, but she didn't recognize any of them. Growing up without a motherly figure in her teenage life, she lacked basic knowledge about such matters, which made it worse.

Back in the Southern Pack, where she usually spent her holidays at her aunt's home, she felt like an outcast. Each visit went sourer than the last. Her aunt didn't care to help her or share information about women and childbearing, she was too busy with pack duties as the Beta’s wife. If she wasn't engaged in those duties, she was most likely fighting with her mate. Staying in the Southern Pack felt like a knife to the throat. Most times, Akira wished her dad or mom would come pick her up, but wishes aren't horses. None of that ever came to pass. Instead, she endured the fights between her aunt and her husband every single day.

At nineteen, when she got pregnant, she thought she was just sick—perhaps because her wolf hadn’t been out in a long time, unlike when she usually let it out three times a week or more.

After she was abducted, the trajectory of her life changed.

##FLASHBACK##

Akira sat in the bathtub. She had been sitting there for more than an hour, thinking of a way to escape.

She had been inside this building that Dominus kept for more than ten weeks, and during those weeks, she hadn't seen anyone except the maid who brought her meals every morning, afternoon, and night. The only moment she saw anything was when she looked outside through the window.

Each time she looked, she barely recognized anything she knew or could relate to. She wasn't part of their pack, and she didn’t know why she was locked up. A million glances and thoughts later, the city still didn’t look familiar.

As an alpha’s daughter, she knew what the Eastern and Southern packs looked like. And the Northern pack? She had read about it in old books, and most of her teachers in school spoke about the Iron Wolves and their pack’s appearance but she's never been there.

Some students from the Western packs also spoke highly of their pack, giving Akira a vivid description of what it looked like.

So each time she looked at her surroundings, it just didn’t match what she had in mind,it didn’t fit into any of the categories, but she remained still.

Akira shifted in the tub, the cold water clinging to her skin. Baths had always been something she loved, but now they were something she hated. The warmth the water usually brought now served as a reminder that she was abducted—carried from place to place like a broodmare, and she barely knew where she was at the moment. All her freedom had been taken away.

Sitting in the water, she hugged her knees tightly to her chest, the rough edges of the tub digging into her back slowly…..a slight discomfort that she ignored.

For the past weeks, she hadn’t really been herself. A lot had changed in her body, and she had no one to ask or explain the sudden changes she was having.

Not even the man who had brought her here and taken both her freedom and pride away.

Her body had changed slightly,from being really weak and losing her appetite most of the time to a steady discomfort in her stomach. She barely slept these days, and her body ran a temperature every now and then.

Fatigue? She couldn’t help herself anymore. But deep down inside her heart, she wished she would just die.

“This better be a sign of death–I will meet Mom, Dad, Klax, Snoopy, and the rest,” she told herself with a heavy breath. She shifted slightly, and the water rippled.

Each day, Akira hoped and prayed that the symptoms she was experiencing were signs of death. As a nineteen-year-old, she couldn't handle this anymore. Even her wolf was now too quiet to speak when they came to take her every night without prior consent.

Her mind raced as she considered the changes in her body, but suddenly the door creaked open. When she turned around, it was Dominus.

She swallowed hard, her mind beginning to race at the sight of him. Her hands were visibly shaking in the water. She narrowed her gaze and noticed he didn't come alone this time; he was with an older she-wolf at his back.

Akira looked up, her eyes meeting those of the woman—Nyx.

And she couldn't quite pinpoint why, but the eyes seemed very familiar. She had seen them somewhere but couldn't recall where.

Nyx, who seemed to be a millennial, walked slowly, fixing her gaze on Akira, who was sitting naked in the water.

Nyx followed Dominus closely behind, but her eyes remained fixed on Akira.

With a shuddering breath, Akira pushed herself up, water cascading down her arms as she stepped out of the tub. The woman quickly helped her by holding her arms and guiding her out slowly. Akira steadied herself, her heart pounding in her chest. The woman’s presence felt both commanding and unsettling.

With faint gray hair flowing down her back, each strand shone almost ethereally. Her ice-blue eyes were sharp and penetrating, as if they could see right through Akira's soul.

Well, they could.

The woman's face was etched with deep lines, each one telling a story of wisdom and hardship, but something about her and Akira still felt strange, and Akira could sense it. Next, Nyx moved closer to Akira, forcefully dragging her arms to pull her nearer, examining her eyes and pulse.

Dominus stood off to the side, confusion etched across his features as he observed the interaction. Akira's eyes darted between the two of them, searching for answers in the old woman's expression, but she didn’t ask any questions.

“My lord….” Nyx turned to Dominus. “She’s expecting a child—”

Gasps rippled through the room at once. Akira's mouth fell open in disbelief.

“A-A-baby?” Dominus managed to croak out, and the woman nodded in agreement.

“Yes my Lord.“