CHAPTER 18.Flashback//A child.

“She'll be due soon, my lord…” Nyx said, and Akira stood there, refusing to believe that she was pregnant with the pup of her worst enemy!

She would prefer to die rather than bear a child for him!

With that, the woman bowed and left, Dominus ushered her out of the room while Akira sat, butt naked, in the wooden chair outside on the balcony, her mind reeling with thoughts about how she would give birth to a child for Dominus…… A prince from the Northern pack!

She thought of killing the damn baby in her stomach, but it was taboo in her pack to kill one’s child, which is why she killed the thought.

Still sitting on the chair, butt naked, the door creaked open, and it was Dominus. Once he saw her, he walked up to her, but seeing her settled that way, his face was marred with concern as he leaned down to her level.

“You need to cover up so you don't get a cold, it would affect the baby.”

His voice was calm, unlike what it usually was. Akira almost couldn't believe he had such a soft voice.

Something about him seemed to change after hearing she was pregnant with his child,he knew he was the first man to take her.

~~DaAYS LATER~~

Akira lay on the makeshift bed, the sheets damp with sweat, her body twisted with pain.

Each contraction felt like a wave crashing over her. She gritted her teeth, trying to suppress the cries that threatened to escape her lips.

Nyx sat next to her, holding her hands and helping her through it.

“Who are you? What is your name?” Akira finally asked the woman.

Nyx's lips formed a thin smile. “We will meet again. When we do, I will certainly tell you my name,” she said, and Akira's brows furrowed in confusion. But she was in so much pain from trying to push out a child that she didn’t bother to care.

Next, Nyx stood up and turned to Dominus and some maids who were in the room. “My lord, you all need to leave,” Nyx announced, and in the next minute, the room was empty.

“Breathe, Akira,” Nyx instructed calmly.

Akira nodded,she didn’t want to listen to the strange woman, but this wasn’t the time to act up or be stubborn.

She was in pain. This was her first time having a child—a child with Northern Iron Wolf blood not just a regular type of wolf.

“I know you,” Nyx stated, and Akira's heart dropped to her stomach.“Look at those eyes. They don't belong to the prince…they belong to the king.”

Akira’s brows furrowed, confusion etched across her features.She didn't understand what the woman was saying.

“Those eyes will rule over everyone.” she added.

Nyx looked into her eyes, her face plastered with a smile. “When next we meet, I will tell you my name.”

Akira rolled her eyes with a small sneer. She was in so much pain, and the woman was saying a lot of nonsense that she didn’t understand. It was hard to focus on anything other than the sharp, pulsing pain that coursed through her abdomen, each wave more intense than the last.

The next contraction hit her like a sledgehammer, and she gasped, biting her lip to stifle the sound while Nyx started forcing her to push the baby out. Pain radiated through her,she could feel Nyx’s hands on her shoulders, grounding her.

Akira’s breath quickened, each gasp mingling with her cries. She squeezed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her cheeks, but she refused to let out a sound, just as Nyx instructed her to do.

“Push,” Nyx commanded firmly.“You can do this. One more time.”

Akira screamed so loudly that Nyx thought her throat might rip open.

Her legs trembled, and her back arched off the soaked furs beneath her.

“Push!” Nyx urged again in a calm voice. “Now!”

Akira clenched her jaw, her face twisted with agony as she bore down with everything she had. The pain was overwhelming. It felt like her bones would snap, her skin would tear. The air around her pulsed with heat.

Then,a slick, warm rush followed by a gush of thick blood.

A wail cut through the room…..a sharp, gasping tiny cry that made everything else fall silent.

The child was here. Akira slumped, tears blurring her vision. Her arms dropped limply to her sides. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe. Her whole body trembled as Nyx moved quickly, wrapping the tiny form in a cloth.

Nyx glanced up. “It’s a boy.”

Akira blinked slowly, her lips trembling, her breath hitching. Her vision darkened at the edges. She tried to speak, but the words stuck to her tongue. She was too tired, all she saw below was blood before her eyes fluttered shut.

That was the last thing she saw before the darkness took over, her body going limp.

Then suddenly, the door creaked open. Dominus stepped in, his face pale and drenched in uncertainty once he saw his pup.

His eyes locked on the child immediately. Nyx held him out wordlessly, and Dominus hesitated.

He had held blades and bleeding men, commanded armies, and watched lives fade under his boots. But this… this tiny, red, wrinkled creature with the pale gray eyes? He had never held a baby. He stepped forward, hands shaking. “How do I…?”

“Like this,” Nyx murmured, guiding the child into his arms.

The baby let out a small, whimpering sound as he settled into Dominus’s chest, staining his clothes with blood.

Something in Dominus changed…….something that had never existed before. He stared at the boy… his boy……His pup.

“A-Akira?” Nyx turned sharply. “Akira!”

But Akira didn’t move. Her chest rose in shallow breaths, her head rolled to the side.

Dominus, still cradling the child, looked up in confusion. “Is she okay?”

“She’s breathing,” Nyx replied. “She just passed out.”

The room calmed slightly, breaths relieved.

Then a sudden cry pierced the air——*Waaaaah*

It was faint, and everyone turned at once. Dominus gazed down at Akira’s half-dead form.

*Waaaah*——A second cry, clearer this time… tiny, fragile, and real.

Nyx’s eyes widened, and Dominus froze.

No one said a word. They only looked at the blood under Akira’s belly.

The cry came again, and Dominus's grip on the first child tightened. It wasn't the child he was holding. The atmosphere grew tense immediately, and cold silence followed.

##END OF FLASHBACK##