CHAPTER 264: THE SECOND HEARTBEAT

Natalie~

The room was quiet when I opened my eyes. It wasn’t the kind of quiet that made you nervous, but rather the kind that held you close like a soft blanket. A stillness that whispered, You’re safe now.

The pillow under my head was warm, molded to the curve of my cheek, and even though I’d somehow managed to sleep for four hours straight—a miracle on its own—I still felt like I’d been dragged through the woods backwards. My limbs were heavy, as if my bones had been replaced with stone, and my eyelids threatened to close again.

I let out a long, shaky breath and pushed the sweaty strands of hair off my forehead. My skin was clammy, my limbs felt like they were made of sandbags, and my whole body buzzed with exhaustion that ran bone-deep.

"Jasmine?" I called out in my mind, my voice groggy, like I hadn’t spoken in days. It came out hoarse, slurred with leftover fatigue that refused to let go.

Silence followed.

But not too long.

Then finally—like a soft wind brushing through leaves—her voice drifted in.

"I’m here, Mara," Jasmine murmured gently, her tone softly engulfed me. But something about it felt... off.

I sat up a little, rubbing at my eyes with the back of my hand. "Why do I still feel like I got trampled by a stampede? I mean, we fought Kalmia, sure, but it feels like I was in a second battle I don’t even remember."

The pause that followed wasn’t casual. It was heavy. Loaded. The kind that makes your stomach drop before anything’s even said. My whole body stilled.

"That’s... what I needed to talk to you about," Jasmine said, and just like that, her calm shifted—more careful now, guarded.

Every nerve in me stood at attention.

"Talk to me about what, Jasmine?" I asked, sitting up straighter. The world tilted a bit, vision tunneling before it came back into focus. "What’s going on?"

Another beat of silence followed.

Then she dropped it.

"Natalie... we’re pregnant. You’re having another baby."

Time broke.

My breath hitched. My ears rang. The world around me slowed to a weird, unnatural hush—like I was underwater and someone had hit pause.

"What?" The word barely made it out, just a broken whisper in the silence.

Instinctively, my hand flew to my belly. Flat. Still. No flutter, no pull of new life, no heartbeat thrumming quietly beneath my skin. Just... stillness.

"That—That doesn’t make any sense," I muttered, blinking down like I’d missed something obvious. "I always know when someone’s pregnant. Even if the baby’s barely there—I feel it. I see it. It’s like breathing to me. So how... how could I not know this?"

Jasmine exhaled—slow and loaded with the weight of everything she hadn’t said.

"Because I’ve been cloaking the baby from you, Mara," she said softly.

My head jerked up. Ice flooded my veins.

"You what?! For how long?"

"For a month," she added gently, like that would soften the blow. "I had to. I couldn’t let anyone—anything—sense the child. Especially not Kalmia."

I stared into the nothingness of my mind, trying to process that. My heartbeat was like a drum in my throat.

"A month, Jasmine?" My voice rose, sharp with disbelief. "You’ve been hiding our baby from me for a whole damn month?"

"I didn’t want to," she said quickly, her voice breaking a little. "You have to believe me. But the moment I sensed the pregnancy, I knew it couldn’t stay exposed. I didn’t want anyone—anything—to sense the child. Especially not Kalmia. If she sensed even a hint of new life inside you..."

I clenched my fists tightly, trying to ground myself. My chest heaved as anger and confusion twisted up inside me, tangling with fear.

"You should’ve told me,"

I snapped. "I had a right to know, Jasmine. You don’t get to make that kind of choice alone."

"I know. I should’ve told you." Jasmine’s voice trembled just a little. "But back when Kalmia was trying to take over your body, she had access to your mind. If you knew, she’d know. I couldn’t risk it. So I... cloaked the pregnancy from even you."

I wanted to stay mad. I really did. But my anger cracked under the weight of her words. The memory of Kalmia clawing through my head, whispering vile things, threatening everything I loved—it made sense. Jasmine hadn’t been trying to betray me. She was protecting us.

I exhaled slowly, feeling the last bit of tension drain from my shoulders like rain sliding off a rooftop. My heart thudded softly in my chest, quieter now, steadier.

"I’m sorry," I murmured, pressing a palm over my heart like I could physically steady its rhythm. "I shouldn’t have yelled. You were just... protecting our baby. Thank you."

Jasmine’s voice rippled through my mind like sunlight flickering on a calm lake—warm, teasing, and achingly familiar. "You’re welcome, Mama Wolf," she purred, her tone laced with that gentle mischief I could never resist. "Wanna meet our little one now?"

My lips quivered. "Yes. Please."

And in that breath, something inside me cracked wide open.

Like a door had quietly creaked ajar in the dark, letting in a soft beam of golden light. A flicker stirred deep within—delicate and warm, like the flutter of wings or the whisper of silk. A presence. Tiny... new... and unmistakably mine.

I gasped.

My hands flew instinctively to my belly, eyes widening as a pulse of gentle energy rolled outward from within me. It wrapped around my soul like a baby’s tiny hand curling around a finger—fragile, but sure. Real.

Tears spilled down my cheeks before I even realized I was crying. But it wasn’t sadness. It wasn’t fear. It was something deeper—richer. I didn’t just feel tired anymore. I felt whole. I felt... alive.

"I can feel them," I whispered to Jasmine, my voice breaking like fragile glass. "I feel our baby."

A sob tore through me—raw, joyous, unstoppable. I wept, and I laughed, clutching my stomach like I could somehow hold that glowing new life in my hands. My chest shook, my breath came in gasps, and I didn’t care. The happiness was too much to keep inside.

The door creaked open just then.

Zane stepped in, balancing a tray in one hand, his black shirt rolled up past his elbows, forearms dusted with flour or maybe scrambled egg residue. His hair was tousled—probably from running his hands through it in that distracted way he always did when he was worried or thinking hard.

Zane suddenly froze mid-step.

Then the tray clattered onto the nightstand as his entire body tensed. In three long strides, he was at my side.

"Natalie?" His voice was taut, eyes scanning my tear-streaked face. "What’s wrong? Are you hurt? In pain? Is it Kalmia again?"

I shook my head, still crying but laughing through the sobs. "No, no—it’s not that. I’m just..." I wiped my face with trembling fingers, laughing again, breathless. "I’m just so happy, Zane."

He blinked, clearly still in full-blown panic mode. "Happy? You’re crying and shaking and—hold on." He paused, head tilting like he was trying to hear something I couldn’t.

And then... he stilled.

His eyes widened—shocked, awestruck.

He stepped back slowly, hand rising to point at my stomach. "Wait... am I going crazy or is that... a second heartbeat?"

I nodded, laughing so hard it hurt. "You’re not going crazy. I just found out. I’m a month pregnant."

Zane reeled backward like he’d been hit with a large brick of joy. "You’re what?!"

He threw his head back, eyes wide to the ceiling, fists pumping toward the sky. "YES! Moon above!" he shouted, spinning in place like a child set loose in a candy store. "I’m gonna be a dadagain!"

He actually did a little victory dance—feet shuffling, hips swaying—and for a moment, I thought he might do a cartwheel right there in the room.

Then he darted back to me, scooping me up in his arms like I weighed nothing, hugging me so tight I thought I might burst from joy all over again. We laughed and cried and held each other, letting the moment carry us away like a warm current.

His voice broke against my shoulder. "You’ve given me so much, Snowflake. First you love Alex like he’s yours... and now this?" He pulled back, cupping my face, his eyes glossy and tender. "I don’t even know what I did to deserve this much happiness."

I clung to him, heart thudding like a drum. "You deserve happiness. And so does this baby. So does Alex. And so do I."

Still wrapped in his embrace, I rested my cheek against his chest. His heartbeat drummed beneath my ear, stronger than ever.

Then, in a haze of joy and love, I whispered, without thinking—

"This is the first time I’ll be having a second child... I’m so curious what they’ll look like. I’ve always only had one child, and now... I’m going to have two."

Zane’s body tensed. He leaned back just enough to look at me, his brow furrowing.

"Wait... what do you mean this is your second child?" he asked slowly, his tone careful.

My breath caught.

My eyes widened.

Oh... no.

No. No, no,

I didn’t mean to say that.

The words had already slipped out, raw and unfiltered—like they’d been waiting for the perfect moment to betray me. My brain scrambled, desperate to rewind, to soften the blow or spin it into something else.

But it was too late.

Zane was looking at me now—not just looking. Staring straight into the core of me, like he’d just watched my soul glitch.

I could feel it—that moment. The one you can’t take back.

Because I hadn’t just spoken—I’d confessed.

Something I’d only dared to think in the quiet, where no one else could hear. Something that had never been meant to make it past my lips.

And now, it was hanging between us like lightning in the air.

His ice-blue gaze didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. Just locked onto me like he already knew—and had just been waiting for me to say it out loud.

The silence was deafening. The world shrunk to the space between his stare and my heartbeat.