Chapter 326: A Father’s Grief

Kaden’s POV

​I barely made it a few steps away from Rebecca’s room before my legs gave out. The moment I reached the balcony at the end of the hallway, I fell to my knees.

​For several seconds, I just stayed there, staring at the floor as tears dropped from my face. I couldn’t breathe properly. Air refused to reach my lungs, and my chest hurt so fucking much that I pressed a hand against it, but nothing helped.

​My child was gone.

​"No..." I whispered, shaking my head as I squeezed my eyes shut. But that only made everything worse because the second I did, I saw Rebecca falling down those stairs again, her body hitting one step after another, her scream, the blood between her thighs.

​"Moon Goddess, no... Please, no... not again... please, no."

​A sob tore out of me, and I didn’t even try to stop it. Why would I? Who the fuck was I trying to be strong for? I had lost two babies now, two tiny lives wiped out before they even had a chance to live. First Helen and the baby she had been carrying, and now Rebecca’s baby too. Another child I would never hold. Another child I would never hear call me Father.

​"No..." I cried harder, pressing both hands against the floor as the harsh, uncontrollable sobs wracked my entire frame. "Please, Moon Goddess. Not again. Please."

​Titan had been completely silent since the healer said our pup was gone, and somehow, his silence made everything worse. My wolf was usually a force of fury, angry, demanding, protective, and sometimes annoying as fuck, but always there. Right now, there was nothing.

​"I’m sorry," I cried, soaking my sleeves with hot tears. "I’m so fucking sorry."

​I didn’t even know who I was apologizing to anymore. Rebecca? Titan? Our child? Maybe all of them.

​Rebecca’s words kept repeating in my head. It’s your fault. You’ve destroyed my life. You killed our child.

​Every word hurt like a physical blow, but I couldn’t be angry with her. What was I supposed to do? Tell her she was wrong? Tell her I hadn’t meant for any of this to happen? None of it mattered. Our child was still gone.

​I came to Stone Pack because I felt Rebecca hurting through our bond. I had come because I needed to see her with my own eyes, to make sure she was okay, to make sure she was safe.

​And what the fuck did I do instead?

​I killed our child.

​I heard footsteps approaching and slowly lifted my head, my eyes swollen and bloodshot. Callum was walking toward me. His face was bruised from our fight, but he didn’t look triumphant or like an enemy standing over a defeated rival. He looked pale, guilty, and shaken to his core, standing a few feet away with his hands trembling at his sides.

​"I’m sorry," he finally said, his voice thick with regret. "This is my fault too. I shouldn’t have said what I said to you down there. I shouldn’t have provoked you. If I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have fought. Rebecca wouldn’t have rushed down those stairs, and she wouldn’t have fallen."

​I didn’t answer him. I didn’t yell. I didn’t snap his neck like I usually would have done.

​The truth was, I wasn’t blaming Callum. I wasn’t blaming Rebecca or the stairs either. I didn’t even care who had thrown the first punch anymore. All I could think about was myself: my anger, my jealousy, my fucking inability to control myself when someone pushed me too far. I had spent my entire life believing my temper was something everyone else needed to fear. Today, my own child had paid the price for it.

​How many times had my anger already cost me something? This time, it had cost me something I could never get back. My child.

​"Kaden..." Callum hesitated. "Are you okay?"

​I almost laughed. What kind of fucking question was that?

​I didn’t answer. Callum stood there for another few seconds as if he wanted to say something else, but thankfully, he didn’t. He eventually turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the corridor.

​I wiped my face with both hands and tried to breathe, but the sound of Rebecca’s bedroom door opening broke the heavy silence. I stood up quickly, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand, my heart racing as Alpha Maria stepped out into the hallway. Her eyes met mine, filled with a mixture of deep sorrow and exhaustion.

​"Is she okay?" I asked before Maria could say anything, taking a desperate step toward her. "Is Rebecca okay?"

​"She’s with Stephanie now."

​"Can I see her?"

​The question came out before I could stop it. Maria’s expression softened, and that alone gave me my answer.

​"Alpha Kaden, I know you are hurting, and I know you want to be with her right now," Maria said gently. "But after everything that just happened, I think leaving... leaving right now is the best thing you can do for her. Trust me. Please."

​My chest tightened as if I’d taken a physical blow. "I can stay somewhere else in the mansion. She doesn’t have to see me. I just want to be here in case she needs something."

​"Kaden, she has me. She has Stephanie, and she has the healers. Right now, seeing you is only making her pain worse."

​I looked toward Rebecca’s room. Every part of me wanted to go back. I wanted to hold her even though she didn’t want me touching her. I wanted to drop to my knees and beg her forgiveness. I wanted to keep saying I was sorry until somehow, impossibly, the words became enough. I wanted to fix something that could never be fixed.

​But Rebecca didn’t want all that, so for once in my fucking life, I needed to listen to her.

​"I’ll leave," I whispered, swallowing down the painful lump in my throat.

​Maria nodded softly.

​"I’ll call you."

​"Of course, please do."

​"If anything changes..."

​"I’ll tell you."

​"If she needs anything at all, I don’t care what it is..."

​"I know, Kaden."

​I looked toward Rebecca’s room one last time. "Please take care of her."

​"I will."

​I turned away before I could change my mind and started walking downstairs. At the same time, I opened the mind link with my pilot and ordered him directly: Get the jet ready. We are leaving immediately.

​By the time I stepped outside the mansion, tears were trailing down my face again. Several pack guards standing near the entrance stared at me in complete shock, bowing as I passed. I noticed a few of them staring longer than they should have, probably because they had never seen the Alpha King walking through a palace crying like this, with rumpled clothes and blood on his shirt.

​But I didn’t fucking care. My child was dead. My pride, status, and reputation meant nothing without my family, and I had nothing left to pretend about.

​A car was already waiting outside. I threw myself into the back seat and slammed the door, resting my head against the leather as the driver pulled away from the mansion. The moment I closed my eyes, the nightmare replayed behind my eyelids: Rebecca rushing down the stairs, her foot slipping, her scream, the blood soaking through her dress onto the cold floor.

​I opened my eyes immediately, gripping the seat until the seams nearly burst.

​Her scream was still inside my head. I could still see her lying on the floor, her hands protecting her stomach, blood between her thighs as she whispered about our baby.

​"Please, Moon Goddess," I whispered aloud, covering my face with both hands as the car sped toward the airstrip. "Please... please do something. A miracle. Anything." My shoulders shook as another sob tore through me. "Not for me. I know I don’t deserve anything from you. But for her... please. Give her baby back. Give our child back. She’s already been through too fucking much."

​Nothing happened, but I kept praying anyway.

​"Take something from me instead. Take my wolf. Take my crown. Take my life, my power, take every fucking thing I have." I pressed my fist against my mouth, trying and failing to hold back another sob. "Just don’t take her baby. Give her back her peace. Please."

​The tears came harder, silent and burning my throat, but the car kept moving and the world kept going as if mine hadn’t just ended.

​By the time we reached the private airfield, I didn’t even know how long I had been crying. The driver opened my door, and I stepped out. My pilot and several crew members were waiting beside the jet. They bowed as I approached, but I walked past their worried looks without saying anything and climbed the steps into the cabin.

​Minutes later, the heavy door sealed shut, the engines roared to life, and the jet lifted off into the sky.

​I sat beside the window and stared blankly at the late-morning clouds passing by. Usually, flying gave me time to think. Today, I didn’t want to think, because every thought led back to Rebecca, and every thought about Rebecca led back to our child. I didn’t touch the water the flight attendant offered me. I didn’t move. For almost the entire two-hour flight, I just sat in the quiet cabin, stared through the window, and cried silently.

​Two hours later, the jet touched down on the runway near my estate. A line of black SUVs was already waiting on the tarmac. I got down, slipped into the back of the lead car without speaking to anyone, and sat in dead silence during the drive back to the mansion.

​When the car stopped in front of the massive estate, I stepped out feeling completely hollow, like a ghost inhabiting a body that didn’t belong to him anymore. I walked numbly toward the entrance, barely noticing the guards bowing as I passed them.

​"Kaden?"

​I stopped when I heard Logan’s voice. He was holding a stack of pack reports near the front doors, but I didn’t turn around.

​"Kaden, are you okay? What happened? What’s wrong?"

​Right now, his voice sounded like it was coming from underwater. I slowly turned my head to look at him, and Logan’s expression changed the second he saw my face.

​Our relationship hadn’t been the same since I discovered what he and Kane had hidden from me regarding Rebecca. Maybe I understood their reasons better now, but understanding something didn’t magically repair betrayal.

​"Kaden," Logan called again as I started walking past him. "Talk to me. What happened?"

​I kept going, ignoring his calls.

​I moved through the grand foyer and climbed the wide staircase slowly. But when I reached the second floor, I walked straight past my master bedroom and my office. There was another room farther down the hallway, right at the end of the corridor. The moment I stopped in front of its heavy wooden door, my hand began to shake violently.

​For several seconds, I couldn’t bring myself to turn the brass handle. I hadn’t told Rebecca about this room. Nobody knew about it except the servants who had helped me prepare it.

​Finally, I pushed the door open, stepped inside, and closed it quietly behind me.

​My heart shattered all over again. The room was bathed in soft, warm sunlight.

​It was the nursery.

​Everything was waiting exactly as I had left it. Over the last few days, despite everything, I had secretly bought things. Every time I went on a trip, every time I passed a store, I had picked up little items. The small hand-carved wooden crib stood against the wall. Soft white blankets and tiny clothes were folded neatly inside the wardrobe. Small plush wolves, leather booties, and toys sat untouched on the shelves. A rocking chair stood near the window, and there were still several boxes I hadn’t even opened yet.

​I had bought too much. Far too fucking much.

​I knew our child wouldn’t live here permanently. Rebecca had already made it clear that she wasn’t coming back to me, and I had promised myself I would respect that. But she had told me I could be involved. She had said I could attend appointments, visit, and spend as much time with our child as I wanted.

​So I had prepared this room. If Rebecca ever came to my kingdom with our baby, even if it was only for one night, our child would have a room waiting for him, a place that belonged to him. I had imagined bringing him into this room for the first time. I had imagined Rebecca walking in here one day, looking around at everything I had bought, and laughing at me because I had somehow prepared for ten babies instead of one. I had imagined our child in her arms while she teased me about it.

​My eyes moved toward the crib, and my chest tightened so painfully that I could barely breathe. I took one step toward it. Then another.

​The full weight of the pain hit me like a physical blow. My legs gave out completely, and my knees buckled.

​I crashed down onto the soft carpet in the middle of the room, surrounded by unused baby toys and everything I had bought for a child I would never get to hold.