Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 44

POV: Seraphina

The pain was a living thing, a red, clawing beast set loose inside me. I made it to my bed just before my legs gave out, collapsing onto the mattress in a heap. The cramps were coming faster now, one after another, each more violent than the last. It wasn't the threat of my body rejecting my child anymore; this was a chemical eviction, a violent, merciless purge. My body was no longer my own.

I drifted in and out of a feverish, pain-soaked consciousness. At some point, I became aware of a horrifying, gushing warmth between my legs. The coppery, metallic scent of blood filled the air, thick and cloying. It was soaking through my nightgown, staining the pristine white sheets a sickening, dark crimson. My child. My tiny, secret hope. They were tearing it out of me, and I was too weak, too poisoned, to even fight.

A strangled cry escaped my lips, but it was barely a whisper. My limbs were heavy, unresponsive, a strange, terrifying lassitude spreading through me. I was trapped in my own body, a silent witness to my child's murder.

Through the red haze of agony, I heard a theatrical gasp from the doorway. Sylvie. She had been waiting, counting the minutes, listening for my suffering.

"Oh, my Goddess! Seraphina!" she shrieked, her voice a perfect symphony of horror and manufactured panic. "Damian! Help! Something is terribly wrong with Seraphina!"

Heavy footsteps thundered down the hall. The door flew open. Damian stood there, his face a mask of sleep-tousled confusion that quickly morphed into one of cold annoyance when he saw the scene. He took in the blood-soaked bed, my writhing form, and Sylvie's terrified, weeping face.

"Get Dr. Alistair up here to deal with this. Clean up the mess." He looked down at me one last time, a final, dismissive glance as another wave of pain made me arch my back. "And make sure she doesn't die. It would be a political headache."

He then wrapped a protective arm around Sylvie's shaking shoulders. "Come, my dear," he murmured, his voice softening into a tone of tender concern I hadn't heard directed at me in years. "Let's get you away from this unpleasantness. You shouldn't have to see this."

He led her out of the room, leaving me alone in my sea of blood.