"Carl, I’m here. I’ve been here all along."

I pressed my face against his, wondering if he could feel even the faintest trace of me. He was still on his knees on the rooftop, all that natural authority and composure stripped away, leaving behind something raw and exhausted that broke my heart to look at.

"Carl, it’s raining. Please go inside. You’ll catch a cold."

He’d already lost so much weight. If he got sick on top of everything else, it wouldn’t matter how strong he was — and if he fell, who would be there for our children?

As if something in the universe found that thought amusing, Lewis suddenly pitched forward and collapsed onto the wet ground.

"Carl!"

I reached for him without thinking. He fell straight through me and hit the concrete hard.

"Somebody help! Save Carl!" I screamed until I had nothing left, but no sound reached anyone. I could only kneel there, useless, while he lay still in the rain. "Carl... Carl..."

I stayed beside him and begged whatever force governs life and death to listen. Take me if you have to. Just spare Carl and our children. I don’t care if I never wake up again, if I have to spend the rest of whatever this is haunting these halls — just let them be safe.

Theo finally appeared, took one look at Lewis on the ground, and was at his side in seconds. He carried him inside without hesitation, and the doctor confirmed what I already suspected — Lewis hadn’t slept in days, and the cold rain had pushed his body past its limit.

That night, the fever came.

When the doctor moved to give him something to bring it down, Lewis woke up and stopped him with a quiet, firm refusal. The doctor tried to reason with him, but Lewis’s voice, weak as it was, didn’t leave room for argument. "Leave me be."

Theo’s jaw tightened. "Mr. Lewis, Ms. Elena’s life is still hanging by a thread, and the little ones aren’t even a day old. If you fall ill, who takes care of them?"

I had thought the mention of the children would reach him. They were his, after all — his blood, his legacy, everything his Alpha instincts should have been pulling him toward.

But his expression went somewhere dark. Just for a second, something that looked almost like resentment crossed his face. "If it weren’t for them, Elena wouldn’t be like this."

So I’d been right. He hadn’t looked at them once since I gave birth. He still hadn’t held them.

Theo, never one to stay quiet when something was wrong, said plainly, "They’re the children Ms. Elena gave everything to bring into this world. They’re yours."

Lewis stared at the ceiling. "Have someone take care of them."

"And you?"

"It doesn’t matter." A pause. "If I stay sick long enough, maybe I’ll be able to see her."

I went completely still.

He had done this on purpose. He’d stood out in the cold and the rain, let his body break down — because Julian and his grandmother had both seen me when they were at their weakest. He was testing whether the same thing would work for him.

"You idiot, Lewis," I whispered.

His entire body went rigid. Then he turned toward me, slow and disbelieving, like a man who had stopped trusting his own senses. "Elena..."

He threw back the blanket and came toward me with both arms open, the same way he always had — instinctive, certain, like his body remembered me even when everything else was falling apart. I reached for him the same way, the way I always had.

We passed straight through each other.

Lewis nearly hit the floor. The doctor started talking about fever-induced confusion, but Theo had gone quiet in that particular way of his that meant he understood more than he was saying. He dismissed the doctor without explanation and pulled the door shut, leaving us alone.

"Carl," I said softly, moving closer.

He steadied himself, one trembling hand reaching out, fingertips brushing the air near my face. I found myself wondering what I looked like to him — whether I appeared the way people in old stories described spirits, something frightening and wrong. Surely not. I hoped not.

"Elena..." His voice was rough. "I knew you were still here."

I managed a small smile. "Carl, I saw our babies."

It wasn’t entirely true. I had barely glanced at them before running to find him. But I said it anyway, hoping to stir something in him that the grief hadn’t buried yet.

He went still. "Are they beautiful?"

"You have incredible genes, Carl. Of course they are." I kept my voice gentle. "Won’t you go see them?"

"I don’t want to." No hesitation. His eyes darkened. "Every time I think about them, I see you — covered in blood. I can’t accept losing you, Elena. I’m afraid of what I might feel if I stand in that room. I’d rather they had never existed. I just want you back."

My chest ached at that. I remembered him once telling me he wasn’t as young as he used to be, that he hoped I would give him an heir someday. And now that they were here, he felt nothing but pain.

"Carl," I said carefully. "Last time, when my soul separated from my body, you used the Stone of Duality to trade our fates. Can’t you do that again?"

He shook his head. "You threw it away. Our lives were never exchanged. If this is what fate decided for you — when Riley’s heart stops, your fate is sealed."

Those words moved through me like cold air.

So this was it. The thing I had been afraid of all along.

I forced myself to keep smiling. "Carl, it’s alright. Even if I die, I’ll always be with you and our children. I may disappear, but my love won’t. So please don’t give up on yourself. Seeing you like this hurts me, and I can’t do anything about it. I can’t even cry." I settled into his arms even though he couldn’t feel the weight of me. "Please don’t make this harder."

"Elena..." His voice cracked. "Let me look at you a little longer." His fingers moved carefully over the air where my face was, and I held his hand, holding onto whatever thin thread still connected us.

"Carl, I’ve already been so happy."

He was quiet for a long moment. Then — "I’m sorry. How could I be so cruel to our children? You gave everything to bring them here. I should go see them."

I blinked. "But your health—"

"I’ll be fine."

He led me out of the room himself, still holding my hand even though no one else could see why. Theo followed at a careful distance. The pack enforcers and medical staff in the hallway watched Lewis move through the corridor apparently holding nothing, their expressions carefully neutral in the way people get when their Alpha is doing something they don’t understand but won’t dare question.

He stopped outside the nursery. "Get me a mask." Even now, even like this, he was thinking about keeping his fever away from them. A guard handed one over, and then Lewis took my hand again and pushed open the door.

Riley was inside, completely unbothered, cradling one of the babies with the easy confidence of someone who had decided they were already in charge. Yael had the other, grinning like he’d been waiting for an audience.

Riley looked up, spotted Lewis, and her expression immediately shifted into something dangerously cheerful. "Rocky, look who finally showed up! Uncle Lewis came to see you."

I stared at her. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The entire heavy, heartbreaking weight of the moment dissolved in an instant.

Who gave you permission to name my child Rocky?

Yael, predictably, made it worse. He tilted the baby in his arms toward Lewis with a wide smile. "Susie Hale says hi."