Something inside Otto snapped.

Seeing the empty bed.

He lost it.

A growl ripped out from his throat so deep and vicious it barely sounded human anymore.

His claws extended further as fury tore through him. He spun around just in time to see the movement outside the window.

A shadow.

Running.

With the baby.

Otto launched himself through the already broken window without thinking.

Glass shattered beneath him as he landed hard on the rooftop below.

His shoulder screamed in pain from the earlier wound but he ignored it completely.

He had to

All he could hear was the sound of Apollo crying.

The loyalist carrying the baby leapt across another rooftop.

Otto followed.

"You touch him and I’ll rip your spine out!" Otto roared.

The wolf glanced back once, sneering and faced forward.

Otto lunged mid air, catching the edge of the next rooftop barely in time.

Tiles cracked beneath his weight.

Below them the sleeping village remained quiet, unaware of the chaos unfolding above their heads.

Apollo cried harder.

The sound drove Otto nearly insane.

The loyalist reached the edge of the final building and jumped down into the alleyways below.

Otto followed immediately.

The moment he landed he slammed straight into another wolf waiting in ambush.

Teeth sank into his arm.

Otto snarled savagely and drove his claws through the attacker’s throat.

Blood sprayed the wall.

Another came from behind.

Then another.

They had planned this.

Otto realized it too late.

They were distracting him while the other escaped with the child.

Rage exploded inside him.

He grabbed the nearest wolf by the jaw and split his mouth apart with brutal force before throwing the body aside.

"Where is he?!" Otto screamed.

The remaining loyalist only smirked through bloody teeth.

"For the future king."

Otto froze.

Future king.

Adrien.

That monster.

Cold dread swept through him.

The wolf took advantage of the pause and lunged again but Otto tore through him almost instantly this time, his claws ripping into flesh until the body stopped moving.

Silence fell again.

Otto stood there breathing heavily, blood dripping from his hands.

Apollo’s cries were gone.

Gone.

His chest tightened painfully.

"No..." he whispered.

Then he staggered ahead despite his wounds.

Not caring who saw him, he chased the fading scent through the narrow village streets like a madman.

Because maybe he was one.

The scent led toward the edge of town.

Toward the forest.

Otto pushed harder.

Branches whipped against his face as he stormed through the trees.

Their vines tore across his skin.

His wolf was completely awake now, frantic and vicious beneath his skin.

Then suddenly, the scent stopped.

Otto halted violently.

Nothing.

No wolves.

No baby.

Nothing.

It was impossible.

He turned in circles desperately trying to pick up the trail again but it was gone as though the earth itself had swallowed Apollo whole.

And then it hit him.

"No..." Otto breathed again, more broken this time.

They had falsified their scent and led him on a different path.

He had been deceived.

He staggered backward.

Eleanor trusted him.

Jasmine had died trusting that her son would survive.

And he had failed within two weeks.

Otto slammed his fist into the nearest tree hard enough to crack bark.

"FUCK!"

He felt miserable.

A failure. A disappointment.

Birds scattered from the branches overhead.

His breathing became uneven.

He felt the pain in his wounds, how deep they had gone.

How much blood he was losing.

Then suddenly, he heard the cry of a baby.

❧

Aria adjusted the basket that rested on her shoulder and looked up at the tiny gate that surrounded her old house.

It was already dark and she simply wanted to sneak inside without anyone seeing her.

She very quietly but hastily walked up the small broken rocks that led to the steps of her house.

Just when she would have made it into the house, she heard.

"Aria is that you?"

Aria stiffened at the voice of her neighbor.

She rolled her eyes, took a deep breath and forced a tight smile on her face before turning around.

"Hi. Margaret." Aria said through her teeth.

"I knew it was you. Thank the gods." Margaret replied as she hurried from her own house to hers.

"Martin and I have been trying to reach out to you for a while now. We’ve been knocking but no response." Margaret said as she took a hold of Aria’s hand.

"I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy." Aria said dreading where this conversation was headed.

Margaret sighed. "I know this must be difficult for you. But you aren’t alone. Losing a husband, losing your child too."

Aria quickly withdrew her hand.

"I didn’t mean to offend you." Margaret said.

"Good night Margaret." Aria said restraining herself from giving the nosy neighbor a dirty slap.

She got into her house and slammed the door shut in Margaret’s face.

She closed her eyes the moment her back hi the door and she breathed the cold and lonely air in her house.

The house that had accommodated her loving husband, and their one week old baby.

Now it was cold and empty.

Her husband had died of a dreadful illness and left her with the baby.

The baby had left her too.

Died the day after her husband had gone.

Her whole happiness had gone in an instant.

And now she wondered if there was any point living.

She wanted them to all leave her alone.

Let her grieve on her own.

She set the basket on the small table in her living room and decided the house was too suffocating for her.

So she used the back door to go to the lake not far from her house.

A place that had always been her happy place.

After a few minutes trek in the cool night air, she arrived and sat by the rocks.

She looked up in the night sky as her short hair moved across her face.

Perhaps she should go into the lake and drown.

End it once and for all.

All of a sudden, She felt her chest go damp.

She touched her breasts and felt it, breast milk.

She frowned.

She was supposed to have stopped producing.

It was over a month since her baby died.

And then she remembered it has happened in the market this afternoon too.

Then she heard a baby wail and her body went stiff.

Her body began to respond almost immediately.

It felt like a maternal instinct.

As though her own child was calling to her.