Alpha's Secret Bride

For a long time, there was nothing.

No voices. No pain. No sense of time. Only darkness. Emma could no longer feel her body or tell whether she was breathing. It was as though everything she had ever known had slowly slipped away, leaving her suspended in a place where nothing could reach her.

Somewhere beyond the darkness, voices came and went. They sounded distant and muffled, as if they were coming from another world. She tried to listen, but she could not understand the words. She tried to move, to open her eyes, to reach toward the voices, but her body refused to respond. It felt impossibly heavy, almost as though she no longer had control over it.

Then even the voices disappeared.

The darkness grew deeper, swallowing every sound and every sensation until there was nothing left. No pain. No fear. No warmth. Nothing to tell her that she was still alive.

Until a faint sound broke through the silence.

Beep.

A long pause followed.

Then another.

Beep.

The sound was slow and steady, almost too faint to believe.

Emma’s fingers twitched.

A shallow breath escaped her lips, and somewhere in the darkness, her heart continued to beat.

Slowly, painfully, she became aware of her body again. Her abdomen throbbed with a deep soreness, and her mouth felt painfully dry. Every breath tugged at her aching body, but for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she could feel something.

She was alive.

Her eyelids trembled as she struggled to open them. At first, she could see nothing but a blur of pale light. She tried again, forcing her heavy eyes apart until the shapes around her slowly began to take form.

Then she heard a familiar voice.

"Soft Fang..."

The voice was trembling, filled with emotion.

Emma’s heart stirred at the sound. She knew that voice. She had heard it countless times before.

With the little strength she had left, she slowly turned her head toward it. Her vision remained blurry, but the familiar figure beside her gradually became clearer.

Her lips parted, and barely more than a breath escaped them.

"Mother..." she whispered.

Emily leaned closer, still holding her hand as tears streamed down her face. "Thank the Moon Goddess, you’re alive."

She slowly forced her eyes open, but the bright lights above her made her wince. Everything around her was blurry, and her body felt heavy and sore. She turned her head slightly, trying to make sense of her surroundings before her gaze finally settled on Emily.

Her lips parted, but her voice was barely more than a whisper.

"My pup?"

Emily’s expression softened with relief. "She’s alive. The healers had to tend to her right away, but she’s doing well. She’s a fighter too."

Tears filled Emma’s eyes as she let out a shaky breath. "My moon princess..."

She tried to push herself upright, but a sharp pain tore through her abdomen. She gasped and immediately fell back against the pillows, one hand moving instinctively toward the soreness.

"I need to see her."

A healer stepped closer and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don’t try to sit up yet. You lost a lot of blood during the delivery, and your body needs time to recover. Your stitches could reopen if you strain yourself."

Emma looked past her toward the doorway, then back at Emily. "My daughter."

The healer exchanged a glance with Emily before nodding. "All right. We’ll bring her to you."

A few minutes later, an assistant carefully wheeled a bassinet into the chamber and positioned it beside Emma’s bed. Her eyes immediately moved to the tiny bundle beneath the pink blanket. She reached out with a trembling hand as the assistant lowered the side of the bassinet.

Charlotte Nadia was asleep, her soft blonde curls resting against her forehead and one tiny hand tucked beside her cheek. She stared at her for several seconds before a smile slowly appeared through her tears.

"My Nadia," she whispered.

The assistant smiled. "She’s beautiful."

Charlotte Nadia was the spitting image of Brandon as a pup. Everything about her reminded Emma of him, from her little features to the expressions on her face. The only difference was her blonde hair, which she had inherited from Emma.

She brushed one finger against her daughter’s tiny hand. Charlotte Nadia stirred at the touch, her little fingers slowly opening before curling around Emma’s finger.

A broken sob escaped her as she looked down at her daughter. "My little moon princess..."

Emily wiped the tears from her cheeks and smiled. "She’s beautiful."

She kept her finger inside Charlotte’s tiny hand, but after a moment, her gaze drifted toward the doorway. Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and her head turned immediately. A healer walked past the open door, but it wasn’t Brandon. She lowered her eyes to Charlotte Nadia again, only to look up when Luna Alexandra’s voice echoed from the corridor.

Still, Brandon didn’t appear.

"Thank the Moon, you’re awake," Alexandra said, wiping away tears of joy.

Emma swallowed hard. "How’s Bryan Oliver?"

"He’s fine. I would have come with him, but he’s so caught up in the game he’s playing with Zoey. Elara will bring him in by moonfall."

The chamber grew quiet. Emily lowered her head, while Luna Alexandra who just came in stood near the foot of the bed with her hands clasped tightly together.

She glanced at Luna Alexandra. "Any news about my mate?"

"Not yet," Alexandra said softly.

Emma’s eyes remained fixed on her. "Nothing?"

Alexandra slowly shook her head. "The search teams are still looking. They haven’t stopped."

She looked down at Charlotte Nadia, her thumb gently brushing over the pup’s tiny fingers. For a moment, she said nothing. Then she closed her eyes, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

"Starlit..." she whispered.

Her voice trembled as she kissed her daughter’s forehead.

"Please come home."

__

The following weeks passed in a haze of medication, wound care, follow-up examinations, and slow rehabilitation. Some days, Emma could barely make it from the bed to the bathchamber without stopping to catch her breath. On better days, she would hold onto the railing and walk a little farther, resting whenever her body demanded it. The difficult delivery had left her weaker than she wanted to admit, but whenever exhaustion made her feel like giving up, Bryan’s voice or the feel of Nadia’s tiny fingers curling around hers reminded her that she had to keep going.

She had two pups who needed her now. She couldn’t give up.

As she slowly regained her strength, the days became easier to manage. Every moonfall, Nadia’s caregiver would bring the pup to her chamber, and whenever she felt strong enough, she would gather her into her arms. Nadia was beginning to stay awake for longer periods, quietly moving her tiny hands and following familiar voices with her eyes. Emma would hold her close against her chest, gently running a finger over her soft curls as she whispered to her.

"My little moon princess," kissing her forehead. "You have no idea how much I love you."

Those moments became the easiest part of her day.

Three months after the delivery, the royal chief healer finally cleared her to leave the healing den. She had promised King Eldric and Luna Alexandra that she would consider returning to Greendor Castle, but when the time came, she chose neither the palace nor Nightclaw Estate.

She went instead to the other home Brandon had built for her after Bryan Oliver was born. She was trying to stay away from anything that might remind her of him.

Before leaving Nightclaw Estate for good, she made one last visit to check on the staff and make sure everything was running as it should. The moment she stepped through the front doors, she slowed, her eyes moving across the familiar halls.

Everything looked exactly as she remembered it.

Brandon’s favorite chair was still beside the hearth. His coffee mug remained in the cabinet where he always kept it, and his clothes still occupied half of their wardrobe upstairs. She stood in front of them for a long moment before closing the closet door again.

She couldn’t bring herself to pack any of his things.

Some small part of her still expected him to walk through the front door, toss his keys onto the table, and call her pet name as though he had only been gone for a few hours.

So she left everything where it was.

Life at Moon estate gradually settled into a quiet routine. Emma’s moonrises began early, often before the moon had fully risen, because Nadia had developed a habit of waking with soft little sounds rather than loud cries. She would lift her from the cradle, tuck her against her chest, and smile down at her sleepy face before Mrs. Thompson or Emily could come in to help, allowing her to rest.

Nina eventually moved into the estate with Emily to help care for the pups. Between the three women and the maids, she rarely had to handle both pups on her own. Evan stopped by almost every moonfall after work, usually arriving with something tucked under his arm for Bryan or Nina. Ken and Lyn flew in whenever their schedules allowed, while Elara spent most weekends at the estate with her two-winter-old daughter, Zoey.

One highmoon, Elara was sitting in the living chamber with Nadia nestled against her chest. She adjusted the blanket around the pup before looking over at Emma.

"She’s getting bigger every time I see her."

She smiled as she watched her daughter stretch one tiny hand toward Elara’s face. "They grow up too fast."

Before Elara could answer, the front door opened.

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