Pregnant After One Night with the Lycan
Chapter 58

Tanya’s POV

It’s a known verified fact, that a mama bear will do anything for her cubs. And in that very moment, I’d never felt so much emotion in my life. Every instinctual motherly fiber within me is scorching with fierce intensity. My heart hammers against my chest as my weak senses heighten to their extremity and adrenalin kicks in.

“Claire! Claire!” I scream, darting from one side of the pathway to the other, the crowd parting for me as I desperately look for my child.

No one would ever understand how much my daughter meant to me. After I chose to leave Marco, I was nothing. Caspian found me washed up by lake on the brink of death, and even after he saved me, I was a hopeless empty shell of my former self.

The loss of my love was so destructive to my brain and heart, every day after that felt like a chore. The weeks blurred as I aimlessly slept my worries away. And the only thing that kept me from ending it was knowing I had a responsibility to my child.

She kept me eating, I would only nourish my body with food and water because I knew she needed it. Eventually I grew back the strength I lost when the due date grew closer. My mood shifted to one of high spirits as I started setting up the nursery and buying the baby clothes.

And when she finally arrived…

Claire gave me a new lease on life. A new purpose. I felt truly alive again. She was my precious ball of joy. One that I couldn’t dare to lose.

And so now I frantically scream her name in dear longing to replace my child. I’m so tunnel visioned by my efforts that I startle quickly when Marco grabs my arm. He tugs me close, baring down his gaze into mine.

“Where would she go?”

“Marco- we need… we need to replace her!”

“Tanya!” he snaps me out of my panicked protest. “Where would Claire go?” Marco doesn’t waste his time with comfort or sympathy, which I for once appreciate. He becomes the leader I know he’s capable of being, focused on the important task at hand.

I stammer at first, before finally being able to form a coherent sentence. “Her favorite candy store, the park, or the school. She also could’ve gone home.”

He nods firmly, before speaking aloud to the surrounding pack members. “Everyone! We need help looking for Claire. She’s five. Wavy black hair, and blue eyes. Spread out,” people nod their heads, all seeming willing to help in the search, and they head off in different directions.

“Right, we will go check those places you’ve mentioned,” he says to me, still holding my hand to keep me steady whilst I lead us to the candy store first.

Once we get there, I question the shop owner, who of course recognizes me, knowing my daughter loves his candies very much. He says he hasn’t seen her but promises to keep a look out.

Marco and I thank him before heading to the park. We consistently call out to her as we walk up and down the vast expanse of grass. We even check the playground to see if she ended up there. But we have no luck either.

We don’t replace her at the school, and when I realize she’s not at the house I replace myself at my breaking point. I crumble down to the ground upon the steps in front my home, beginning to uncontrollably sob in utter despair.

It is then that I feel Marco lower himself beside me, embracing me in a soft hug, trying to soothe me. “We will replace her Tanya. I promise, we won’t stop till we replace her. She can’t have gone far,” he says trying to reassure me.

However, before anything else can be said, within his embrace I suddenly feel Marco’s body uncomfortably stiffen. I look up, and his expression is glazed over in some form of bewilderment. I glance in the direction he’s looking but nothing’s there. I look back at him as his brows furrow.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Claire.”

“What? Where!”

I jump to a stand, looking around, but I don’t see her anywhere, I look back to Marco as he finally elaborates. “She’s speaking through the mind link.” I blink, now just as surprised as he is.

“Come, I know where she is.”

He grabs my hand, and we rush off quickly. We run for a couple of minutes before we come to the edge of town. I see her long black waves flowing in the wind as her eyes seep with fear and confusion.

“Claire!” I call in a magnificent spell of relief. She runs eagerly into my arms and I squeeze her tightly in my embrace. “Where did you go? I was so worried! We looked everywhere for you!”

“I’m so sorry mommy,” she sniffles, whispering in shame. “I didn’t mean to worry you. The balloon Marco won for me slipped out of my hand. I had to chase it, but it was too fast. When I stopped running, I was lost. I’m so sorry mummy! So so sorry!” she again leaps into my arms in tears, while I sigh, just relieved to have her back with me.

When all of us have finally calmed down we start making our way back home, Claire’s fingers tightly laced in mine. We’re silent for a little while, which lets my thoughts drift to today’s events. I can’t help but think about the near confrontation between Mr. Barlow and Raphael.

And I remember seeing a black strand of smoke surrounding Mr. Barlow’s hands when Raphael threatened him. The smoke is so familiar, and I think about how it is very similar to the smoke coming from Dorian’s fingertips the day he tried to kill me.

It can’t be that the two of them are somehow related. It just can’t be possible…

My line of thought is interrupted however as Marco speaks to my daughter. “Claire, how were you able to speak to me through the mind link?”

She shrugs in a childlike manner. “I just thought of you and mommy and kept calling out for you. I dunno… it must’ve just gone through somehow,” she says.

Marco still looks particularly confused and says to me. “Only members of the same pack should be able to hear each other through the mind link. Is there any chance that Claire is part of the Ironclaw pack?”

I’m rather stunned to say the least, and struggle to answer him, only to be interrupted as Caspian suddenly arrives. “Hey,” he greets Claire and me. “So sorry I couldn’t make it to the family day event, got really caught up with pack business. But I’m here to tell you news about…”

Just then, he notices Marco, “Why is he here?” And as he notices the open door of Marco’s house, he realizes. “Marco lives next door to you now?”

I nod.

Upon learning this news, Caspian is still smiling, but I accidentally glance at his hands as they’re tightly clenched into fists.

And with Caspian’s interruption, another of Marco’s questions is once again left to hang in the air, left untouched among his forgotten memories.

____________________

Dorian’s POV

My leather hiking boots perch on my table as I feel the need to stretch my legs. I sink my back into my leather chair, lounging within the comforts of my office as I fiddle with my badge. I focus on the dainty thing as I twiddle it in between my fingers, before repeatedly tossing it up into the air, and letting it fall back into the palm of my hand.

The badge resembles a coat of arms design, shaped like a medieval shield with two rearing Lycan wolves attached on either side. The badge is of a dark purple with the wolves painted black. On the shield itself are gold symbols.

After tossing the badge upwards again, it lands back down in my hand just as there’s a knock at my door. “Come in.”

Two of my subordinates shuffle in, with their head bowed respectfully as I always expect. “What is it?”

“We found him in the Blue Moon pack,” one utters.

Immediately I drop my boots off the table, pulling myself close against the table whilst shoving the badge into my pocket. I can’t help the snarky smile from creeping onto my lips from the news.

“The old man?”

They nod to confirm my conclusion. And I chuckle in greater excitement, it’s hysterical to me that he’s lived this long. “Course he’s not dead. He isn’t an easy kill… but you see, it just makes this all the more fun.”

My subordinates don’t really know how to react to my strange pleasure in this situation, but that doesn’t matter to me. “It’s time we cause a bit of mayhem. Let’s send some trouble his way. Take this.”

One of them looks up and catches a bottled potion that I toss to him. “Pour the poison into the Blue Moon pack’s main water source. And be sure to be discreet.”

My minions nod their heads, before flitting out of the room as I dismiss them. Once they’re gone, I settle my legs back up on the table, resting my back against the chair in blissful thought of how much fun I am about to have.