Chapter two

The door pushed open and the girl laying on the bed didn’t as much as turn or look at the young woman that entered carrying a tray of food. Irene sighed and placed the tray on the table, carrying it close to the bed. “Aliyah, hey, it’s time to eat.”

Aliyah didn’t move, didn’t flinch, didn’t blink and didn’t make a sound. Irene sat beside her on the bed, she touched her shoulders with a sigh. “Sweetheart, I can understand what you are going through but that doesn’t mean you should starve yourself. It’s been two months, Aliyah, don’t you think it’s time you come out of your shell? If not for anybody but for the little one growing in your stomach?”

“No one knows what I am going through, so don’t tell me you do,” Aliyah said.

Irene shrugged. “Well, I didn’t lose a mate, no doubt, but I lost a man like a father and as much as it would annoy you, my first love.” She chuckled sadly when the girl granted her a look finally. “You should know Aliyah, Edward may be sassy, strict, tough and every other bad things, but you must admit that it is easy to fall for him when you have his attention. I know to him I can never be any more than a daughter but to me, he was many things. My hero, my protector, my guardian, my first love. And then lastly, my father. When you hold someone so dear, it doesn’t matter if you share a room with him or not or if you are romantically involved with them, it would still cause a heart wrenching pain if you learn of their death. I’m sorry this happened but you have to look at the future, Edward would want you to survive. And talk about your son, you would be welcoming him very soon, do you want him to meet the kind of mother you are portraying now?”

Aliyah closed her eyes and a line of tear rolled down her nose and dropped on the bed. “It’s hard, every day I sleep praying to wake up to find it all a dream.”

“I know, I know sweetheart, we all do,” Irene cooed.

“Why did he have to die? Why did he have to leave me? He promised me he would come back, he promised he would always be here. To look after me, to look after us, why did he fail his promise?”

“He didn’t want to, honey, you know he didn’t. But no one knows the future.”

“You do, Irene, but you hid it from us, if you hadn’t maybe we would have prevented this from happening but no, you hid it from us.”

“I know you blame me Aliyah, and yes, I will accept all the blame. But just because I can get a glimpse of the future doesn’t mean that I would prevent nature from taking it’s place. I didn’t know it was that day when Edward was leaving with Rasmus, you were there when I figured it was that day. And also, just to make sure that I didn’t tamper with nature, my vision had no clear fate, I told you about that.”

Aliyah sniffled and sat up slowly on the bed, her baby bump was clearly visible now and she moved back to lean on the wall. She glanced around at what was her room. There was nothing in it apart from a bed and a table. In two months, they have lived in five different houses in order to escape the demon king and his witches. They stopped bothering about decorating their houses after the third move and only buys the necessary things they need. This one, they only have one cooking pot and a cooker. The plates were counted by their number and that was because, they didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily when they would still leave the house without any of them. “I don’t blame you, Irene, I am just tired of this life. I want to settle, Irene, permanently. It would be somehow if he had to grow in different places, with no actually place to build his childhood memories.”

Irene nodded and caressed her legs under the duvet, “I know sweetheart, I want the same for you and him. And I promise you that we would get there, it would just take us time but we will be there.”

“But when?”

“Soon, my darling, very soon. Now eat okay, you need the strength.” She picked up the food that was just two sandwiches and a cup of milk and handed it to her.

Aliyah took the tray and placed on her laps, picking up the glass of milk, she asked, “where is Sean?”

“He is on night shift tonight.”

With a nod, she took a sip of the milk before picking up a sandwich. “Has he finally convinced Monica to join us?”

Irene sighed and shook her head. “We all agreed having one pregnant wolf in the group is enough. It would be more difficult having to fend for the both of you when we have to make an impromptu move. You know how hard it is on you, then think about her. She neither carries an alpha wolf, nor a second-generation nightwalker, nor even a royal demon, you can imagine how hard it would have been on you if you are not borrowing strength from your pup.”

“I understand,” she finally took a bite of the sandwich. “This is all we got today?”

“You don’t feel like eating it?”

“Not at all.”

“I know, but you have to manage it. We have to limit our exposure in crowded places and you don’t expect a mall to be open till midnight when Rasmus could do a quick run.”

“I wish we can go back to the palace. All those foods there will now be a waste.”

“Don’t we all?” Irene smiled and sighed soon after. “But we know they live there now, so…”

“It’s Edward’s home, I and his son deserve to live there, not running around and taking refuge in crabby places,” she glanced around in disgust. “We don’t deserve this life, Irene, I didn’t sign up for this,” her voice choked. “I didn’t see the demon king as a problem before because I thought Edward…” she sobbed and sniffled, dropping the sandwich back on the plate. “It’s not supposed to be this way.”

“I know,” Irene scooted over to hold her hand, “I know and we will survive it, trust me.”

“We are not supposed to live in hiding, Irene, we did nothing wrong, we are not criminals. And what’s worse? I dragged you and Sean into it. Sean can’t even stay with his mate while she is pregnant for him. There is a hundred percent chance that he is going miss the birth of his pup. Now think about Monica, that poor girl. Her mate is still alive and yet she is living like me, living like he is dead. And you, you can’t even go on your own expenditures, live life like you wanted and possibly fall in love and finally be loved specially. I doomed you with me,” she sobbed. “And I can’t ask you to go because I am selfish.”

“No, no Aliyah, stop.”

“I’m so selfish,” she cried, “but I can’t do it on my own Irene, you know I can’t. I have absolutely no idea how to take care of a baby nightwalker or talk about a demon. I am stuck, Irene, I am stuck living this life alone and it would be so much worse when he would be born. I don’t know what to do Irene, honestly. Every day brings him closer to this world and I am still a novice on how to take care of him. I don’t know what he would be born as, which power he would develop first, I don’t…”

“Aliyah,” A voice called and she looked up at the door. Sean was standing there and he smiled at her softly.

“What are you doing here, aren’t you patrolling?” Irene asked, standing up.

Sean rubbed the back of his neck and walked up to them. “Rasmus heard you two so he came to find me to switch places. He doesn’t mind taking my shift as long as we are able to calm her down,” he nodded at Aliyah. “He also told me the things you said, the ones he heard. Aliyah, Monica understands perfectly, in fact, she wished she can stay with us, I was the one that told her to stay back in the pack. And, nothing, absolutely nothing would make me regret staying by your side. I can always see Monica, with Irene here, I can even be with her during childbirth so you have nothing to worry about. An about the little prince, we are all here, we would figure it out. No matter what power he develops first, we would all be here with him and we will work it out together. About my pup, Monica would join us once she puts to bed, that was the agreement. So, I don’t want you to worry about anything, it would be fine, you will see.”

“Sean is right, as long as we have each other, there is nothing we can’t survive.”

Aliyah sniffled and nodded, however, right before she could speak, her stomach growled and her eyes started turning red. She hissed and shook her head, making Irene jump and rush to her along with Sean. “W-what’s happening?” she asked in a shaky voice.

Sean and Irene glanced a look before they turned to her. “It’s okay, we will figure it out, it’s just a little reaction or something…” Sean was saying when Aliyah growled, shutting him up.

“I’m hungry, Irene, very hungry…” she growled, her eyes now bright red.

“Then eat your food, here, here,” Irene held up a sandwich to her lips and she took a bite only to spit it out soon after. “Aliyah.”

“No, not this,” she yelled. “Thirsty, I am thirsty, give me water.” She said as she climbed out of the bed in lightening speed, shocking the living daylight out of Irene and Sean. She picked up the jug and drank from it but she spat everything out, every droplet of water in her mouth. “Ah,” she growled and turned to Irene then, her eyes going to her neck and she licked her lips.

“Oh my God, Sean,” Irene whispered, now understanding what was going on.

“Stand back,” they heard and turned to see Rasmus. “I had been waiting for this day,” he said and went up to Aliyah. He was holding a dying rabbit with blood dripping on the floor as he walked. “Here you go,” he said, holding up the animal in front of Aliyah who grabbed it from him without a word and started sucking up the dripping blood. Rasmus turned to the shocked man and woman and sighed, “I guess the little prince wants to feed his nightwalker’s part tonight.”