Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 219

Part of me wanted to follow her. To let the pull take me where she stood waiting. I had earned the right to rest. I had finished what she started. And I was so tired. The kind of tired that lived in bone and breath and memory. The kind that didn’t go away just because the battle was over.

But then I thought of his hands, how they had trembted when he held me, how he had always held me. I thought of the way his voice cracked saying my name. Of the life inside me that I hadn’t known was there. Of the future l hadn’t yet touched. And I faltered.

I wasn’t ready to choose.

Richard

One second she was beside me. The next, she dropped.

I caught her before her body could collapse against the ground, but it felt like catching a falling building with bare hands. She folded against me with no resistance. Her skin burned with leftover heat. Her mouth hung open. Her chest didn’t move. I found her pulse, but it was thin.

Scattered. Her body wasn’t responding.

“Amelia.”

I said her name like it could bring her back. Like I could force her to stay by saying it right. My voice cracked apart halfway through it.”Simon!”

He was already moving. He landed on his knees beside us, checked her vitals, then leaned in to feel for her resonance.

And then he stopped.

“Tell me what you’re seeing,” I snapped, louder this time.

My throat burned from it.

He pressed his ear lower, then frowned. “There’s something else.”

“Say it. Out loud.”

“thought it was interference. But it’s not.”

He looked up. I saw it in his face before he said a word.

“She’s pregnant.”

It hit like a shot to the gut. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe.

“She didn’t know,” Simon said quickly. “Her resonance masked it. But I can feel it now. It’s strong.”

I stared down at her, shaking. She had taken down the Dominion, broken their signal, freed the entire damn field, while carrying our child.

“She can’t die,” I said. “She fucking can’t,”

Simon opened his mouth. I didn’t let him get a word out.”I will rip the council apart. I will burn every charter, every rule, every outpost. If she dies, there is nothing left to keep me in check.”

“She’s not unconscious,” Simon said, slow and quiet. “Her system is past depletion. She spent too much healing everyone else. Her body’s empty. She’s holding on by instinct alone.”

“Then refill her,” I shouted. “You’re a goddamn healer, Simon. Do something.”

“I can’t make her come back,” he said. “Her system has to choose. If it believes there’s enough to live for, it might reboot. But only if it has something to hold onto.”

I bent over her, gripping her face like it was the only thing keeping her in this world.

“Amelia,” I whispered. “Don’t you fucking dare. You don’t get to do this. Not after everything. I love you. I love you so goddamn much it makes my chest ache. You are the only thing that ever made me believe in something better.

You are everything I ever wanted.”

Tears poured down my face. I didn’t wipe them away. I let them fall. I let them soak into her skin. I leaned in until our foreheads touched, until I could feel her breath, barely there, against my mouth.

“If there’s anything,” I whispered, hoarse, “any god, any force, any fucking miracle, take everything else. Take me.

Just let her stay. Let her live.”I held her hands like they were the only thing tying me to the earth. My voice broke over the same word again and again.

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