Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 844: The Only Familiar Thing ()

~The Eclipse Palace, Heart Of The Eclipse Domain.

The sun had dipped low beneath the horizon, painting the sky in a myriad of colorful hues.

How long did the natural phenomenon usually take?

Not for the first time, Neveah had lost count of the seconds after a few thousand.

Was the sundown always this slow in coming? How could something so familiar still feel so strange?

The final streaks of daylight illuminated the warriors training in the field beyond the palace walls.

They had told her indulging in a routine was the only way she stood a chance of recovering what was lost. Hoping one familiar activity would finally fill in the blank spaces,

But every sundown was much the same as the last. High walls, uncertainties and a blank memory.

"Neveah..."

She startled.

It was him again. The one she could not remember.

Her spine stiffened on instinct and a nagging displeasure churned in the pit of her stomach.

His arms snuck around her waist from behind, pulling her close to his chest. What should have felt comforting, instead felt...unfamiliar.

No warmth. No flutters... nothing. A heart as blank as her memories had become. A feeling as cold as the blizzard that had taken away her past. Without it, what identity did she have left?

"You still fear me." His voice was low and pained. "Even now."

"I’m sorry, Alessio." She sighed aloud. "I try not to, but I just... I don’t know why..."

He buried his nose into the side of her neck and inhaled deeply. "You’ve not been yourself since the incident. I understand it will take some time to get used to me again."

He had said it often. But how much time was ’some time’? How could she hope to find some normalcy when she couldn’t recognize a touch she had known all her life?

Her memories began with that field of pure white snow, and that chill that curled deep within her bones.

Buried beneath a mound of snow in a distant land, he was the first face she had seen when her consciousness returned.

Alessio Terran Lothaire, Eclipse Alpha King. Her mate and husband.

"The blizzard..." Neveah trailed off, "Tell me about it again."

He sighed quietly, his lips gently brushing her chin in a gesture of comfort.

"We were at war with the Winter Domain." He murmured, "They took you from me. Hurt you, and left you to die in a snow storm."

"When I found you... I thought..." He paused, exhaling a shaky breath. "I thought I had lost you."

Neveah turned, gazing up at him. Her eyes searched his, and while she wasn’t clear on many things, one thing that couldn’t be more clear was the fact that this man...he did love her.

It showed in the tenderness of his gaze. In the way his voice trembled when he spoke of the past, in the tentative way he held her,

Like he couldn’t believe she was truly there.

Like he feared she would disappear at any moment.

In the past month, he hadn’t let her out of his sight. Not even once.

He loved her in a way that could not be doubted. In a way that overwhelmed her,

It was suffocating...frightening even. And it left her mind spinning in wonder,

If the love they shared consumed him so, how could she have lost all memories... every trace of it? 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"I retreated for your safety and that of our child. But I will get you justice, I will present you his head... I swear it on my honor."

The child...

Neveah felt her abdomen. There was a life in there...at least that’s what she had been told.

A life the Winter Alpha King had nearly taken from them and so Alessio was paranoid. He feared he would lose her...them, again.

But she didn’t feel much different. She didn’t know if she should.

"You’ve been out here for hours." He continued. "We should head in now. The physician is waiting to examine you."

The halls of the Eclipse Palace were silent, almost deserted. Save for the guards that wouldn’t meet her eyes, and the physician with his horrid tasting tonics, Neveah had noticed there was hardly anyone else.

None that she had been allowed to meet.

There had to be others. At nightfall, she was met with a tidied room, a warm meal and a ready bath. And the same at the crack of dawn.

She had asked him once, where all the residents were at. And he had said they were sent away, to allow her the privacy she needed to recover without disturbances.

The servants had been instructed harshly to stay out of sight and whatever the punishment for doing otherwise was, it must have been great enough because they did an excellent job of it.

From the moment she opened her eyes, her entire world had been filled by just him.

The thought of it triggered that nagging displeasure once again.

"Alpha King. Alpha Queen." The physician Karan was a strange young man.

His techniques were unfamiliar. And nothing like she would have expected of a physician.

But he was polite and he didn’t avoid her eyes like everyone else did.

His study smelt of herbs, salt and spices. A cozy fireplace provided warmth and light to the cold hall.

This place felt the most familiar in the entire palace. It was a feeling she couldn’t quite explain or lay a finger on. Just an awkward recognition that wasn’t at all pleasant.

"Please sit." He encouraged, gesturing to the small reclining bed she had sat in every day since she could remember.

Alessio guided her to sit and he only let go of her hand when she lay back on the bed.

"Now, I have to ask you to be as relaxed as possible." Karan advised. "This will hurt, as you know. But you have to bear with it."

Neveah exhaled a few slow breaths, letting her thoughts fade to the back of her mind.

The familiar ashy smell of the tonic was nauseating. Karan brought it over, steam hovering above it.

Neveah hesitated. The smell of the tonic, the taste of it...it just wasn’t how she had ever imagined a prenatal health tonic to be.

And she wasn’t certain how she knew that. Her mind was a mess of unknowns these days, too many blanks to string together a sane thought.

She didn’t just feel something was missing, every breath she took echoed the emptiness in her heart.

"For the child, you have to drink." Alessio murmured from beside her.

"The child..." She trailed off, "Will he be a wolf shifter? Like you?"

It was a silly question to ask. But the words came out before she had properly thought it through.

Alessio’s brows furrowed and for a split second, something flashed in his eyes. Something she couldn’t decipher...but didn’t fail to notice.

"If not?" Alessio asked,

Neveah pursed her lips slightly. She didn’t have the answer to that.

The bitter tasting liquid stung as she poured it down her throat. Her eyes squinted, welling up with tears and her throat tightened in protest, but she forced it down, ignoring the burn.

And then she waited. For what she knew would come,

The beginnings of the migraine tore through her skull. The pain searing through her every sense,

Black spots danced across her vision and she welcomed the darkness... perhaps the only familiar thing left.