Chapter 246 - 0246

Kaelen POV

"Lorelei!"

My voice roared through the room, shaking the walls and cutting her off mid-sentence.

My chest rose and fell heavily as I stared down at her, unable to believe what I had just heard. Raw hurt flashed across my face before I could hide it because how could she even think I would want that?

"Can you really stand the thought of me sleeping with other women?" I demanded, my voice cracking under the weight of everything I was feeling. "Would you really be okay with me fucking another woman right now? Huh?"

She hiccupped through her sobs, her body still trembling as she struggled to look at me. "I... I just want you to be happy."

"Who the fuck says I’m not happy?" The words came out before I could stop them, sharper than I intended.

Yes, hearing that she wasn’t carrying my child had hurt. I couldn’t pretend it hadn’t. I had wanted this. I had imagined what it would be like to hold our child in my arms, and finding out we weren’t going to have that yet had left a painful emptiness inside me.

But hearing Lorelei suggest that I should go and be with another woman hurt in a completely different way.

It made me wonder how little she understood about what she meant to me.

"How can you even say something like that?" I asked, my voice shaking as she continued to cry in front of me. "How can you look me in the eyes and ask me to sleep with someone else?"

My hands tightened around her shoulders, not wanting to hurt her but needing her to understand just how much her words had cut me.

"You know my condition. You know I can’t even stand being around other women, let alone have them touch me. And even if that wasn’t a problem, how could I sleep with someone I don’t love?"

At that, she shook her head weakly, still trying to make sense of it from her own perspective. "You... you don’t have to love her," she whispered. "You can just get her pregnant. That’s all. It doesn’t have to mean anything."

Hearing her say that only made the pain inside my chest twist tighter until it became anger.

"I don’t want to sleep with another woman, for fuck’s sake, Lorelei!" I growled, my hands sliding from her shoulders to her arms as I held onto her. "You are supposed to be the mother of my children. That was what we talked about. What we planned together."

My voice faltered as I looked into her tear-filled eyes, the anger slowly giving way to something much more painful.

"So why would you ask me to be with someone else?" I asked, my voice dropping. "Why would you ever think I’d want that when I have you?"

My voice cracked at the end, and I hated how vulnerable I sounded, but I couldn’t stop the words from pouring out. They were coming from a fear I had carried for far longer than I wanted to admit, one that had been buried so deeply that I hadn’t even realized how much power it still had over me.

"Just why?" I demanded, searching her tear-streaked face for an answer I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear. "Would you really be okay with it? Huh? Because I know I can’t even stand the thought of you looking at another man, so why is it so easy for you to ask me to be with someone else?"

For a second, an ugly thought slipped into my mind before I could push it away.

Maybe she didn’t love me the way she claimed she did. Maybe I didn’t mean as much to her as I thought I did. Because if she truly loved me, how could she be willing to share me so easily?

"Do I really mean that little to you?"

The moment those words left my mouth, her eyes widened in shock. She immediately shook her head, tears spilling over her lashes and running down her cheeks.

"You mean everything to me!" she choked out, her chest rising and falling with each broken breath. "You mean everything to me. I’m sorry..."

Before I could say anything, she suddenly wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself against me.

Her whole body trembled as she buried her face against my shoulder, her sobs soaking through my shirt.

"I shouldn’t have asked you that," she cried. "I wasn’t thinking. I was just scared... I was so scared you would leave me because I can’t give you what you want. I was scared you’d find someone else who could give you a child, and then you wouldn’t need me anymore. I’m so sorry, Kaelen. I’m so, so sorry."

Hearing the fear behind every word made the anger inside me disappear almost instantly.

What had been burning through my chest only moments ago softened as I held her trembling body against mine. My heart was still pounding hard against my ribs, but it wasn’t from anger anymore.

It was fear.

The thought of losing her scared me so much, and in that moment, all I wanted was to make her understand one thing: she was the only woman I wanted, and nothing was going to change that.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her fully into my lap and holding her as tightly as I could without hurting her.

She still trembled against me, and I could feel every shaky breath she took as I ran a hand over her back.

"Don’t ever say that again," I murmured into her hair, taking in her familiar scent as I tried to calm the frantic beating of my heart. "Don’t ever tell me to be with someone else. I don’t want anyone else, not in this realm or the next. I only want you."

She nodded repeatedly against my chest, her fingers gripping the front of my shirt like she was afraid to let go. "I won’t," she whispered. "I promise. I won’t say it again."

I let out a long, shaky breath, finally feeling some of the tension leave my body.

For a while, I simply held her, letting the quiet settle around us as her breathing gradually slowed and her body relaxed against mine.

There was no need to say anything else. I just wanted her to feel safe enough to calm down.

Once she was finally settled, I carefully pulled back and used my thumbs to wipe the remaining tears from her cheeks.

Seeing even a single tear on her face still made something inside my chest ache, which is why I always felt the desperate need to comfort her when she cried.

When I was sure she was calm, I reached for the bowl on the nightstand and resumed feeding her, giving her small spoonfuls and slowing down whenever the smell made her gag.

I stayed patient with her until she managed to finish everything, and by the time the bowl was empty, the exhaustion had already started taking over again.

Her eyelids grew heavy before finally falling shut, and she sank deeper into the pillows, her breathing evening out as she drifted into a deep, peaceful sleep.