Taken II (The Sequel)

"Push Regina! Push!"

Loud grunts and groans filled the air, the walls shook with every scream that left the young Regina’s lips.

Her face burned, bright red, with trickles of sweat coating it making her wild auburn hair stick to her skin.

"One last push!" The healer gritted out as he pointed to the nurses to push Clarices feet back more - they did.

Clarice growled loudly in response, her eyes darkening and her claws elongating.

The pressure in her stomach was too much to handle and the tearing pain she was feeling down there made her entire body burn.

But the second he placed his hand over hers and grabbed onto it tightly, her dark eyes found his and she found herself instantly calming down.

"Push my love. Push our baby out." Cerberus whispered, his emotion-filled eyes gazing deeply into hers.

She cried out with a nod before bracing herself for yet another push.

"Now!" The healer yelled out and she followed with a loud scream that felt like it tore their eardrums and it was with that push that the heir had graced the room with his loud and booming cry.

Clarice instantly cried in response, her chest full of pride despite how exhausted she was.

She smiled with droopy eyes as she gazed at the healer who covered the baby with a flimsy blanket and stood up.

"Take the baby and clean him off, then instantly bring him back." Healer Demetre stated with furrowed brows, the way he was staring at Clarice made the air in the room thicken.

Clarice growled tiredly, “No! I want my son!” Her voice was drained, yet her authority was still there.

The nurse soundlessly took the heir from the healer and went to bring him out but Cerberus’ loud growl immediately stopped her in place.

“The Regina is losing more blood than I had expected. We must assess her before all else. The baby must be cleaned and evaluated as well..” the healer trailed off when he noticed the way Clarice was struggling to stay awake, it was odd - seeing as Clarice is a Lycan, her body should easily be recovering, but it wasn’t and it brought him great suspision.

"What is the matter?!" Cerberus growled out angrily, looking from the healer to Clarice while the nurses scurried out of the room to asses the young heir who continued to wail loudly.

"She is losing conciousness my King." The healer stated while stitching up Clarice with thickly furrowed brows, sweat now coating his wrinkled forehead.

Cerberus glared at Clarices face in worry, she was ghostly pale and her once wide eyes were now closed shut - despite how sticky she was she looked like an angel and his lips twitched downwards.

"Your Regina better make it out of this hospital alive, otherwise none of you will." Cerberus warned lowly, his voice deepening signaling the presence of the side of him that everyone feared.

A side that he had not allowed to show since the last ball they had where they announced that they were having an heir.

"She will my king, now if you will." The healer looked behind him to politely, without words tell the King to leave.

Cerberus nodded before placing a gentle kiss onto his mates soft hand, his lips lingering on her cool skin before he mumbled a soft and hopeful prayer - something he has never done before and exiting the room with a heavy heart.

There was no point in him getting mad and exploding.

Or any point in him prolonging his stay in the room to watch over the healer because he knew it would only make things worse and he had promised his mate and himself that he will change, and he has.

When the door shut behind him, he inhaled deeply - his chest felt warm when the scent of his newborn pup invaded his nostrils.

He followed the scent through the hallway and to another room, eager to finally lay eyes on his pup. His heir.

His chest swole with pride and his eyes darkened with the presence of his tamed Lycan.

Both sides of him were undoubtedly proud.

Despite how nervous he was about his mate, he still felt excited. How could he not.

He will officially meet the best thing he had ever created.

He will officially be graced by something nobody ever thought could possibly happen to him - himself included.

He opened the door with gentleness that was foreign to him, he could not deny the shakiness in his body.

Emotions that were becoming familiar to him were clouding his mind and he loved it.

He loved to feel. It made him feel more alive than ever.

He never wanted to feel as dead as he once had.

When he closed the door, he turned back around and was met with an empty room.

His eyes narrowed. This is where the smell of his pup ended. Where the hell were the nurses?

He eyed the cot in the middle of the room and walked to it, and what he believed to be his pup wrapped in thin blanket was laying in it, all alone.

If he was not so distracted, he would leave the room, search for the nurses and tear through their throats for leaving his newborn all alone and unprotected.

When he neared the cot, he expected to see his heir, but instead was met with the same blanket that was once wrapped around his son, filled with a bunch of other flimsy blankets - purposely filled to resemble a body.

He growled loudly, shaking the entire room - he could hear his heartbeat echoing in his ears.

He was never one to be scared. But the empty room and the empty blanket scared the hell out of him.

He grabbed the blanket with his elongated claws and ripped through it while growling, his face was turning red as were his eyes - his chest was heaving up and down, pants and growls mixing in.

The flimsy blankets were all torn except the one that was coated in whatever was on his son when he came out of his mate - he needed that one for his scent, it was all he had of him.

He held the bloody blanket to his chest while eyeing the room, breathing heavily - his vision was clouded but a piece of paper that had been under the blankets but was now revealed on the cot suddenly caught his eyes.

He quickly grabbed it and opened it up, growling - what kind of sick joke was this.

He will kill whoever is playing it.

As he read the note his fist clenched tightly around the blanket, his knuckles turning a pale white.

His chest heaved up and down faster, his breathing getting heavier than ever.

Steam nearly came out of his ears before he crumbled the note up into a fist and growled louder - a lot louder than before.

It almost sounded like a broken howl.

He placed the blanket on his nose and aggresively inhaled before he threw it into the cot and ran out of the room with determination - his body shifting mid run.

His Lycan broke past the door and quickly made way out of the small hospital.

His aura darkened. Gone was the gentle Cerberus. Long gone.

The Beast was out.

As his Lycan ran, inhaling the air deeply, trying his hardest to follow a scent that did not linger in the air of the dark night.

The thick woods almost concealed the scent. He did not smell anything for miles and yet he still ran.

The words of the note lingered in his brain and he felt his cravings slowly return.

The cravings that he thought he had ridden himself of were slowly coming back.

He longed to spill some blood, but only the specific kind. The blood of one specific person.

It would be the only thing to calm his soul. To ease his craving and to give him his life back.

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Her eyes groggily opened up, she felt as though she was hit by a bus.

She groaned while stretching and instantly flinched at the pain that came from the slight movement she had made.

When she noticed where she was, she quickly growled, she remembered giving birth to her pup and she remembered him being taken from her the second he had graced the world with his presence.

How long had she been out?

She sat up, ignoring the pain that was overtaking her body slowly.

Her brows furrowed when she noticed that the only person in the room with her was the old healer, who had his head down.

Why the hell was his head down? The Kings heir was just born, he should be ecstatic!

"Where is Cerberus?" Clarice croaked out, her dry voice making her cringe - Demetre did not even look up at her when he answered her.

His response did not even come quick and it only confused her more, "He steppped out."

She growled lowly, "He stepped out after the birth of his son?" She was disgusted.

How could he leave them. She thought they were past this but old habits appear to die hard.

Demetre did not bother to answer.

"You know what, who cares about him. Bring me my son." Clarice ordered, uncaring for how rude she sounded.

She was just torn in half and stitched back together and left by her mate - she was in no mood to be nice.

To anyone.

Demetre did not answer but she heard the way his heartbeat picked up, and her eyes zeroed in on the way his addams apple bobbed up and down nervously.

That made her own heartbeat speed up. Worry instantly overtook her.

"Demetre. My son."

Once more she demanded. This time, she did not hold back on her authortitive tone.

Demetre looked up, a sad look on his face and she instantly sprung from the bed, holding back a groan before she pulled whatever needles were stuck into her out.

"Regina wait, please." Demetre called to her when he saw what she had done.

She growled, "If you can not bring me him, I will find him myself."

She ran out of the room, longing to hold her pup, longing to inhale his scent - she was deprived of it all the moment he came out.

She ached to see what he looks like. Who he looks like. Is he healthy? Is he not? Her precious son.

However the second she left the room and her eyes went to look at the other door - the door that was broken as though a madman had broken it down - her heart nearly stopped.

She could hear it echo in her ears and the worry that she felt earlier only got worse.

She could never catch a break.

"Regina, wait-” Clarice tuned him out as she walked to the room, carefully stepping over the broken wood.

Her eyes welled up when she noticed torn up blankets and she inhaled deeply - her mates scent lingered in the room as did another distant yet warm smell.

Her eyes zeroed in on the blanket on the cot and she ran to it with a sob, she quickly grabbed it and pulled it to her nose - inhaling deeply.

The smell warmed her insides and she found herself falling to the floor - she could not believe it.

Where the hell was her son?

When her bottom connected to the cold floor, her eyes found a crumbled up piece of paper that she quickly picked up and opened up.

Despite her tearglossed vision she still read the note - hoping this was a sick joke.

But the more she read, the more she realized it was not.

When she finished a loud and heartbroken howl ripped through her lips - her whole entire body shaking.

She cried as loud as she could, begging for this whole thing to be a cruel nightmare.

She screamed when she opened her eyes again only to realize it was not - this was indeed her reality.

Her son was taken from her.

She sobbed while shaking her head, unable to form the words she so badly wanted to say.

She could not even stand up. She was stuck.

The note was crumbled up in her hand and the blanket was placed directly under her nose - the scent doing nothing to calm her down, instead it made her cry harder.

She did not even get to see him.

She had no idea what he looked like.

Her heart shattered into a million pieces and now it all made sense.

Why Cerberus was not here. Why Demetre was quiet. Why the room was basically torn apart.

She slowly started to hyperventilate and Demetre could do nothing but watch her, tears trailing down his own cheeks.

The poor girl has been failed many times. Many many times.

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