I pulled myself upright and walked to the healer's receiving chamber.
I requested another audience with Healer Frostvein.
"Selene, you want a termination?"
Healer Elena Frostvein stared at me, disbelief etched across her weathered face.
"Do you understand what you're saying? You're seven moons along. Your womb's condition is fragile—after a termination, you may never carry another pup again."
I met her worried gaze and nodded.
"I've made up my mind. I want the termination. Please schedule the ritual for tomorrow."
She opened her mouth to argue. I pulled up the mark-thread I'd seen that morning and handed her my communication stone.
Her jaw dropped. She stared at the glowing runes, speechless.
"That's impossible. Absolutely impossible. This mark-thread has to be lies. Selene—this is a life. A pup of your blood."
Healer Frostvein was my pack-sister Lyra's den-neighbor. I trusted her completely.
Before I had pleaded with Kael to undergo the bloodline rite alongside me, it never crossed my mind that something could go wrong within the healer-den.