BLOOD LEGACIES
Chapter 504: A Mate’s Failure

Chapter 504: A Mate’s Failure

A/N: Song For The Background ~ Medicine By Daughter

[Trigger Warning Child Loss]

DACE

~

"Did you know the Lioness was pregnant?"

The gravity of her words shocked me, leaving me breathless for a moment. I replayed her question over and over in my mind, certain I hadn’t misheard. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out—the words caught in my throat, refusing to surface.

"Pregnant?" Emma’s Mom said beside me, her voice choked with emotion as she spoke.

I swallowed the nails buried in my throat, forcing myself to speak despite the tightening sensation that followed. "Was?" I asked slowly, dragging my gaze to the family doctor.

She sighed, closing her eyes briefly, and then opened them. "It’s a good thing you gave her your blood at that moment, the internal bleeding was about to heal to an extent..." she paused. "But unfortunately it couldn’t save the fetus, I’m sorry Alpha"

"No" Vivian broke in tears. "You have to be wrong please tell me you’re wrong" she cried. "Please"

"I’m sorry, Mrs. Adams, there was nothing I could do"

"How old?" I asked and they both looked at me.

"Two weeks," she replied, but after that, everything she said became inaudible, replaced by a sharp ringing in my ears. The world seemed to blur, the weight of her words crashing down on me. It was hard to stay still without the world spinning in my vision and dragging me down to an abyss.

The pressure forced me to sit, my hands running through my hair before resting beneath my jaw. If I hadn’t been fighting the vampire in the east, if I had come faster when I first felt the danger in our bond, none of this would have happened. If I had thought through Luther’s plan more carefully—but he was always a step ahead. In the end, I had danced to his tune from the very beginning. It seemed I had finally lived up to my reputation as the Dark Alpha, doomed to fall into the shadows I commanded. To be dragged relentlessly to a dark place feasted by bloodlust and the pile of my failure. Everything I touched seemed to

I looked down at my hands and saw blood—not just blood, but the outline of an unformed fetus. My hands trembled as I held onto it, the weight of the loss sinking in, overwhelming me. What could have been a fully formed baby—my cub.

I can’t protect anything or anyone. I can’t even protect my own mate or family. I might not feel emotions the way I used to, but I know what failure feels like—what pain feels like. And right now, it’s all I can feel.

The cause of my incompetence.

"We lost a lot," Vivan said sitting beside me. "I lost a sister," she sobbed. "And you lost what could have been" her voice quivered. "I’m sorry"

"It’s not your fault, it’s mine" I murmured, feeling a pressure on my shoulder weighing me down to take a better look at my delinquency. "What is the use of power if you can’t protect anyone" I intoned, narrowing my eyes. "All the power in the world and yet..."

"Power doesn’t guarantee anything,"

"I started all this"

"You worked according to your nature and no one should fault you for that" she explained. "You can’t take the core of your identity from yourself"

I turned my bloodshot eyes to her. "All I feel is her pain..." I began, my voice barely a whisper. "I can’t even feel my own. I can’t feel anything. I should be grieving, I should be feeling something—but I can’t even weep naturally for what I’ve lost,"

A tear slid down her cheek, her eyes filled with sadness as she looked at me, but I couldn’t reciprocate. I felt hollow, completely empty. The only thing keeping me sane was Emma’s pain—I tapped into that, clinging to it just to feel something. Because if I don’t I’ll become a monster even to her—to me.

I thought losing my emotions wouldn’t change a thing and that I could somehow grasp what I had left but I thought wrong. I was nothing but an empty shell of flesh running fuel to keep me from losing my fucking mind.

"I’m a fucking failure"

She grabbed my hand, holding on tightly, it reminded me of my mother, pulling me back to a time when her warmth was all I needed, but I destroyed that too. "You’re not a failure" she sobbed. "You listen to me and—"

"Alpha" the doctor interrupted us. "The Lioness is awake, she didn’t ask for anybody but I think it best you see her, she needs that emotional support"

Emotional support. Something I can’t give.

"She needs you," I said to Vivian. "She needs her mom more"

"Dace" she shook her head, a silent plea for me not to do this.

"Please" I begged, knowing she wouldn’t go otherwise, there was nothing like pride in this situation, this was about giving my Female what was best for her. "This is for her,"

She hesitated but eventually agreed, following the doctor to the room. A few seconds later, I heard crying—it was Emma’s.

Each sound was like a knife to my soul, killing something inside me with every cry. For the rest of the hour, I stood by the door, listening and feeling as she broke into irreplaceable pieces. I felt every inch of her pain, down to the last beat of her heart.

~

A Few Days Later

"There you are... I was wondering where you’d run off to," Emilia said, a smirk on her lips as she walked towards me, her hand clenched tightly against her side.

The rest of the silver was successfully pushed out after immense operations. She was stabbed with a special kind of weapon that could have killed on the spot. Owen got to the mansion in time and saved her life. Emilia was making good progress in her recovery, she just won’t be able to shift for months.

"Grayson wouldn’t take his eyes off me so I had to sneak out" She sat beside me. "And you... shouldn’t you be pinning over your mate like a dog?"

My silence told her I wasn’t in the mood for anything. She sighed. "Come on Dacey, I’m trying to ease the mood here, it’s been so gloomy for days. Emma hasn’t stepped out of her room, Vanessa’s burial is in a few days and our clan is still recovering from the war. We’re at rock bottom here" She grabbed the decanter and turned a drink.

"Aren’t you going to talk to me? I’m your sister"

My only response was to bring the glass to my lips and chug my drink.

"I’m proud that you gave Luther what he deserves. I couldn’t be more proud. Luther is gone and you should focus on the present..." she sighed. "I know the gravity of what we lost, Emma needs you more than ever"

"I can’t be an emotional support for her" I voiced. "I can’t be the shoulder she cries on. What the use of being by her side if I can’t stop being selfish"

"Your lack of emotions doesn’t make you selfish"

"It does," I countered. "The only thing I feel is her pain. I can’t even feel the pain of losing a child" I chuckled, but it was a mockery of how far I had fallen and how pathetic I had become. Luther might not have won but he did in more ways than he could ever imagine.

The rest of the vampires have paid the price, they are extinct as it is but none of that can bring back what I have lost.

"I failed as a mate," I declared. "Nothing will ever describe that failure, I know failure when I see it" I stared at the wine shelves, the glass reflecting a hazy, pitiful version of myself. It was so disheartening that I wanted to throw my glass at it and smash it to bits. "And I’m looking right at it"

"Does this mean you don’t need this anymore?" she asked, sliding something toward me. I glanced at the small black box she revealed, and when she opened it, a gold ring with a small diamond on top was inside. "Mother’s ring. You asked me for it before you went to war."

I eyed the priceless jewelry, already picturing it on Emma’s small finger. Wearing her status and showing the world what she meant to me, not just the supernatural world but the humans alike. How refreshing it would be, to show the world my claim.

"Well?" she urged, but I turned away from it, taking the last of my vodka.

Emilia sighed taking the ring back. "Well if you need it you know where to find it. You have to see her Dace, she might not have asked for you but you know she needs you more than ever,"

"You both need each other Dace Devereaux, together both of you are stronger than you can ever imagine, you pulled each other out from that dark place, and it can happen again" she said before leaving me alone to my thoughts.

When I turned, I realized she had left the ring for me.