Chapter 213: A Stranger To Him
Rebecca’s POV
When I opened my eyes, the terrible darkness of the forest was gone. I was lying in a small, quiet room that smelled heavily of crushed herbs and bitter smoke.
An older woman with silver hair pressed a damp cloth to my forehead. Her touch was gentle, but my blood ran cold the second I moved.
"Easy, child," she murmured softly. "I am Elder Maeve, Alpha Kane’s head healer. You are safe now."
"What... what is happening to me?" I managed to rasp out, my throat raw and dry like sandpaper. "Why did I pass out?"
Maeve’s eyes softened with pity. "It’s the metal around your neck. The choker’s dark magic is fighting your body, and it’s trying to crush your strength. It reacted violently to your pregnancy. I managed to calm it down for now, but if that collar doesn’t come off soon..." She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.
My breath hitched sharply. My hand flew to my belly, trembling violently as I touched the flat space where my tiny baby was fighting to live.
My baby.
A wave of dizzy relief washed over me, but right behind it came a wave of cold fear. I looked around the room, expecting the door to burst open at any second.
"Was... was Kaden here?" I whispered, my voice shaking. "Did he see me?"
Maeve shook her head quietly. "No. Only Alpha Kane brought you in."
My heart gave a strange, painful thud. Only Kane?
That didn’t make any sense. It felt wrong. Kaden was a monster, but he was a monster who was obsessed with me. He controlled my breath, my movements, my entire life. If I had been taken by rogues and dragged back, Kaden should have been here, tearing the doors off their hinges, suffocating me with his terrifying possessiveness.
Why wasn’t he here? Did he not care? Did he not even know I was pregnant with his child? A sickening knot twisted in my stomach.
A soft knock broke the heavy silence.
"That’s Alpha Kane," Maeve said, standing up. "Come in."
Kane stepped inside. He looked like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. His shoulders slumped, his eyes bloodshot, wearing just a plain t-shirt and dark jeans. He looked nothing like the powerful Alpha I knew.
Maeve gave him a respectful nod and slipped out, closing the door behind her to give us privacy.
Kane pulled up a wooden stool, but he couldn’t even look me in the eye at first. He stared down at his own shaking hands.
"How long have you known?" Kane asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "About the baby?"
"Two days," I choked out, pulling the blanket up to my chest like a shield. "Two days before the attack."
Kane let out a long, heavy breath, rubbing his face until his skin turned red. "Rebecca... everything has gone to hell."
My chest squeezed tight. "Is Kaden okay?"
"No. He lost his mind," Kane said, finally looking up. His eyes were filled with a dark, haunted grief. "When the rogues took you, he completely snapped. His wolf took over, and the loss of you drove him crazy. He was destroying everything in his path, tearing the territory apart, completely out of control."
Kane leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Logan and I had no choice. To save him from destroying himself and everyone around him, we had to use a blood spell. We erased you from his mind."
The room suddenly felt airless. My ears began to ring.
"What?" I breathed.
"We wiped every single memory of you," Kane said, the truth falling like heavy stones between us. "His mind is clean. He doesn’t know your name. He doesn’t know your face. He doesn’t remember loving you, hurting you, or locking you away. To Kaden... you never existed."
I sat completely frozen, staring at him.
He doesn’t remember me.
The words echoed through my head, refusing to feel real.
For a split second, a wave of unbelievable lightness rushed through my veins. It felt like a heavy, suffocating iron cage had just been broken into a thousand pieces. I was free. The man who had terrorized my life, who had treated me like a prisoner, didn’t even know who I was. To him, I was nothing more than a stranger. I didn’t have to live in fear of being his possession ever again.
But right after that relief came a deep, painful sting.
A hard lump formed in my throat, burning so hot it made tears fill my eyes. I hated Kaden. I hated him with every single drop of blood in my body for what he did to me. But hearing that he had forgotten me—just wiped clean like I was nothing, like all my pain never happened—felt like a slap across the face. He got to walk away completely peaceful, completely unbothered, while I was left broken on a bed, carrying his secret child and dying from his collar.
It wasn’t fair. It was a sick, twisted joke. The cruelest joke fate could have played on me.
I swallowed down the bitter taste in my mouth, wiping a stray tear before it could fall. I hardened my gaze, looking straight at Kane.
"If he forgot me," I said, my voice cold and sharp, "then how am I supposed to get this nightmare off my neck?"
Kane grimaced, looking utterly helpless. "That’s the worst part. Only Kaden knows where he hid the physical key. We couldn’t ask him about it without making him suspicious and triggering his erased memories."
He stood up, pacing near the small window, staring out.
"Logan and Kaden left for the Full Moon Packhouse today," Kane said quietly. "The second they land, Logan is going to search every inch of Kaden’s private quarters until he finds that key. We just... we have to wait for him to call."
I lay back slowly against the pillows, staring up at the plain wooden ceiling. I didn’t know what to feel. I didn’t know what to say. A cold, heavy numbness crept through my limbs, burying every emotion deep inside me.
My mind was completely blank, worn out from all the fear, the pain, and the shocking news. I was just... empty.
The silence stretched long between us. Outside, the morning wind blew softly through the trees, rustling the leaves against the windowpane.
Suddenly, Kane turned around. He leaned back against the windowsill, his hands gripped tightly over the edge as his troubled brown eyes locked onto mine.
"What about the baby, Rebecca?" Kane asked softly, his voice heavy with seriousness. "What are you going to do about it?"
My breath hitched in my throat. My fingers tightened over the blanket above my stomach.
Kane took a small step forward, his expression serious. "It’s Kaden’s child. You know that. Once this choker comes off and you get your strength back... what is your plan?"