"Please, give me back my child!" I cried, begging over and over again, but no one was listening. The nurses didn't care. Their eyes were cold, as though I wasn't even a person, like I was dirt beneath their shoes,because they had already been paid off by Mrs. Eleanor Khian. I tried to hold them, tried to touch my baby, but she shoved my hands off as though I were nothing.
"She is my child, my blood. I carried her, I bled for her, I am her mother. Can't I at least touch my own offspring?" I begged and screamed, but no one cared, no one even flinched. Then the door opened and someone walked in.
"Mother, please return my child to me," I begged again, even though I already knew she wasn't going to listen.
"Who are you calling 'mother'? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Mrs. Eleanor Khian, my mother-in-law, the woman who once called me daughter cut me off, looking at me like filth.
"Mother, please don't do this to me. I used the last of my powers just to bring this child into the world. You accepted her, I heard you accepted her, but now I can't even touch her?" I cried.
"I accepted it only because I thought it was a male child. I never knew you were going to bring forth an embarrassment into the Khian family, a Sentinel just like you, and you married my son who is an Alpha. Do you want the world to laugh at us?" she shouted at me like I was some stain she needed to scrub out of her life.
"Mother..." I whispered, but she cut me off immediately. "I said stop calling me that. You don't deserve it, you don't even deserve to be here. We pitied you. We took you in because you were rejected by your fated mates, but even then you couldn't return the gesture. I feel ashamed on behalf of my son; I regret ever letting him marry you," she kept ranting, her voice echoing in the room while I lay there helpless, bleeding, weak, dying.
"Ms. Eleanor... I apologize for not meeting your expectations, but please... let me hold my Hannah. Let me hold my child. Please... don't harm her... please..." I cried out, my hands held tightly onto Hannah, but they dragged her from me like I was a stranger.
Something in her changed and she finally nodded. The nurses brought the baby to me, my baby, my Hannah. They placed her in my arms and I kissed her forehead. I wrapped her in the only warmth I had left. I placed the necklace I made from the last piece of my power around her neck, my last gift.
And then I saw it in her eyes again: the disgust.
"I hope you can see it for yourself. I can't even smell my son's blood in her, which means she might not even be his pup," she spat.
I ignored her. I kissed my daughter again, even though my hands were shaking, even though I was cold, and even though my time was running out.
"I don't have much time left in this world... but please, don't harm my child... I beg you... don't let her suffer for being born like me..." I whispered, choking on sobs.
"And you think I care about a mere Sentinel like you?" she scoffed, folding her arms. "My last wish in this life is to wipe out every single one of your kind and I'm going to start with her."
"Siara," she called, and the nurse came forward like a shadow.
"Take the child from her and get rid of her... make sure my son never finds out."
"What if he asks for the baby?" Siara asked.
"We'll replace her with a dead one... He won't smell her blood in the child. And I'll make him think she cheated."
"No... no, no, no, please don't do this, I beg you!" I cried out, my hands holding onto Hannah tightly, but they dragged her from me like I was a stranger.
"It's too late, sweetheart," Eleanor said as she walked closer to me, her heels clicking against the tiles like knives in my ears.
"Take this as payment for feeding you, housing you, and giving you the title of Khian's daughter-in-law....the Luna."
"You won't get away with this, I swear you won't!" I shouted.
"What can you do? You're powerless now. You sacrificed your life to bring a disgrace into this world, and now I'll send both of you back to your ancestors," she said, turning to the machines beside me.
I smiled weakly.
"You think you've won, Ms. Eleanor... but I promise you, if you kill my child, she will keep resurrecting. And if she survives, she and I will watch you die. Even if I don't make it, a new beginning has already started with my child. No matter what you do, you will never find peace in this life. The moon goddess will never forgive you until you say the truth."
She laughed. She kept laughing. Then she reapplied her lipstick as if she were preparing for a party.
"Not if you die first," she whispered, and she turned off the machines.
I started choking. I felt my soul pulling away. But before I gave up completely, I used the last of my Sentinel powers to remove my sentinel and send it to my child, wherever she was, however far. I gave her my life. I made sure that no matter how many times they tried, they would never be able to kill her.
She will live. She must live. She was all I had left.
****
Rebecca Khian was once sincerely loved by Alpha Leonardo, even after her three rejections by her fated mate. Even after losing her parents to tragedy, she found love in someone who was ordinary... but he turned out to be the only Alpha born in generations.
Her only dream was not to be the last Sentinel.
When she found out she was dying, that if she continued the pregnancy, she would lose her life,she still chose to keep the baby. Even if she ended the pregnancy, she was still going to die, so she made the choice to give life to her child.
She lied, saying she was carrying a boy, so they would let her live long enough to give birth. That way, her daughter would be safe, so her line wouldn't end with her.
Despite everything, despite the hatred from her mother-in-law, despite the betrayal, despite being rejected by fate,she still gave her all.
And her life still ended on a hospital bed, with her daughter dragged from her hands.
Her last breath wasn't a scream or a cry. It was a whisper to the moon goddess, a plea for mercy.