Reclaiming My Broken Luna (Astrid and Killian) novel Chapter 431

Astrid’s POV

The walls of the Packhouse had never felt so suffocating.

Days had passed since Elara was taken, but time had lost all meaning.

The world outside moved on, but inside these walls, inside this nightmare, everything was frozen—suspended in a relentless cycle of fear, exhaustion, and waiting.

Waiting for news. Waiting for a sign. Waiting for something, anything, to bring my daughter back.

But all I had were the heavy, sinking hours in between, where every breath felt like a struggle, where every shadow in the room felt like it was closing in on me.

Ryker’s condition wasn’t improving.

If anything, he was getting worse.

He barely spoke. He barely ate. When he did sleep, it was restless and fitful, his small hands gripping the sheets as if he were still in battle, as if he were still fighting off the monsters that had stolen his sister.

Every time he closes his eyes to sleep, he wakes up screaming his sister’s name, tormented by nightmares.

Ryker is blaming himself for what happened to his sister, worsening his health.

And I… I was barely surviving.

I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Elara’s terrified face, her small hands reaching for me, the way her screams had echoed as she was ripped from my grasp.

I had failed her.

I had failed both of them.

I sat by Ryker’s bedside, my fingers brushing through his damp hair, pushing it away from his forehead.

His skin was clammy, his breathing too shallow for my liking.

“Ryker,” I whispered, my voice hoarse from days of disuse.

His lashes fluttered, but he didn’t open his eyes.

I looked down at his hand resting in mine, so small, so fragile, and I felt the weight of it—how easily I could lose him too.

A shuddering breath escaped me, and I pressed my lips against his knuckles.

“I’m here,” I murmured. “I promise I won’t leave you.”

A deep voice broke through my thoughts. “You can’t keep going like this, Astrid.”

I didn’t turn around. I didn’t need to. I knew that voice.

Killian.

He was the only one keeping all of us together.

He had been the one making sure the warriors stayed on high alert, the one taking care of the Pack, the one managing the chaos I no longer had the strength to face.

I know he is also suffering just like us, ridden by guilt and anxiety, but he had to be strong for us. Especially when all of us couldn’t hold on any longer.

And now, he was the one trying to hold me together.

I heard the exhaustion in his voice, the weight of his own grief pressing into every syllable.

But I couldn’t afford to fall apart now.

I swallowed hard, my fingers tightening around Ryker’s. “He’s getting worse,” I whispered, the words barely audible.

Killian’s presence grew closer until he was standing beside me. “Because he’s worrying about Elara,” he said softly. “And because he’s worrying about you.”

That made me flinch.

“I’m fine,” I lied, my voice sharper than I intended.

Killian exhaled heavily. “Astrid.”

I closed my eyes. “I don’t care about me, Killian. I care about them.”