I immediately slice through the small space separating me from Ava and take off her restraints, not caring about the silver chains scorching my palms and fingers. I pull her from the chair into my arms and tap her cheek softly. “Ava, baby. Wake up! C’mon, I need to see those beautiful greens.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She doesn’t even stir, her breaths becoming shallower and her heartbeats fading with every second that passes. Like an anchor, my heart sinks to the bottom of my feet, and I swallow through the heavy knot in my throat. “Where the fuck is Malik? Ava is dying.”
“I’m here,” he says as he barrels into the room. He swears sharply under his breath when his eyes find Ava. “Put her down on the floor. Kaiden, I’ll need to pull power from you to heal her.”
Kaiden nods as I gently lay Ava on the floor. We all kneel beside her, and Malik’s eyes find mine. “You’ll have to take theknife out; I can’t heal her with it still embedded into her chest. On three, two, one.”
The second I pull the knife out, blood shoots from the wound, and Malik covers it with pressure from his right hand to staunch the blood while he grabs Kaiden’s forearm and begins chanting. The black magic swirls into his veins and thickens the air.
But Ava’s heart stops beating. The silence screams a panic like I have never known. I can’t think. I can’t breathe. If she dies, I’ll die with her because I can’t accept living in a world where Ava is no more. I close my eyes and pray to a God I don’t even believe in to give her back to me.
Then, her chest rises with the softest inhale. I hang to that tiny flutter that ensues like to a lifeline. Her heart starts beating rhythmically again. Stronger. Surer. The gaping wound in her chest pieces itself together right under my eyes. I feel like I’m taking my first breath of air as Ava’s cuts and bruises disappear before my eyes. The tears clouding my vision are now spilling over my cheeks. I haven’t cried since the day I found out my father died. I don’t even care that Malik and Kaiden are here to witness my breakdown.
When Malik finishes healing her, I pull Ava against my chest, my trembling fingers hanging on to her like she’s my salvation. Someone is speaking to me, but I can’t hear them as the terror filters through my veins and pulls me down, down, down. It’s never-ending, like falling into an abyss. I sink into it and let my wolf take over. He’s the only one who can fully protect Ava. No one is going to lay another finger on her. No one is ever going to take our mate from us.
Everything fades.
There’s only black.
The distant echoes of footsteps chip at the haze of madness I drowned in bit by bit. I don’t know how much time has passed. It could be an hour or days, but with each choppy inhale that fillsmy lungs, the blackness dissipates like smoke in the wind, and the cabin slowly comes back into focus.
“C’mon, Lo. We need to get Ava to a bed. She’ll be more comfortable,” Emily’s soft voice snaps me out of the deep end.
I look at her, confused. “Em, what are you doing here?”
“Kaiden called me. Your wolf wouldn’t let her go. You almost killed Malik when he tried to take her from your arms so he could heal you.”
My eyebrows crinkle. “What? I don’t remember any of it.”
She crouches next to me. “C’mon,” she repeats. “I brought you some clothes. I can take Ava while you get dressed, and we’ll bring her home so she can heal properly and rest.” Her tone is soft, and worry is etched into the lines around her eyes.
“Don’t touch her,” I growl when Emily outstretches her hand toward Ava.
Emily puts her palms up in a show of surrender. “Okay,” she says soothingly as if talking to a rabid animal. I guess, to some extent, she is. “Just come to the car, and I’ll drive you both home.”
“The rogue escaped,” I tell her as I push up from the floor and carry Ava to the front door of the rickety cabin. My eyes skitter over the place, and I notice that the witch’s body is no longer lying lifelessly on the floor. “We need to have everyone from the pack on alert.”
“Dominic immobilized him as soon as he jumped out of the window, and Malik put a binding spell on him. Dominic is on his way to put him in one of the cages in the basement you use for the Conclave. He said you would want to be the one to kill the rogue.”
An icy gust of wind ruffles my hair when I step out of the cabin, and I pull Ava closer, concerned that she might feel the cold. The sky is a deep crimson as dawn breaks, casting a warm glow on the thick canopy of trees. The rundown cabin the rogueand the witch used to hide is only at a half an hour drive from our community, and it’s embarrassing no one fucking noticed or found them until now. Though, with the wards hiding it in plain sight, we couldn’t have sensed they were inside.
Malik and Kaiden are waiting for us near my truck and Kaiden’s Escalade. Malik’s throat is all bruised, the imprint of my hand standing out on his taupe-hued skin. My shoulders slump, and shame slams into me. I swallow the heavy knot in my throat as our gazes lock. “I’m so sorry, man.”
“S’ok, I should have known better than to approach you when you got all feral and growled at us like a cornered animal.”
Emily gets a blanket out of the back of my truck and approaches me with long strides, carefully draping it over Ava and me. It takes everything in me not to snarl at her despite the fact she is my sister and my Beta.
“Thank you to all of you,” I tell them and get in the back of the car, careful not to jolt Ava too much. She seems so small. So fragile. I close my eyes and listen to her every inhale and heartbeat as my sister opens the door, settles into the driver seat, and starts the car.
36
Ava
If this is what being dead feels like, I’m not mad at it. An earthy, woodsy smell envelops me, and I no longer feel that gaping pit of sadness in the center of my chest. I feel whole. Complete. At utter peace with myself and the world.
Huh, would you look at that? I think I’m in Heaven. At least it feels like it.
