I glance down at her stomach. Our child. Our family. We’re only three months in, but it was supposed to be our happy ending.
“Maybe those dreams are right. We died all those times, we don’t get happy endings, Jarek,” she cries out hysterically. “In all our lives, we never get to live happily.”
“I don’t believe that.”
She lets out a bitter laugh. “Look around us, the world ended, and he’s…he’s gone.”
“But we’re not. He would want us to try, and I don’t believe in those dreams. I won’t. Why should we live such cursed lives over and over?” I try to be firm, try to instill confidence in my words, but she’s lost in her grief.
I let go of her wrists and wipe the tears from her cheeks, only for more to spill over.
“It hurts, Jarek. It hurts so bad.”
“I know, baby. I know. But let’s go and get something to drink and sit down, and it will be better.” I say the words I don’t believe, desperate to reach the omega I love.
She finally nods and, with a backward glance at what was once Mordecai, she follows me, dragging and slow, but she leaves him behind. I leave him behind, and I hate myself for it.
Together. That was our thing. We had to stay together.
I head to my mother’s place. It’s on the outskirts and closest to where we live. We walk for hours; the shops are ransacked, and we find very few people. No one stops to talk.
“Do you think we should have listened to those dreams?” Kaida asks.
“No, they are just dreams,” I say, dismissing them.
She’s holding tight to my hand when she pulls me to a stop.
“What if we could have helped everyone?”
I whirl, furious, hurt, and scared. “I don’t care about anyone else but us, Kaida. We,” I stop the sob, taking a second to compose myself, “shouldhave been together until we grew old. We deserve that. If those dreams are real, don’t we deserve just one lifetime where we get to be happy and—”
Kaida stands on her toes, pressing her lips to mine. I can taste the salt from her tears, hear her sob against my lips. I kiss her back because she is everything, and it’s all falling apart, and I can’t lose her, too.
The sound of something slamming into a car tears us apart. I look up and find an alpha, one who is strong and capable and still very much alive and unhealthy, looking right at us with dead eyes. He looks like fate, like destiny, that fickle bitch, coming to meet us head on.
I don’t have the machete.
Oh, my gods.
“Run, Kaida.”
She shakes her head. “Together.”
“KAIDA! RUN!” I bellow, and then I rush to meet the alpha. Four more pour out of the darkness. The first bite is agony, but worse is seeing Kaida still there, screaming.
She doesn’t see the alpha behind her.
She has no idea of the danger she’s in.
“Kaida, look out!”
She whirls and runs, but she runs the wrong way, straight towards me.
I’m staring at her terrified face when a hand punches through her chest, spraying me with her hot blood.
I scream so loud my vocal cords shred.
Another bite sinks into my hand, ripping half my palm off, but I fling the alpha away from me, ignoring the chunk of flesh that has just been stolen. I catch Kaida as she falls, holding her to me.
