“The one and only.” She leaned into Rowan’s back, bringing her face next to mine. “I killed your best friend and now I’ve killed your mate.” She pulled back and looked around maniacally. “The humans will be here in less than a minute. This entire pack is dead. I can’t wait to watch.”
I felt my lips tremble as I clutched Rowan to my chest. The wet rattling in his lungs told me enough. I ignored the woman in my hand for a second as I looked down at his face pressed against me. “You’re going to be fine.” I rubbed his back; his eyes flicked up, and all I saw was his acceptance. He was okay with this.
He smiled, blood coating his teeth. “I saved you.” He laughed and then grimaced. “I can die a happy man knowing I saved you.” He coughed. “You have been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I would have waited forever for you. And if this life wasn’t long enough, I would have found you in the next.” He closed his eyes as he slid to his knees. “I will always find you in the next life.”
I clutched him to my chest. “Baby?” I choked. “Baby?”
Aurora laughed. “He saved nothing.” She tried to pull away, but I tightened my hand without looking at her. My eyes searched Rowan’s face, and my stomach dropped. His breathingwas slower. My chest was soaked with something I don’t want to think about, but I already knew it was his blood coating my skin.
I turned to Aurora, and her smile made me growl. “That spell I just finished.” Her eyes snapped to mine. “The one you tried so desperately to stop. It will shield ALL of the packs across the country, not just this one. The humans won’t be able to get on our pack lands, never mind see us. You failed.” I screamed at her, tightening my hand on her throat, causing her to struggle for air. “You failed.”
She choked, hands prying at my fingers, and then laughed. The madness in her eyes came rushing back. “You can only save the packs, but your mate…your mate is dead.” She hit his back, and Rowan barely moved, let alone reacted. “So I guess I didn’t completely fail.” She grinned, and I lost it.
A spell popped into my mind from the burning depths of my mind, a spell so dark I never thought I would speak it. Both my wolves were crying, howling at the moon for their lost mate, as I considered it.Do it.Nix’s voice was broken.She deserves it.
Megan nodded.She deserves every fucking moment of it, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
“Cort a dev kuva.” I gritted out each word, and Aurora’s eyes grew wide. She knew the spell.
“No.” She shook her head. “You can’t.” She clawed at my hand, nails scratching at my skin, but I shifted my hand into my claws and dug in. She cried out, and I smiled.
“Kintashen.” I screamed the last word of the spell, then I pushed all the power that Rowan had gifted me into it. “May the goddess have more mercy on your wolf's soul than I have on yours.”
Aurora’s eyes bulged. Then her skin rippled. Her body started to expand, ever so slightly, as every molecule in her body exploded. The spell, designed for its horrendous pain, took over. Every atom that made up her body grew bigger and bigger,swelling with the power I fed it. Her skin rippled with energy and blood.
And then the screams started.
Aurora’s body swelled, like it was a sponge sucking in water, but in reality it was each of her cells sucking up my power. And it was excruciating. Atoms grew to the size of sand grains, then poppy seeds. Her body was ripping itself apart down to the molecule, and there was no way to stop it. She was kept alive by the spell until her entire body ripped itself to shreds from the inside out, and then her skin gave way. Her blood flew through the sky and dappled everything in the way. What was less than a minute for me was years to her, the spell designed to trap her soul inside the pain for her to relive until the retribution was complete.
Aurora was mist, but her screams would haunt everyone in the clearing.
Rowan’s body crumpled, and I followed him to the ground, my hands fluttering around him. I didn’t know how to help him, how to save him. “Goddess, please help me.” I begged as I stared at my mate. “You’re going to be fine.” I wiped the speckles off his face as I laid him down. I grabbed his face in my hands and tried my best to hold him without causing him pain. “You are going to be okay. You are going to be healed, and then we are going to have our son.” I murmured again as footsteps flew towards us, and I heard a choked sob fly from someone’s lips.
But Rowan just smiled as he lifted his hand to my stomach, my hand covering his, pressing it against our pup. “Take care of your momma, pup.” He coughed another mouthful of blood up; a trickle fell down his cheek. “She is going to need your strength.” His eyes moved to mine. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to see him grow up.” I sobbed as I shook my head.
“No.” I shook my head again. “You are going to be fine. He needs his father.” My hand grabbed her cheek, and I watchedas his eyes shifted to Erubus’s. “Please.” I begged him. I begged the gods, anyone that would listen. “You aren’t allowed to die on me.” I felt my lips tremble as I leaned over him, pressing my face against his. “We are supposed to grow old together.” I looked up as someone sank next to us. My red-rimmed eyes met my mom’s, and I shook my head. “Mom. Help us.”
She stared at me, and her eyes filled with pain. “I can’t.” She lifted her hand to touch me, but I jerked away and screamed.
“Daddy.” I turned to my dad. “Please. Help me save him.” Tears carved rivers down my face.
“Kiss me.” Rowan’s voice pulled me back to him. He tried to lift his hand to my face, but it fell. I shook my head as I wept. “Please.” I felt a choking sob break through my lips as I bent over and kissed his lips. I kissed him with all the love I could muster. “Tell…me…you…love…me.” He smiled again as my tears fell onto his face. “I want it to be…the last thing I hear.” I watched as the light started to fade from his eyes.
“I love you.” I choked out. And then the light dimmed, and I felt his soul take flight. The bridge between us grew thin. “Rowan.” I shook him. But there was nothing. His eyes stayed on me, but there was no spark, no light. “Rowan, please.” I felt arms slide around me to pull me away, but I shook them off. I screamed. I screamed my pain, and all of my love ripped from me in one final roar. “RRROOOOWWWAAAANNNN.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Icollapsed against his chest. A chest that no longer rose. “Baby.” My mother’s choked voice called to me, but I shook my head. I felt her hands tug at me, and I shook her off again.
“NO!” I screamed. I sat back and stared at everyone staring at me with pity in their eyes. “No.” I shook my head. My chin trembled as I threaded my fingers through Rowan’s. “How is this fair?” I slapped the tears on my face away. I turned to my father. “I did everything I was supposed to do. Everything you made me do.” I felt anger build in my chest. “I listened to you while you puppeteered from behind the scenes.”
“Ladybug.” He tried to step close, but I glared at him.
“I wasted three years with my fucking mate because of you.” A sob broke free. I felt like I was choking on all the pain. “Three years.” I turned back to Rowan. My hand cupped his cheek.“Goddess, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have listened.” I collapsed against his chest again. “I shouldn’t have listened to you.”
“Baby.” My mother’s hand trailed up my back. But I could hear the reproach in her voice, and that pissed me off more.
I turned on her. “You think I’m being mean. That he doesn’t deserve my anger?” I could see it in her eyes that I was right. “You still have a mate that you get to love. Get to have more pups if that’s what you choose. Yes, I know these last twenty years have been horrible, but he is still alive. Still here. You don’t get to condemn me because I’m angry that my fucking mate died.” She reeled back as if I had hit her. “I gave everything for this fucking world. I lost my first pup. I fucking died, only to come back and lose everything.” My hand clutched at my stomach. “You don’t get to be mad. You don’t get to look at me like that. Not when I spent years sacrificing everything for this moment.” I turned away from her.
