“She’s dyingnow,” Noah said flatly. “Your cubs are about to be orphans. So get your shit together and fix what you broke. You can hate yourself later.”
He was right. I could fall apart after she was safe. After my children weren’t facing life without their mother because of my choices.
I pushed back into the room and carefully gathered Lina into my arms. She burned with fever, her heartbeat erratic and too fast. The children pressed close immediately, the girl petting their mother’s hair while the boy held her limp hand.
“Is she going to be okay?” my daughter asked, those dark eyes so much like her mother’s it hurt to look at them.
“I’m going to help her,” I managed, arranging Lina more securely against my chest. Her head fell back, exposing the column of her throat, and my wolf whined at how vulnerable she looked.
The boy suddenly tilted his head, studying me with unsettling intensity. “Why do you smell like family?”
The innocent question shattered what was left of my control. Before I could answer, the girl added with heartbreaking hope, “Like Daddy?”
“Save her first,” Noah interrupted from the doorway. “Family reunion later. You know what has to be done.”
An Alpha’s bite to counteract the poison. It was the only way, had always been the only way with humans. But this one... It would also be a claiming bite. We were mates, it would immediately restore the broken bond I’d left to die. Fuck.
My hands shook as I brushed Lina’s hair back from her neck. What if it didn’t work? What if the mate bite killed her instead of saving her? She was human, already weakened to the point of death.
“She can’t consent,” I said desperately, looking for any excuse to delay what might be her final moments. “She’s unconscious-”
“She’ll be dead!” Noah roared, making both children flinch and start crying harder. “Your mate will be dead, and thesebabies will grow up without their mother! Stop being a fucking coward!”
He was right. I was being a coward, just like I’d been five years ago. Looking for excuses, finding reasons to walk away, too scared to take the risk.
“Please help Mama,” my son whispered, still clutching her hand. “Please.”
“We need her,” my daughter added, tears dripping onto Lina’s fevered skin.
There was no choice. There had never been a choice. From the moment I’d scented her in that coffee shop, our path had been set. I’d just been too much of a coward to walk it.
I looked at my children’s tears, at their desperate hope that a stranger could save their mother, and knew what I had to do. My canines extended, sharp enough to pierce skin and deliver the bite that would either save her or finish what the rogue had started.
“I’m sorry, Lina,” I whispered against her throat, knowing she couldn’t hear me. “For all of it. Please... please survive this.”
Then I bit down, tasting copper and salvation and the future I’d thrown away.
20
— • —
Knox
My canines pierced Lina’s neck gently, finding the exact spot where I’d bitten her during our night together. But this time I bit deeper, with purpose beyond pleasure. The moment my teeth broke skin, the mate bond surged back with the force of a lightning strike.
The connection I’d spent years trying to forget slammed into me at full intensity. No longer the dying thread I’d been nursing, but alive and burning between us. I pushed my Alpha power into the wound, chasing the black poison through her veins with single-minded determination.
She was mine to protect. Mine to save. Mine to lose if I failed.
The rogue’s poison fought back, clinging to her bloodstream with malicious intent, but I was stronger, angrier, more desperate. I flooded her system with healing energy, burningaway the infection that was trying to steal her from me, from our cubs.
“Is he hurting Mama?” the little girl whispered from somewhere to my left, her small voice wavering between fear and hope.
“No,” the boy answered with quiet awe. “He’s making the bad stuff go away. See? Mama’s cheeks are pink.”
He was right. The deathly gray pallor was fading, replaced by healthy color. Her lips went from blue-tinged to soft pink. The black veins retreated, chased away by the claiming bite that should have happened years ago.
The mate bond blazed between us, no longer weak but a rope of golden fire connecting our souls. Every heartbeat synchronized. Every breath matched. I could feel her fighting to return, her spirit reaching for mine even in unconsciousness.
