Scrambling up, my hands shook as I pulled Nick into my arms. His body was still convulsing violently, muscles seizing, breath stuttering against me.
“Nick! Nick!” I tapped his cheek. “Stay with me?—”
The only answer was the tremor of his body and the sick green glow rising through his veins. The terrifying thought that I might have already lost him hit me.
“No. No. NO!”
Sharp, cracking, wild, the scream tore out of me before I even knew I’d made the sound. I could hear the others fightingthe doctor behind me, the sound of bodies slamming, bones breaking, but it all blurred into the background. The world shrank until all that existed was the man collapsed in my arms.
My hands flew over him in frantic, useless movements, searching for the puncture as if I could somehow steal the venom from his veins if I were just fast enough.
I knew it wouldn’t work, but I didn’t care. I had to try.
He saved me.
Nick saved me.
My fingers trembled, and his eyelids cracked open. Unnatural neon green eyes blinked up at me. His breathing stuttered into pained hisses, then his hand found mine, weak, shaking, fighting like hell to lift.
“I’m a wolf, Nova…” His voice broke, and my heart stopped. Did he just admit that he was a werewolf?! The man who didn't want to be anything but human finally admitted the truth!
“A-and I f-found my mate. You.”
My world tilted.
Those words, the words I’d dreamt of, feared, and wanted from him were spoken into existence, but instead of filling me with joy, they split me open. They carved their way into my ribs until my heart felt flayed and exposed.
No. No, please. Not now. Not like this.
I couldn’t lose him, not when he finally saw me. Not when he finally accepted himself. Not when he finally acceptedus.
His eyes slipped shut as a groan of pure agony ripped out of him. Panic detonated in my chest. I looked up and saw Zeth, Conrad, Deslen, staring with terrified eyes.
I didn’t care about fate. I didn’t care about “forever.” Love, rejection, staying, leaving, none of it mattered.
I just had to keep him alive. He had tolive.
My gaze snapped to Zeth’s dark cargo pocket where a thin, familiar outline was sticking out.
The antidote.
“Zeth!” I choked, my arm shooting out. “Give me the antidote!Now!”
His turquoise eyes locked on mine. For half a heartbeat, I saw the hesitation, the conflict. His lips pressed together, gaze flicking to Nick.
“Please—” My voice fractured into splinters. “Please.”
I didn’t need to say the rest. My eyes said everything.
I can’t lose him. He’s mine. He’s my mate. I won’t survive losing him. Not like this.
Zeth exhaled, and the syringe was suddenly in my hand.
I tore the cap off with my teeth, spit it on the floor, and drove the needle into Nick’s chest, shoving the antidote into him as fast as I could.
His eyes and mouth flew open.
His back arched off the ground as a scream ripped out of him, the raw, guttural sound piercing the air. The bond between ussnapped tight, vibrating like a wire about to break, but I refused to let it go.
