“I love you, Riley. Your sisters—look after them.”
“No! No! Don’t fucking say that!” Riley was yelling while ordering the wolves around him to call for medics, which I already had. “Don’t die on me, Mama! Please!”
“Your sisters, they have no...”
“They have you and me! You’ll be okay!” He snapped at her, cutting her words.
“No, Riley, I felt... the bond break. Leandro is dead. I can’t… without him.” Zahra was crying, but she tried to smile.
“No! Mama! No! Please! I love you, Mommy! I never stopped loving you. Did you hear that? Now, please give me a chance.”
“I’m okay now…” She smiled before she coughed. Blood was oozing out of her mouth.
The twins were a crying mess, but they were not letting go of Zahra’s throat. They were trying to stop the bleeding, but it just kept coming out.
“Mommy, I’m sorry…” Bella kept murmuring in her tears. “I’m sorry.”
“Shhhh, baby, no. Mommy... will always save you... all of you. Let Mommy... go, Dad is waiting. Leandro... please...” She was trying her hardest to speak.
I took Leandro’s lifeless body and gently laid it beside her as Ellie took her mother’s hand and entwined it with her father’s. Bella was still holding her mother’s throat. “Mom, Dad… Please wake up.”
Zahra’s face was smeared with tears and blood, but she still managed to give her children such a warm, loving smile that I couldn’t stop my own tears.
I wished we had gotten the signal earlier. I wished we were nearby.
“Riley… Thank you.” She said those words lovingly to the Alpha before she looked at all her children. “Take care of each other. Mommy loves all of you…”
Those were her last words before her eyes closed.
Riley let out an agonizing howl before clutching his mother’s limp body against his chest. He was rocking her back and forth in his arms.
“Mama, come back, please. I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll be better! I won’t disappoint you again. Just come back! Please! Mom! No! No! No! Not yet!”
The man in front of me, crying in pain, was not the Alpha I knew. It was the same boy I saw years ago, on the terrace of his room, crying to the moon, pleading to the Goddess to bring his mother back.
Chapter 104
NADIA.
Iclutched my chest asRiley’s emotions came surging in. My mate’s pain was so intense that I found myself sobbing for his agony. Laura and Dad came around me, holding me tightly, and my eyes flew to Beta Dominic. His hands were balled into fists, and from the expression on his face, I knew we had a casualty.
“Do we have casualties?” I asked the Beta, and he nodded his head in response.
“You need to tell me who…” I told him, my eyes threatening him not to lie to me or withhold any information.
“Luna…”
“Tell me…” I snarled at him as Laura hugged me from the side and I could feel my eyes dilating. I closed my eyes, trying to control my emotions. I didn’t want to add any more to Riley’s agony, and I didn’t want to worry him about my outburst.
“Zahra and Leandro,” he said in an almost inaudible voice. His gaze was anywhere but mine.
My mouth fell open as Laura’s shriek filled the room. Her body collapsed, but Dad was quick to catch her.
Jenny wrapped her arms around me. My tears were not falling as I looked at the emptiness in front of me. “We need to go there.”
“They’re on their way back here with the bodies.”
My feet moved on their own accord toward the entrance of the packhouse. I knew it would take time before they arrived, and I was still hoping it was a false alarm, that they were wounded but alive.
