Chapter 236 The Ultimate Sacrifice

Chapter 236 The Ultimate Sacrifice
Lily's POV

Time fractured into crystalline moments. Gabriel's powerful frame launched through the air between us, his arms outstretched to shield me from the killing blow. The silver blade that should have pierced my heart instead found his chest with a wet, terrible sound—metal parting flesh, slicing through muscle and bone like it was nothing.

The mate bond exploded with agony.

Gabriel's pain hit me like a physical blow, so intense I doubled over in the car seat. Blood—so much blood—sprayed across the windshield in a crimson arc. Some of it spattered against my face, and I felt warm droplets hit the soul flower tucked behind my left ear, the delicate white petals instantly stained crimson. I felt his life force hemorrhaging through our connection, felt the exact moment the silver blade found his heart.

"I love you..." Gabriel's voice was a whisper, barely audible over Vince's triumphant roar, but it echoed through our bond with devastating clarity. His eyes found mine even as he collapsed, even as the light began to fade from them.

"GABRIEL!" My scream tore from my throat raw and broken.

The mate bond began to fray.

It wasn't an instant snap like I'd expected. Instead, the connection between us started unraveling like a rope being cut strand by strand. Each severing thread sent waves of agony through my soul. My wolf inside me began to howl—a sound so broken and desperate it made my ribs ache.

This pain... I knew this pain.

It was the same soul-deep agony I'd felt when Blake rejected me, when my wolf had curled up inside me wounded and defeated. But this was a thousand times worse. Blake had rejected me, but Gabriel was dying. The mate bond wasn't being severed by choice—it was being ripped away by death itself.

My wolf clawed frantically inside me, trying to reach Gabriel through our fading connection, trying to pour her life force into him. But there was nothing she could do. Nothing either of us could do.

Gabriel Wildson, Alpha of the Moonfall Pack, my mate, the father of my unborn child—dying. His body lay crumpled on the forest floor, silver blade protruding from his chest like an accusation. Blood pooled beneath him, staining the earth dark.

The last strand of our mate bond snapped.

The sensation was like having my soul ripped in half. One moment I felt the fading echo of Gabriel's presence—his strength, his love, his fierce protectiveness flowing between us—and the next there was nothing. Absolute void where my other half used to be. The emptiness hit me like a physical force, driving the breath from my lungs.

My wolf collapsed inside me, her anguished howls turning into broken whimpers. The familiar ache of rejection spread through my body, but magnified beyond anything I'd ever experienced. This wasn't just rejection—this was death. This was the complete destruction of everything I was.

The soul flower behind my left ear, now stained with Gabriel's blood, felt like it was wilting against my skin.

"YES!" Vince's voice cracked with manic glee. "FINALLY! Gabriel Wildson is dead!" He threw his head back and howled—a sound of pure, vindictive joy that made my skin crawl.

Silas stood over Gabriel's body, breathing hard, his diplomatic mask completely shattered to reveal the cold killer beneath.

The baby.

Through my devastation, I felt movement in my womb—frantic, distressed. My child could sense my anguish, could feel the severing of the bond that connected us all. I pressed both hands to my stomach, tears streaming down my face.

"Mama's here," I whispered brokenly. "Mama's still here."

"Touching," Silas sneered, his attention turning to me. "But this reunion needs to be cut short."

He stalked toward the car, Vince close behind him, both men's faces flushed with the euphoria of victory. I tried to scramble away, tried to reach for the door handle, but my body felt disconnected, numbed by grief and shock.

"No, no, no..." I kept whispering, my gaze locked on Gabriel's motionless form. This couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening.

Silas yanked the car door open with savage force, his blood-stained hands reaching for me. "Time to go, Luna. You have an appointment with destiny."

"Don't touch me!" I lashed out with my nails, catching him across the cheek and drawing blood. But grief had sapped my strength. Vince grabbed my other arm, and together they hauled me from the car despite my struggles.

"Let me go! Let me say goodbye!" I fought against their grip, desperate to reach Gabriel one more time. "Please, just let me—"

Vince's hand struck my cheek with brutal force, snapping my head to the side and filling my vision with stars. "Shut up! Your mate is dead, and you're coming with us."

The blow stunned me enough for them to drag me toward Gabriel's abandoned car—the very vehicle we'd arrived in. The irony wasn't lost on me even through my haze of pain and desperation.

In the distance, I could hear engines approaching. Ethan. Lucas. The cavalry was coming, but they were too late.

Gabriel was already gone.

Silas shoved me into the backseat while Vince climbed behind the wheel. The engine roared to life, and we peeled away from the clearing, leaving Gabriel's body behind like discarded trash.

"No!" I pressed my face against the rear window, watching Gabriel's still form grow smaller and smaller until the trees swallowed him from view. The soul flower behind my left ear, still damp with his blood, felt like it was burning against my skin—a crimson-marked reminder of everything I'd lost.

My desperate screams echoed uselessly in the speeding car. Silas sat beside me, one bloodied hand gripping my wrist hard enough to bruise, his other hand holding that terrible silver blade against my throat.

"One sound," he hissed in my ear, "and you join your mate in the afterlife. Your choice."

I fell silent, but inside I was screaming.

The mate bond was gone. Gabriel was dead. And I was being taken God-knows-where by the men who had murdered him. Through the car's rear window, I saw headlights in the distance—Ethan's team arriving at the scene.

Too late. They were all too late.

Vince navigated the forest roads with determined speed, but I could see the tension in his shoulders. He knew these roads from his time infiltrating Moonfall, but not well enough to be confident. Gabriel's car gave us a crucial advantage—at any checkpoints, we would appear to be the Alpha returning home rather than fugitives fleeing justice.

"Border checkpoint ahead," Vince called back to Silas tensely.

"Remember," Silas's grip tightened on my wrist as he positioned the blade more visibly against my throat, "one word from her, and she dies. Make sure they see that."

The checkpoint appeared ahead—two guards in Moonfall uniforms who straightened to attention when they saw the approaching Alpha vehicle. As we slowed to a stop, I caught sight of their faces through the windshield. Young wolves, probably newer pack members who didn't know Gabriel personally.

"Good afternoon, Alpha," one of them called out respectfully as he approached the driver's side window.