Chapter 22 The Sound of a Breaking Heart
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Sound of a Breaking Heart
XAVIER'S POV
"Stay with me! Avrielle, damn it, look at me!"
My voice didn't sound like mine. It was a jagged, hollowed-out wreck of a sound.
I was kneeling in the dirt and shattered glass of the roadside, my hands—the hands that had held her with such reverence only hours ago—now drenched in the terrifying heat of her blood.
The vampires and the rogue wolves were gone, or dead, or scattered. I didn't care. I didn't even remember killing the last one.
All that existed was the woman in my arms and the sickeningly fast rhythm of her fading pulse against my palm. The silver-tipped blade had carved through her side, and even though I had ripped the attacker apart, the poison of the metal was already doing its work, turning her blood dark and sluggish.
"Thorne, move!" I roared internally, but my wolf was silent, whimpering in the back of my mind, his golden eyes clouded with a grief that threatened to drown us both.
I gathered her into my arms, her head lolling against my shoulder. She felt so light...too light, like a bird with broken wings.
I scrambled toward the wreckage of the SUV, trying to turn it on...to make it work but the engine was a twisted mess of smoking steel.
"Help!" I screamed into the empty forest, the roar of an Alpha reduced to a plea. "Someone!"
But there was no one. Just the wind and the smell of copper.
Without thinking, I began to run.
I didn't shift.
A wolf couldn't hold her the way she needed to be held—protected, cradled, kept warm. I ran on human legs powered by a desperation that defied biology. Every step I took felt like I was stepping on glass, my lungs burning, my heart screaming.
"You are not leaving me," I hissed, the tears finally breaking free and streaming down my face. I didn't wipe them away. I let them fall onto her pale forehead.
"Do you hear me, Avrielle? I waited five years. Five years of watching you from the shadows, five years of wanting to tear the world down just to see you smile. You do not have the fucking right to think you can leave me. You are not leaving me!"
I could feel my hands began to shiver as fear clouded my heart and mind.
I could feel the bond—the golden thread I had finally anchored into her soul last night—fraying. It was thinning, vibrating with a high-pitched, mournful frequency that told me her spirit was drifting.
"Don't you dare let go," I sobbed, my voice breaking. "I'll give it all back. The pack, the title, the manor—I’ll be a nobody if it means you breathe. Just breathe, Avrielle. Please." I wasn't bluffing. If I lost Avrielle, they weren't worth keeping either. I wouldn't even function properly to lead.
Soon, I reached the outskirts of the North Pack territory, my legs trembling, my vision blurring with exhaustion. I could feel the pack members gaze on me but I didn't care.
I could feel hope rekindling in my chest as I saw the lights of the manor in the distance.
I saw movement near the gates—guards shifting, torches flickering. They must have seen the blood-soaked Alpha running toward them like a madman.
I dashed in, slamming through the door my eyes landing just on the person I wanted to see. Kaiden
"KAIDEN!" I bellowed, the sound tearing my vocal cords. "GET THE MEDICS! KAIDEN!"
Kaiden appeared at the front, his face turning ashen as he realized what I was carrying.
"Xavier? What happened? Is she..."
"Get the damn doctor!" I crashed to my knees at the entrance, my strength finally failing me.
Kaiden immediately stepped back, he's head thrown sideways and I knew he was mindlinking the doctor.
"He will be hear shortly" He muttered, gently taking Avrielle from my grip and laying her on the couch. Even if at first I didn't want to let go, I felt like if I released her, she would simply vanish into the air.
"You marked her?" Kaiden asked giving me a skeptical look.
"She’s marked, Kaiden. She’s my mate. If she dies, I’m going with her. Do you understand me? Save her!"
Almost immediately the doctor came rushing in with and immediately the nurse carrier get off the couch and headed into the manor emergency ward.
I followed behind closely but got shut out at the door.
I wanted to tell at them not to stop me but I wouldn't want to disturb her treatment.
I watched them carry her inside, the trail of her blood marking the white marble steps.
I stayed there on the gravel, my hands still red, my chest heaving. I looked up at the moon—the same moon that had blessed us last night—and I let out a howl.
It wasn't a call to the pack. It was a raw, bleeding scream of a man who had finally found his soul, only to watch it bleed out in his hands.
"If she dies," I whispered to the silent stars, "there won't be enough graves in the world for what I'll do to this earth."