Chapter 162 Don’t Leave Me Now

Chapter 162 Don’t Leave Me Now
Selene’s POV

Lucian’s voice gave me the strength to keep moving when every muscle in my body was begging me to stop.

We had spent the entire night fighting the ocean, and exhaustion had settled deep into my bones. My arms felt heavy from swimming, my body was cold, and even breathing required effort. Still, when Lucian told me that we would reach the island soon, I forced myself to keep going.

Just a little longer.

That was all I needed.

Once we reached the island, we could finally leave this endless water behind and rest properly. We could find somewhere safe, check our remaining supplies and wait for Alaric to receive the distress signal from my necklace.

The thought gave me renewed strength.

With every stroke, the island became clearer. What had once looked like nothing more than a dark shape on the horizon was finally beginning to resemble solid land.

Relief slowly replaced the tension in my chest.

We were almost there.

After surviving the plane disaster, jumping thousands of feet through the sky and spending the entire night in the ocean, it finally felt as though our nightmare might be coming to an end.

Then a huge wave suddenly rose in front of us.

My eyes widened.

Before either of us could react, it crashed over us with tremendous force.

The water swept me backward.

I struggled against it, kicking hard until I reached the surface again. Lucian appeared nearby, and I immediately swam closer to him.

Something felt wrong.

I looked around.

The sea had been calm only moments earlier.

“Lucian, there’s no wind around here. Where did that wave come from?”

Lucian did not answer immediately.

His entire expression changed.

His eyes fixed on something behind me, and his face turned cold and serious.

“Selene, get back now!”

“What?”

The urgency in his voice made my heart jump.

I followed his gaze.

At first, I saw only the surface of the ocean. Then something dark moved beneath the water.

It was coming toward us.

Fast.

My breath caught.

That thing must have caused the wave.

For one horrifying second, only one thought entered my mind.

A shark.

My stomach dropped.

Seriously?

After everything we had survived, was this how our luck was going to end?

We had escaped a crashing plane only to be attacked by something in the middle of the ocean.

At this rate, Lucian and I might truly meet our end at sea.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to see through the moving water.

The creature came closer.

Then confusion replaced some of my fear.

It did not look like a shark.

In fact, I had never seen anything like it before.

It was an enormous fish, but I could not identify its kind or tell whether it normally attacked werewolves. Judging by the way it was approaching us, however, I did not want to wait until it reached us to find out.

“Lucian, what kind of fish is that?”

I could not look away from the dark shape.

My heart was beating so hard that it felt lodged in my throat.

Lucian frowned.

“I don’t know.”

That answer frightened me even more.

Lucian reached into his backpack and pulled out a blade. Without wasting time, he cut the rope connecting our life jackets.

“Selene, you need to go now. Swim over there as fast as you can!”

I immediately understood what he intended to do.

He wanted me to swim toward the island while he stayed behind and faced the creature alone.

Absolutely not.

“No. We’ll face this together.”

I had just promised this man that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I was not going to swim away and leave him behind the first time danger appeared.

Lucian did not have time to argue.

The creature was already upon us.

He shifted.

His powerful white wolf appeared in the water and immediately positioned himself between the creature and me.

Then the giant fish attacked.

It lunged toward us with frightening speed.

Lucian met it head-on.

His wolf fought with teeth and claws, twisting through the water as he tried to keep the creature away from me. But the ocean worked against him. On land, his wolf possessed frightening speed and strength. In deep water, every movement was slowed.

The fish had the advantage.

I could not stand there and watch.

“Frieda!”

I surrendered control without hesitation.

Frieda surged forward, and within seconds, my wolf joined Lucian in the fight.

Together, we attacked.

The water around us became a violent struggle of claws, teeth and powerful bodies. The creature fought fiercely, but neither Frieda nor Lucian backed away.

We tore at it whenever we found an opening.

It attacked again.

Lucian blocked it.

Frieda struck from the other side.

The ocean around us gradually turned crimson.

Blood spread through the water until I could no longer tell which wounds belonged to the creature and which belonged to us.

The battle seemed endless.

Then, finally, the giant fish stopped fighting.

Its body went still.

For several seconds, neither Frieda nor Lucian moved toward it.

We waited.

Nothing happened.

It was dead.

Both wolves were panting heavily from exhaustion.

Once we were certain the creature would not attack again, Lucian and I shifted back into our human forms.

My chest rose and fell as I struggled to recover my breath.

I stared at the lifeless creature floating nearby and shuddered.

“Lucian, it’s dead…”

There was no answer.

I turned toward him.

Lucian was not moving properly either.

My heart skipped a beat.

“Lucian?”

I immediately swam toward him.

The instant I reached him, fear gripped me.

His face was covered in blood.

“Lucian, are you okay?”

My voice trembled.

There was so much blood.

How badly had the creature hurt him?

An unfamiliar pain spread through my chest and seemed to swallow everything else.

Lucian had done it again.

Even in the middle of the ocean, exhausted after swimming through the night, his first instinct had been to put himself between danger and me.

“Lucian!”

“I’m fine,” he finally gasped.

His voice was weak, but hearing it was enough to make relief rush through me.

He was conscious.

He was alive.

That was all that mattered.

“But you’re covered in blood.”

I wrapped my arms around him, afraid that if I loosened my grip, the ocean might take him away from me.

Lucian managed a faint smile.

“That’s the fish’s blood. It splattered on my face.” His voice softened. “Sele, I’m really happy you’re so concerned about me.”

I glared at him.

How could he still tease me now?

“Who cares that much about you? Anyway, let me help you clean the blood.”

I used the seawater to wash the blood from his face.

As the red stains disappeared, however, I noticed something that frightened me far more.

Lucian’s face was unusually pale.

Too pale.

My gaze dropped.

His arm was bleeding.

That was not the creature’s blood.

“What’s wrong with your arm? That doesn’t look like fish blood.”

Dread settled heavily inside me.

My eyes began to sting.

Lucian shook his head.

“It’s nothing. We need to go now. We’re not safe here.”

“Let me take a look.”

This time, I refused to let him dismiss me.

I moved closer and checked his arm.

My stomach tightened.

The wound Hannah had given him several days ago had reopened.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

His reaction when I accidentally touched his arm earlier.

His refusal to drink the water.

The strain I had noticed while we were swimming.

He had been hiding this from me.

Worse, the reopened wound was not his only injury. The fight with the giant fish had left several fresh injuries across his body.

Lucian had killed the creature, but he had paid for it.

His face was growing paler by the second.

I reached up and placed my hand against his forehead.

The heat shocked me.

His skin felt almost hot enough to burn my palm.

“Lucian…”

Fear tightened my throat.

The wound was inflamed.

After being reopened and soaked in seawater for so long, his condition was worsening.

If he remained in the ocean, the situation would only become more dangerous.

“We need to hurry to the island.”

I forced myself to remain calm.

Panicking would not help him.

We needed land.

I needed to get him out of the seawater and treat his injuries properly. Once we reached the island, I could clean the wounds and bandage them.

“Lucian, hang in there.”

I could already feel his condition declining.

His pale lips pressed together, and beads of sweat formed across his forehead despite the surrounding water.

“Sele…” he gasped. “I’m sorry for making you worry.”

My heart tightened painfully.

This foolish man.

He had known something was wrong with his arm.

He had hidden the pain because he did not want me to worry.

Then, despite his injury, he had fought that creature to protect me.

He had used too much of his remaining strength.

Now his body was paying the price.

I would not allow him to sink here.

I wrapped one arm firmly around Lucian, keeping his body close to mine. With my other hand, I grabbed our life jackets.

Then I turned toward the island.

It was close.

Closer than before.

We could make it.

We had to.

I began swimming with everything I had left.

Each stroke pulled us toward land.

My muscles burned from exhaustion, but I ignored the pain.

Lucian needed me now.

He had been my strength when I was terrified of jumping from the plane. He had carried me through the ocean on his wolf’s back. He had protected me from the creature.

Now it was my turn.

But the longer we swam, the heavier Lucian became against me.

His movements weakened.

“Lucian, how are you feeling?”

No answer.

My heart began pounding harder.

“Lucian?”

Still nothing.

His body was becoming frighteningly still.

I stopped for a second and looked at him.

His eyes were barely open.

Panic surged through me.

I quickly shook his arm.

“Lucian, wake up! Don’t lose consciousness now!”

We were so close.

He could not give up here.

Not after everything.

Not after I had finally told him how I felt.

Lucian’s eyelids moved.

He seemed to fight against the darkness pulling at him, gathering whatever little strength remained in his body.

Finally, his lips parted.

“Sele…” His voice was so faint that I had to lean closer to hear him. “I’m sorry. I may… may not be able to protect you anymore.”