Chapter 62 THE HEALER'S DESPERATE MAGIC
ALICIA'S POV
Kai's pain hits me like a knife through the heart.
One moment I am pacing the safe room holding Luna and trying not to lose my mind. The next I am on my knees gasping as silver burns through my chest even though no bullet touched me.
The mate bond. Kai's been shot. Multiple times. He is dying.
"Alicia?" Sarah moves toward me with concern. "What's wrong?"
"Kai." The word comes out strangled. "He's hurt, badly. I can feel him dying through the bond."
"You can't go up there." Sarah blocks the reinforced door. "Ray's orders were clear. You stay hidden with Luna no matter what happens."
"Ray's orders don't matter if my mate is bleeding out!" I thrust Luna into Sarah's arms. "Watch her. Keep her safe. I'll be back."
"Alicia wait!"
But I am already at the door punching in the override code Ray thinks I don't know. The lock disengages with a heavy click. I wrench the door open and run before Sarah can stop me.
The hallway outside is chaos. Wounded wolves being dragged to safety. Warriors running toward the fighting. Blood on every surface. The smell of death thick enough to choke on.
I follow the mate bond like a compass. It pulls me through corridors and up stairs toward where Kai's pain screams the loudest. My bare feet slip on blood slicked floors but I don't slow down.
The library. The bond leads me to the library.
I burst through the splintered doorway and my heart stops. Kai lies in a pool of blood. His human form is riddled with bullet wounds. Logan kneels beside him working frantically but I can see the desperation on his face.
"How bad?" My voice is steadier than I feel.
Logan looks up with surprise and relief warring on his features. "Five silver bullets. Massive blood loss. He's going into shock. I pulled the bullets but the damage is too extensive. He needs hospital level care and we don't have it."
"Then I'll heal him." The words come out certain even though I have never done anything like this before.
"Alicia your power is already depleted from the labour. Healing this kind of trauma could kill you." Logan grabs my arm. "Let me handle this. Go back to Luna."
"Luna is safe with Sarah. Kai is dying." I pull free and kneel beside my mate. "I'm not losing him. Not today. Not like this."
I place my hands on Kai's chest. His skin is cold and clammy. His breathing is shallow and irregular. The mate bond between us flickers like a candle about to go out.
"Stay with me." I close my eyes and reach for the True Luna power. "Kai, I need you to fight. Just a little longer, please."
The power rises slower than before. Logan is right that the birth of Luna drained me. But I push harder and dig deeper and refuse to accept that this is where Kai's story ends.
Silver light floods from my palms into Kai's wounds. I feel the bullets' residual poison burning through his system.
"No." I pour more power into him. "You don't get to die. You survived your pack's massacre for a reason. You found me for a reason. You're Luna's father and she needs you."
The silver light intensifies. Through the bond I push healing energy into every damaged cell. Seal the bullet wounds. Purge the silver poisoning. Restart his failing organs.
Kai's body arches off the floor. His eyes snap open glowing the same silver as mine. For a moment we are connected deeper than the mate bond. I feel everything he has ever felt. His guilt over surviving. His rage at those who murdered his family. His desperate love for me and Luna.
And he feels everything I feel. My fear of failing everyone. My exhaustion from carrying too much responsibility. My fierce determination to protect the family I have built.
"Alicia." His voice is rough but alive. "You're killing yourself."
"Probably." I don't stop the healing. "But you're not dying so it's worth it."
The wounds close, his color returns, and his breathing steadies. The mate bond stops flickering and burns bright and strong again.
Then the power cuts out completely. I collapse forward onto Kai's now healed chest. Every muscle in my body screams. My vision goes grey. I have nothing left to give.
"I told you this would happen." Logan catches me before I hit the floor. "You exhausted yourself, again."
"Is he alive?" I can barely form words.
"Yes. Thanks to you he'll survive." Logan checks Kai's pulse. "But now you're the one in critical condition."
"Worth it." I try to smile but my face won't cooperate. "Get me back to Luna. I need to protect her."
Kai sits up slowly testing his newly healed body. "You saved my life."
"You'd do the same for me." The room is spinning now. "Have done the same actually, multiple times."
"Alicia your lips are turning blue." Logan's voice rises with alarm. "Your body is going into shock from the power drain. I need to get you stabilized."
Before he can move an explosion rocks the building. The floor beneath us cracks. Dust and debris rain from the ceiling.
"What was that?" Kai is on his feet instantly despite just being near death.
Ray's voice echoes through the emergency communication system. "Inner defenses breached! Jake's forces are inside the packhouse! All remaining warriors fall back to final defensive positions!"
My blood turns to ice. Jake is inside. Inside the building where Luna is hidden.
"The safe room." I try to stand and fail. "I have to get back to Luna."
"You can barely move." Logan lifts me easily. "Kai get her to safety. I'll help Ray hold the line."
"No." I grab Logan's shirt. "You don't understand. Jake knows about the safe rooms. He'll go straight there."
The words have barely left my mouth when Sarah's terrified voice comes through the comms. "Code red! Code red! Hostile forces approaching the safe room! We need backup now!"
Luna, my baby girl. Trapped in a room with Jake closing in.
The mate bond with Kai flares as we both feel the same desperate need to protect our daughter. He shifts to wolf form and I climb onto his back despite my exhaustion.
"Go." My hands fist in his fur. "Fast as you can. Get me to Luna."
Kai runs. His newly healed body moves with the speed and grace of a predator in his prime. We tear through hallways littered with bodies. Past desperate fighting. Toward the basement where my daughter waits.
We reach the safe room entrance to find Sarah and four warriors making a last stand against twenty enemy wolves. The reinforced door behind them is dented but still holding.
"Alicia get back!" Sarah shouts. "We'll hold them!"
But even as she speaks three warriors go down. Silver blades finding throats and hearts. Sarah shifts and leaps at the nearest enemy. Her claws rake across his face before another wolf drags her down.
Kai crashes into the fight with me still on his back. His jaws find an enemy throat. I slide off and stumble toward the safe room door.
Behind the enemy wolves I see him. Jake. In his human form. Silver chains in his hands. Walking calmly through the carnage like he has all the time in the world.
"Hello sister." His smile is cruel. "Looking for something?"
"Stay away from my daughter." I plant myself between Jake and the door. "You'll have to go through me."
"That was always the plan." Jake starts wrapping the silver chains around his hands. "Morrison wants you alive but he didn't say you had to be conscious or unbroken."
He moves faster than I expect. The chains whip out and wrap around my wrist. Silver burns through my skin. I scream and try to pull free but he yanks hard and I fall forward.
Kai lunges at Jake but more enemy wolves swarm him. Five. Eight. Ten. They pile on top of him and drag him down through sheer numbers.
Jake looms over me now. Wraps more chains around my other wrist. Around my neck. The silver suppresses my True Luna power and makes it impossible to fight back.
"You're coming with me." Jake pulls me to my feet. "Morrison has been waiting for this moment for decades. Time to fulfill your purpose."
"The safe room is reinforced." I gasp through the pain. "You can't get through that door."
"I don't need to get through it." Jake pulls out a small device. "I just need to make you open it for me."
He presses a button. Electricity surges through the chains. Every nerve in my body lights up. I scream and cannot stop screaming.
"That's the sound I wanted." Jake's voice is satisfied. "Loud enough for your baby to hear. Loud enough to make a mother desperate enough to do anything."
The safe room door opens. Sarah stumbles out with Luna in her arms. "Stop! Please stop hurting her! I'll give you whatever you want!"
Jake's smile widens. "Perfect."
He gestures and two warriors tear Luna from Sarah's arms.