203
203
Leo's POV
The hospital doors slam against the walls as I burst through them, Lina's unconscious form cradled against my chest. Her breathing is so shallow I can barely detect it, and her skin has taken on an alarming pallor that makes my wolf howl in distress.
"I need help!" I roar, my Alpha voice echoing through the emergency room corridors. "NOW!"
Medical staff scatter like startled birds before my fury, but within seconds they're mobilizing with practiced efficiency. Dr. Rebecca Hayes, our pack's head physician, appears at my side as I lay Lina on the stretcher they've wheeled over.
"What happened to her?" Dr. Hayes asks, her hands already moving over Lina's still form, checking vitals and assessing her condition.
"She used her magic to save someone else," I say, my voice cracking despite my efforts to maintain control. "Elena said she linked her soul to another person's and nearly killed herself in the process."
Dr. Hayes's face goes pale. "Soul magic? Dear goddess, Leo. Get her into trauma room one immediately," she calls to her team. "I want IV lines established, cardiac monitoring, and contact Dr. Williams from the supernatural medicine department. We're going to need specialized equipment."
As they wheel Lina away, I try to follow, but a nurse blocks my path. "Sir, you'll have to wait in the—"
"NO." The word comes out as a growl that makes windows rattle. My Alpha authority floods the space around us, and every werewolf in the vicinity instinctively submits. "I'm not leaving her side. Not for one fucking second."
Dr. Hayes looks back at me, recognizing the dangerous edge in my voice. "Let him stay," she tells the nurse. "But Leo, you have to let us work. Don't interfere."
I nod curtly and follow them into the trauma room, positioning myself where I can see Lina's face while staying out of the medical team's way. The moment I take her hand in mine, our bond flares to life, but instead of the usual warmth and strength I feel from her, there's only a faint, flickering connection – like trying to hold onto smoke.
Come back to me, I plead silently, running my thumb over her knuckles. Please, Lina. You can't leave me now.
But even as I hold her hand, I can feel her heartbeat growing weaker, more irregular. The machines they've hooked her up to begin beeping in increasingly urgent patterns, and I watch the numbers on the monitors drop steadily lower.
Dr. Hayes works frantically, injecting various medications into Lina's IV line while barking orders to her team. "Her magical reserves are completely depleted," she explains without looking up. "It's like she's burned out every supernatural circuit in her body. I've never seen anything this severe."
"Can you fix it?" I demand, though I already know from her expression that the answer isn't what I want to hear.
"I don't know," she admits. "This isn't just physical exhaustion, Leo. She's damaged something fundamental about her magical nature. Without her supernatural healing abilities, her body is shutting down."
No. The word reverberates through my mind like a death knell. This can't be happening. Not again.
As the medical team continues their desperate work, my thoughts drift back to the facility, to those final moments of our battle with Paul's forces. The memory plays out in perfect, agonizing detail.
---
I can still feel Paul's claws raking across my chest as we grapple on the concrete floor, both of us fighting with the desperation of cornered animals. Shadow has emerged fully within me, lending me strength and speed that matches Paul's magically enhanced abilities.
"You think you've won?" Paul snarls as I pin him against a support beam. "Even if you kill me, you'll never truly have her. She'll always be the Moon Wolf first, your mate second."
"You're wrong," I growl back, driving my claws deep into his chest. "She chose me. She chose us. Something you'll never understand."
Paul's eyes go wide with fury and madness. "I'll make you understand what loss feels like," he gasps, blood frothing at his lips. "Just like I made your parents understand before I tore their throats out."
Something inside me snaps completely at those words. The careful control I've maintained throughout this fight disappears in an instant, replaced by a cold, consuming rage that's been building for fifteen years.
"You want to know about loss?" I whisper, my voice deadly quiet. "Let me show you."
What happens next isn't a fight – it's an execution. I don't just kill Paul MacKenzie; I obliterate him. Every strike is for my father's gentle wisdom, torn away in a single night of violence. Every claw mark is for my mother's loving warmth, extinguished by this monster's obsession. Every broken bone is for the childhood that was stolen from me, the pack members I couldn't protect, the nightmares that have haunted me for over a decade.
By the time Shadow finally pulls back, satisfied with our vengeance, Paul is nothing but a broken corpse on the blood-soaked concrete. The magical enhancements Morgana had given him are already breaking down, his body literally dissolving as the unstable magic consumes what's left of his flesh.
"It's done," Shadow rumbles within my consciousness. "The one who took our family is no more."
As the red haze of fury finally clears from my vision, I remember exactly where Lina and Elena had gone – back to Elena's clinic to try to save Kayla, who had been caught by Paul's poisoned claws. The same claws that had been designed to kill supernatural beings slowly and painfully.
"Fuck," I breathe, realizing how long I've been consumed by my need for revenge. How long I've left Lina to handle this crisis without me.
I shift into my wolf form and race through the forest toward Elena's clinic, my paws pounding against the earth with desperate urgency. Every second that passes feels like a lifetime, every heartbeat echoes with a single, terrifying truth: I abandoned my mate when she needed me most.
When I burst through the clinic doors, the scene that greets me is my worst nightmare come to life. Lina is collapsed on the floor beside an examination table where Kayla lies breathing but unconscious. Elena is crouched over Lina, her hands glowing with healing magic, but her face is filled with panic.
"Leo!" Elena looks up at me with desperate relief. "Thank goddess you're here. She tried to perform soul magic to save Kayla, but something went wrong. I can barely detect her life signs."
I drop to my knees beside Lina's still form, taking her hand in mine. Her skin is cold as ice, and our bond – the connection that's been my anchor for months – is barely a whisper.
"How long has she been like this?" I ask, though I already know the answer will destroy me.
"Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty," Elena says, her voice breaking. "Leo, I've done everything I can, but this is beyond my abilities. She needs specialized supernatural medicine, and she needs it now."
---
The memory of finding her like that, of seeing her so close to death while I was off satisfying my bloodlust, tears through me like physical pain. The guilt is a living thing inside my chest, clawing at my heart with every breath.
I should have been there. I should have protected her from herself, should have stopped her from attempting something so dangerous. Instead, I was so focused on making Paul pay for my parents' deaths that I nearly lost the most important person in my current life.
The monitor beside Lina's bed begins a steady, high-pitched wail, and my head snaps up to see the line that's been tracking her heartbeat flatten into an ominous straight line.
"She's in cardiac arrest," Dr. Hayes announces, her voice professional despite the urgency of the situation. "Beginning CPR."
I watch in helpless horror as they work on Lina's still form, pumping her chest and forcing air into her lungs. The rational part of my mind knows they're doing everything they can, but my wolf is howling for action, for some way to fight this enemy that can't be clawed or bitten.
"Come on, Lina," I whisper, my free hand clenching into a fist. "You don't get to leave me. Not like this. Not when I failed to protect you again."
The guilt is eating me alive from the inside out. If I had stayed with her instead of pursuing my revenge against Paul, I could have stopped her from attempting something so dangerous. I could have been there to catch her when she collapsed, to get her medical attention immediately instead of twenty minutes too late.
But no – I had to have my pound of flesh. I had to make Paul suffer for what he did to my family, and in doing so, I failed to protect the most important person in my current family.
Just like I failed my parents.
"Clear!" Dr. Hayes calls out, preparing to use the defibrillator.
Lina's body arches as electricity courses through her, but the monitor remains flat. They try again, and again, but nothing changes. Minutes pass – the longest minutes of my entire life – as they continue their efforts to restart her heart.
Finally, after what feels like hours but is probably only ten minutes, Dr. Hayes steps back from the table. The look on her face tells me everything I need to know before she even speaks.
"I'm sorry, Leo," she says quietly, her voice heavy with defeat. "Her heart isn't responding to any of our interventions. The magical backlash damaged too many of her vital systems. I'm calling time of death at 11:47 PM."
The words hit me like a physical blow, driving me to my knees beside Lina's bed. The steady beep of the heart monitor has been replaced by that awful, continuous tone that means everything is over.
"No," I whisper, then louder: "NO!"
The sound that emerges from my throat isn't human – it's the howl of a wolf who's lost his mate, raw and broken and filled with more pain than any living creature should have to bear. The windows in the trauma room crack under the force of it, and I can hear answering howls from every werewolf in the hospital as they respond to their Alpha's grief.
I take Lina's still-warm hand in both of mine, pressing it against my chest where our bond used to burn bright and strong. But there's nothing there now – just an empty void where her presence used to be, a silence so complete it makes me want to tear out my own heart just to make the pain stop.