Don't Take Her - Kendric's POV

Don't Take Her - Kendric's POV
I barely hear her now. My breath comes out in pants.

Suddenly, her warmth is pulled from me and all I can do is watch her be dragged away.

No, don’t take her.

The words become a chant, and my body sheds its fur. Now, I’m back as a man, yet the demand to kill is screaming within my mind. “No, don’t take her.”

Ramsey turns with a gleam in his eye. He looks surprised to see me like this. “Ah, so you turned back into your human form one last time before you die. How fitting.”

The woman in red comes closer to Valeria, pulling her aside. “I’ll watch her while you take care of the feral one.”

My eyes dart between the women and Ramsey. I know my time is near.

“It’s time for you to die, wolf. I have loved all these lifetimes of you serving me as you got closer and closer to going mad. Now, you are finally feral and dying. It took long enough.” He uses his boot to push at me to see if he can get a reaction. “Well, this is pathetic. You’re not even putting up a fight.”

“Kill, Maim. Destroy.”

Ramsey scoffs. “Is that all you can say? That blasted curse has wrecked your brain. I knew it would be bad when you finally went feral, but this is like the cherry on the cake. Do you even know what you’re doing? Is there anything left of the old you in there?”

“Valeria.”

He stares at me for a solid moment before finally sighing. “Maybe a little of you is left after all. You still know her. Well, I will end your suffering, but don’t worry about her. She is safe with me as she will always be and should have been.”

He raises his hand to strike me with his claws one last time. Honestly, I find him weak to be attacking me when I can’t even defend myself, but that’s all he has ever been.

A weak coward, who couldn’t let go.

Valeria screams as she charges forward and lands on his back. She wraps her hands around his throat, choking him.

“Kendric, kill him. It’s the only way to end this madness.”

Ramsey only laughs as he reaches over his head to yank her clean off his back with one swift motion. “Oh, my darling. Are you sure you want to do this? What if our lives are tied together and you die as well?”

She cries out again, this time louder. “Kill him, Kendric.”

Before I can do anything, a woman and her daughter walk into the room. It takes me a moment to realize who they are. Jackson’s family.

I’m not sure why they are even here.

She takes one look at Valeria with a sneer on her face. “Because of you, I lost my husband.”

At first, I think she’s talking about Ramsey, only until I see her draw a blade.

“It’s only fair. A mate for a mate.”

I’m frozen in time as I watch her stalk closer. Ramsey’s eyes are on me while he holds Valeria.

I rush toward them, but all I hear are Ramsey’s words. “If I can’t have her, neither will you. There is always the next life, when you aren’t here.”

Before I can reach her, the blade goes straight through her heart. Blood gushes out of her mouth, staining her lips.

“Valeria!”

I veer to my right and attack the woman who stabbed her, ripping her head from her shoulders. The girl with her runs away back out of the door and I turn my attention back to Ramsey.

He is holding my mate’s lifeless body. She’s already starting to lose color and my heart pounds in my chest as I fall to my knees.

“What have you done? She didn’t deserve to die.”

Ramsey looks up at me. His eyes looked more crazed than usual. “As I said, if I can’t have her, then neither will you. But I thank you for taking care of that woman for me. She has been the most annoying wolf I have ever met. Even more annoying than you, and that is saying something.”

My wolf rises to the surface, shifting my hands into claws. “You will die.”

“But if I die, then it all ends, Kendric. Remember? Our lives are tied.”

I rush forward, and he drops her body to the ground with a sickening thud. She never moves, even when I step over her to chase him down. He moves to the furthest corner of the room, like the coward he is.

“Are you really going to run from me?”

“Are you not even going to check on your darling mate?”

I shake as I look down at her lifeless eyes. They’re unmoving and staring right up at me. I expect her to pop off with something, or say anything, but I know I’ll never hear her voice again.

The feral part of me is in control, though so I won’t mourn. Deep down, I know I should, but my feelings are not what they should be.

I look back at Ramsey. “It’s time for all of this to end. We are all tired of living lives like this. We were never meant to live forever like this.”

Without losing another moment, I rush forward, which catches him by surprise. I don’t know why he doesn’t move or why he throws his hands up in defeat.

But my claws slide right through his heart without him even flinching.

“I didn’t think you had it in you, Kendric. But vampires don’t die that easily.”

I shift my claws, twisting them in his heart until I know I have severed everything. “Are you sure about that?”

I hear the witches' chanting in the background, which catches Ramsey by surprise.

“What do you think you’re doing? You work for me.”

One of the women steps up behind me. By the jingle on her foot, I guess she is the sister of the other women who broke our bonding.

“Righting the wrongs. She was never supposed to die like this. You have taken your power for granted and hurt the woman you claimed was your mate. We don’t allow those who harm their mates to live.”

Ramsey panics, his voice choking on the words. “But that is not what happened. I’ll see her when she is reborn.”

The air shifts, sharply, like the moment just before a storm cracks open the sky. It’s heavy and electric, pressing against my skin in a way that makes my breath hitch. I stare down at my claws, Ramsey’s blood still glistening along the edges like rubies caught in firelight.

Then he begins to change.

A strange sound escapes him. Not quite a scream, not quite a growl. It’s the sound of unraveling. His skin starts to flake, curling and peeling like paper held too close to a flame. Pale ash spreads along his jaw, then down his neck, crawling across his body with unnatural speed.

“No!” he roars, voice hoarse with fury. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! She was mine!”

I watch in stunned silence; the wind tugging at my hair and clothes as the ash consumes him. His eyes, once burning with cold confidence, widen in terror, and then turn dull as his scream echoes through the void around us.

He curses, spitting the names of those long dead, of those still living, of those I don’t recognize. Words laced with venom and finality. “I’ll see you in —”

Then he’s gone.

Just like that. The last of him tears apart into dust, caught by that strange breeze that whirls around us in lazy spirals. Even the blood left on my claw dries in an instant, cracking like old paint before disintegrating into fine, weightless particles.

I stare at my hand, now clean. Empty. As if none of it had ever happened.

The wind sighs through the space, almost mournful. Almost satisfied.

I take a step back, heart pounding in my chest, and for a long moment, all I can hear is the echo of silence settling over where Ramsey once stood.

It’s over.

But why does it feel like something else has just begun?

I slowly turn around, moving like a man with nothing left toward my mate’s lifeless body. My emotions are still scrambled and the desire to kill is beginning to consume me, but there isn’t anyone left to kill except the two witches.

One look at them and I know I can’t do that.

They’ll just zap me.

Instead, I go back to Valeria and kneel next to her. “My poor mate. We never got to do anything in this life. Our other lives were full of love and life at some point, but this one has been the worst and full of pain. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

Tears finally form in my eyes and I’m able to shed a few. The feral part of me is too much and I know I’m a danger to anyone around me.

The witches approach, only the sound of their anklets making a tingling noise.

“She will be reborn again,” one of them says.

“I know that, but I won’t in time. Will I?”

Honestly, I don’t know how it works.

I look up at both of the women and the urge to kill takes over, but I hold out just long enough to hear them out.

“We can ensure you’ll be reborn within her next life, but this is the last gift we can do for you. We apologize for the pain that has been caused and the fact our ancestors started this chain.”

“Thank you.”

Those are the last two words I can utter as my feral nature rises to the surface and I drop Valeria to the ground to charge right toward them.

With tears in her eyes, the witch to the left raises her hand. “I’m so sorry.”

My footsteps slow as my heart pounds in my ears, and then there is nothing. I grab my chest, clawing at my skin to make my heart work right, but nothing is working.

I fall to the ground, close to Valeria. My eyes water as I realize this is my final moment. Out of everything I ever got to do, loving her is the only thing I ever did right.

If only I could have saved us like all our other lives.

The last thing I can do is grab her hand in mine as my heart stops beating.