Chapter 270 270
Aurélie’s POV
My usual mantra breathe in, breathe out was useless now. Every time I dragged in air, she forced me back under, drowning me slowly, deliberately.
I couldn’t shift.
The realization struck hard, and with it came a surge of fierce clarity. I was meant to have my mate beside me for protection while my body labored to grow the life inside me. Without him, my strength was faltering, my wolf unable to rise.
Still, I fought.
Even weakened, my alpha strength outweighed hers but with Stéphane involved too, I couldn’t find the opening I needed. Every strike I landed was answered, every chance cut short before it could become fatal.
When I carried the twins, Fabrice had been at my side every day. There had been no constant threat then. Everyone believed I was dead.
This baby, though this baby had been in danger before it ever drew its first breath. Just like the day she shoved me down the stairs.
Now she was forcing me beneath the water this female who stole my position, who tried to steal my mate, who attempted to murder my first children while they were still inside me. And now she was trying to kill this one too.
She had murdered her own mate. Slaughtered her own pack members.
She didn’t deserve the same air I was fighting so desperately to breathe.
She was weakening I could see it. Every punch, every kick etched pain into her eyes. This was a suicide mission. She knew she couldn’t survive much longer. She must have known that if I didn’t kill her, Damien would.
I tore myself free from her grip only to be shoved back under again.
I clawed at her face, kicked at her stomach, did anything I could to loosen her hold. Under the surface, I caught sight of the fire raging at the Lake House, its reflection dancing violently across the water.
It broke something inside me.
This bitch never stopped destroying what was mine.
The last place that tied me to my parents and she was turning it to ash. It felt like she was killing them all over again.
“Just fucking die!” she screamed above the water, pouring every ounce of her remaining strength into holding me under.
My lungs burned as the water forced its way inside me, filling the space where air should be. Panic took hold as my chest seized, oxygen slipping away while the water claimed me inch by inch.
Damien! I shoved against the mate bond but his block was still there.
I reached for Fabrice, but it was like hitting a wall. I could feel him, faintly, but his attention was elsewhere, his focus locked away. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough to break through.
Or maybe
No. Not Florence.
I pushed through the pack link instead, reaching for my female beta. Relief flooded me when I felt her alive, barely. I sensed Dominique and Delphine too, and even though she wasn’t part of my pack, I knew Sabine was with them, protecting them.
They were safe.
That was all that mattered.
I didn’t need to worry about them only about the small life growing inside me.
I managed to kick free and gasp for air, just once, before her grip tightened around my throat. So tight that even water couldn’t slip through.
She screamed again, channeling every last shred of energy into plunging me under once more.
She was a she-devil, possessed.
I saw hellfire burning in her eyes.
Beneath the surface, the lake was eerily calm undisturbed except for my violent thrashing, the bubbles streaming from my lungs as air escaped me.
The lake itself would never know that hell had come to life above it.
So much water. Enough to extinguish the flames consuming the house.
If only I could reach it.
A strange peace settled over me.
Moonlight shimmered faintly above, its glow pressing through the clouds, reaching for me. She wasn’t at her strongest but she was there, reminding me she hadn’t abandoned me.
If this was the end… I felt that she would accept me.
Open-armed.
Let me return to her as gently, as gracefully, as she could.