Chapter 65 Sixty-Five

Chapter 65 Sixty-Five
Drew
My chest clenched. I could feel the sweat already forming on my face as I sat in anticipation. Elma mumbled in another language as she remained focused, and Max watched Mason in the same type of worry that I had for Amber.
This was far too dangerous. I couldn’t say I supported the idea of sending Amber in a space where she could get lost forever, but I wouldn’t dare tell her not to. I tried to be as supportive to her as possible, once it doesn’t mean definite death. However, telling her not to speak to her siblings was far beyond me, so I simply sat and hoped for the best.
So far, everything seemed normal. The three Rousseuax’s on the bed were as still as water, and Mason and Elma remained focused. I didn’t move an inch, knowing that the slightest noise could distract any one of them.
I was grateful to Mason for doing this. I wanted to do it myself; I really did. But the witch was confident that I’d end up getting Amber lost in there instead of being her anchor. I understood why. Even with the concentrated look on his face, Mason twitched every couple of seconds, and his eyebrows would move now and then, yet he was staying strong.
By now, she would’ve met them, and I was eager to know what was going on in her headspace. Were they happy to see her? Were they upset that she was mated to me?
From what I’ve learnt about them and have seen years ago, they hate rogues, maybe even more than Amber did. Now she was mated to the Rogue Alpha.
After decades of being alive, I’ve come to realize that it was a Rousseaux thing. They always somehow find out about our existence and despise the very idea of bloodsuckers. It was when Elma told us the story of Dageian’s origin that it made sense. Their blood was stolen to create ‘monsters’, so maybe, just maybe, a legacy lived on in the law of nature that the royal family and hybrids would remain enemies.
It made me wonder, if this is so, then why was Amber my mate? There are two billion werewolves on earth, yet my mate ended up being a part of the royal family of Consok. I remember how I felt when I learnt about our bond twenty-two years ago. I was so… troubled. Was nature punishing me for what I did? For who I became? I thought she would never accept me, so I decided to avoid her and save myself the heartbreak of her rejecting me, which I was sure she would. I also felt—I knew actually, that I didn’t deserve her.
I would’ve never thought that I’d get to hold her and call her mine two decades later.
It still felt surreal, and I won’t ever have that ruined.
Veronica almost did two days ago when she brought up my past. I could’ve sworn that Amber would ask me what Veronica meant, but she didn’t. Relief couldn’t begin to describe what I felt. Memories of the countless times she used to ask what I meant when I told her that I didn’t deserve her came back to mind, and it scared me to actually tell her why I said that.
Luckily, she didn’t even bring it up again. I wouldn’t be able to bear the sight of the pain in her eyes if I should ever tell her.
We’ve come too far, and I’d be damned if I should lose her to anything or anyone.
Not even death himself.
I noticed as Mason twitched again, this time a bit harder than usual. His brother saw too, and we both became rigid and anticipated something else, but soon he relaxed again as if nothing happened. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I leaned back in the chair again, waiting impatiently for her to wake up.
I don’t want to rush her. I knew that if I got the chance to see my family again, I’d probably spend an entire month catching up. I knew the importance of family, and even before I stepped into her life that night at her ball, I knew Amber adored her older siblings. They were her everything, and when she lost them, everything went south for her.
Her mother became closed-off and rigid, her dad slowly lost his mind. I knew that Amber felt alone. I couldn’t count the number of nights I watched her cry in her sleep, how I itched to go comfort her. But then I figured that her siblings’ death would’ve made her hate for rogues even more intense, and my chances with her were off the zero-scale.
I didn’t know that Dageian was the one who killed them. I didn’t watch them that much, after all. I only watched Amber. But learning that he changed them and kept them had me thinking. What was his need for them? Was that one of the reasons why he wanted to change Amber too?
By now, she was probably getting those answers. I couldn’t be too sure, seeing that our link felt like it had been frozen. It made me even more on edge. Not being able to feel her is torment in itself, let alone the thought of something going wrong.
Apparently, my thoughts were manifested in the atmosphere because Mason began twitching again. I pushed the chair back as I rose to my feet, anxious about what was happening. Elma jerked up too, and my heart slammed against my chest as it happened again and again, until Mason began seizing.
Panic took over my entire form as Elma snapped her eyes open and jerked away from Mason as I watched in horror as he shook violently in the chair. Max shouted at him, but nothing happened.
“What the hell is happening?” I demanded as I shifted my gaze to Elma. I was terrified because she looked clueless. The only person who I depended on to know what was happening didn’t know a thing.
“Mason, let go,” she said, and my eyes widened when she said this.
“What do you mean he should let go? Do you want him to leave her there!” I could feel my anger rising, but I tried to stay calm for Amber’s sake. All for Amber.
“If he doesn’t, then she’ll kill him.”
“You killed them both because you fucking sent her in there!” I knew it was her decision, but my rage was slowly taking over. And when I saw blood running from Amber’s nose, I lost it.
Mason’s nose trickled with the metallic liquid too, and all Max did was violently shake his brother’s shoulder, trying to get him to wake up.
“Amber, you need to let go of him,” I heard Elma shout, and in a second, I was in front of her, gripping her throat with the little sliver of self-control keeping me from snapping it. “Drew, if she doesn’t, she’ll kill him and still get lost in there,” she choked out.
I gritted my teeth as my grip around her neck tightened. “You said it was safe,” I growled, and her eyes watered.
“I… I….”
I didn’t get to hear what she was about to say because behind us was an echo of glass breaking, and I noticed that Max had slammed the tiny plate that had their drops of blood to the floor. Almost instantly, Mason stopped seizing and collapsed to the ground. Max grabbed his brother in his arms as he tried to wake him up, but all I saw was black.
Mason was the only thing holding onto Amber, and now that was gone.
The pit of my stomach churned, and my mind grew heavy as a million different emotions swamped me at once. At first, my body went numb, and it felt like my soul had slowly ebbed into the realm of darkness. Yet, I didn’t feel the urge to kill everyone in the room like I anticipated.
Instead, I fell to my knees in front of the bed and reached over Alex’s torso to grab my mate’s hand.
If Elma was right and she could hear or feel me, then there was only one way I could get her back. I had to hope that our connection would somehow be strong enough to pull her back. I couldn’t lose her. I won’t.
“Drew, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened.” I could hear Elma’s voice in the background, but I wasn’t listening.
Instead, I closed my eyes, pulled Amber from the bed and rested her against my lap, the same way she held me last night when I was dying.
“Hey, baby,” I whispered. My voice seemed strange and foreign to me. I’ve spoken to her gently before, but this was different. Far different. “I know you can hear me,” I added as I gently rubbed my thumb against her cheek in the way I knew she loved so much. “I know you can feel me.”
I squeezed my eyes tightly together as a burning sensation formed behind them. It had been over a hundred years since I felt this, and I shamelessly allowed the droplets to tatter against her face before burying my nose in her soft, sweet hair.
“Listen to my voice,” I coaxed, “and come back to me, Amber.”
I squeezed her tighter, hoping I wasn’t hurting her too much, but I couldn’t help it.
“Come back to me. Please.”