Come for Me 2 (The Hunt #2)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Dax

O ver the years of pushing people’s limits to get them to the point of breaking, I always wondered what would break me. It wasn’t silver. It wasn’t the threat of dying. It was losing her.

I never would have guessed it’d be of my own doing. I am far from a masochist. And I’m too careful to physically hurt myself. But here I am, broken. Shattered. And it’s my own damn fault.

As planned, Ash sets the room on fire, going head-to-head with Colin, encasing him with walls of fire to prevent him from getting to Alaina and me. It was supposed to be quick, as Ash isn’t what he once was. He can’t hold Colin in this barrier forever. I was supposed to get her and get out before the entire room went up in flames. But her death wasn’t part of the plan.

“No, no, no! Stay with me, darling.”

Stroking her cheek, her hands, her head, I can’t hold on to enough of her. Terrified of her body turning cold at any moment.

She tries to speak, and blood gurgles out of her mouth.

Her arms dangle at her side as I try to hold her up.

I don’t know what else to do, so with nothing and everything to lose, I bite into my wrist and let my blood drop onto her lips and into her mouth.

“Drink, baby, please.”

But she doesn’t. The only thing I’ve done is help speed up the process of her dying by adding more blood for her to drown in.

I sob. “No. I came for you . Don’t you fucking leave me. Please .”

But she never listened to me when she was alive. Dying was no different. Her eyes glaze over, losing that defiant nature in her, resigning herself to the Moon Goddess.

The mark on my neck burns off into ashes that sprinkle onto her skin. I collapse to my knees, cradling her to my chest and howl as my world burns around me and dies with her.

* * *

Ash attempted to stop Colin from getting to me by blasting several rounds of fire at me, but I didn’t care. I was prepared for both Colin and me to die here and now.

But it’s Ash’s reminder that Alaina could still live that had me stop, scoop Alaina’s lifeless body up, and hightail it out of the castle.

I make it out of the castle’s front entrance and make my way into the woods, heading toward Crescent.

Sam and Taya are flirting absentmindedly in the woods. With enough time without silver and the presence of her mate, Taya is now able to stand.

It’s only when she sees me approaching with Alaina’s body do her legs fail her.

Taya gasps and hits the grass, practically crawling toward us, bursting into tears, her face reddening from the scream. “No!”

Sam drops down next to her and pulls her into him. Sam’s eyes are bulging, and his mouth is quivering from the initial shock. He rests his head on her chin, and the tears begin to flow, registering his sister’s death.

Taya’s cries turn into a raging fit, pounding her fists against Sam.

He only hugs her tighter, taking every blow.

“Sam,” I croak.

Despite Taya’s screams, Sam manages to hear me and meets my devastated look with his own.

“Sam, wha-what do I do?” I sniffle.

He’s always been better at this stuff than me. My mother was a loss, but I had lost her prior to her death. Sam loved both his parents. Now that is loss.

“We’ll figure it out.” He nods frantically, forming the start of a plan in his mind. “Let’s first get my mate and little sister back to Crescent.”

* * *

I’ve never truly seen Sam run things, as it was always in my absence. But I have seen how people reacted toward him. He could command. I was proud of my brother. More importantly, I’ve never been more thankful to have him than I am right now, as he and Ash are the only ones able to think straight between the four of us.

Taya’s cried herself into exhaustion in Sam’s arms. Ash couldn’t protect who thinks might be his daughter. And I lost my mate.

On our way getting closer to Crescent, Sam mindlinked the pack to get all doctors to my castle and prepare for their queen.

The hours it took to get here felt like eternity as Sam booms through the Crescent doors. “Where are the fucking doctors?”

Staff scrambles at our arrival, and I can’t help but sob and stare down at Alaina.

I’m clutching Alaina to my chest as Sam and I are carrying our mates up the grand staircase. Even though I’m sobbing, I don’t care who sees this time or if people think it makes me weak.

I am weak without her.

“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. Please wake up, baby.”

I had to close her eyes. I couldn’t bear to see them so dull.

Ash tails behind me. While Sam is in front, shouting and pushing people out of our way.

“Where do you want Alaina?” Ash asks.

With me. But I know that’s not what he’s asking.

Sam responds for me, “I have medics setting up in their bedroom.”

I nod. She’d prefer to be there, I think.

I’m gassed but not from sprinting down my never-ending hallway but out of sheer stress and worry.

Sam pushes open the double doors to my bedroom—no, dammit, ours —and I scurry around him to lay her down on the bed. Medics move quickly to rip her clothes, clear objects around her, connect her to wires and things of the like. An oxygen mask goes over her mouth, and I don’t know what that’s supposed to do. Or any of this for that matter.

What can medics do with a body that’s been dead for hours?

I’m finding myself becoming overwhelmed. Completely checked out, I’ve let my beta authorize for people to manhandle my darling’s corpse.

What have I done?

At the realization, I yell at the medical team, “Get away from her! Don’t touch her!”

But they don’t listen. They won’t stop.

I hiss and snarl, both my immortal beings enraged at their disobedience to their king and disrespect toward their queen’s body.

I’m about to make them listen when Ash and Sam hold me back.

“Dax, man, stop,” Sam pleads. “Let them do their work.”

“They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing!”

Ash chimes in. “None of us do, which is why we’re going to let them do what they can. This is what they did for you. You have to let them try.”

The only thing I know how to do is kill , so I try to tear myself away . Instead, I try to sit in the discomfort and accept that I’m helpless to this situation.

I cross my hands over my head and pace. “Fuck!” I snatch an end table next to the doorway and sling it across the room, then push a dresser over to the floor.

“Dax.”

Taya’s awake.

I stop.

I stare at the dresser splintered in shambles. My shoulders heaving. I’m grasping at straws to regain my composure before I turn to face a pain-stricken Taya. Exhausted from the grief.

She’s in the sitting room connected to our master bedroom, curled up into Sam on one of the sofas. “Come sit. Watch. Pray.”

Sam holds Taya to her, kissing the top of her head every so often. Keeping her close to him.

Ash stands in the doorway between the waiting room and the master bedroom. With his hands in his pocket, he watches Alaina intently.

I sigh, and after much pondering, I decide to give in and sit on the other couch. My elbows rest on my knees. I do something I never do.

Pray.