Chapter 28
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
RYKER
My howl echoes off the stone walls until my throat goes raw, the sound of absolute devastation.
Elias crashes into the chamber, takes one look at Kitara’s lifeless form in my arms, and leaps into action.
“Get a healer here, NOW!” he roars to someone behind him. “And bring the emergency kit!”
I can’t speak. Can’t think. Can only hold her cooling body and feel the gaping void in my head, my heart, my soul. The silence in my mind is more devastating than any physical wound.
“Alpha.” Elias kneels beside me, his voice gentle but urgent. “Let me check her pulse.”
I snarl, pulling her closer. No one touches her. No one—
“Ryker.” His use of my name rather than my title cuts through the haze of grief. “If there’s any chance to save her, we need to act now.”
Reluctantly, I allow him to press fingers to her throat. He’s still for a long moment, then his eyes widen.
“There’s something. Faint, but...” He looks up at me with desperate hope. “She’s not gone. Not completely.”
Elena, our lead healer, bursts into the chamber with her medical kit, taking in the scene. She drops beside us, opening her bag to pull items free.
“Silver poisoning?” she asks, examining the injection site.
“Yes,” I rasp, my voice barely human.
Her expression darkens, but she immediately begins working—checking Kitara’s vitals.
“Her voice,” I whisper. “It’s gone silent.”
My wolf claws at my chest, frantic, howling for the mate we can no longer feel.
“That doesn’t mean she’s dead,” Elena says firmly, though I catch the worry in her eyes. She pulls her stethoscope from her ears. “Her pulse is weak, but she’s fighting.”
Fighting. The word gives me hope to cling onto.
“What can I do?” I demand.
“Keep talking to her. The mate bond might be silent, but love...” Elena’s hands never stop moving as she works. “Love transcends magic, Alpha. If anything can reach her now, it’s that.”
I bury my face in her neck, pressing my lips to her mark. “Come back to me, little seer,” I whisper. “Don’t you fucking dare leave me.”
And then I feel it.
Not a sound, but a shift—in the world, in the air, in me. My control slips.
Power floods my veins. My claws punch through my fingertips. Bones groan beneath my skin as my wolf surges forward, frantic and enraged. The shift is coming whether I want it or not. Without her grounding me, the bond spirals and I can’t stop it.
I throw my head back and roar, the sound ripping through the den like a storm.
“Ryker!” Elias reaches for me, but I bare my teeth. Too late. I’m going feral.
My beast rises, snarling, shaking with the need to tear something apart. It smells her blood, her fading magic, and wants to make the world burn. My vision darkens at the edges.
Kitara.
But just before the shift takes me completely—
She breathes.
A single, gasping inhale, ragged and wet, like a soul dragged back through fire.
My heart stops. The bond flares—flickering, faint but there.
“Kitara?” I whisper, brushing my knuckles across her cheek. Her fingers twitch. Her lashes flutter. Then her eyes crack open, and I nearly collapse with relief.
They’re unfocused but open.
“Alpha, move,” Elena orders, gently bumping me out of the way.
She mixed a putrid smelling poultice, thick as tar.
I know the smell well—it’s a salve infused with nightshade, ash, wolfsbane, and a concoction of other herbs all designed to draw the silver from the skin.
She holds up a knife but I take it from her.
“No, I’ll do it.” I make tiny slice in my mate’s skin. Elena follows the glide of my knife with her fingers, gently applying the thick salve. Kitara stares unseeing at the ceiling, her breathing shallow but steady.
It takes but a minute for the salve to begin its work, drawing the silver from Kitara’s blood. It boils beneath her skin, bubbling to the surface like poison pushed through a sieve. It beads like mercury before it’s brushed away by Elena with careful, gloved hands.
I hold Kitara’s head in my lap, running my fingers through her hair as I watch the silver flow.
Slowly, painfully, my mate begins to stir. Her breathing slows and deepens. Her body stiffens, then relaxes as she blinks, her gaze snapping into focus.
“Ryker.”
Relief assaults me. Her voice is weak, thready. But it’s her.
“I’m here,” I breathe, crushing a kiss to her temple, to her cheek, to the shell of her ear. I don’t even care that I’m shaking. “You’re safe, Kitara. You came back to me.”
Her fingers curl against my chest as if she needs to feel me beneath her skin.
“I heard you,” she whispers, hoarse. “I got lost… and then I heard your voice.”
Elena exhales sharply. “She’s stabilizing. Her vitals are climbing.” She turns away to dispose of the silver-soaked cloths, giving us space.
I cradle Kitara closer, pressing my forehead to hers. “You scared the shit out of me,” I murmur, my throat raw. “You almost died.”
She blinks slowly, her brows knitting. “You were going to shift.”
“I was already shifting,” I admit, voice tight. “I couldn’t feel you. It was like... my soul just—” I stop, swallowing hard. “You’re the only thing that keeps me sane.”
A tear slips from the corner of her eye, trailing down her temple. “I didn’t want to leave you.”
“You didn’t.” I take her hand, pressing it flat against my heart. “You’ll never leave me.”
For a beat, we breathe together. Her fingers are still trembling but she’s here.
Alive.
Mine.
Elena returns, her tone all business again. “She needs to rest. The silver traces will linger in her system for a few days—maybe longer. You’ll need to watch for flare-ups, memory gaps, seizures—”
“Let’s discuss this at home,” I cut in, already lifting Kitara into my arms. “Come.”
Kitara tucks her face into my neck, resting heavily against me. Her lack of protest and the silence that still rings through our bonds stirs my wolf’s concern, but I reassure him that she’ll be fine.
She has to be.