Chapter 33
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Lina
“What the hell was that?!”
The gunshot was still ringing in my ears as I shoved past Noah and Cole, bursting through the front door of the cabin. My heart was pounding so hard I could barely hear anything else. The men cursed behind me, trying to catch up, but I was already moving.
The pain in my arm from the rogue attack was getting worse, throbbing with every step. And now my shoulder was starting to hurt too, a sharp, burning pain that didn’t make any sense because nothing had touched my shoulder.
Unless...
Unless it wasn’t my pain I was feeling.
We burst into a living room and I saw him.
Lucio was standing near the hallway, a gun in his hand, the barrel still smoking. He was pointing it at something, someone, and when I followed the line of his aim, my breathing stopped.
Hunt was there, kneeling on the floor, his hands pressed against a figure lying in a pool of blood. A figure I would recognize anywhere. In any form. In any light.
Knox.
My mate was on the ground, bleeding like his father had been bleeding just hours ago. His shirt was soaked with red, his face pale, his eyes closed. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t moving and there was so much blood and oh god, please, no, please don’t let him be-
“Knox!”
I screamed his name as I ran to him, dropping to my knees beside Hunt, my hands reaching for my mate without any idea what to do. Blood was everywhere. On the floor. On Hunt’s hands. Spreading in a dark pool beneath Knox’s body.
“He’s going to be okay,” Hunt said quickly, not looking up from where he was applying pressure to Knox’s shoulder. “The pain just made him pass out. His heartbeat is strong. He’s going to be fine.”
Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision. I reached out and touched Knox’s face, his cheek cold against my palm. But Hunt was right. I could see his chest rising and falling. Could feel through the bond that he was still there, still alive, just unconscious.
The pain in my shoulder made sense now. I was feeling his pain. The gunshot wound. The bullet that had been put in my mate’s back.
I was going to kill Lucio.
Rage burned through me, hot and white. But first, I needed to know Knox was going to be okay.
“The bullet?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“Went through,” Hunt said. “Clean exit. He’ll heal fast once we get him somewhere safe.” He finally looked up at me, and despite all the mud caked on his face, I could see the relief in his eyes. “He’s tough. He’ll be fine.”
I let out a shaky breath, trying to pull myself together.
Knox was alive. He was hurt, but he was alive.
I pushed myself to my feet and stormed back across the room to where Noah, Cole and Ryder were dealing with Lucio.
They had him on the ground, his arms wrenched behind his back, the gun kicked away across the floor.
He was struggling, screaming something about how it wasn’t his fault, but nobody was listening.
He didn’t see me coming, so it was a pleasant surprise when I stopped next to him and I kicked him. Hard and right in the ribs.
He grunted, curling in on himself, and the sound was deeply satisfying.
“Fucker,” I spat at him.
Then I turned and went back to Hunt and Knox, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand to really look at them. Hunt was covered in mud from head to toe, dried blood visible in patches, his clothes torn and dirty. But he was alive.
“I’m so happy you’re okay,” I said. “We were worried about you.”
Hunt smiled, just a little. “Takes more than a syringe to keep me down.” Then his face went serious again, and he jerked his head toward the hallway behind him.
“Mary and Mira have the babies. They ran that way when we confronted Lucio. Knox went after them and that’s when that coward shot him in the back. ”
“I’ll get them,” I told Hunt, pushing myself to my feet. My legs were shaky, my arm still throbbing, my shoulder burning with Knox’s pain. But I couldn’t stop now. “Thank you. For protecting him. For being here.”
Hunt nodded. “Go. I’ll stay with him until the healers arrive.”
I turned and ran toward the hallway.
The corridor was narrow and dark, lit only by a few weak bulbs that left most of the space in shadow. I could see a door at the far end, standing open, moonlight spilling through from outside. That’s where they’d gone. That’s where Mary and Mira had taken my daughter and Cole’s son.
Footsteps pounded behind me as Noah and Cole followed, along with several more guards. Cole’s face was set in hard lines, his jaw tight, his eyes burning with desperation. His baby was out there too.
I burst through the door and into the yard behind the cabin.
Mary and Mira were standing about twenty feet away, their backs to me, staring at the tree line.
They hadn’t run into the forest. They couldn’t.
Because our wolves were forming a perimeter around the property, their eyes gleaming in the darkness, their teeth bared.
The rogues were gone, either dead or scattered, and now there was nowhere for these two to go.
They were trapped.
“It’s over,” I called out, my voice stronger than I felt. “Give us the babies.”
Mary and Mira spun around to face me.
Mary was holding Blake, my baby girl clutched against her chest like a shield. Blake’s face was red from crying, tears streaming down her tiny cheeks. She looked so small in Mary’s arms. So fragile.
Mira had Thomas, held in a similar position. He was crying too, his little fists waving in the air, his wails mixing with Blake’s.
The sight of them made something in my chest crack wide open. My baby. My daughter. In the arms of the woman who had tried to destroy my life over and over again.
“Long time no see, bitch,” Mary sneered at me.
And just like that, memories slammed into me.
It was like a dam breaking. Images and feelings and moments came flooding back, filling in the dark spots that had been there since I woke up from the coma.
I remembered Mary showing up at Noah’s door.
Remembered the threats she’d made, the way she’d clawed at me in a rage.
Remembered how she’d claimed she was pregnant with my mate’s son, how she’d tried to tear my family apart with that lie.
I remembered standing between her and Knox, refusing to back down. Remembered everything we’d done to get past her, to build our life together despite her attempts to tear us apart.
There were still a few gaps, still some moments I couldn’t quite grasp. But I had almost everything now. Almost all of my life was back where it belonged.
In the end, fucking Mary Thorne was useful for something.
“I enjoyed my time with Knox,” Mary said, a cruel smile spreading across her face. “We got to reacquaint ourselves like old times-”
“Stop lying,” I cut her off. I was done listening to her bullshit. Done playing her games. “You don’t want him anymore. Now all you want is to hurt me.”
Mary’s smile disappeared. Something ugly twisted across her features, her eyes going wild and bright with hatred. She stepped forward, jostling Blake in her arms, and my baby started crying harder. Thomas, hearing Blake’s cries, joined in, his wails piercing the night air.
“And with reason!” Mary snarled. “You took everything from me, bitch! Everything! My father is rotting in jail because of you! My baby isn’t heir of the pack because of your bastard kids! You’re the cause of everything that’s fucking wrong in my life!”
Spit flew from her mouth as she screamed. She looked insane. Completely, utterly insane, standing there with my baby in her arms, blaming me for every bad thing that had ever happened to her.
I wanted to tear her apart. Wanted to rip Blake out of her grip and make Mary pay for every threat, every attack, every moment of fear she had caused. But I couldn’t move. Couldn’t risk her hurting my daughter in retaliation.
Someone stepped up beside me.
“That’s not true,” Cole said quietly.
His eyes were glued to Thomas, crying in Mira’s arms. I could see the pain on his face, the desperate longing.
“Please, Mary,” he said, and his voice was softer now.
Almost gentle. “Give us the babies. Let us take them somewhere warm. Feed them. Put them to sleep. They’ve been through so much already.
They’re scared and hungry and they need to be cared for.
Whatever you want from us, whatever revenge you’re looking for, the babies don’t deserve to be part of it. ”
For a second, just a second, I thought I saw something flicker in Mary’s eyes. Hesitation, maybe. Or doubt. But then it was gone, replaced by that familiar burning hatred.
“You,” she snarled at Cole. “You shut the fuck up. You tried to take my baby from me. You made sure Knox knew the baby was yours! Worst mistake of my fucking life, letting you get close enough to figure it out.”
Cole tensed beside me, anger radiating off him.
“I wasn’t trying to keep Thomas away from you,” he said, his voice strained.
“It wasn’t jail, Mary. It was a guarded house where you could be with him while serving your sentence.
And I told you we’d raise him together until he was eighteen and could choose who he wanted to live with. How is that taking him away from you?”
He shook his head, something like disgust crossing his features. “You’re selfish and unstable. I thought the delivery had changed you, thought maybe becoming a mother would help you see things differently. But it only made you worse.”
Mary actually flinched at that. For just a moment, hurt flickered across her face. Real hurt, like Cole’s words had actually gotten through whatever walls of crazy she’d built around herself.
But then Mira stepped forward, her arm tightening around Thomas.
“Let us out of here,” she said, her voice cold and controlled. “Let us walk away, and you might see your babies again when they’re older. If you try to take us by force, the babies will bear the consequences.”