Chapter 48 – RAVEN
RAVEN
My boots pound against palace stone as I chase after Knight's retreating form.
The massive alpha moves with impossible speed up stairwells and through hidden corridors like he built them, despite the sedative still clouding his system, despite the blood dripping from his wounds, despite carrying Cosima's limp body cradled against his chest like his entire world will end if he lets her go.
Except if he doesn't, it will.
My lungs burn. My muscles scream. I push harder anyway.
Behind me, I hear Nikolai and Azarel's footsteps, heavy and desperate. Geo's limping run, his fucked knee barely supporting him but refusing to slow down even though he's dazed from the hit he took. We're a pack of wounded predators pursuing one of our own.
Knight crashes through a door that leads to the palace rooftop, wood exploding from the strike from his metal fist. I'm through it three seconds later, bursting into cold desert night air that tastes like snow.
The rooftop spreads out before us, flat stone punctuated by decorative columns and elaborate statues of ibises frozen in flight.
The moon hangs full and bright overhead, painting everything in silvery light that makes Cosima's hair glow where it isn't drenched in blood, the long strands draped over Knight's arm.
She's so still.
Too still.
Knight staggers to a stop near the edge of the roof, far enough from the precipice that I don't think he's going to fall or planning to jump, but close enough to make my stomach drop anyway.
He turns slowly to face us, his frame hunched protectively over Cosima, and the moonlight illuminates his scarred face, burning blue eyes tracking our approach with feral wariness.
"Knight." I hold up both hands, showing I'm unarmed. Showing I'm not a threat. "Please. We're not trying to take her from you."
His response is a low, rumbling growl that vibrates through the air. A clear warning.
Stay the fuck back.
"We just want to help," I continue, taking one careful step forward. "We need to make sure she isn't bleeding out. Please."
Those blue eyes don't leave my face, but something shifts in them. A flicker of uncertainty beneath the protective fury.
Another growl, softer this time. His grip on Cosima adjusts slightly, drawing her even closer against his chest like he's trying to absorb her into himself.
Azarel moves to my left, his face a mask of controlled desperation even through the pain he must be in from his bleeding shoulder. "Let me see her," he demands, though his voice carries none of its usual command. "Please. I need to know she's—"
Knight snarls and steps back, his damaged metal arm sparking as his claws curl more tightly around Cosima's legs. Even now, he's being careful, the bladed edges somehow not slicing through her soft skin.
"Don't." I shoot Azarel a look that could strip paint. "You're making it worse."
"Raven, she's fucking dying—"
"Look at her neck," Nikolai interrupts, his voice tight with hope and shock.
I do.
The bite wounds are… changing.
Where Knight's teeth tore through her soft flesh—and gods, they tore deep, deeper than they should have, deeper than any normal alpha's bite would go—the damage is knitting together. Not like normal healing. Not scabs forming or blood clotting.
I watch, transfixed, as muscle fibers weave themselves back together like invisible threads stitching reality.
Torn blood vessels seal. Mangled tissue smooths.
The ragged edges of the wound pull toward each other with deliberate purpose, closing the gap millimeter by millimeter as the mating bond seals over with the same silvery edges it would have if Knight didn't have razor-sharp teeth.
"Holy fuck," Geo breathes from somewhere behind me.
Cosima's chest rises.
Falls.
Rises again, stronger this time.
Her heartbeat—I can see it now, the steady pulse at her throat where Knight's bite is still closing—beats with increasing strength as the bonds flood her system. The rhythm steadies, evens out, becomes the reliable thump-thump-thump of life reasserting itself.
She's breathing.
She's healing.
She's alive.
"Cosima," I whisper, and my voice cracks on her name. Breaks completely. I don't even care. "Oh, goddess. You're alive."
Knight shifts his stance, angling Cosima more firmly against his shoulder so her face is pressed into his neck. Hiding her from our view. Protecting her even from us, from her own pack.
Or maybe protecting her from seeing his face.
That's what he's doing.
He's keeping her positioned so she can't look up at him. So when she wakes—if she wakes, my traitorous brain supplies before I shut that thought down hard—she won't see him without his mask.
My throat gets even tighter.
"Let us help," Geo says, his gruff voice surprisingly gentle. "We're pack now, Knight. All of us." His eye flicks to Azarel. "Most of us."
Azarel is too caught up in staring with desperate hope at Cosima to even respond to that. Or to the low growl—exhausted, but no less fearsome—that rumbles from Knight's chest as Azarel takes a step forward.
"I'm not trying to take her," Azarel says as Knight's growl builds, holding his ground despite the very real threat of dismemberment. "I just want to make sure she's stable. That the healing continues. Please."
The two alphas stare each other down.
Then Cosima stirs.
The movement is small. Just a slight shift in Knight's arms, her fingers curling against his chest. But it stops everyone cold.
She's waking up.
Knight goes completely still, his entire massive frame freezing mid-breath. His blue eyes widen with what looks like panic, and he adjusts his hold on her again, keeping her face pressed firmly into his shoulder.
"Cosima?" I breathe her name like a prayer.
Her head turns slightly, silver hair sliding across Knight's skin. I catch a glimpse of her face—pale, blood-smeared, but her eyes are fluttering open. Those gorgeous violet eyes that have haunted my dreams since the moment I first saw her.
"She's waking up," Nikolai breathes, raking his hands through his choppy white hair.
Cosima's lips move. No sound comes out at first, just the shape of words her brain hasn't quite connected to her voice yet. Then she makes a soft, confused noise.
Knight's growl intensifies, warning us all to stay back.
"It's okay," I say quickly, holding my hands up higher. "We're not going to hurt her. We're her pack. We love her."
The word slips out before I can stop it.
Love.
It's true. Always has been. The moment I saw her in the Alpha's Alpha, I fell completely in love with this incredible little omega. And I haven't exactly been subtle about my obsession, but I'm not sure if she's ready to hear it in those terms just yet.
Not now, not here.
Cosima's fingers flex against Knight's chest, her nails catching against the scarred tissue. She twists and pushes against him just enough to look up at his face. Knight tries to turn his face away, but it's too late.
She sees.
Her entire body goes rigid. Those violet eyes go wide, pupils contracting to pinpricks as they take in what they're seeing through his messy white hair—the exposed sharp teeth, the destroyed flesh where lips and cheeks should be, the half-torn nose, the scarred blue eyes staring down at her with desperate, broken devotion.
The sound she makes isn't quite a scream. More like all the air being punched from her lungs at once. A choked gasp of shock.
Knight's arms drop immediately, releasing her like she's made of fire. He staggers back, both hands—human and metal—flying up, drawing fresh blood as he twists away from her so she can't see his face.
Cosima staggers back, too, violet eyes wild and frightened behind her bloodied hair, pointed nails ready to slash out at him like a cat if he takes a step closer.
"Cosima, it's okay!" I plead, rushing to her side only for her to hold up her hand like she's going to take a swipe at me. My boots slide on the stone as I stop in my tracks, confused. "It's just Knight! His mask came off, that's all—"
"Mask?" she repeats, her voice raspy, staring at me like I'm insane.
Wait… what?
Is this another fugue state?
My own confusion wars with the need to soothe her. "What... what do you mean? His mask—" I gesture vaguely toward Knight. "The silver one. Cosima, you know him! It's Knight. Your mate…"
The absolute, uncomprehending fear in her eyes stops me cold.
She's not just shocked by his face.
She's looking at me, at all of us, the same exact way.
Oh, gods.
Her hand goes to her neck, finding the fresh bond marks there, those dazed violet eyes taking in the sticky blood now coating her fingers before staring back at us again, pupils dilating in defensive fear.
This isn't like the usual states she enters into. There's no hollowness this time.
While I'm still struggling to process what the fuck is happening, she chokes out five words that bring my world to a screeching halt.
"Who the hell are you?"
To Be Continued…