41
EVAN
“Goldie.” Robert pats her face, but she’s limp in his arms. Beneath her, blood spreads like spilled wine, more scarlet than I’ve ever seen in all our mauling and killing.
“She’s hemorrhaging,’’ Hallie says. “We have to call an ambulance.”
“Shit.” Hunter places the baby on the bed and leans over Goldie. He pats her face hard. “Goldie, wake up. You can’t fall asleep, baby.” In our minds, he growls, “ Goldie, wake the fuck up. Right now. ”
Nothing. She’s limp and totally unresponsive. Connell squirms in my arms, his eyes wide like he can sense his momma is in danger. They’re linked to us, too, but too young to communicate yet.
“The ambulance won’t get here in time,” Hunter says, his voice dead.
“What do you mean?” Hallie looks between us, panicked. “ We can’t leave her.”
“Of course we can’t leave her. Give the baby to Hallie,” Hunter barks. I quickly do as he’s asked, focusing on Goldie. Behind her, Robert’s eyes are wide and desperate as he continues to try to wake her, to no avail.
“What are you going to do?” I ask, crouching at the end of the bed, resting my hand on Goldie’s cold foot. Her toenails already look discolored, and my throat closes tight.
“We have to link her properly?”
I stare between my brothers, not understanding.
Robert frowns. “To link her means we put her in danger, doesn’t it?”
“SHE’S DYING,” Hunter growls, dropping to his elbows as he voices our greatest fear.
“I don’t understand,” I say. “What do you mean?”
“We claim her again, but this time all together.”
“But what difference will that make?” I ask.
“Her life-force will become linked to all of ours. If one of us dies, she will die. If she dies, we all die.”
The gravity of this decision is like a knife through my heart. Goldie’s our destiny, our future, our mate, but if we do this, her safety will directly link to our own. We won’t be able to fight without risking her life. We won’t be able to keep her safe unless we preserve our own lives. There’s no safety in numbers anymore. We can’t fight securely, confident that if at least one of us survives, she’ll still be in our care. It’s all or nothing.
“ We don’t have a choice, ” Hunter communicates before I can voice my concerns. He’s right. We don’t. I wonder why I didn’t even know about this as an option. Maybe it’s something that’s only passed from alpha to alpha.
“Quickly,” Robert says. “Her pulse is weakening.”
Hallie clasps her face, looking on. The guilt in her fearful expression is stark.
Robert shifts Goldie into Hunter’s lap, her limp body flopping. I find my bite mark on her calf, and Robert focuses on her arm. Her tummy is soft now that our children are in the world, and the stretch marks are like a lattice over her skin. She’s so beautiful but she’s paying such a heavy price for loving us.
“Now,” Hunter orders.
Goldie’s flesh is soft and cool; her previous vitality has already drained. Her sweet blood has turned bitter, and I close my eyes as the claiming process flows from me all over again. My legs twitch as her thoughts mingles with mine. Three tiny bears in the woods—not our offspring, but us, me and my brothers—and a tiny golden-haired girl. “ That’s us , Goldie,” I whisper through our connection. “ That’s us. Don’t let go. Don’t leave .”
There’s a flash of golden light through my mind that didn’t come with the original claiming, and then my heart stops.
It takes seconds for it to restart, beating in a different and weaker rhythm.
“She was close to the edge,” Hunter says, resting his hand over her heart. “She was so close.”
I pull away, licking the wound I’ve reopened as Robert and Hunter do the same. It takes time for it to heal, longer than the original scar.
“What now?” I ask.
“We wait.”
Coran, who’s resting on the bed alone, starts to cry. Connell, hearing his twin, does the same in Hallie’s arms. She’s looking on at the wrecked body of our mate, rocking a red-faced Connell up and down, still wide-eyed and fearful.
“Will it work?” she asks.
“Yes,” Hunter says confidently. “My father… he told me about my great-grandmother. The same thing happened.”
“Thank god.” I slide my hand under Coran’s little body, lifting him until he’s snuggled against my warm sweater. He stops crying immediately and gazes up at me with eyes so black and reflective they glint like obsidian stone. “Momma’s going to be all right now,” I say, turning him away from Goldie. I keep my eyes on her, watching the color return to her ghostly cheeks and blue fingernails.
“Come on,” Robert urges, stroking Goldie’s cheek. “Come on, girl.”
“ Come back to us, ” Hunter whispers. Even in our minds, the hitch to his voice is audible.
She gasps, her eyes flying open, blue as the sky but clouded with fear. Hunter holds her close as Robert takes her face in his hands. “It’s okay, mate. You’re okay.”
“The babies,” she gasps, twisting to look around. When she spots Coran and Connell safe and sound, she sags back against Hunter.
“I was walking,” she says. “I was walking in the forest, and I kept getting further and further away from you. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to leave.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” I say.
“You’re ours,” Robert tells her. “Our mate. Our life. Our heart.”
“Give her some water,” Hallie instructs, and Robert obliges. When Goldie has sipped half a glass of cool water, she holds her hands out.
“Let me see them,” she says. “Please, let me see them. ”
Even though she’s weak and still needs to pass the afterbirth, we slowly bring the babies to her, resting them both in her arms. Her blonde curls are matted, and her face is still hollowed out, but her smile is like the sunshine at dawn.
“Welcome to the world, little bears,” she says. “Welcome to the world.”
I drop to my knees, the relief that she’s okay knocking the wind right out of me.
“Thank you,” I whisper to the Creator. “Thank you.”
Goldie looks around at each of us, her eyes blue and bright with tears. “Thank you,” she says. “For saving me and making me the happiest woman on Earth.”
And even though our universe almost fell apart, suddenly, everything feels just right.