Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Thane
My heart nearly stops as I turn to see Harlow staggering toward me.
She’s drenched in blood. It’s spurting out of her as she clutches her neck.
Her lips part, and she tries to speak as I watch her body go limp.
Her hand drops from her neck, and I see the huge gaping wound.
My eyes widen, and I feel the blood drain from my body as I force myself to shift back.
Her blood spills across the floor as she hits the ground with a thud.
I run toward her collapsed body. Her neck spurts blood, and I clamp my hand down on the wound, trying to stem the bleeding.
She stares up at me, almost dazedly. Her blinking slows as I try to get her to stay awake.
The light slowly fades from her eyes as she continues to stare at me.
She tries to speak, yet her words are lost over the frantic beating of my heart.
Fear moves through every atom in my body.
“I’m right here. Stay with me, Low,” I plead with her before shouting for my other mates.
“Leon!” I scream, sounding broken as she begins to gasp, her eyes widening.
Each thud of her heart sounds thick and forced.
The length between each one stretches out further.
“Leon!” I scream, seeing her face drain of life.
She is dying in my arms when Leon finally smashes through one of the few remaining windows, along with the others.
“No!” Rhen gasps.
My eyes dart to him. He collapses to his knees just as her heartbeat stops. The silence is deafening as I wait for the next beat to come, but it doesn’t. I start CPR. How can she die on us again? What are our chances when fate seems relentless in trying to take her from us?
A snarl rips out from somewhere behind me.
I can’t force my attention away from Harlow, but I see Rhen and Raidon take off to finish whoever it is.
Leon is forcing his blood down Harlow’s throat while I try to keep what little blood she has left pumping through her veins.
The wounds on her neck start closing, painfully slowly.
She feels dead beneath my hands, yet my mark isn’t burning.
I’m not in agony, so I know she is still here.
She has to be. I can’t lose her. I need her. Scarlett needs her. We all do. This can’t be the end for us. I won’t accept it. Leon slaps her face gently.
“Come on, baby. Wake up for me,” he murmurs. His pain courses through me, as if he blames himself. But this is all my fault. We’re here because I failed to keep her safe from everyone, including myself.
A loud howl rips through the air, the sound soul-crushing.
I know it’s Leo. He made the same sound when I killed Corbin.
It sounds exactly like what it feels like to lose a mate.
It screams of the despair, agony, and coldness that floods through you.
I refuse to let that feeling settle in me.
Harlow will not die, for if she does, I know I will lay down and die right beside her.
Leon’s mouth covers hers as he breathes for her between my sets.
We wait a few half seconds each time, listening for signs of life before I continue.
Raidon drops down next to me. His shoulders sag, and he’s drenched in blood.
Not seeing Rhen, I glance over my shoulder to spot him sitting next to Slater’s dead body.
His head is in his hands as he rocks back and forth, wailing for our mate.
It was all for nothing. We’re too late, and they all feel it.
Yet my hands refuse to stop, and I refuse to give up hope.
If anyone can defeat fate, refuse it twice in a single lifetime, it’s Harlow.
Leon slaps my hands away, his ear tilting toward her chest, listening intently.
I go to shove him away and continue compressions when I feel it.
The zing of the bond through my bloodstream. Then one soft thud.
Thump…
Thump …
Thump … Thump … Thump. My heart jolts in my chest as hers picks up tempo, gradually growing stronger, and I break.
My body collapses onto hers as I clutch her to me, smoothing her hair back.
I crush her limp body to my chest as I pull her into my lap.
I sink my teeth into her neck, rocking her as I feel my bond fall back into place, strengthening her, and her heartbeat picks up more.
Rhen collides with me as he tugs her head back.
Her eyes flutter and roll into the back of her skull.
She mumbles but crashes again as her body absorbs the bond, letting it heal her.
She takes all the strength it can give her.
The others are eager to mark her too, but we have to wait.
We can’t risk her losing more blood while her body tries to heal.
“Good girl,” I whisper. I rock her and clutch her tighter.
My heartbeat syncs with hers as the warmth returns to her body.
“We’ve got you. You’re safe,” I tell her.
My fingers tangle in her hair as I kiss the side of her head.
I can smell Corbin and his mates all over her.
I want to get rid of their scents, reclaim what’s mine, and show her how much we need and love her.
Ambulance sirens sound in the distance as they come up the driveway. Leon darts out to flag them down. Within minutes, the entire mansion is flooded with officials and law enforcement. Paramedics tend to Harlow and Leo, who has been staring off vacantly since Corbin died.
He must feel my gaze on him because his eyes slowly move from Corbin’s corpse to mine.
I nod my head to him, and he nods back. The movement looks like it takes every ounce of energy he has left as he clutches his chest. How he’s still alive is beyond me.
It must be torture, feeling the pain he is going through, but he kept his promise, so for that, I owe him.
I will do as I promised and keep his daughter safe, knowing I will never be able to truly make it up to him. He sacrificed his life for Harlow’s and saved my daughter while trying to save his own from a horrible fate. He knew he couldn’t protect her if she was left in Corbin’s hands.
I want to mark him, but I won’t. As much as he’s done for us, and despite the fact I forgive him for killing my mother, he is old enough to be my father, not my mate.
He also doesn’t seem like the type of person who is willing to submit, especially to someone younger than him.
Corbin was one thing. That was a deal made out of desperation.
I know he will not make another, even to save his life.
I will also never share Harlow with anyone else. She is ours. He knows that and knows what he signed up for when he gave her my serum. I can smell it on her, smell it over all the other scents I want to rid her of.