Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Harlow
Warmth surrounds me. And the smell of safety.
I inhale it with each breath I take. It’s a scent I thought I would never smell again.
It’s the scent of my mates. There’s a distant beeping noise that grows louder, along with the feeling of someone moving me.
There’s a cuff around my arm, and it grows tighter as it squeezes.
The surrounding murmuring also grows louder.
I groan, not wanting to move. Every part of me feels like dead weight.
I ache everywhere, but it is so painfully delicious because it means I am alive.
Pain proves my heart is still beating, and it’s in time with Thane’s.
I am lying on his chest and I turn my face into his neck.
I feel the paramedic remove the blood pressure cuff and open my eyes to Thane’s.
“Hey,” he whispers, brushing his nose across my cheek before kissing it. “We thought we lost you.”
“Leon?” I ask, suspecting he’s the reason I’m alive.
Nothing heals faster than vampire blood, and Leon’s is extra potent for us since he’s our mate.
Thane lets out a shaky breath, nods, and tugs me closer.
“Leo?” I whisper. We already lost Talon, and I lost a sister I never knew I had.
The thought of losing a former enemy-turned friend seems too much to bear.
“Alive, for now. He isn’t doing too well. But we’ll get him home to Emily. He’ll be able to spend whatever time he has left with her.”
I nod, tears pricking my eyes. Will his daughter hate me because he sacrificed his life for mine?
“Harlow… I know he saved you, but—” Thane starts, but I cut him off.
“No. I am not asking you to mark him, Thane. I don’t expect that of you. Besides, it would be weird, since I’m the same age as his daughter,” I admit.
Thane hums in agreement, and I grip his shoulder, dragging myself up higher.
“You need to rest. Lay back down,” Thane scolds me. He’s right. Even that slight movement sends my surroundings spinning, but I think that is more to do with the strange new senses I gained from Thane’s serum than anything else. Still, I have something far more important to do than rest.
I bury my face in his neck, and my gums tingle as I partially shift.
My canines elongate as I press them against his skin.
Thane’s breathing hitches when he realizes what I am about to do, but it won’t work if he refuses my bite.
His fingers tangle in my hair as he offers me his neck.
I lick the spot before sinking my teeth into him.
Thane clutches me to him, holding me tightly as my teeth pierce through his thick tissue and bands of muscle.
His blood fills my mouth, and I swallow it as I choke on the feeling of the bond becoming fully formed.
His feelings smash me harder than ever before.
Relief, love, home. Everything I once thought he would never feel toward me.
To him, I am home. Little does he know, he is also my home.
They all are and have been from the moment I laid eyes on them.
I just didn’t know it then or believe it could be possible.
Rhen, Raidon, and Leon all feel me mark Thane. Their relief is palpable, along with his. I pull my teeth from his neck, only for his lips to crash down on mine, softly at first, before he starts devouring me. I chuckle and blush, knowing there is a paramedic sitting next to us.
“Mine,” I mumble around his mauling lips.
“Yours,” he agrees, finally letting me breathe.
* * *
I rest my head on Thane’s shoulder, missing the rest of our mates.
They tried to insist that I go to the hospital, but instead, I make the paramedic take us to the airport.
I just want to go home. Besides, there are plenty of medical professionals in Raidon’s family.
When the ambulance stops, and I climb out with Thane, another pulls up beside us.
Rhen climbs out backward, shaking his head and looking rather angry.
“What is it?” Thane demands.
“He wants to come with us. He’s ignoring the paramedics,” Rhen says as he helps Leo climb down, still not facing us.
The moment he does, I pounce on Rhen, very unsteadily.
It is more like a tackle, as I don’t expect to be able to move so quickly.
Rhen catches me anyway, and I lock my legs around his waist. Another car pulls up, and Raidon and Leon climb out.
“Are you sure, Leo? You don’t look too good,” Thane tells him, and I lift my head. Leo is not healing well now his bond is severed. Half his torso is covered in blood-soaked bandages.
“I am not dying before I see my daughter again,” he coughs. Thane grabs him, and Leo growls.
“Shut up. How are you going to climb up the steps? If you’re coming, you have to let me help!” Thane snaps at him. “And you’ll stay with us until your time comes. Your daughter doesn’t need to look after you. We will help,” Thane tells him.
“No. My daughter isn’t going to watch me deteriorate. I won’t let that be the last memory she has of me, Thane. I am simply going back to say goodbye, and then you’re going to end me,” Leo tells him. Thane stops walking. I glance over at Leo as Raidon steals me from Rhen, who growls at him.
“She doesn’t need to watch me die like that. You know well enough how traumatic it is for a child to watch their parents wither away from a lost mate bond. Don’t subject my daughter to that,” Leo pleads.
“I’ll do it,” Rhen offers.
Thane looks back at him, his eyes flickering to black.
I worry about the impact that will have on Rhen.
Rhen isn’t usually one who harbors hatred.
Sure, he did with me, when he thought I killed Thane’s mom, but it isn’t in his nature to just kill, despite being Alpha.
I can feel he doesn’t want to kill Leo. He even likes Leo now.
“No, I’ll do it. It’s fine,” Thane answers, and I peek over at Rhen. He seems relieved, but I have no doubt he would do it, if only to save Thane from it.