Chapter 26
“Lambda!” Vallie screamed. He was there, next to her, but he wasn’t moving. She held onto his body as tightly as she could. If he fell onto the wrong side of the wall…fuck. They’d be fucked.
“Lambda, please wake up. We’ve made it. We just have to get down to wolf territory. The dragons… I can see them in the distance, but they can’t touch us here. Please, please, please.”
“Vallie!” Verona called. “Push him over, I’ll try to catch him.” Her sister stood beneath the tree with her arms open. Natya had crawled a little further away from the wall and laid on her side.
“He could break his neck,” she whimpered. “Or yours.” She shook her head. It wasn’t like with Natya, a slow release. If she pushed Lambda, he could land wrong.
“Lambda, I need you to wake up. Remember? I’m supposed to tell you that I love you now. We’ve made it and you’ve taken care of not only me, but Verona and Natya, too. I couldn’t have begged the Moon Goddess for a better mate. And if you think I’m giving up on you now, you haven’t met me. We’re going to figure this out. And it’s ending with both of us alive and happy. Because I do love you, you big wolf. So, give me the life I deserve.” She kissed the top of his head, the only part of him she could reach. “I love you.”
“Uh, there are people coming,” Verona called.
Vallie looked up. Fuck, there were people coming! Wolves by the look of how fast they were running. Three of them. One of them was Epsilon, Tella’s mate.
“Epsilon! Help!” she screamed. “Help!”
Verona waved her hands wildly. “Over here!” She jumped up and down.
The wolves closed the distance quickly. There were three, Epsilon, one she thought was called Gamma, and another Vallie didn’t recognize.
“My sister is stuck up there with Lambda. The silver of the wall made him pass out,” Verona explained.
“What the fuck…” Epsilon muttered. He shook his head and then the three wolves made a circle beneath them. “Drop him. We’ll catch him.”
Vallie nodded and slowly pushed Lambda to them. He fell, but they broke it and stopped him from hitting the ground.
Epsilon turned back to her. “Jump down. I’ll catch you.” And with that, Vallie let go.
*
It was a bit muddled after that. Once Vallie was safe in the arms of Epsilon, she passed out. One minute, she was holding onto Tella’s mate, the next she was in a hospital bed with Verona on one side and Natya on the other, a nice line of IVs and white sheets.
“Fuck,” Vallie mumbled, rubbing her eyes. “Is everyone safe?” She sat up. “Where’s Lambda?” she shouted. “Lambda!”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, shut up,” Verona mumbled. “He is fine. Doing testing. Something to do with silver poisoning. He’ll be back in five minutes. Of course, you had to wake up when he wasn’t sitting by your feet.”
“We made it,” Vallie breathed, sinking into her bed. They were safe now, in Luven. Away from the dragons, away from the wilderness. Hell, she wanted to go home and…
Shower. Eat. Get naked with Lambda. Sleep next to him for the rest of her life.
“We made it about six hours ago. You’ve had a scan of your head and a ton of bloodwork.”
“I have?” Vallie exclaimed.
“Yeah, apparently, it’s really dangerous to be almost strangled. But everything was clear. Dr. Tau thinks the stress of the event caused you to sleep for so long but that didn’t make Lambda any less worried.”
“Vallie!” Lambda shouted from across the room.
“Speaking of…” Verona mumbled and rolled to her side.
In a flash, Lambda was beside her, his hands holding her face. “You’re awake. Are you in pain? Should I get Dr. Tau?” He tried to stand up, but she pulled him back down.
“Lambda,” she breathed. He pulled her against his chest and kissed her hair over and over again. “We did it.”
“It’s done. We never have to leave wolf territory again. You’ll never go back to the dragons.”
Vallie sunk into him. She wanted to crawl inside him and never leave. Surrounded by his warmth forever.
Free. This was freedom. The dragons were out of her life. Her family was here. She would have years and years of happiness with Lambda, and Verona would share in it.
She pulled back and looked at his face. He looked better, now that they weren’t steps from the wall. His eyes were bright and functioning, he was no longer a limp mess of bones and flesh in her arms. He was solid once again. Her strong wolf.
Her kind wolf. That, more than anything, was why Vallie loved Lambda. He had treated her sister like his own and saved another woman in the process.
Her mate was a good man.
He was the love of her life. It didn’t feel like a betrayal to Elias anymore. He was gone, and she had loved him hard for a long time, but this love with Lambda, this was her future.
“Can we get out of here?” Vallie asked.
“Dr. Tau probably wants to look you over again, now that you’re awake.” Lambda brushed her hair back.
She nodded in response. “Did the two of you get a time frame for release?” she asked Verona and Natya.
“Couple weeks for me,” answered Verona.
“Months,” Natya said quietly.
“Don’t worry,” Vallie said quickly. “I was here for months, and it was great. I got to sit and talk to Millonia and Domitia and Eelia. You’ll sleep and eat and be warm every moment of your day.”
A nurse walked in and looked at Verona’s IV.
“Could you take my IV out?” Vallie asked him.
“Why?”
“I need to go home with my mate. We’ve been waiting far too long.”