Chapter 19 #2
I’m a couple of blocks away when I see her kneeling on the road, doubled over.
She doesn’t move as I approach, but when I get close and touch her shoulder, she stands up and throws herself into my arms, her whole body shuddering with violent sobs.
“Kaida?”
I look past her and try to make sense of the bloody skull and ribcage that are lying on the street.
It’s not until I see his phone, cracked and crushed but still with that ugly-ass design I painted for him, that I realise who it is.
I let out a moan. It’s the single sound of my painful dying.
I set Kaida aside and kneel, reaching out, but I can’t touch him; there’s nowhere to touch. He’s dead; there’s no part of him alive.
“Cai,” I whisper. “Oh, Cai, what did you do?”
Kaida kneels beside me, leaning against me. I turn, looking at those huge grey eyes, all red and swollen from crying.
“Kaida, you should have woken me,” I whisper, stroking her face. “I was scared, so scared.”
“I had to get here.”
“Together, remember. We’re supposed to be together.”
She sobs harder, her hand wrapped around mine, the knuckles white. I ignore the pain and stand up, pulling her with me. The machete is still on the ground, forgotten.
“We need to go.”
“No, we can’t leave him. It’s Cai, Jarek. How can we leave him?” She’s hysterical beyond thought.
I can’t blame her; I can feel the hysteria in me. That’s what the ache in the bonds is. I didn’t know, but she did. I can see that she’s clearly been sick; she’s lost weight, and her hair is a tangled mess. She got up and came after him. Alone.
“He’s gone, and he wouldn’t have wanted us to die with him. We need to get somewhere safe. Find a way out of this city,” I say through tears.
She shakes her head, but I grab her wrists and wait until she looks up at me.
“We have to get you out of here.”
I glance down at her stomach. Our child. Our family. We’re only three months in, but it was supposed to be our happy ending.
“Maybe those dreams are right. We died all those times, we don’t get happy endings, Jarek,” she cries out hysterically. “In all our lives, we never get to live happily.”
“I don’t believe that.”
She lets out a bitter laugh. “Look around us, the world ended, and he’s…he’s gone.”
“But we’re not. He would want us to try, and I don’t believe in those dreams. I won’t. Why should we live such cursed lives over and over?” I try to be firm, try to instill confidence in my words, but she’s lost in her grief.
I let go of her wrists and wipe the tears from her cheeks, only for more to spill over.
“It hurts, Jarek. It hurts so bad.”
“I know, baby. I know. But let’s go and get something to drink and sit down, and it will be better.” I say the words I don’t believe, desperate to reach the omega I love.
She finally nods and, with a backward glance at what was once Mordecai, she follows me, dragging and slow, but she leaves him behind. I leave him behind, and I hate myself for it.
Together. That was our thing. We had to stay together.
I head to my mother’s place. It’s on the outskirts and closest to where we live. We walk for hours; the shops are ransacked, and we find very few people. No one stops to talk.
“Do you think we should have listened to those dreams?” Kaida asks.
“No, they are just dreams,” I say, dismissing them.
She’s holding tight to my hand when she pulls me to a stop.
“What if we could have helped everyone?”
I whirl, furious, hurt, and scared. “I don’t care about anyone else but us, Kaida. We,” I stop the sob, taking a second to compose myself, “should have been together until we grew old. We deserve that. If those dreams are real, don’t we deserve just one lifetime where we get to be happy and—”
Kaida stands on her toes, pressing her lips to mine. I can taste the salt from her tears, hear her sob against my lips. I kiss her back because she is everything, and it’s all falling apart, and I can’t lose her, too.
The sound of something slamming into a car tears us apart. I look up and find an alpha, one who is strong and capable and still very much alive and unhealthy, looking right at us with dead eyes. He looks like fate, like destiny, that fickle bitch, coming to meet us head on.
I don’t have the machete.
Oh, my gods.
“Run, Kaida.”
She shakes her head. “Together.”
“KAIDA! RUN!” I bellow, and then I rush to meet the alpha. Four more pour out of the darkness. The first bite is agony, but worse is seeing Kaida still there, screaming.
She doesn’t see the alpha behind her.
She has no idea of the danger she’s in.
“Kaida, look out!”
She whirls and runs, but she runs the wrong way, straight towards me.
I’m staring at her terrified face when a hand punches through her chest, spraying me with her hot blood.
I scream so loud my vocal cords shred.
Another bite sinks into my hand, ripping half my palm off, but I fling the alpha away from me, ignoring the chunk of flesh that has just been stolen. I catch Kaida as she falls, holding her to me.
She’s dead already, the life fading out of her beautiful grey eyes. Her white hair is red at the ends, dipped in blood. Gone. The bond is silent and empty. Achingly, painfully silent. And living without them? Is that even a life? It’s not one I want.
My mates. Mordecai. Kaida.
My child.
My hope for the future, the promise that’s been stolen.
My baby.
Oh, gods, why? Why would they do this?
I can’t live like this.
I can’t.
I’m straining against the alpha, fighting to survive. Why? I let go, forcing my muscles to relax. Kaida is squeezed between us, pressed against me when he bites deep into my shoulder.
I scream and hold my omega tighter.
Soon. Soon, we’ll be together again.
The next life will be the one; the next one is where we will find our happy ever after.
They come for me, and their teeth snap into my skin. Their fingers pull at me, and then one of them rips me open, and my hot blood pours out of my body, joining my mate’s.
Suddenly, clarity sweeps through me, and I remember everything, and I remember who we are.
I guess the dream was right.
For us, there will never be growing old.
We are destined to live and die. Forever.