Chapter 8 #2
“Jason only has us. I found him a rogue, almost starved as a kid. His parents abandoned him, and he joined my pack and dedicated his life to it,” Torin said.
An image of a young boy popped into my mind.
Young Jason, an orphan. Just like the young pups in the kingdom’s orphanage who were either abandoned or vampires had killed their parents.
I knew too well how they struggled to find their place in the world as the world forgot about them, leaving them without anyone to love them unconditionally.
Torin had given Jason a home and hope, and I liked the Alpha a little more.
My body felt cold, and my nose started running while I sobbed, crumbling into a mess.
“How else can we help him, Torin?”
Jason attempted to lift his hand but was too weak to do so. “Kill me.”
I took a sharp breath of air.
“I-I can’t…” The man attempted to breathe deeper and grimaced. “I can’t take it any longer.”
“No, Jason. Fight for your life,” Torin said and clenched his jaw.
I stood and said, “I’ll call the nurse. Maybe they can give him something.”
Torin nodded.
The nurse came when I pressed the call button, but I didn’t like her answer.
She checked on Jason’s vitals and said, “We’ve injected the highest dosage of morphine for a werewolf. There’s nothing else we can do but wait.”
She left, and Jason attempted another half smile. His eyes had cleared, and their acceptance made me take a long and deep breath. He was letting go of his life with no regrets.
“I don’t want to suffer anymore,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
“You can get better,” Torin said.
“That’s a lie,” Jason said. “The crazy Queen wanted you to see me like this. Don’t give her the satisfaction and end my life, Alpha.”
I didn’t know how Torin kept from smashing stuff in the hospital room. Probably for Jason’s sake, he kept his cool.
But my dislike for the vampire Queen grew into hatred—an edgy, twitchy feeling forming in my gut that brought an acidic taste to my mouth.
“Jason, I can’t do that to someone I care about,” Torin said.
But that was the wrong logic, wasn’t it? Because he cared about someone and didn’t want to see them suffer.
Torin placed his free hand over his face, took a deep breath, and ran his fingers through his hair.
The machines surrounding the warrior beeped erratically, but no one came in to check on Jason. They waited for his end, unable to stop the toxin from circulating in his body. That was, indeed, a cruel death the vampire Queen had wished for this man.
My vision blurred with tears. How much suffering had Jason experienced to want to be dead?
Torin stood on wobbly feet; his breathing turned into small pants. The way he watched his friend told me how much he admired him and respected him.
“I’ve always thought of you as more than my Alpha.
You are my friend, and you gave me a home, somewhere to belong,” Jason muttered, putting effort into speaking the words.
“Thank you for accepting me into your pack.” Then, Jason turned his head toward my side and said, “When the Fates bond two people together, there is a reason for it.”
I only nodded, unable to utter a word.
But Jason would never be able to tell the woman he liked from the farmer’s market that he wanted her to be his chosen mate. He would never have the chance to have his own family. The vampire Queen had taken it away from him.
Torin’s free hand partially shifted into his wolf’s claw, growing silver fur around it.
Torin’s vampire side wasn’t close to the surface.
Instead, his wolf likely felt responsible for a pack member, so Torin did his duty as an Alpha.
He placed it on Jason’s throat. Torin shut his eyes while Jason’s filled with tears.
He squeezed my hand harder, and I let him.
The cracking of bones echoed in the hospital room, followed by a continuous beep from the machines.
The pain stabbing my chest was for both men—Jason and Torin.
The Alpha stood beside the hospital bed, the light above casting a shadow over his face as he stared at his shaky hands.
Torin had just killed a man, which would normally make the kingdom gossip come alive.
He was a killer, but not the type the kingdom talked about.
Torin had done the hardest thing—letting a pack member and a friend go, relieving him of his suffering.
Torin hadn’t killed Jason out of revenge or malice.
It was an act of compassion done with a heavy heart that etched lines of grief on his face.
The King and the kingdom could never understand the turmoil Torin felt within him.
What Torin did today would change him forever, although he tried to hide it behind his usual mask of indifference that I was used to seeing in the kingdom—a facade that had served him well.
As his body trembled with the weight of what he’d done, Torin looked a little more human now.
The hesitation before he resolved to help Jason, his trembling and clenching hands, told me Torin felt close to Jason.
It must have been too much for Torin to bear that one of his men suffered without any prospects of getting better.
What Torin did today would cost him his soul, and he knew it. This act would hunt him until the end of his days, which for him meant eternity. Even if he’d killed our enemy before, Torin was famed for never showing remorse, mercy, or emotion on the battlefield.
But today was different. Killing Jason only added more cracks to Torin’s broken heart, and I feared he’d go beyond fixing ever again. I didn’t know about his deep wound or how he received his scars, but after today, the deepening darkness would change his soul beyond repair.
The conflict in Torin’s eyes a second before he crushed Jason’s neck pierced my soul.
The guilt that flashed behind his eyes and the pain etched onto his face showed me the burden Torin carried on his shoulders.
He felt responsible for Jason’s life. His man was suffering because of the vampire Queen who was after Torin.
I could understand Torin’s overprotectiveness of me. His fear that the same thing could happen to me ran deep. But despite his fear, Torin wanted me to take my rightful position next to him—a testament to his belief in me.
My insides warmed, knowing that Torin thought I was strong enough to endure and survive the Queen’s wrath, to withstand whatever challenges lay ahead. Although fear threatened to consume us both, his faith in me gave me strength, and it meant everything to me.
Guilt washed over me as I tried to erase my previous intentions of stealing the magic book and running away from Torin.
Torin, this broken man with shadows clinging around his soul, needed me.
I stepped into Torin’s side and pressed my body into his. I wanted him to feel the warmth and strength he ignited in me. As I gazed into his eyes, searching for reassurance, a glimmer of something dark and daunting flickered within them.
Doubt clawed at the edges of my mind, looming over me like a storm cloud. As his mate and Luna, could I bring light into his life, or would his darkness overwhelm my own?