Chapter 149
AARON
Death is near.
Liam swipes at my side and I punch him in the temple. The shot se nds him reeling and the satisfying crack as my fist fractures the bone is music to my ears. I keep swinging, punching and jabbing, with every bit of my Alpha strength
behind each bl ow.
My wolf wants out.
And he would make quick work of this traitor. But I won’t let it end so quickly.
I want Liam to suffer.
To bleed and ache and to feel every bl ow because death is too easy a punishment for
what he has done here tonight.
“Aaron!!!”
It’s James.
He’s on the floor across the room. I see a tangle of hair.
James is holding Leah’s neck. She’s not moving. There’s blood everywhere. Two of my men surround her. One holds her legs down and the other applies pressure to her wound.
“It’s done,” Liam taunts me. “Blood drips from his face. Bruises swell his eye sh ut and his jaw is a bright shade of blue. His muscles morph as his body starts to shift. I let him. Then when he lunges for me, I catch his jaw and drive it up. I let my left hand shift. I eviscerate Liam in three quick slices and then leave him to catch his own entrails. He’s gasping and sputtering, trying to heal as a wolf and shift back to a man.
But that’s not happening. Leah fired off at least four rounds
into him. Between those shots and the damage I’ve done…
“To me!” I yell.
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My guards leave Leah and finish what I started with Liam. They can tear him limb from limb or feast on his flesh for all I
care.
I stagger across the room and drop to my knees. “Honey?”
Her eyes flicker up to mine. They’re glassy with tears that leak free. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“Never told you… baby.”
My heart stops in my chest and then double times’ resumes beating. “My hand goes to her stomach. I wanted a family. A little girl with her smile. A boy with her eyes. A kid that would grow up to be as strong and true as she is to me.
I have so many regrets where this woman is concerned. And as I hold her, counting each breath as it leaves her body, each beat of her heart that I hear and feel slowing… I know our
time is limited.
My wife-my life-is dying.
“I love you, Leah! I love you, godda mnit, don’t you leave me!”
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Her smile is weak. But it’s there. Her mo uth opens but too
softly. I drag her against my chest and hold her.
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James is on his cell. “EMTS are two minutes out!”
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“Forgive me, Leah,” I tell her.
She kisses my chest, right over my heart and I know that when she goes, when she passes from this life into…wherever… she’ll be tearing my heart right out of me.
“I should’ve married you properly.”
“Naw,” she whispers. That little smile there again. “Wouldn’t trade… a thing.”
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She’s being strong and positive.
For me.
My beautiful. Strong. Selfless. Wife.
She isn’t crying or railing at the unfairness of it all. She isn’t blaming me or hating me that we’re trapped in this inescapable war, and it begins and ends with me.
She’s saying my name. Softly.
Lovingly.
I feel the influx of power begin. Her Alpha strength would have gone to Liam, but he’s dead and as the connection flows from her to me since I challenged and defeated him, I know that her time is drawing to an end.
As I grow stronger, she grows weaker. Her body shudders.
“I wanted a baby, Leah. I wanted us to be a family.”
I’ve f**ked up so many things.
“Next…time…”
I’m hit with a huge jolt of power.
Then in one breath she’s with me and the next… she isn’t.
