Chapter 31
AARON
What the he ll?
Leah pitches sideways onto the floor and convulses.
She gags and coughs again and more blood splatters the ground.
This isn’t panic or even some manic episode. This is more than grief.
Something is very wrong.
I jam my phone and keys into my pocket and sweep Leah up into my arms. I don’t bother with shoes or locking the door. I barrel out of the little cabin and start the hike up the incline, running as much as I can and only slowing so I don’t jostle her too hard or let her fall.
She’s wheezing and she doesn’t smell right.
Her body is cold and light and she groans with every little
movement.
I think she might be delirious.
In the aftermath of some battles, I can remember some of my packmates going into shock. Women would go catatonic at the sight of a dead son or husband. And our warriors coming back, they would lose their minds when their loved ones were assaulted in their absence.
I had my own meltdown once and the rage I unleashed…it definitely played a part in this war.
If Leah knew the whole truth…
If she knew the many ways I’ve wronged her…
She starts gasping in earnest and I listen for her heartbeat. She wails and twitches then goes lifeless in my arms. I lift her body to my ear and press her chest to my head listening for her pulse, but as the seconds tick by I don’t hear one.
My wolf howls in my head.
My own heart is racing.
I drag her against me so her face is close to mine. “Leah!”
But she doesn’t move, doesn’t respond.
I lunge the last forty feet up the mountain and debate whether to put her down and begin CPR or to get her in the truck and to a doctor.
She isn’t a wolf where I can command her wolf to rise.
She isn’t my mate where I can drag her back from the other side with my own life force.
She’s an orphaned girl teetering on the edge of this realm.
What the he ll is wrong with her!?
I put her on the hood of the car and begin chest compressions. As I’m breathing into her mo uth and forcing air into her lungs, I grab my phone.
I hit Jame’s contact. “Track my location, get an emergency team here.”
“What?”
“Now!”
I toss the phone aside and pump on her chest again. I have to manage my strength so I don’t crack her sternum or rupture a lung. When I force my air into her, her chest inflates.
But then… nothing.
