After She's Terminal The Alpha Regrets (Elaine and Lucas) novel Chapter 310

Elaine’s eyes fluttered, then rolled back. She slumped forward.

The heart monitor began to beep like crazy but Lucas ignored it. He caught her gently and for a moment, she was pressed against his chest. His brow furrowed and he held her there a moment, then carefully, he laid her down.

The loss of her pressure against him was like a knife to the gut. But he laid her down. His hand reached out and he brushed a lock of her silver hair from her face.

The pain started.

It seared through him like pure heat. Sweat immediately began to bead across his skin and he pulled away from Elaine. Her skin was equally hot to the touch.

Feverish, Lucas fell into the chair beside the bed. He grabbed the armrest, supporting himself just barely on the edge of it. He panted, struggling to draw breath. Yet his eyes remained glued to Elaine, on the bed.

She began to shift, shaking her head back and forth in whatever sleep had claimed her. Not dead. Not yet.

Lucas clutched his chest, fingers curling into his skin, threatening to break it and draw blood. His next breath came in on a wheeze. Was this even remotely close to what Elaine had been feeling these past months?

How long had she suffered because of him? While he simply had lost his emotional connection to her, had she been experiencing pain quite like this? It was a haunting though. Sobering in its reality.

Lucas looked at Elaine, unconscious on the bed, and his heart ached for her.

He’d been so selfish. So blind.

He thought he had been seeing the truth, but perhaps this was only the tip of the iceberg. There was so much more she’d endured than he knew. So much pain she’d kept from him.

All because he had wanted to remain ignorant. This was all his fault. All of it. In his selfishness he allowed her to suffer alone…

Lucas squeezed his eyes shut, trying to forget the thought entirely. He was shaky and could quite breathe right. Elaine was in much the same condition on the bed, though it looked as if she were tormented by a dream. Or perhaps a nightmare.

Or maybe she wasn’t strong enough to survive the severed bond. The temptation to rush to her side and press another mark to her neck was almost all-consuming. His wolf howled against the thought he had lost his mate.

But she wasn’t his.

The door to the room burst open and Liam rushed in, the beeping of the heart monitor having drawn him. The sound was like gunshots in the otherwise quiet room. Liam ran to Elaine, completely ignoring Lucas on the bed.

“Elaine!” he called out to her. There was no response. He grabbed her hand, holding it close to himself. “Please, Elly…”

Lucas hung his head low, a beading sweat dripped from his chin. He inhaled slowly, exhaled slower.

“You.”

He lifted his gaze.

Liam was glaring at him. “What did you do?”

Lucas stood up slowly, his head spinning. “She wanted me too.”

“She…” Liam trailed off, pausing as the realization hit him. The bond. He quickly turned back to Elaine and moved the hair away from the side of her neck, her skin now feverishly warm. The mark was gone. Just as Elaine had wanted.

The only thing that remained was the small red line across her neck where she’d been cut. The bond severed.

Liam’s mouth was dry, he looked back to Lucas. “You actually did it.”

“I did.”

“You broke the bond.”

Lucas said nothing that time, simply nodded. He gazed down at Elaine. “Maybe she’ll have a better chance without,” he muttered. “I was…never much help to her anyway.”

Liam’s jaw worked. He couldn’t believe that Lucas had actually severed the bond. He’d seemed so stubborn that he’d keep it until the end. But no. He’d done it for her.