Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 26

Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

Baron’s POV

I gathered her into my arms as if she he weighed nothing.

Her body was rigid, locked in place with her muscles refusing to respond.

Raze surged forward inside me, sharp and alert.

“Move,” he ordered. “Now.”

I turned toward the exit.

Then something grabbed my ankle.

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I spun, extending my claws on instinct ready to tear through whatever had survived long enough to touch me.

“Alpha,” a voice rasped. “It’s… Phantom.”

I froze.

She was pinned beneath a fallen support beam, her body twisted at a wrong angle, one leg crushed completely beneath the weight of steel and concrete.

Blood soaked into the ash around her, dark and thick, already beginning to dry at the edges. Her breaths came shallow and wet, each one visibly harder than the last.

She was dying.

Raze went still.

“She won’t last.”

“I know,” I responded.

There was no way to carry both of them, not through a structure this compromised and definitely not with the fire accelerating this fast.

I shifted Natalie higher against my chest, angling her head away from the smoke as best I could.

I crouched just enough to see her face clearly, but soot streaked her skin. Her eyes were unfocused, but when they found Natalie in my arms, something sharpened there.

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Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

Guilty.

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“This fire wasn’t an accident,” she whispered, trying to keep her breath steady. “Sharon …. set it. She wanted the Keeper dead.”

The confirmation landed heavy, but it wasn’t a surprise.

I already knew.

I had smelled the accelerant the moment I arrived. It was too precise… fire like these don’t start themselves.

Raze’s presence tightened, fury growing low and dangerous.

“We need to make them pay.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Eventually.”

she

Phantom coughed hard, blood spraying across the ash. She sucked in a shallow breath and forced the words out.

“There’s a fire extinguisher,” she said. “Under my hip, I hid it when the flames started. Take it… go.”

The ceiling groaned overhead, deep and strained, a warning sound that vibrated through my bones.

I hesitated only long enough to take it.

Regret filled her eyes as it met mine.

“I failed her,” Phantom said hoarsely.

“My family,” she whispered again.

“I’ll see to them,” I said. “They’ll be protected.”

Her lips curved faintly, relief evident even in her pain.

Her breathing slowed, then stopped as I took the extinguisher.

I didn’t look again.

I turned, cradling Natalie tighter against my chest, angling my body so her head was shielded beneath my chin. I activated the extinguisher, blasting a narrow, freezing path through the inferno ahead of us.

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Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

I moved fast, as my shoulders took the brunt of falling debris.

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Heat slammed into my back as something tore through my coat. Pain flared through me.

Raze roared, trying to surge forward.

“Let me out.”

“No,” I snapped. “Not here.”

The exit appeared through the smoke as I burst through it and into the night.

Cold air hit like a punch.

Hands reached for us, voices shouted. Chaos exploded.

“You’re burned!”

“Alpha, your back—”

“We need medics!”

I walked straight through them.

“Prep the private hangar,” I ordered. “Clear the OR. I’ll operate.”

Someone grabbed my arm.

“Alpha, you’re injured-‘

I shook them off.

Someone protested… someone always did.

My gamma.

“If she dies,” I said without stopping, not raising my voice, “I will burn the Nightfang Pack to its roots.”

Silence fell instantly.

Even Raze went quiet.

The helicopter blades cut the air minutes later, violent and loud. I didn’t release Natalie once.

Oxygen mask secured, IV line inserted mid–stride. My power threaded through her in careful, restrained strands.

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Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

Raze was not healing – couldn’t heal her but just held on.

Her heartbeat fluttered beneath my palm.

Weak.

But there.

Later, reports filtered in through the comm.

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Alpha Jensen had been restrained, drugged and removed from the scene by his Luna.

“She believed she had won.” Raze said quietly, trying to reserve his energy.

“They have no idea what’s coming,” I responded

“Prep the OR,” I ordered over the comm. “I’m operating.”

There was a pause.

Then Finn’s voice exploded through the channel.

“You’re out of your mind! You’re injured! You’re not stable enough to-

“I didn’t ask,” I cut in. “I said prep it.”

Natalie’s vitals flickered on the monitor.

I took her hand.

“You’re safe,” I said, even though she couldn’t answer. “Stay with me.”

The landing was rough.

I carried her all the way to the table myself and laid her down with a care I hadn’t practiced on anyone in years. Her skin was cold now… too cold as soot streaked her hairline, clinging to her lashes. Dried blood darkened her temple, stark against her skin.

“She was unconscious for too long,” someone said quietly behind me.

“I know.”

I snapped on gloves. The room settled into silence, broken only by the monitors flickering to life.

Her vitals crawled across the screen, weak but present.

O

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Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

Every second stretched thin.

Raze stayed close, lending clarity and calmness. He knew better than to push now.

The doors slammed open behind us.

“Where’s the Alpha?!”

Finn’s voice tore down the corridor, sharp with fury.

I didn’t turn.

“He’s in surgery,” someone answered.

There was a crash, someone definitely got shoved aside.

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Finn stormed into the viewing area, eyes wild. “You let him go in there?! He’s injured! He’s not cleared to operate!”

“Finn,” Shauna – my assistant said calmly, stepping into his path. “You know the rules.”

“I don’t give a damn about the rules!”

I heard him try to control his wolf after I blocked him out of the mindlink.

“Baron!” he shouted. “Get out here, I’m not losing you over this. I didn’t pull you out of a kill zone just so you could bleed out in a hospital you own!”

I didn’t answer.

Raze huffed softly.

I leaned over Natalie and began.

Time narrowed.

Raze watched with me, silent, tracking her heartbeat as if it mattered to him personally.

“She’s stubborn,” he said finally. “I like that.”

I almost smiled.

“She won’t remember this,” I said under my breath. “Not yet.”

Good.

Minutes became hours and the shouting outside faded.

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Chapter 26 The Keeper In The Ashes

I knew what that meant.