Twice Tempted: Between Two Alphas (Mia and Cameron) novel Chapter 55

Chapter Fifty-Five

CAMERON

“Get me a healer!”

The courtyard is awash in blood. The wraiths took their fill and then, like with the mist that carried them in, they receded.

It’s eerily quiet in the aftermath.

The tall woman who was singing–if she was even real–she’s gone.

Several black birds remain. They perch on the table and on the rooftops. Watching. Waiting.

Shift for me, Mia. Come on now.

Her blood pools beneath her and though I can hear the faint beat of her heart, the pulse is so slow that with each pause I wonder if it will be the last.

“No, my love. Stay with me!”

I apply pressure to her wound.

“Nala. If you hear me… shift. You’re stronger and Mia needs you.” But her body doesn’t move and there is nothing to suggest she heard me. “Mia! Come on, open your eyes, honey. Please.”

I take in the carnage in the courtyard.

Wolves are dead and eviscerated.

Plates and shattered glass line the cobblestone ground.

The air smells of flowers and blood, wine and death.

I glance across to where Adriana lies. She’s the spitting image of Mia and the lifeless eyes that stare back at me are too much like my beloved mate’s.

The Titans are gone. Only the one called Theo remains. He sits on the ground with Corinne cradled in his lap.

If he is indeed some old god, then I marvel at the tears that stream down his face. Because such creatures, though they may guide and watch humanity, are not known for their compassion for our species.

Eric… he will be gutted.

Even more so, because he told Corinne to protect Mia.

She did…and paid the ultimate price for it.

The other women are dead too. They were swept up and …consumed. What remains of them is unrecognizable.

“Mark her,” Theo tells me.

“What?”

“Your woman.”

If I do this, I’m breaking her trust and forcing our bond.

She didn’t want that.

But if I don’t do it, she’ll die.

“Mark her,” he says again. “Or she will follow my raven’s fate.”

I don’t think. I bite down. Her neck is already mangled but I let my teeth break the skin, away from the blood vessels I’m desperately trying to triage.

I draw back and hold my own wrist above the wound. I’m bleeding and I flex my arm to force my blood to mix with hers.

Normally, we would profess each other as mates and the marking bond would extend both ways, with Mia then marking my neck or chest. It is an old tradition, one not many wolves practice these days because the teeth marks are too much for human society and even masking the marks isn’t practical.

“Please, please Mia.”

I can’t think about our kids. Or her father, my beta.

They’ll be devastated.

Me…I’ll never get over this woman. She was mine from the beginning and in all the years of my life, she is the only thing that brings me peace.

“Mia,” I kiss her head. I drag her close, needing to hear her heart to know that it still beats, that she is still breathing.

I wasn’t gentle with her.

I didn’t worship her the way she deserved.

I didn’t love her or give her the words to let her know what she meant to me.

Her last moments on this earth were filled with betrayal and brutality and my selfishness.

I rock her in my arms. “Live. Please.”

Conn is howling, the mournful sounds echoing in my brain until I’m certain I’ll die or go insane.

I feel my own blood swirl. My heart thumps out of rhythm and slows.

We are joined now. One. Complete.

Either she comes back or I will perish along with her.

She survives or I follow her to the grave.