*Maddox*
“Isla!” I shout as I see her lying on the floor, her eyelashes flickering like a butterfly’s wings as her eyes roll back in her head. Mystica finally catches up to me, her middle-aged legs not quite as quick as mine, and I see she has a shot in her hand, ready to inject it into Isla’s body.
Rob, Holly, and Greg, three of the wolves I sent out from the castle ahead of me, are kneeling by Isla’s body, and I can tell by their expressions that they are concerned.
“What’s happening?” I ask, not caring who answers. I stay back out of the way as Mystica forces her way in between them to get access, and the others, still a bit dazed it seems, back away.
“Is she breathing?” The question comes out of my mouth before anyone has even gotten a chance to answer my last one.
“Not at the moment,” Mystica says.
“She was talking a moment ago!” Holly sounds panicked as she looks at Isla’s face. Her skin is turning a bit blue, and I have to wonder if that’s the lack of oxygen or the wolfsbane.
I fully expect Mystica to inject the antidote into Isla’s arm or thigh, maybe her buttocks, but she doesn’t. Instead, she pulls her top down slightly and injects it into her chest, right over her heart, pushing the needle in as far as she can before she deploys the plunger.
I remind myself that Isla can’t feel it at the moment, not if she’s… not breathing.
“Please,” I say, looking up at the crumbling basement ceiling as if I might catch a glimpse of the Moon Goddess herself. “Please, don’t take her, too.” I can’t bear to think of losing another woman who means so much to me.
Isla is not my wife. She is not the love of my life, my mate, like Rebecca was. At least, she isn’t yet. But I do know that sometimes the Moon Goddess is kind enough to bestow a second mate on those of us who are not lucky enough to grow old with the first, and I have wondered over the last few days if the reason I have been so drawn to this beautiful young woman is because she is my second mate.
She might not know it yet because she is so young, or she might not know it because I am the king, and she could mistake her own fascination with someone of my status with the mate bond.
But as I stare at her, tears beginning to form in my eyes, I can’t help but wonder if we could grow old together.
Could we marry, have children, raise a family, rule together, and then die within a few months of one another at a ripe old age?
She’s not royalty. Many of the Alphas would have a fit if I were to marry her, a commoner. My breeder. She does not carry the blood of an Alpha or a king, but she is an amazing person from good stock, and that is enough for me to want to make an heir with her.
So… why shouldn’t it be enough for her to sit next to me on the throne?
At the moment, none of that matters, though, because she is not breathing.
Mystica is doing something I’ve never seen before, pounding on Isla’s chest. “What are you doing?” I ask the healer.
“Pumping her heart for her,” she says. “Trying to get the antidote to circulate.” Mystica is older and not that strong.
“Can I help?” I should be able to pump her heart more efficiently.
“Yes,” she says, and I drop down, Rob scooting away. She shows me how to position my hands and then tells me, “You might break her ribs if you’re not careful. Pump her heart, but don’t crush her.”
At the moment, I have to think it is more important to pump than to try not to break a bone, but I will attempt to do one without the other.
I stare at her face as I continue to pump, praying she will open her eyes, but she doesn’t, and I cannot feel the warmth of her breath on my hands near her face. I cannot hear her heart beating, but I can hear the swoosh of blood as I force it through.
I can smell her, though. I can smell that sweet scent I always smell when I’m around her, vanilla, flowers, all things happy and joyous. I can also smell perspiration—the scent of fear.
What has happened to her makes me so angry, I want to crush something but I refrain because Isla’s body is the only thing I can crush at this moment, and that would make me as bad as those bastards who put her in this position.
Zabrina, Private Wylie, their driver… who else was involved? Who would dare go behind my back and steal this precious soul from beneath my wing? Behind me lies the corpse of a man who had given his life to protect her. I hadn’t known Private Parker long, but I knew he deserved a hero’s funeral. His family would be greatly compensated for what he had done for Isla, or what he had tried to do anyway.
“Sir, it doesn’t seem to be working,” Beta Seth says from across the room, back by the stairs. “Should we try something else?”
“Not yet,” Mystica says. “Give her a few more minutes. It can still work.”
“Is there anything else we can try?” Poppy is crying, and it is hard to understand her through her tears.
“No,” Mystica says. “If this doesn’t work, I’m afraid the Moon Goddess has beckoned the poor dear home.”
I can’t even think of that. I continue to pump. The longer I do so, the more I hear the people around me beginning to sob, the women particularly, though I think either Rob or Greg is also crying.
“Do you want me to try for a bit?” Seth asks. “So that you can rest?”
All I can do is shake my head.
“How long does it usually take?” Holly asks Mystica as she swipes at her nose.
“Usually a minute or so,” the healer answers.
“How long has it been?” Greg’s voice reveals he is the one that is crying.
“Four,” Mystica says.
The chances that I can save her now are slim. I will keep trying, though. I will keep trying until my hands fall off or someone drags me away. I can’t imagine getting up and leaving this place without Isla with me.
She’d called my name. I’d heard her say it right as I came into the room. Were we only seconds late?
No, I wouldn’t accept it.
“Alpha?” Seth says again. “Perhaps—”
“No!” I shout at him. “I’m not quitting. Not yet.”
As I continue to pump, I stare at her face. She’s so beautiful. It’s hard to believe that she’s not here. It’s unimaginable to think that this is just the shell of her, that the sweet soul I’ve fallen in love with over the last week or so is gone. No, it just… can’t be.
“Isla,” I whisper. “Please, come back to me. Open your eyes.” She doesn’t.
“Alpha, I think it’s time,” Seth says, and his hand is on my shoulder now.
“No,” I say to him. “Go ahead and take care of Parker, but I’m not leaving. Not yet.”
I see an exchange of glances between my Beta and the other men in the room. Greg and Rob both get up, still sniffling, and move to where Parker lay. They’ll wrap him up in something, perhaps sheets from the old bed we passed on the way down here, and we’ll take him back with us so that he can have that hero’s burial that he deserves.
“Alpha, I’ve never seen one come back after this amount of time,” Mystica says, her voice solemn. “I’m afraid we were too late.”
I say nothing, only continue to pump the heart I am willing to restart on its own.
One by one, the others get up and leave, or at the very least, back toward the stairs where I can no longer see them.
Now, it is just me, and Isla, and the Moon Goddess who I am continuing to barter with. I list off for her all of the charities I will help, all the good deeds I will do. She says nothing.
And neither does Isla.
Is this really it? Am I going to have to leave here without her? I can’t fathom it.
I lean down, my hands still working over her chest, and I press my lips to hers. They are still warm, but only just barely. I want to blow into her mouth, to give my breath to her. If I could, I would blow my own life into her body, let her live while I fade away. I know she’d be sad without me, but I would gladly give my life for her so that she could live.
She deserves that.
She deserves a long happy life with lots of love, and children, and laughter.
A tear slides down my cheek and lands on hers, near her mouth.
Finally, I break down. My head sags, and I drop it to her chest as wave after wave of bitter emotion overcomes me. I can’t believe this is it, that the Moon Goddess would bring me such a beautiful, gentle creature if I could only have her for a few days. Rage boils up as I imagine what I will do to Zabrina and her insipid followers. I can’t handle it. I want to rip them apart and then climb to the top of the castle and jump from the highest turret.
As my mind goes wild with all of the thoughts of things I’d like to do to those bastards, I begin to realize I’m hearing a new sound. It is faint at first, but I can hear it. At first, it is just a swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, along with a shallow rasp of air. I sit up and turn my head.
Isla’s eyelashes are fluttering again!
“Isla!” I say. “Isla, sweetheart, can you hear me?”
I brush her hair back away from her face, and I can hear that her breathing is getting stronger, as is her heartbeat.
She’s alive!
“Isla!” I shout as I hear footsteps on the stairs. “Isla, look at me!”
As if she can’t refuse my command, her eyes open, and she looks directly into mine. I want to kiss her, to leap up into the air and sing the praises of the Moon Goddess, but I have to know first if she’s okay.
“Are you all right, Isla?”
She stares at me for a long moment before she asks, “Wh-who are you?”