“There is nothing that prepares you to leave this life. It doesn’t matter that you know that you won’t live forever. It doesn’t matter if you see it coming or if it sneaks up on you. It doesn’t matter that you know one day your loved ones will be left to live on without you. It is inevitable. It is painful. It is costly. But it is necessary. For without death, there is no real value in life.” ~Alina Lupei
Vasile froze as he knelt next to Drake, attempting to hold Drake to this world by his will alone as the man’s alpha. His wolf was determined not to let a member of his pack, especially one with a pregnant mate, die. As Vasile focused on Drake’s life force, he realized his wolf’s attention was being ripped away. Focus, he snarled at his beast. He could feel the wolf snap at him as he shoved his own emotions into the man’s mind. Our mate, foolish man, his wolf growled. Vasile’s mind immediately pushed the bond completely open, and he was nearly knocked over by the force of her fury and absolute terror. He could feel her body shaking, could taste the blood in her mouth. Something was very, very wrong. “Mina!” he roared through their bond. He didn’t even consider that it might distract her. She was in mortal danger. Her wolf was snarling, howling in rage. His own wolf must have picked up on it.
“I’m sorry,” Alina said. Her anguished voice trembled. “I’m sorry I’m robbing you of what could have been.” Suddenly, his mind was filled with memories of their life. It was like a movie being played on fast-forward. When they first met and how she loved his voice. Their bonding and mating marks, and how in that moment she knew she would never be alone, that she would have him forever. He saw the day she told him she was expecting their child and how she had cried for hours, tears filled with fear, joy, and excitement. He felt her absolute awe the first time she’d held Fane and then how she’d cried in secret as she watched him rock Fane to sleep while telling him how much he loved him. The memories flooded his mind and the emotions overwhelmed him, but he treasured them. His beloved mate was opening every part of her, every secret, every treasured moment and thought with him because she wanted him to know just how much she’d loved their life together. She showed him their fights and how she’d struggled at times to forgive him, but ultimately she chose their relationship over her own anger. He never deserved her, but she’d given herself to him. And there was no other in the world who could be the woman she was to him. His woman, his wife, his mate. When the final memory came, it was a thought that she’d had that very first time he’d entered her family’s home. She hadn’t said it to him out loud, but he remembered having heard it through their bond.
“I thought you were breathtaking,” she said through their bond, bringing his mind back from her memories. “You smiled at me, and I thought to myself, if I never saw another sunset or sunrise in my life, it would be okay as long as I got to see your smile every day. And I did. I’ve been blessed to see your beautiful smile for over two centuries. I wouldn’t trade a single moment.”
Vasile felt the tears running down his face. He was weeping even as he forced himself to stay next to Drake, but it took all of his self-control. He could barely breathe. His wolf raged inside of him as he saw through his mate’s eyes. A vampire, inches from her face with blood dripping off of his mouth as he grinned, his eyes full of malice.
“I can’t get to you.” The air rushed from his lungs as if he’d been punched in the gut by a battering ram. “I can’t save you.” The only time he could remember feeling so incredibly lost was when they’d first met, and he’d foolishly shut down the bond between them. He’d been hurt by her desire to put space between them, and he’d been a fool. He’d managed to fix that mistake. And she’d forgiven him. She’d loved him anyway, and she’d saved him from the darkness that had been growing inside of him every day that the bond had been closed. There would be no saving this time. They’d had their beginning, they’d had their middle, and now they’d come to their end.
“My love,” she whispered, and he heard the smile and joy in her voice. “You saved me the day you made sure that I would never be without you. I bear your mark, and though this life is over, we will still be together. But so much has been left undone.”
“Life went on before we were here, and it will go on once we are gone. I am with you, always. I will be with you now. I can’t save you, but I can bear your pain for you.” Vasile focused on the sensations running through her body. She was injured in many places, scratches from claws, fae blade cuts that burned like fire. But it was the emotional pain that hurt more than any cut or scratch. She was resigned to the fact that she was going to die. They both were. Her death would not be an easy passing like slipping into sleep. It would be ugly, violent, and excruciating. Vasile pictured himself as a barrier between her and all of the nerves in her body. He pulled all of the pain, physical and emotional, and brought it into himself. His blood boiled as his nerves seemed to be shocked with bolts of electricity. Everything hurt. The air entering his lungs burned like fire. There was no way in hell he would allow his mate to feel such torture.
“Fane is ready,” she said, and he could hear relief in her breath as she relaxed into his care.
“He is.”
“It’s time,” Alina said, her voice barely a whisper. “I love you.” The words were spoken through their bond at the same moment he heard her yell out loud, “FOR THE PACK.”
Vasile felt a massive force in his chest as if something had slammed through his skin, past muscle, bone, and marrow. He immediately pulled in all of his mate’s pain as he felt something clench around his heart. The anguish sucked the air from his lungs. A howl was ripped from him as he and his wolf realized what was happening to their mate, what he was feeling, her precious heart being ripped from her body. Just as he felt the pull on his own heart, he reached out one last time to his amazing mate. “My heart is yours, my precious beloved, in this life and the next.”