Chapter 57: Fight fate 1
ÉTIENNE
Pain shot through my left ankle with every step. The landing had been worse than I’d calculated. Something had twisted wrong when I’d hit the ground. Bone grinding against bone in a way that told me I’d be limping for days even with accelerated healing.
I didn’t slow down.
The forget-me-nots blurred past in waves of pale blue. My feet found purchase on paths I’d walked thousands of times. Muscle memory carried me forward while my wolf howled in my skull with single-minded urgency.
Mate... Mate... Mate...
The word pounded through my thoughts like a war drum. Drowning out everything else. Every rational consideration. Every carefully constructed reason I’d built for why this bond meant nothing.
Then I saw her.
Margaux lay crumpled near the iron fence. Her body was twisted at an angle that made my stomach clench. Blood matted her hair. More of it streaked down her face from a wound somewhere above her hairline. Her dress was torn. Stained red in places that told me she’d been hurt badly.
But her chest moved.
The rise and fall was shallow, barely visible, but it was there.
She was breathing.
My wolf surged forward with relief so intense it nearly buckled my knees. I stumbled the last few steps and dropped down beside her. My hands found her face first. Tilted her head gently to assess the damage.
The gash on her forehead was deep. It would need stitches. Her throat showed bruising already forming in patterns that looked like finger marks. Except there had been no attacker visible when I’d arrived. Just Margaux and the dead sentinel whose body lay several feet away, with his head separated from his shoulders.
Something wicked had done this.
The thought registered with distant curiosity. Like my brain was filing away information it couldn’t process right now. Storing it for later examination when Margaux wasn’t bleeding in my arms, and my wolf wasn’t screaming at me to get her to safety.
They could still be here. They could still be close.
I could catch them.
The observation came clinical and detached. Whoever or whatever had attacked her might still be watching. Waiting to finish the job. The sentinel’s brutal death suggested they had the power to do it. The fact that Margaux lived when he didn’t seemed almost... deliberate.
It would take but a second to check the perimeter, search for threats, and secure the area.
However, my wolf snarled at the suggestions. The sound reverberated through my chest with enough force to make my ribs ache.
Forget all that. Just make sure she is safe.
The command overrode every other instinct. Every tactical consideration that should have taken priority. I was an Alpha... Albeit false. I was supposed to think strategically. To assess threats and protect the pack.
But right now, in this tunnel vision of mine, my pack consisted of one person. And she was bleeding in a garden I’d cultivated in remembrance and hate for her without ever truly admitting why.
I slid my arms beneath her carefully. One under her knees. One supporting her back and head. Her weight settled against my chest as I lifted her. The movement sent fresh pain shooting through my injured ankle.
I ignored it.
My wolf pushed strength into muscles that wanted to give out and flooded my system with adrenaline that made the pain distant and manageable. I could feel the bond humming between us now. Alive and undeniable. Her unconsciousness bled through the connection as a weight pressing down on my own awareness.
Wake up. Please wake up.
The plea surprised me with its desperation. I’d spent years convincing myself I wanted her to suffer. That watching her hurt would satisfy the rage living in my chest since the day her family had destroyed mine.
But this felt wrong. Seeing her limp and broken in my arms for the second time in barely hours didn’t bring satisfaction. It brought terror. The kind that made thinking impossible and reduced everything to a single imperative: keeping her alive.
I turned back toward the main estate. My feet found the path automatically. Each step jarred my ankle badly enough that my vision went white at the edges. But I kept moving.
The sentinel’s body lay where it had fallen. Blood pooled around the neck stump in quantities that would have been impossible to survive. His eyes stared sightlessly at the sky. His mouth frozen open in whatever scream had been cut short when his head separated.
He’d been stationed here and was just doing his job , which was protecting pack territory. And he’d died for it.
Guilt twisted in my gut. This was my fault. I’d brought Margaux here. I made her a target by binding her to me through marriage. Whatever had attacked her today had done so because of that connection.
Did they know me intimately... Was that why she was the only one who was attacked? Because they knew me better than I supposedly knew myself.
Deal with it later. Move now.
I forced my legs to cover ground faster. The garden entrance appeared ahead. Then the glass doors that led back into the estate proper. They opened when I approached. Someone must have been watching and anticipating my return.
Two sentinels stood in the corridor beyond. Their eyes went wide when they saw what I carried. One of them opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off before he could get words out.
"There’s a body in the heart of the garden." My voice came out rougher than intended. "Near the iron fence. Retrieve it immediately. Wrap him properly and get his identification."
Both sentinels nodded sharply.
"Contact his family right away." I shifted Margaux’s weight in my arms. Her head lolled against my shoulder. "They’re probably in one of the border villages. Make sure they’re informed before anyone else can do it. And tell them... tell them he died protecting the Luna of pack... That he was brave and... And that... That it was quick."
That last part was probably a lie. I was not there. I could not determine how much he suffered. But his family didn’t need to know he’d been decapitated by something he would not have seen coming or fight. They didn’t need that image burned into their minds.
"Yes, Alpha." The first sentinel moved immediately toward the garden. The second followed after a brief hesitation.
I continued down the corridor. Margaux’s blood soaked into my shirt where her head pressed against me. The wet warmth spread across the fabric in a patch that kept growing. There was too much blood. She was losing too much.
Faster, my wolf pushed more strength into my legs.
The pain in my ankle became background noise. Irrelevant compared to the need to get Margaux to the healers before she bled out in my arms.
The infirmary appeared ahead. I shouldered through the doors hard enough that they slammed against the walls. Three Omegas working near the supply cabinets spun around. Their faces went from startled to horrified in the space between heartbeats.
"Get the head healer. Now."
One of them ran. The other two rushed forward with a stretcher they pulled from somewhere against the wall. I lowered Margaux onto it with care that felt at odds with the urgency screaming through my veins.
Her face had gone pale. The bruising around her throat stood out starkly against skin that looked almost translucent in the harsh infirmary lighting.
The head healer burst through a side door. He took one look at Margaux and started barking orders in medical and herbalist terminology I didn’t bother trying to follow. Omegas moved with purpose around the stretcher, cutting away her dress and immediately checking her vitals, while cleaning blood from her face so they could assess the damage properly.
I stood frozen near the foot of the stretcher as I watched them work. My hands still felt warm from where they’d held her. Blood stained my palms in patterns that would take scrubbing to remove.
"Alpha." The head healer looked up from where he’d been examining the gash on Margaux’s forehead. "I need you to tell me what happened."
"I don’t know. I was not really there. But she was attacked." The words came out flat. "It has to be the same thing or someone from the night before. The monster who did this killed a sentinel and tried to kill her."
His expression shifted. Understanding flickered across his features, mixed with something that might have been fear.
"So... Magic?"
Whatever doubt I could have had was burned down now. It was magic.
"Precisely."