CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Rory's POV

My heart stopped when I heard the familiar rush of Bastion's blood bounding toward me. No. Aria. I ran at top speed to meet him halfway. He shifted as soon as I came into sight, his face confirming my greatest fears. Aria was hurt.

"What the hell-"

"We need to go. Her wolf was suffering. She was in pain."

Tears started flowing rapidly down his face, and he clutched his chest. "It hurts so fucking bad. Go. Now."

I didn't waste time nodding at him. I just ran. I could hear her faint heartbeat as I approached the oasis, tearing through vines in my way to get to her. She was lying completely still beside who I assumed to be Alpha Lawson, drenched in her sweet-smelling blood. I could hear it still trickling from her cracked skull, and I rushed to her side.

Then, it hit me like a train, making it impossible to breathe. I could only hear one. One. One faint heartbeat.

"No," I whispered, my eyes wetting with tears. As quickly as I could manage, I extended my fangs, tearing open my wrist and lifting her into my lap.

"Drink, love," I begged, tilting her mouth open so the blood could pour down her esophagus. She choked on it, and it sputtered out of her mouth and onto me. "Please. Please, love."

No. This was all my fault. If I hadn't come up with this stupid plan, none of this would have happened. I needed to save her. I needed to stop the bleeding. I leaned her limp body forward, running my tongue through her hair and sealing the gash in her head. It was fading. I halfheartedly wiped her blood from my face with the back of my hand before turning her back to try to feed her again. It had to work. She wasn't supposed to die like this.

I could no longer see through the tears I produced, nor could I hear through the sobs that racked my body. I just sat in the oasis, covered in my royal's blood as I tried desperately to persuade her to cling to whatever ounce of life she had left. I felt the restructuring of her ribs against my chest, but it still wasn't enough. She needed more. More blood. More something.

"No." Bastion's small cry broke through my daze, and I blinked away my tears so I could see him more clearly. He crawled over to us slowly, the pain evident throughout his entire body. Then, his pain turned to anger.

"No! You promised me, Aria. You fucking promised me that you would be okay. You promised you wouldn't leave me!" His shouts were accompanied by painful sobs of his own, and I tried my best to communicate with him.

"I'm sorry. I-" I let out a garbled cry. "I tried. They're gone. They're gone."

He just shook his head. "No. No, no, no. They aren't. They can't be."

I bit my lip, piercing it with my fangs and burying my face in my hands, letting my sorrow take me as the love of my life, my royal, faded away from me. It was excruciating. Pain unlike anything I had ever felt, and I knew that I wouldn't survive without her. I needed her. She was my breath. I was becoming numb to everything besides the rapidly dropping pulse. I barely even felt when her weight slid off of my lap and onto the mossy ground.

I peeked up just in time to see Bastion gripping her ankle and dragging her into the oasis' gentle waves. "She always said the water could heal. If she swims, maybe she'll get better. Maybe they'll come back." His voice was begging, pleading for his words to be true. He had officially lost it. Our babies were already dead.

I looked at him with pity as he stood waist-deep, holding her against his chest, trying to coat her in the crystal-clear liquid. "Come on, baby. Wake up. Please. We need you. I need you. Please." He cooed into her hair, rocking her limp body to and fro.

For the first time, probably ever, I prayed. A real, heartfelt prayer. One of desperation, of sorrow, of brokenness. If the gods really cared as much as they said they did, as much as we did, they wouldn't let her go like this. They wouldn't take her away from us. They wouldn't leave us loveless.

I was wrong. All went quiet except for two shattered hearts and the soft trickle of water. She was gone. They were gone. Bastion let out a loud, tortured cry into the night sky, being met by the howls of our pack. When her heart stopped, I thought mine would too. But it didn't. I felt every ounce of pain that was losing my royal. Every shred and tear and rip of my insides. Every overwhelming and all-consuming feeling of loss and emptiness. It didn't kill me, but I wanted it to.

Then, I heard it. The slow increase in strength of her previously dead pulse. My eyes widened, and I crawled towards them, the cool water soaking my clothes as I descended the subtle decline of stones.

"Aria," I called out weakly. As if by some miracle, she was coming back to us. "Aria," I called out again, a little stronger this time. I waded over to her, half-drenched and full of hope. "Love, open your eyes."

With that, her eyes fluttered. "Ro-ry."