Chapter 227

Chapter 227

IVORY

Finished

I worked in silence at first, my hands moving with practiced precision despite their trembling. Cleaning the wound. Removing debris. Preparing for the stitches that would hopefully hold better than my previous

attempt.

“You’re stubborn,” I said to unconscious Aria as I began stitching. Talking helped me focus, helped me work through the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm me. “Too stubborn for your own good. Telling me to leave you behind. Like I’m the kind of person who abandons partners just because they become inconvenient p>

Another stitch. Another pull of thread through damaged tissue.

“Nina told me what happened eight years ago. How I refused to let Kael help me. How I nearly died out of stupid pride because I was too stubborn to admit I needed saving. And Kael did it anyway. Saved me even though I’d told him not to. Even though it would have been easier and more practical to leave me p>

The wound was closing. Not pretty, but functional. Enough to keep her alive if infection didn’t set in.

“I hated him for it at first. Resented being saved. Felt like it proved I was weak and inadequate. But I was wrong. It wasn’t weakness to need help. It was strength to accept it. To let someone care about your survival enough to risk themselves for you p>

I finished the stitches and began wrapping fresh bandages, securing them tightly enough to hold but not so tight they’d cut off circulation.

“I see it now. In you. The same thing Kael must have seen in me back then. Someone worth saving. Someone worth the risk and the effort and the sacrifice. You ate nightshade to survive. You weakened that plant while it strangled you. You kept fighting even when fighting seemed pointless p>

I checked her other injuries-the throat bruising, the various cuts and scrapes accumulated during the Hunt. None of them were immediately life-threatening, but collectively they painted a picture of someone who’d been through hell and somehow survived.

“I understand why he chose you,” I admitted quietly. “Why he accepted the bond. Not because you’re exceptional or brilliant or any of the things people like me get valued for. But because you’re strong in ways that matter. In ways that will help him lead. In ways that will make you a good Luna if you survive long enough to figure out how p>

I sat back, assessing my work. She’d live. Probably. If we reached the checkpoint in time. If infection didn’t set in. If the accumulated trauma didn’t prove too much for her body to overcome.

A lot of ifs. But she had a chance. That’s all anyone got in situations like this.

I hoisted her onto my shoulders in a fireman’s carry, ignoring the way my injured arm screamed in protest. Ignored the exhaustion threatening to buckle my knees. Ignored the voice in my head that said I was being stupid, that I should leave her and save myself, that partnership was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

Because I remembered what it felt like to be saved. Remembered Kael’s arms around me eight years ago,

1/3

14:51 Mon, Jan 19 G &

Chapter 227

carrying me to safety despite my protests, refusing to let me die out of stupid pride.

Finished

I owed him that memory. Owed him the gesture of doing for his mate what he’d once done for me. Returning the favor even though he’d never asked for repayment. Evening the debt that I’d been carrying without realizing it for eight years.

I started walking. One foot in front of the other. Aria’s weight pressing down on my shoulders, my injured arm throbbing with every step, my vision swimming from exhaustion and blood loss.

But I kept going.

Because that’s what partners did. Even when partnership was inconvenient. Even when it would have been easier to walk away. Even when every practical calculation said saving yourself was the smart choice p>

You carried them anyway.

I saw movement ahead. Other teams. Watching me struggle. Watching me carry my unconscious partner through the forest like some kind of dramatic demonstration of weakness and poor judgment.

Let them watch. Let them report back to their people that I’d sacrificed tactical advantage for sentiment. That I’d risked everything for someone who’d been slowing me down from the start. That I’d made emotional rather than strategic choices.

I didn’t care about their ass 72

Didn’t care about appearing weak or foolish or too soft for competition.

I cared about reaching that checkpoint. About getting Aria to medical help. About proving that some things mattered more than winning.

The checkpoint came into view eventually. Miles and exhaustion and pain later, but it appeared. I saw the markers, saw the Ghost Council representatives, saw the medical tents where Aria could get proper care.

I saw Kael. Standing there. Watching me approach with his unconscious mate draped across my shoulders. His expression unreadable but his tension evident in every line of his body.

I carried Aria past him without speaking. Didn’t acknowledge him. Didn’t explain. Didn’t justify my choices or seek his approval or his gratitude.

Just walked

past

him to the medical tent and handed his mate over to the healers waiting there.

“Stab wound reopened,” I said to them, my voice flat and professional. “Emergency field surgery perfo twice. Possible infection. Strangulation trauma to throat. Multiple contusions and lacerations. Signific blood loss. She needs fluids and monitoring p>

They took her from me and I felt the absence of her weight like physical relief. My shoulders screamed as they were released from the burden they’d been carrying. My knees threatened to buckle now that I didn’t have to stay upright.

But I didn’t collapse. Didn’t show weakness. Just turned and walked toward where my team’s camp was being established, ignoring the stares, ignoring the whispers, ignoring Kael’s gaze following me.

I’d done what I needed to do. Had paid the debt I owed. Had proven that partnership mattered even when partnership was impractical.

And if that made me weak in their eyes, if that made me foolish or sentimental or insufficiently ruthless for

14:51 Mon, Jan 19 G.

Chapter 227

competition-

I didn’t care.

Finished

Because I’d seen my reflection in Aria’s stubbornness. Had recognized the echo of my younger self in her refusal to quit. Had understood that saving her was about more than just Hunt partnership or pack politics or anything tactical.

It was about refusing to let history repeat. Refusing to let someone die out of pride when they could be saved p>

It was about being the person Kael had been for me eight years ago.

Even if I didn’t fully remember why that mattered.

My body knew. Even if my mind had lost the memories, my body remembered what it felt like to be saved. To be carried to safety despite protests. To have someone refuse to let you destroy yourself.

And that memory—that visceral, physical memory-had driven my choices today.

Had made me carry Aria when carrying her made no tactical sense.

Had made me choose partnership over survival.

Just like Kael had chosen for me.

The debt was paid.

And whatever happened next-whatever consequences came from that choice-I’d face them knowing I’d done the right thing.

And I’d make the same choice again.

Every single time.

3/3

Mark