Chapter 651 Let Me Help

​Olivia’s POV

​The dream was so vivid I could taste the graveyard dirt and smell the lilies. I was standing in the pack cemetery. Louis and Levi were kneeling by a fresh grave, their howls of grief so loud they shattered the silence of the woods. I looked down at the headstone, and the name carved in cold granite was Lennox.

​I woke up gasping, my nightgown clinging to my skin with cold sweat. My heart wasn’t just beating; it was thundering a warning. I didn’t think. I didn’t walk. I pulled on every ounce of my remaining power and teleported.

​The air shimmered, and a second later, I was standing in the middle of Lennox’s darkened suite.

​The machines were humming their rhythmic, mechanical song. On the bed, Lennox was propped up against the pillows. Elena was asleep in the chair by the window, her head lolling to the side. Lennox was awake, staring out at the moonlight, his face looking like a skeletal mask in the silver light.

​He flinched when I appeared, his hand flying to the oxygen mask resting on his chest.

​”Olivia?” he rasped, his voice sounding like dry leaves skittering over pavement. “What… what are you doing here? I told you to stay out.”

​”I saw you,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I moved toward the bed. “I saw them burying you, Lennox. I saw the stone.”

​He tried to harden his gaze, seeking that cold Alpha steel he’d been using to keep me away, but he looked too exhausted to maintain the lie. “It was a dream. Go back to sleep.”

​”No,” I said, reaching the edge of the bed. I didn’t care about Elena. I didn’t care about the ’mate’ he claimed to have. I only cared about the man who was fading before my eyes. “Lennox, please. Just let me check you. Let me touch you. My wolf… she’s screaming. She says you’re cold. Let me help. If you won’t let me heal her, at least let me give you some of my strength so you can breathe.”

​I reached out, my fingers inches from his forehead. I could feel the heat radiating off him—the fever of a body that was burning itself out.

​”No!” he snapped, recoiling as if my touch were poison. He let out a sharp, ragged cough and pressed the oxygen mask to his face, taking a deep, desperate draw. “Stay… back. I don’t want your help. I have a mate for that. I have doctors.”

​”She’s asleep, Lennox!” I cried, gesturing toward Elena. “She’s not even looking at you! How can you choose a stranger who sleeps while you suffer over the woman who would burn the world down to keep you warm?”

​”Because she is my future,” he spat, his eyes glassy and unfocused as he fought for breath. “And you are my past. Now… get out. Before I call the guards to drag you to the guest wing.”

​I stood there, my heart breaking all over again. The rejection was a physical pain, but the fear was worse. I looked at the monitor. His heart rate was erratic.

​”You’re going to die just to prove a point,” I whispered.

​He didn’t answer. He just turned his head away, staring out the window.

​I stood in the silence of his room for another heartbeat, watching the rhythmic rise and fall of his shoulders. He wouldn’t even look at me. The man who once lived for my touch now treated it like acid.

​”Fine,” I whispered, the word thick with tears. “If you want to die alone with a stranger, I won’t stop you.”

​I teleported out, but I didn’t go to my room. I appeared in the center of Levi’s bedroom. He bolted upright in bed, his eyes wide and wild until they landed on me.

​”Olivia? What—”

​”Something is wrong, Levi,” I sobbed, clutching my arms. “I saw him. He’s gray. He’s burning up. He says it’s the bond with her, but I don’t feel her soul in that room. I feel death. You have to do something.”

​Levi’s face softened into that same mask of pained pity I’d seen earlier. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing deeply. “I’ll call more healers, Olivia. I’ll get a second opinion from the city. I promise. Just… go try to sleep.”

​I teleported back to my room, but I didn’t sleep.

​The next morning, the atmosphere was unexpectedly different. Lennox actually made it down to the breakfast table. The boys’ faces lit up like stars.

​”Dad!” Leon chirped, though he paused halfway through his cereal. “Why is your face so white? You look like a ghost.”

​Lennox forced a smile—a thin, brittle thing that didn’t reach his hollow eyes. “I’m just a bit sick, Leon. A stubborn bug. But I’ll be fine. Eat your breakfast.”

​The boys were hesitant, their young instincts telling them his “fine” was a lie. We practically had to drag them to the door to go to school. Once the door clicked shut and the house was silent again, the mask fell. Lennox slumped in his chair, his hand trembling as he reached for a glass of water.

​”Lennox,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm inside me. “We are not enemies. Fine—you found her. You have a new mate. I accept it. But let me check you. I am not just any healer; you know my power. You know I can see things others can’t.”

​Lennox didn’t even look up. He just stared at the water. “No. I heard what the healers said. Your magic will only hurt me now. Stay away, Olivia.”

​The rejection, the coldness, and the sheer exhaustion of the last forty-eight hours finally boiled over. My vision tunneled with rage.

​”You know what? Fine!” I screamed, slamming my hands onto the table. “You want to be a martyr? You want to shut me out while you waste away for some woman who doesn’t even know how you take your coffee? Then die, Lennox! Just die and get out of our lives so we can stop wondering when the clock is going to run out!”

​The words hung in the air like a poisonous fog. My heart stopped the moment they left my lips. I wanted to reach out and pull them back, to scream that I didn’t mean it, that I was just frustrated.

​But Lennox didn’t flinch. He didn’t get angry. He didn’t even look hurt. He slowly stood up, leaning heavily on his cane, and looked at me with a calm, vacant expression that was more terrifying than any shout.

​”If that’s what you wish, Olivia,” he said quietly.

​Then he turned and walked away.