Chapter 179
Chapter 179:
“She’s not breathing, Marshall!” Braydon’s voice was high and hysterical. He hovered over me, useless, his hands shaking. “She’s dead! You let her die p>
My head snapped up. The power of my Alpha aura exploded outward like a physical shockwave.
“GET. BACK p>
The Command slammed into Braydon, throwing him backward onto the gravel. He scrambled away, choking on his own fear.
I ignored him. My world narrowed down to the silent woman beneath me.
“Come on, Adella,” I growled, my voice cracking. I interlocked my hands over her chest and pushed.
One. Two. Three.
Nothing.
Ragnar was howling in grief, a sound that threatened to shatter my mind. I pushed harder. Desperation made me clumsy, made me too strong.
Crack.
The sickening sound of a rib snapping beneath my hands echoed in the silence. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.
𝗡𝖾w w𝖾𝗲𝗄𝘭𝗒 𝖼𝗁ар𝘵e𝗋𝗌 𝘰𝗻
“Breathe, damn you!” I shouted, tears — hot and foreign — spilling from my eyes and mixing with the river water dripping from my face. “Don’t you leave me, Adella. Don’t you dare leave me p>
I was the Lycan King. I was death. I was power. And I was weeping over a girl who had stomped on a gunman’s foot to save me.
“Please,” I whispered, pressing my forehead against hers. “Please p>
Her body convulsed.
Water erupted from her lips as she coughed — a ragged, beautiful sound. She gasped, sucking in greedy lungfuls of air, her chest heaving against my hand.
She was alive.
The relief was so intense it nearly brought me to my knees. I pulled her wet, shivering body against my chest and buried my face in her neck, inhaling the scent of river water and life.
Then I heard the sirens. I felt the approach of my Pack warriors.
The mask slammed back into place.
I was a King. Kings did not weep. Kings did not show weakness — especially not in front of a rival Alpha like Braydon Hyde.
I wiped my face with a rough hand, banishing the tears. My expression hardened into stone. I scooped Adella up into my arms as if she weighed nothing.
“Get the medical team ready,” I barked at the approaching shadows of my warriors, my voice stripped of all emotion. “Now p>
I didn’t look at Braydon as I walked past him. I didn’t need to. But as I carried her away, my heart was still hammering a frantic, traitorous rhythm against my ribs — a secret the ice in my eyes would never betray.
Adella
The world came back to me in fragments of pain and blinding white light.
My chest felt as though it had been crushed by a sledgehammer. Every shallow breath was a battle against the sharp, jagged agony radiating from my ribs. The rhythmic beep… beep… beep of a heart monitor drilled into my skull, syncing with the throbbing ache in my temples.
I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt like lead. The smell of antiseptic and stale air assaulted my nose, burying the memory of river water and rot. But beneath the sterile scent of the hospital, I searched for him.
Dallas.