He was here next to me. He looked up and patted my hand but looked worried. His wide green eyes were bright but with fear, something that might have been clarity. I wasn’t sure. “Does it hurt?” He asked.
I looked at him. Was he talking to me?
He was.
I shook my head and tried a smile, “No baby,” I curled my lips up; it didn’t feel right.
“I can help,” Emmett frowned.
“I know,” I grabbed his hand, “I know.”
Movement blurred around us, encapsulating us in our own world.
Voices, murmurs, machines, beeping, frantic questions.
“It’s a theory.”
“The only one we have.”
“How much do we drain? He’s already at the end.”
“This could kill him.”
“He’s dying. He has hours if that.”
“The Luna agreed.”
I grabbed Emmett, my tether. A part of me felt guilty for using him for comfort when I should be comforting him.
“It will be okay,” I told him, repeating those hollow words that had no meaning to either of us.
Warmth flickered through my hand, and I glanced down at Emmett.
They started draining him. It was too soon, and this would kill him.
“No,” The word escaped my lips as I saw Caspien’s almost lifeless form, somehow even paler than before.
This would be the last moment that I saw him on this side of the world. I clutched my heart hoping to physically keep the pain that was ripping through me together. If I moved my hand, I knew that I would rip open. I stood up, and stumbled towards him.
No.
“Luna,” A hand came out to stop me.
I stopped when I hit their hand, but Iris wanted us to go to our mate, she was begging me to go to him.
“Space,” Someone said, “While we finish the transfusion.”
Emmett tugged at my hand. I forced my eyes away from my mate being drained. I was still a mother. I had to be.
“Mama,” His eyes were wide.
I pulled him to me stroking his hair and facing him away. I didn’t want him to see Cas like this. Why was he still here? This isn’t appropriate for him to see this. He would be traumatized.
“Emmett, go wait outside.” I was about to link someone to get him.
“He needs me,” Emmett tried to pull back from my grip.
“Baby,-” My voice broke, I choked on my words and clutched tightly to him.
He broke away from me and didn’t stop him, hoping someone would follow my wishes and take him out. I couldn’t focus on anything besides my mate.
His heart sped up, the monitor beeping out of control. My skin crawled and felt too hot and too cold. That couldn’t be good.
One long beep that didn’t stop and everyone rushed around, I got pushed out of the way.
I’ve seen enough in movies to know this was the end.
“Get him away,” Someone said.
“No!” Emmett shouted, and I tried to follow his voice. Where was he?
Emmett was clutching onto Caspien, and it broke the last piece of me.
It was over.
Emmett was holding onto his dead father. His eyes were shut, and his hands splayed on Caspien’s bare chest.
The beeping started again.
The doctors froze. Time froze for a second before activity picked up back in the room.
(Caspien)
I fought with everything I had, what was left of me at least, but I couldn’t remember what I was fighting for.
Darkness was all that I knew. The only thing that made me think that there might be something else was a sharp pain that radiated through me with each breath.
I didn’t know where I was or why I was there.
I just wanted it to end.
Everything slowed and stopped.
The pain was there but not as sharp, but maybe it was because it was the end of whatever this was.
I was slipping.
Something new rushed through me, it wasn’t enough to take away the pain, but it lessened it.
The pain. My side. The challenge.
I held onto that, a moment of clarity in the darkness. A rational thought.
I was Prince Caspien Dracos, and I had a mate and a son.
Willa. Emmett.
I had them.
I had something to fight for, but I didn’t know how long I could hold on.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.