Page 27 of Off-Limits Mate

I look up at both wolves, who are panting and staring at me. I look at Nolan. Then at Jasper.

“I love you,” I whisper.

I manage to get it out before everything goes dark, and you know what?

I think I might be happy with that.

Chapter 12

Jasper

Amara.

There’s so much blood. Nolan’s still snarling at me, snapping, but I don’t give a fuck.

I shift and fall to the floor next to her.

There’s so much blood.

“Amara,” I say, my voice shaking. “Baby. Please. Wake up.” I gather her in my arms, holding her while I look to see where the fuck the blood is coming from.

There’s so much of it.

I know that I’m covered in blood, too. So is Nolan. But Amara is leaking it everywhere. The entire floor of the room, whatever fucking packed dirt or cement or whatever the fuck it is, is covered in blood. In Amara’s blood.

“Amara. Please. Please hold on,” I whisper. I look over at Nolan, who is still the wolf but is staring at Amara with wide, shocked eyes. “Help. Please. Please call someone.”

I’m begging. Pleading.

I can’t lose her.

Nolan shifts, his eyes wide. “Fuck. Fuck. What the fuck do I do?”

“Call the pack, call the hospital, call?—!”

Amara sighs. It isn’t a good sound.

The rattle of her breath leaving her lungs sounds… final.

It spikes the panic in me. I tuck her close, pressing my face against hers. “No.”

It’s a small word, but it feels like it’s being ripped out of my soul.

Her breathing is shallow. I feel like my legs are slippery, coated in the blood that I still don’t know where it’s coming from. My hand drifts down her side. Is something in her side? Is there…

My fingers brush against a huge spike of wood jutting out of her thigh. Straight where her femoral artery is.

No.

I tug on it, pulling it out.

“Don’t do that!” Nolan yells.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t fucking matter because she’s bleeding out in my arms, and I never got to tell her…

“I love you, Amara.” My arms are shaking. My hands are shaking. I can barely whisper the words because they’re caught in my throat. “I love you,” I repeat. “I’m so fucking sorry. I never told you. I wanted to tell you last night. I might have always loved you, and I’m so fucking sorry I never said it. I love you, Amara. Please don’t go.”

Amara doesn’t answer. She never will.

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