Page 51 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
Triumphant roars erupted around me, but my victory was fleeting. Before I could allow relief to settle in my bones, the Silver Moon and Moonlight Packs barreled forward, pushing the remnants of the Black Moons away with renewed vigor. While my wolf wanted to charge after them, to finish this fight once and for all, I stumbled, drained, and barely able to stand against the pain of the wound throbbing in my side.
But with all the energy I had left, I drove it into shifting out of my wolf’s form. On two legs, I turned to see Selina emerge triumphantly from the woods alongside Lyvia—Mia walking between them. My gaze settled dazedly on our daughter, and I thought as I had when I’d first seen her how uncanny her resemblance was to myself as a child. A goofy smile spread across my face as contentment settled deep within my chest.
My girl is safe.
Mia looked at me, her expression one of confusion and fear as shedrank in the carnage around her. I saw a glimmer of her mother in those eyes, and my heart ached with a mixture of joy and sorrow. She shouldn't have to see this. She shouldn't have to know this world. But she was safe. That’s what mattered. I relished that I’d gotten to meet her, to know her, and only regretted that she’d grow up not knowing how she and her mother meant the world to me. I tried to focus on her, but my gaze blurred, and the sudden sharp pain in my side had my breath catching. I faltered, my knees buckling, and the world spun as I dropped to the ground, the earth rushing up to meet me.
Chapter 24
Selina
My heart thundered with fear as I came out of the woods, holding Mia’s hand, her other in Lyvia’s. I’d wanted to comfort her, but the bond pulling in my chest, with excruciating pain, was urging me back to Alexis.
My gaze found him just as he slumped against the ground.
No. No.
I dropped Mia’s hand. And ran.
“Mommy!”
Blood pounded in my head, and I couldn’t move fast enough. As I reached Alexis, I saw his chest rise in jerky, spasming movements, his breath ragged and violent. The sight of the deep gash in his side ripped at my insides. The world around me blurred momentarily, the colors of victory fading.
I pressed both my hands to Alexis’s side, trying to staunch the blood that was leaving him too quickly. He flinched and gasped in pain. His eyelids drifted shut, and panic zipped through me as his stormy stare was suddenly shuttered from me.
“Alexis,” I blurted out, “look at me!”
His eyes blinked open, and my own gaze locked with his. “I’mgoing to heal you,” I said, even as panic zipped through me, my stomach sinking as I realized—I didn’t have any healing herbs with me.
The familiar everyday sight of those lining my shelves and in my stock cupboard taunted me. Why hadn’t I packed anything? Panic and rage at myself rose within. I looked around at the empty shop in my mind, all the things I’d built around me that once meant so much. Yet none of it compared to the gnawing reality that Alexis was fading—nothing mattered without my mate and our daughter.
I looked up to find Seraphina’s jade eyes, watching with quiet compassion and a forlornness that told me she didn’t have anything to heal him either. She and Lyvia had only brought enough ores to locate Mia, a thought that twisted my gut.
“Leave it,” Alexis said, his hand coming to clasp mine and drawing it away from his wound. “Just look at me.”
The gentleness in his expression made my heart clench. It looked too much like resignation. Acceptance that he would be leaving…
I shook my head. “No, no, we’re going to get a potion… something.”
Anything.
Yet, staring at the dazed look in his eyes and his heavy eyelids, I could see that time was slipping away from us. “Alexis, please…” I murmured, not sure what I was saying, feeling the strain in my heart as our mate bond thrummed with excruciating agony, a hint of what was to come if… he left me.
Lyvia approached, her expression solemn. “We need to channel your mate bond, Selina. That’s what we can use to heal him.”
I felt the wild thrum of my heart racing against my chest, an anxious rhythm echoing my desperation.
“You have to mark him,” Lyvia insisted, her eyes gleaming with fierce determination that sparked something deep in my heart. “Your bond will stabilize his healing.”
At her words, a flicker of hope ignited, but fear shadowed it. Could I really use our mate bond to save him? I knew we loved each other, but I couldn’t help thinking back to when we’d first met. Alexis had fought our fated mate bond with everything he had. What if he fought it now?
I leaned closer to Alexis, holding his battered body against me as I gently cradled his head. Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks, hot and furious, but I tried to stay calm, focusing on the connection thrumming between us. I wouldn’t lose him.
He opened his eyes momentarily, their depths clouded with pain yet still radiating the warmth I’d grown to cherish. “Selina,” he rasped, his voice barely above a whisper, yet it felt like a glimmer of hope. “I… I—”
“No! Don’t you dare give up on me!” I said fiercely, squeezing his hand as if willing my strength into him. “You have to fight, Alexis. Please, stay with me.”
His gaze latched onto mine, and in that moment, I felt the bond between us thrumming like a heartbeat—a gentle pulse pushing back the shadows.
