Page 4 of Knot my Alphas

Kneeling before him, I extend a shaking hand toward him and hold a finger under his nose. Warm air fans over my skin, jerking me out of my trance.

“You’re alive.” A broken whisper escapes me. The tightness in my chest lightens. I inhale deeply, my nostrils flaring as the scent of chocolate mixes with the rusty tang of blood. Closing my eyes, I will myself to keep breathing.

Julian’s alive, I repeat in my mind, driving away the shock that’s temporarily paralyzed me.

With utmost care, I slowly make him lie on his back. His pretty face is badly bruised and his lips are pale and bleeding.

With gentle hands, I feel around his scalp and find the wound that’s making him bleed out on the floor. My gaze rakes over his body, noticing his torn shirt.

I look closely, catching a glimpse of his torso underneath the torn patches. Dark bruises pepper his flawless skin.

It’s not hard for me to guess what happened here.

Julian was fighting the men who infiltrated the house. He’d been brave, attacking the bastards despite the hits he received for his efforts to safeguard our home.

A broken vase lies nearby. Someone must’ve smashed it on his head from behind, causing him to lose all consciousness.

How could I let him get hurt when I was so close by?

My fingers wrap around his hand as the ghost of his agony burns through me. Tears sting my eyes as another wave of utter devastation ravages me.

Leaning in, I haul his limp body into my arms and carry him over to a couch. A part of me wants to grab a car and drive him to the hospital but I can’t abandon my troops to fend for themselves.

I’ll have to wait until medical services arrive.

“Thank you for staying alive,” I whisper, gently moving away the bloodied strands of hair away from his face. “You were so brave.”

A pained moan escapes him. His eyelids flutter and his lips tremble.

“It’s okay,” I tell him. “You’re safe.”

“I...Iris,” he moans out. His eyelids flutter rapidly but they don’t fully open. It looks like he’s trapped in a nightmare.

I look around the vast room and then, back at Julian.

“Where is Iris?” I ask him.

He’s gone quiet and still again.

“Iris?” I shout. “Iris, where are you?”

My voice echoes around the vast empty room but there’s no answer.

I jump to my feet as a new fear crashes through me. Where is she?

I check every room on the ground floor, including the kitchen and the bathrooms. My voice goes hoarse from calling Iris’s name but she doesn’t respond back.

The mansion is too big for me to search right now, so I hurry upstairs into the surveillance room. She’s got to be hiding somewhere around there.

I stop the moment I reach the second floor of the mansion.

The door of the surveillance room is bent out of shape and lying on the floor. My feet step over loose rubble as I go near the room.

Reaching the threshold, I stare at the damaged room. It looks like they detonated a bomb in here. The walls are blackened and damp. All the equipment is broken and soaking wet from the water that probably came from the sprinklers on the ceiling.

“Fuck!” I shout, staring at the devastation.

This surveillance room is the only one that recorded feeds from inside the mansion. The assholes destroyed the room to erase their trace.

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