Gav laid Serena flat, bracing her on one side.
Dex dropped to the other side and held her down, still gripping her hand like letting go might end her. His jaw was tight, eyes locked on her face.
She started coughing again, harsh and wet, each breath a broken rattle as her flooded lungs fought for air.
Don't you dare die on me. Don't you fucking dare.
Her panic washed into him through their matebond. He wanted to tell her to breathe and help her calm. But she couldn't breathe, so the words died before they reached his mouth.
"Hold on, baby. We've got you," he said instead, forcing the words past gritted teeth. It was all he could manage. He surged calm into her through their matebond and gave her hand a squeeze, knuckles white, trying to keep his own emotions in check.
Hyran tore his shirt, ripping a strip from it. He wrapped the cloth around his hand and grabbed what was lodged inside her.
He didn't look at any of them when he did it. There was no time for explanations.
The cloth caught fire instantly. But he didn't flinch or pull away. He stayed exactly where he was, skin blistering as flame ate through fabric and flesh.
A guttural sound tore from Dex's throat as her pain slammed through their matebond. It stole the breath from his lungs. And this was only a dim mirror of what she was feeling. Just a fraction of it.
It hurt more than any wound he'd taken. He could feel it was corrupted. Embedded deep and latched on like a parasite.
Serena's tears came silently, her whole body locked tight against the scream trying to claw out.
But the pain overtook her.
Instead of a scream, a high-pitched whimper tore from her throat, cut short by the sick gurgle of blood bubbling up from her flooded lungs.
Her panic surged up, cutting through the calm Dex pushed to her.
Dex wiped her tears with his thumb. "Hey... hey... easy," he said in a soothing voice, though his own was cracking. "Just a little longer."
He had seen warriors bleed out and die on battle fields. But nothing could have prepared him for this. She was dying and she was not in his arms.
He noticed blood all over her, and not just her blood. He wondered how long she'd been out here, alone, bleeding, fighting for every breath.
Alaric was supposed to fetch her in the throne room. Did that not happen? Clearly not.
Mindlinks were down. If he'd have known, he'd have returned for her immediately. The only reason he didn't bring her with him to begin with was because her wounds were critical. Alaric was on his way to the throne room, she should have been safe.
He ignored his instincts with Serena twice today. And he was wrong for it both times.
There was no doubt in his mind who had stabbed her. None.
He knew something was off with Elara earlier. He sensed it. And he ignored it.
Never again. Fuck protocol. Fuck everything.
He felt Serena's pain when she was alone with Elara. He knew she was stabbed then. It was the same sensation from the day they met, when she took a blade for him.
But today he wasn't able to get to her. Attackers overtook the castle, and worse, he didn't know where she was.
Unacceptable. That ended now. She would never be out of his reach again.
Then he felt nothing from her for hours. That scared him more than anything.
To his absolute horror, her body was thrown onto the throne room floor. Her pain finally flickered back through the matebond, but it was dim.
She was kicked. Cuffed. Choked. Forced to catch a blade barehanded.
He watched her almost die again and again.
How many times? How many fucking times today?
No. Never again.
He wiped more tears from her eyes with his thumb, and was about to tell Hyran to stop so he could pull her up against his chest. Even if her lungs couldn't fill all the way, it was better than what she was suffering through.
Just as Dex opened his mouth, Hyran finally yanked the blade free.
His hands were black, the smell of burning flesh thick in the air. He did not react.
Gold light flared from his palms and poured into Serena, washing over her like liquid warmth. As his magic healed her, it healed his own hands in tandem.
Through the matebond, Dex felt her pain fade and warmth replace it, deep and steady.
The inferno burning through the mark on his arm dimmed in symmetry, heat receding to a low simmer.
Dex looked up at Gav sharply, who had been watching him. Almost as if he was waiting for Dex to connect that. They held eye contact for a heartbeat in silent understanding. The connection was unmistakable.
✦✦✦
Elara was panting, tears falling. Archibald and Thalen's hands were lit. Both tried to heal her.
Archibald shook his head. "She's not healing either."
"I sense something," Thalen added. "But no dark magic is surfacing."
Elara was panting hard now, chest hitching as tears slid down her face. She looked terrified and exhausted, like she was holding herself together by sheer will alone.
Hale's wolf knew what to do.
And Hale let it.
He had nothing left to lose. She was dying and whatever rules he had been clinging to no longer mattered.
It surged forward hard and fast. His fangs sank into her neck, marking her.
It was an urge he'd been fighting for over two weeks, shoving down every instinct, every pull. He didn't want to rush her. He wanted to give her time, space, a choice.
Gods, though. It made everything so much easier to stop fighting it.
He knew she would heal faster and be stronger with his venom. Her eyes fluttered closed as it surged into her.
He let go of her neck, and felt their fated bond snap into a full matebond.
For two weeks he had felt her emotions, distant, like echoes. This was different. This was sharp and immediate.
It felt like his own pain now, his own fear, his own breath hitching in her chest.
He would be able to protect her.
She was his.
"I think it is…" His voice trailed off as his eyes dropped.
He reached carefully and unzipped her training suit, pulling it down.
A bronze medallion, the size of a coin, sat on her shoulder. It was metal, solid, like someone had placed it there and it had somehow stayed. Markings were etched into it.
Hale didn't feel any pain coming from it through their matebond. But, he felt it didn't belong.
Thalen's eyes widened. "If this is what I think it is, then there is another one. Always in pairs."
Hale pulled her training suit down halfway.
The second one was there, identical, embedded directly over her heart.
Thalen inhaled sharply. "We have to cut it out."
Hale reacted instantly. He pulled Elara into him protectively, one arm wrapped around her, the other keeping firm pressure on her wound.
A few feet away, Hyran was still hovering over Serena. He looked satisfied enough to be terrifying.
"Stay flat," he said. "Do not speak for another minute."
Her eyes were closed, but he knew she could hear him.
Hyran straightened and turned to Hale, having listened to the conversation.
He looked at Elara who Hale was holding and ready to go war for.
His voice was calm. Clinical.
"She either bleeds out," he said, "or we cut those out and she has a chance of living. Choose."
Serena's eyes snapped open.
She blinked a few times, blur slowly coming into focus. Dex and Gav were still holding her, one on either side. The color had drained from both of their faces.
She lifted her hand toward her head and felt blood. She remembered being dragged. Being dropped. Had she hit her head again without realizing it?
That seemed likely.
Hale's voice reached her, but it was distant and distorted, like she was underwater. He sounded upset. Angry. Scared.
She tried to sit up.
Dex immediately held her down.
"Hey… easy," he said, firmly. "Stay down for a little longer."
His hands were careful, like he was afraid she would break if he held her too tightly. He wanted to pull her into his lap, to wrap his arms around her and keep her there before she did anything else.
Then she heard Elara scream.
That was it.
Serena was up in an instant, shoving Dex and Gav aside with a burst of strength she did not know she had.
It startled her as much as it did them.
Both of them stared at her, shock written plainly across their faces. It hadn't crossed Dex's mind until now that his venom gave her more strength. But of course it did. That's how venom worked.
"Apologies," she whispered, eyes widening.
She did not have time to dwell on it and slid over to Elara, dropping to her knees beside her.
She saw it immediately. Something was being cut out of Elara's chest. They were halfway through, but Thalen had stopped. It was too close to her heart to finish safely.
Elara was sobbing in agony, her whole body shaking.
Serena heard muffled noises from Hale. He was yelling at them, furious, his voice breaking.
Serena slid Hyran's blade partly from its sheath. Just enough for her to slice her hand. Hyran didn't seem aware she did that, too focused on Elara.
She squeezed her blood out onto the wound.
The wound closed and healed instantly.
Shocked silence fell.
Serena didn't stop. There was no time for explanations.
Thalen carefully pulled the second piece of the coin free. Serena immediately squeezed her hand and let her blood spill onto it.
No one tried to stop her. It healed instantly.
Elara's eyes fluttered closed and her body finally went slack, the tension draining out of her all at once.
A muffled noise broke the silence. Something between a sob and a wounded animal.
Serena looked up just in time to see Hale tackle her to the ground.
Full weight. No warning. Absolutely no restraint.
He wrapped her up in a crushing hug and started kissing her face, forehead, cheek, nose, completely missing any sense of dignity.
He was sobbing so hard it came in loud, broken hiccups, and Serena had no idea what was happening or why she was suddenly horizontal.
A six-foot-seven Beta. Champion of Drakenfell. High General. Battlefield menace.
Currently crying like an overgrown toddler who had just been told nap time was mandatory.
"I—she..." Hale tried, words failing him entirely.
"It is okay, Hale. She is better," Serena finally managed to say, patting his back.
Hale sniffled hard, like the words physically hit him. He very clearly needed to hear that.
She heard Dex's voice, muffled, and Gav's. Hyran's too, possibly yelling at Hale.
Hale got off her and promptly forgot that she had been stabbed.
Absentmindedly, he hauled her upright, one hand cinched around her waist like she weighed nothing at all.
She winced immediately and gasped, hunching over.
Dex was there in a flash, scooping her up at alpha speed before she could fully fold in on herself.
Hale looked stricken.
He was already having a terrible day, and she could see him spiraling over the fact that he had hurt her. He did not always remember how big he was, which somehow made him both adorable and dangerous.
"It is okay, Hale," Serena said quickly, even as Dex held her. "It just surprised me. It did not hurt."
A lie that worked.
He nodded, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hands, still sniffling as he tried to pull himself together.
Serena breathed in Dex's scent and felt safe again.
It surprised her how quickly everything with Dex had fallen into place. It had only been a few days since they became mates, and yet he already felt like home.
Like they had loved in another life and were picking up where they had left off.
Her eyes fluttered closed.