AZURA
We simply walk around the pack for a bit. Leo looks super pissed, and I know he’ll tell me what is on his mind when he’s ready. But the minutes are passing, and I can feel his irritation rising. Even with his impeccable skills at keeping the block up, he’s still letting snippets seep through the cracks. He is on his fourth cigarette already, and I have had enough. I need him to talk.
“Okay. What’s wrong?” I ask, coming to a stop and gripping his upper arm. A soft wind blows through my hair as I force him to turn to face me. He has his jaw clenched, those plump lips set in that pissed-off pout of his. Oh, Goddess, this man is so fuckably perfect. Is that a word? It is in my books. Right now, I’m more concerned about his emotions. He’s still struggling to control them. What exactly had happened? I tilt my head, waiting for him to speak as I step closer, cupping his face. “Tell me, what’s wrong?” I whisper. He exhales, his arms locking around my waist, and gives a half smile.
“This pup’s getting in between us now,” he murmurs, looking down at my stomach, and I nod.
“Yeah… it’s growing faster now,” I whisper. Leaning up, I kiss his jaw, waiting. “Now talk to me, Blue Eyes. Don’t change the subject.” He sighs, frustrated, clearly knowing he can’t delay telling me any longer.
“Well… I fucked up. I didn’t ask Emmet if anyone in this pack was helping him. I should have asked for names… I mean, I could have the entire pack put under Alpha command and ask them, but that will cause way more fucking damage to a pack that is already crippled. Their trust isn’t the same… not after everything we’ve been through. It will fuck ‘em up.”
Fuck. He forgot to ask Emmet that one vital question. Even I didn’t think of that, and neither did the Five… we were all so in the moment! But I understand what he meant about the pack…
“Babe, you can’t beat yourself up over that! I get that it sets us back a little, but none of us thought of that. So, please, it’s okay. We got this.” I caress his jaw with my thumbs. It’s obvious that my words didn’t ease his irritation. He exhales, looking away and passed me.
“I shouldn’t have fucked up. I made…. Fuck.” He’s blaming himself unfairly. I pull his head down, cupping the sides of his jaw, my finger brushing his ears, and kissing him deeply.
No. You didn’t. It’s okay, we will figure it out. Together, I whisper through the link, letting my emotions flow through to him. He relaxes a little, yanking me closer as he leans down over me, kissing me harder. Mine… We break apart after a few moments, and he is slightly calmer.
“We’re going to get the answers,” I promise. It hasn't been that long since we have been together, but it feels like ages.
“Yeah… we will. It was just a lead fucking wasted,” he says quietly, his head tilted as he looks me over slowly. “How did I get you?” I smirk, my stomach fluttering.
“Mm, well… I’m a Westwood woman. We all know that the Rossis love us. Especially the broken, damaged ones that just need us.”
“Oh yeah? Cocky much?”
“What can I say? You’re rubbing off on me…” I tease, satisfied to see that sexy smile back on his face.
Oh, fuck, I’m in love, and I have it so bad. Everything he does makes me giddy. It’s a feeling I haven’t experienced before him….
“Yeah?” He asks softly, that gorgeous smile still on his face. I roll my eyes and push him away.
“Don’t say anything!” I warn, thinking these walls are so damn hard to focus on. “Come on, let’s go see Kareena.”
He nods, his smile fading before I run off. He catches up with ease, wrapping his arms around my waist and burying his face in my neck as he tickles me.
“You ain’t so fucking fast.”
“Leo!” I laugh, unable to stop as I writhe in his arms, gasping when his fingers caress my waist teasingly.
“Fuck, you smell good,” he groans into my neck as we head to Kareena and Shane’s house.
It takes us another ten minutes to get there. The Sangue Pack is large, and with its layout, it’s more of a city than any other pack I have seen. Shane and Kareena’s house is in the quieter part where there are actually houses with gardens unlike the majority of the pack which are entirely apartments. This pack is incredibly modern and stylish. I’m sure if other packs actually saw this place, they’d be jealous.
When we finally reach the double-storey house, we walk through the gates and Leo rings the doorbell, but there is no answer.
“Do you think she’s gone out?” I ask, unsure. She hadn’t left since the funeral.
“I don’t think so. She’s been inside the majority of the time. The guards were supposed to be here… and someone was supposed to be inside with her.” Leo frowns, looking around. He knocks once more and rings the bell. I feel him lowering his walls so I can enter his mind.
Kareena? He calls her through the link. Kareena?
Nothing.
Who was the last one with Kareena? He asks through the mind link.
You. Ace’s voice comes into Leo’s mind. You said you were going to head there after the hearing an hour ago… Leo, what’s wrong?
Yeah, is everything okay? Jax’s worried voice follows.
My heart thuds just as Leo’s eyes flash, and he slams his shoulder into the front door. The door trembles at the powerful impact, but it was made to withstand a werewolf’s strength. He steps back, and this time, he kicks it. It splinters as it goes flying, creating an intense blast. If Kareena was asleep or didn’t hear the door, she sure would have now.
“Kareena!” He shouts. His voice is cold, but I can sense his panic through the bond. “Check upstairs! I’ll check down here.”
I nod as he runs through to the lounge whilst I run to the stairs, taking them two at a time and following my nose. I run to her bedroom. Pushing open the door, I see that it is empty.
“Kareena?” I call, stepping into the room when my gaze falls to the bathroom door in the corner. My heart thumps, and that’s when I hear the tap running and feel relieved. Thank the goddess... “Kareena?” I repeat, walking over to the door. Nothing. I knock again. “Kareena?” I try the handle of the door, only to realise it’s locked. Fuck!
She’s up here! I call through the link.
My eyes blaze, and a flare of power blazes around me, wrapping around my hand and frying the entire lock and handle off. I push it open, freezing in my tracks.
“Azura?” Leo calls, but I can’t reply, the sight before me making my stomach sink.
The tap is running into a bath that is overfull already, but what sends a chill down my spine is the hand that hangs out of the bath. The coppery smell of blood hits my nose as I approach the bath that is coloured pinky-red. A faint heartbeat can be heard, but it’s so quiet…
“Kareena?” I ask as I stop at the bath and stare down into the bloody water, my eyes widening in horror. “Leo!” I shout, panic making my voice shake as I plunge my arms into the bloody water, lifting the body from the water. Leo rushes in just as I place her on the floor.
Deep cuts run along her wrists. They are still bleeding, which means she probably used a poisonous blade to create them. My mind is spinning as I tried to remain calm, dropping to my knees beside her body. I need to perform CPR right now! Placing one hand over the other, I begin on chest compressions. Leo seems frozen for a moment, his heart thundering.
“Leo, we need help! Now!” He blinks, snapping out of his reverie.
One, two, three! I keep going, quickly opening the airway. I pinch her nostrils shut and give her mouth-to-mouth, feeling her heart beat slightly.
“She’s breathing!” I shout in panicked relief.
He nods, and I know he’s mind-linking as I switch to chest compressions again.
I can’t focus on Leo right now, but the fleeting glimpses of his thoughts tell me I need to save her at all costs. All he can think about is that he had failed Shane. That, once again, his carelessness has almost cost us…
No, Leo. You’re wrong.
-----
“She’s going to be fine,” I tell Leo.
We are all seated in the hospital. It’s late in the afternoon, and we are exhausted. The doctors said if I hadn’t performed CPR that perhaps things could have been worse. She had used a lethal poison to create those incisions, and she had also taken a high dose of wolfsbane orally. It had been a well-thought-out plan. They’d had to pump the poison from her body, too.
I never thought that it would be useful… especially when I always thought magic could fix everything. Sometimes, even something like CPR with no magic involved could save a life…
I’m grateful for Kiara’s adamance that all of us girls needed to know first aid, and the medical side that she had pushed on us. I mean, apart from Kat, Sky and I did it for the sake of it… You may not be here, Kia, but you’re still saving lives. Thank you.
Kareena is currently unconscious in the hospital room with a doctor and nurse tending to her. Leo’s injection had helped heal her faster, and the doctor had expressed how impressed he is with them. Currently, Jax, Dan, Leo, and I are sitting in the hallway.
“We almost lost her…” Leo says quietly.
He had been quiet since everything had happened. I don’t know what Leo would have done if something had happened to her, but he would have blamed himself for not going to visit her sooner. Dan placed a hand on his shoulder.
“But we didn’t, and that’s all that matters…” He stands up, stretching before giving us a small smile. “Look, I’m going to go check up on Eric. He’s been really down. I mean, regardless of what Emmet did, he’s still his brother. He needs some closure.” I nod in agreement.
“Yeah… go, and thank you for being considerate. He at least deserves comfort,” I say quietly, making a mental note to talk to Eric myself, too. Leo gives a small nod, simply sitting there, sometimes running his hand through his hair.
“That’s what we’re here for, us Six and Leo. To look out for one another. Even if one of us is gone, we will take care of one another,” Dan says, giving me a gentle smile. I can still see the pain in his eyes at the loss of Jackie and Shane… the guilt…
“The six of you…” It hurts saying the five. It seems even he can’t do it.
“Yeah, the six of us,” Dan says, pointing to himself and then at me. “Welcome to the gang.”
Leo looks up sharply as Dan gives me a wink before turning and walking away, leaving me standing there, shocked. The six of us…
“He ain’t wrong… you fill that gap…” Jax says quietly. “And as a team… I think we need to decide what to do with Kareena.”
“Do what? What can we do to help her?” Leo asks, frowning as he looks at his friend. Jax frowns, looking at his hands.
“Well… I’ve been thinking some stuff over… like Shane, he was always a goddamn protector. He always went to protect everyone… remember the time he took a bullet for me? Or the time he pushed you out of the way of that car?” These guys sure have an adventurous life… “I was thinking… I mean, I’m not mated… and I don’t think I’m ever going to find her. I’m not even looking anymore.”
“Mates aren’t a bad thing,” I say, seeing his deep frown.
“No… they’re not, but we don’t always find them… so I’ve been thinking…” He seems to hesitate, which isn’t like Jax. Leo sits back, tilting his head as he observes him.
“What is it?” He asked sharply, wrapping his arm around me, and I leaned against him, welcoming his embrace.
“What if I mark her to break the bond she has with Shane? So, she can live.” Both Leo and I stare at him, shocked. I understand what he meant. After all, many who take chosen mates are able to live…
“You don’t have that relationship… you’ve never been -”
“I know. I’m just saying, if she was bound to someone alive,” Jax cuts him off, frowning.
“You will be bound to her… and she you. There’s no guarantee she’d ever accept you,” Leo murmurs, clearly shocked as he sits back, pondering over his words. Jax frowns and nods.
“Yeah… and the aim isn’t for her to accept me, but for Shane… I’d do it,” he says, looking at Leo as he rests his head against the wall behind him. His eyes don’t mask his pain as he looks at Leo. For Shane… he’s willing to sacrifice his own future.
“Say she even agrees… you’re okay to be bound to someone?” Leo asks him quietly.
“Yeah. They say you need love to be able to mark someone… out of love, right? Well, I loved Shane. We were brothers… and we promised one another, if anything was to happen to any of us… that we’d look out for each other’s families, right?” Jax counters, staring at the light on the ceiling. The gravity of the situation is clear in his voice.
I don’t say anything as I watch them. Both are in pain, talking of promises they never realised they would one day have to honour. For his brother, Jax is willing to sacrifice his all…
I look out the small window down the hall, staring at the sky. Shane… if you can hear me… just know you have us all. We will take care of her. Your brothers will.
Leo’s voice brings me back to the present.
“If she agrees… I think it could work,” he says quietly as the door opens and a doctor steps out. We can hear the sobbing from behind him.
“She’s awake but very distraught, Alpha.”
“We’ll go in,” Leo says as both men stand up, and I follow suit.
Pushing the door open, I step inside first. My heart breaks when I look at the woman who has her wrists bandaged, wearing a pale grey hospital gown, her brown hair falling in front of her beautiful face as tears stream out of her light blue-grey eyes.
“Why did you save me?” She asks as she glares at us. “I want to die.”
“Don’t say that, Kar,” Jax says quietly.
She doesn’t respond, shaking her head as she buries it in her knees. A woman, broken without her mate. The purpose of living is gone from her…
Leo walks over to her. Sitting on the bed by her side, he wraps his arm around her.
“Shane wouldn’t want you to do this,” he says quietly as I slowly sit on her other side, taking her hand. The guilt that I’m the reason Shane is gone is eating me up inside. Leo places a hand on her back as she sobs.
The nurse leaves us, and Jax stands there, arms crossed, frowning deeply. I wonder… would he be able to save her? Because I know she needs it. She needs a thread to hold on to… something to keep her afloat. Can Jax be her saviour?
Please, Goddess, give her the strength to live on… please.