Third person's POV
Only now did Tabitha realize that the cold-hearted man had never changed.
Aboard the ship years ago, he had feigned innocence, drinking the medicine to appear kind and selfless. Later, he had tried to force her into an abortion. Despite his life-saving grace, she had chosen to forget all he had done.
He had never changed—he cared only for himself, indifferent to the lives of others.
To achieve his goals, he would stop at nothing. In essence, he was no different from Elena.
Tabitha's heart ached as she watched Derek, now surrounded by snakes, leap into the pit.
Derek.
The man she had loved, hated, and strived to save was now meeting his end in the snake pit under the bright moonlight.
In mere minutes, a living person would be reduced to bones by the swarm.
"Alpha Derek!" Spike, too, was stunned by the sight.
His leg injury had slowed him down, and he had never witnessed such a scene—so many snakes, and a person ensnared among them.
Once he snapped out of his shock, he instinctively ran toward the pit. "Alpha Derek, hold on!"
Derek's men were no cowards.
Even if it meant carrying out a corpse, he would bring Derek back.
The towering man, now emotional, ran with tears streaming down his face.
Unlike Alvin's composure or Rolf's liveliness, Spike was a man of few words.
He couldn't fathom how a momentary lapse in watching over Derek had spiraled into such a tragedy.
"Don't come any closer!" Derek's voice emerged from the snake pit. Sensing Spike's approach, he issued his final command, "Stay right there—don't move an inch!"
"Alpha Derek, I can't just stand by," Spike's voice trembled, his Adam's apple visibly rolling as he tried to hold back tears.
He had seen too many comrades fall in battle; death no longer held the same weight for him. Yet now, his heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an unseen hand.
When Joanna had died, he had felt the same helplessness.
That rainy night when a bullet pierced her chest, he had been shot in the leg, told he might never walk again.
But he had fought through grueling rehabilitation, determined to stand by Derek's side. He never expected to witness another tragedy unfold before his eyes.
Tabitha seized the moment when Jasper's guard was down, executing a surprise shoulder throw that sent him crashing to the ground.
She stepped over Spike and ran toward the snake pit like a woman possessed. All rational thought had fled.
Her mind was consumed by images of Derek—the young man who had lifted her from the sea, the ex-husband who had shielded her from flying glass in a car crash, and the fool who had just leaped into the snake pit at the sound of the recording.
"You bastard! You owe me so much—how dare you die? How dare you!" she screamed inwardly, tears blurring her vision.
Jasper, prostrate on the ground, gazed at Tabitha's determined stride toward the snake pit and realized he had lost—utterly and completely.
He had waited for years, hoping she would one day turn back to him, only to grasp now that even a decade more would change nothing.
Closing his eyes, he was flooded with memories of the little girl who had once jumped from a tree, her eyes filled only with him.
Tabitha, without the protection of her usual snake-repelling powder, knew she wouldn't survive the pit.
Tabitha's path was her own. No one could alter it.
At that moment, a flute melody pierced the air. A crimson snake darted into the pit, and the snakes surrounding Derek parted like waves, clearing a path for Tabitha.
The snake pit, a vast basin with sloping sides, lay before her.
She sprinted toward Derek, who hadn't yet realized what was happening, when suddenly he felt himself enveloped in a fierce embrace—as if his lover had crossed flames to find him in a firestorm.
"What... what are you doing here?" Tabitha's voice trembled, her heart quivering with fear.
She had seen him surrounded by snakes, yet here he was, unharmed.
Derek, blind to her tears, could feel the intensity of her hug. "I'm fine. Why did you come?" he asked.
Unharmed? Tabitha couldn't believe it. She examined him closely, finding only minor scrapes and no snake bites.
She noticed the bracelet on his wrist—Hedwig's.
So, it was Hedwig who had saved him! Relief washed over her. He was alive.
Derek still clutched the phone, Tabitha's recorded voice echoing from it. "I'm sorry, I thought I found my ex-wife, so I..."
Tabitha slapped his cheek.
Derek froze, stunned. In the next instant, she pulled him into a tight embrace, warm tears dripping down his neck.
"You reckless idiot!" Tabitha cried.
"Tabitha, is that you?" Derek's voice was dazed, yet he instinctively reached out to hold her.