Hector's POV
My hands clenched my chest. My heart soaring with pain. Axel had been gravely injured and our bond to him was fading. Athena was on the floor her mum taking Roman as she began to thrash in pain. The look on her face said all I needed to know. We were running out of time. Axel was dying. Forcing the bond away was just enough to dull the pain enabling me to move. Crawling over to where Axel laid unconscious a sliver knife sat embedded in his chest. Feeling for his pulse it was there but it was getting weaker by the second. Silver was fatal to us and the position it was in made it impossible for me to remove.
"Come on let's get him to the hospital" Alpha Jake and my father were at my side in a heartbeat. Both helping me to my feet before picking Axel up. The fighting had stopped, the rogues running away as their leader met his demise. No-one chased after them, my mate was every ones priority at this moment.
"My darling oh my goddess" my mum cupped my face tears falling from her eyes before pulling me flush against her.
"Mum I'm ok, but Axel I... Athena, where is she? ATHENA!"
"She's here. She's here. She'll be ok. Just please go with Axel I will take care of her" Luna Angel cradled Roman while embracing her daughter. I knew she would take care of both my mate and our pups. Athena was the only daughter she had left and still to this day neither her nor Alpha Jake had forgiven themselves for not more to help Athena's suffering over the years.
Henrik appeared out of nowhere and transported us directly into a hospital surgical room where a team of scrubbed up doctors were ready to go. Alpha Jake and my dad carefully placed Axel on the bed where I wasted no time in grabbing his hand, I needed to feel a connection with him, I needed to feel those sparks. His skin was clammy and losing its colour. The pain threatening to subdue me. One of the nurses ushered us outside were I spent the next three hours frantically pacing the corridor. I knew he was alive, the tether of our mate bond there although barely.
My dad had told me to rest but I couldn't even if I wanted to. The three of us had only just got back on track, Athena was pregnant again and to top it off my sons first birthday had been ruined. Athena soon arrived, her eyes red and puffy her mascara stained her face. We stood there holding each other for what felt like an eternity until a doctor finally came to us.
"Hello, I'm Dr Mendez, I'm sorry to be meeting you for the first time under such strenuous circumstances. We were able to remove the knife and stop the bleeding but I'm afraid some irreversible damage has been caused. His pulse remains weak however he appears to be stable. We will need to keep him here for a few days to ensure he heals appropriately"
"What is the damage? Surely once the silver leaves his blood Thor can heal him?"
"I'm afraid not Alpha Athena. He will heal at the rate of a human, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but weren't able to save his wolf" Those words knocked the air from my lungs. Axel's wolf was gone. The one thing that made us whole, the one thing that kept us sane: well for the most part anyway. Bryant whimpered and howled in my head at the loss of his friend and mate.
"Ca... can we see him" Athena's voice was as shaky as her body, and I hoped that this stress wouldn't harm our pup, if something were to happen it would just finish us off.
"Of course. A nurse will be out shortly and will show you where to go. And I am truly sorry" we both just stood there shocked and routed in place. The nurse eventually came to get us, but we were struggling to process what the doctor had told us and hadn't heard a word she said.
Walking into the brightly lit room and seeing Axel so vulnerable bought me to my knees. His top half wrapped up in bandages wires all over his body and a tube down his throat. The sight of him this way sickened me. How would Axel ever get past this? Axel had spent years trying to control Thor and when he finally holds the reins his wolf is ripped away from him. Athena climbed onto the bed beside Axel gently resting her head on the non-injured side of his chest. Her hands stroked the side of his face as she whispered to him.
All of a sudden the machines went haywire, their alarms blaring as several doctors ran into the room. A nurse had to prize Athena away from Axel as she screamed for him to wake up and to stay with us. Being escorted back out into the corridor, all we could do was wait.
Ten years later...
Athena's POV
"Roman I swear to the goddess if I have to tell you one more time, I'm going to have your wolf put to sleep until your eighteenth birthday!"
"Fine you ruin everything... I hate you" sliding down the wall and placing my head in my knees I sighed. Roman was incredibly difficult these days. Like my mum he shifted early and since then his attitude has been nothing short of terrible. Axel constantly tells me to give him a break, that he's only bonding with his wolf. His wolf was beautiful though. His name was Balthazar, and he was pure white. Hector had been trying to teach him how to control his wolf but unfortunately all it did was end in arguing. They constantly clashed and I knew it hurt them both when they didn't get along. The number of times I have caught Roman crying in his tree house because he thinks his father hates him upsets me. We all love him just as we love Layla and his younger brother Kai.
"Athena? What are you doing down there?" I looked up to see Axel eyeing me suspiciously.
"Roman"
"What did he do this time?"
"He shifted and hid under Layla's bed. When her and her friends woke up, he grabbed her ankle and scared the shit out of them. I told him how he can't do that and so he told me he hates me... again" Axel just shook his head and smiled before sitting on the floor beside me.
"He's only young and he's still learning. But I will talk to him. He doesn't hate you Athena, you're an amazing mum he just doesn't know how to work through his emotions. I was the same you know that, but let's not dig that back up. I'm not making excuses for him, but when you lose your wolf, it really makes you wish you'd had more fun with them. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish to have Thor back, to be able to have one more run with him, to feel the breeze as it blows through his fur. All I'm saying is you don't realise what you had until it's gone. Let him be a boy Athena, you know as well as I do when he comes into his gifts the world for him is going to change" gripping my chin he tilted my face upwards placing a delicate kiss on my lips. It amazes me that even after all these years such little moments like these still make me feel amazing. Each touch, each kiss sends sparks igniting on my skin starting that throbbing between my legs all over again. Our bodies had all changed with age, yet it hasn't changed how we each felt about each other.
Axel stood from the floor and offered me his hand. Taking it, he pulled me up lifting me off the floor as I wrapped my legs around his waist. After assuring me Hector had left to take the kids to school, he carried me up to our room. Placing me on my back he began to undress me placing a kiss on each piece of skin he revealed. Goosebumps covered my entire body at the loving act before his lips smashed into mine. Flipping us over and pulling Axle's shirt over his head, I began sucking on his mark. He may not have Thor anymore, but he still felt the enticing effects of the mate bond. Trailing my tongue down Axle's chiselled chest while keeping eye contact with him I paused when I reached his belt. Quickly undoing it and pulling his jeans down I let his beast spring free.
Taking it firmly in my hand I swirled my tongue around the tip causing him to drop his head back onto the bed. Taking it into my mouth I sucked it with a fiery passion while massaging his balls. The groans that left his mouth made my own nub start to pulsate. A few sucks more and he blew, his warm seed trickling down my throat.
"Started without me I see" I turned to see Hector standing in the doorway, pumping his own hardened cock. Walking over towards us he entangled his hands in my hair before pushing his cock into my mouth. "My turn" he smiled as his thumb rubbed my chin. The look he gave me as I sucked was one of pure love and admiration. Axel came up behind me and placed his cock at my entrance. I moaned as he thrusted into me, my moans spurring Hector on as he fucked my mouth. Before long an orgasm rippled through me.
We spent the remainder of the day in each other's embrace just enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasted. Our lives may be hectic these days, but I wouldn't change a thing. It was laying here between my mates that I realised how one song by my favourite singer Kelsea Ballerini described our entire lives. We really had written our own story. It was full of blood, sweat and heartbeats. We hadn't done it for the fame or the glory, we just did it for you and me. We were golden, we were fire, and we were magic. Everyone all over town knew our names. We made it in the middle of the madness. We certainly were a neon in a grey cloud but most of all, our lives truly were crazy, tragic, epic, and so, so amazing.
The End