✔️| The Gift of a Curse
~ 18 ~

Only when I no longer could see them did I see all the holes in the plan. Nevertheless, I chose to believe that Josh and Shadow would replace a way, they had to. The thought alone caused helplessness to surge through my veins just like poison would. I stood by the border for about ten minutes; I could not bring myself to move even though I had to ensure my pack’s safety. In that moment, I realized that I selfishly care about my mate a little more than I do my pack. I hate myself for it, but I learned a long time ago that there is no point in resisting feelings or pretending that they do not exist. Eventually, they will replace a way to emerge and impose themselves. Therefore, the best choice is to accept them.

I made sure that everything was in check through the mind-link. I was talking to Nolan when suddenly an almost dead Shadow appeared a few strides away from me. Thankfully, she teleported into the territory. At that moment, I forgot about everything, my only focus was her. In a matter of seconds I was on my knees next to her as a tear fell down my cheek. Amoux yelled at me to take her to the infirmary, but I could not risk my pack hearing Shadow’s whimpers and gasps, I did not want chaos and fear to spread. Thus, I collected her in my arms and ordered one of the doctors to meet me in my room at my house.

As I ran, my mind kept creating ways of how my mate would die in my arms. As much as I tried to push these thoughts away, they were persistent. The more I fought them, the more they latched to my mind. This caused me to run even faster not caring that my legs were burning from the speed. I attempted to comfort Shadow by telling her sweet nothing in order to keep her conscious, but it was hard to do that when I myself felt like breaking down. The only motivation I had was my mate’s life.

A few miles away from my house, Josh’s voice appeared in my head. He asked me if Shadow succeeded in teleporting and he wanted to know how she was doing. Because of the mating bond, both Amoux and I wanted to break his bones for allowing her to get harmed in the first place. Nevertheless, our concern for the she-wolf in our arms out-weighted our anger. Also, it turned out that I had bigger things to worry about.

Josh told me what I had already known: we missed a very important part of the plan. Luckily, they found Clay, and Shadow filled up the major hole in the plan: “We tried to force her to teleport back but she refused to do so before giving us a solution. We can use the tunnels that are right under the territory grounds. I will knock them out one by one, take the gas bottle they have and then I will magically drop them into the tunnels. In order to not lose time, Clay will take me from one warrior to the next on his back. I need you to send some people to collect the bastards and throw them in the dungeons before they wake up.” Josh blocked me right after telling me my mate’s brilliant plan.

The tunnels are built under every territory in the world; all twenty nine packs have them. They are there for emergencies. Each pack, however, has a different architecture for these tunnels. The tunnels in my pack spread through the vital parts in the territory: the school, the orphanage, the pack house, and the training field. They also used to be under the infirmary but that changed when the safe floor was built. In addition, the tunnels spread a few miles outside of the borders. It is the first time that the tunnels have been useful since I became the alpha.

Since Nolan was not completely healed, I mind-linked Chance and told him the plan with the command to take a few of the volunteers with him to the tunnels and to separate the warriors. I did not want to take a chance that the alphas thought their plan through a little too perfectly. Once we reached my house, however, I mind-linked the doctor again before I pulled my mental wall up and refocused on my dying mate.

When I gently placed her on my bed, I whimpered. I never in a million years imagined that the first time my mate would enter my room and lay on my bed would be when she literally fight for every breath she takes. I resisted my whimpers as I sat next to Shadow and I urged her to hold on, I begged her to not leave me behind when she just came into my life. It may sound selfish or but I needed her to fight not for herself but for me. For years, the thought of one day replaceing my better half had been my anchor, and I did not go through everything that I experienced so far only for my mate to die literally three days after I meet her. That would be crueler than never replaceing her. So Amoux fought for control and I gave it to him, because even though I did not want it to be an option, I had to be realistic. Shadow had silver in her entire system; there was a very good chance that she would die. Therefore, my wolf deserved to say goodbye. While I managed to somewhat repress my emotions, Amoux did not even hold back his tears as we both watched our mate as she looked deep into our eyes before she was thrust into oblivion.