Torn

Chapter 58✓

Quinn

I watch the light fade from Carters eyes. I listen to her heart thump its final beat. I listen to the air escape her lips in its last breath. My eyes burn with tears and a loud, broken sob rips up my throat as I hold her limp body in my lap.

"No, no, no, no! Carter, please! Come on, babe. You promised not to leave me." My breath hitches in my throat and heavy tears drip down from my chin onto her pale face. "You promised to be mine. We have so much left to do, so much left unsaid. Come back to me, little one. I can't lose you, too."

I look up to see Xander snarling at his brother. The traitor, the betrayer. His whole body is shaking with fury, and I can see him struggling to remain in control as his wolf is trying to take over.

"Xander. Please, we need to do something!" I beg him.

His black eyes look down at me and another snarl rips up his chest. "What do you want me to do. She's dead. She's gone, Quinn. There's nothing I can do." His voice is cold and empty.

Suddenly my mothers words from that night in the library play through my mind. "Your blood, son. You need to use yours and Xander's blood during the Claiming."

"Get over here you idiot! I need you." I snarl at him; my wolf is also just under the surface.

He walks back to me and kneels beside Carter's lifeless body. I take his hands and using my nail, press deep into the partially healed wound on his palm, pooling as much blood as I can.

He hisses in a breath and looks at me like I've gone insane. I then press my nail deep into my own wound, ignoring the sharp pain and then tilt my palm over the gaping hole in her chest. The blood drips into her open wound and Xander follows suit.

Thick, dark liquid strings fall from our hands, deep into her chest. I wait with bated breath for something, anything to happen. After a moment when she still hasn't moved, my head drops in defeat, and I allow the pain take over.

A loud, heart wrenching cry rips up Xander's throat beside me. I reach out and put my palm on his shoulder. We tried and we had lost. Even though Carter is gone, we are still in this together.

My stomach clenches and I have to force myself not to empty my stomach contents everywhere. Carter is gone. We have failed. We've lost her. I'll never be able to forgive myself for not protecting my one reason for living.

A sudden obnoxious applause fills the air around us. I look up to see Tyler slow clapping. His face held a vile smirk that I couldn't wait to wipe off. Aggressively.

"Your attempt to save your mates life seems to have been in vain. Such a shame." Tyler sneers, his voice twisted with that of his beast.

"I cannot wait to kill you, creature." I snarl, staring right back into his blood red depths.

"How did you get out of the cells." Xander questions, his voice completely empty.

I watch Xavier lower his head and avoid eye contact and instantly it becomes clear just how deep his betrayal runs, and it guts me that it's worse than I had previously believed.

"How could you, Xavier? I'm your brother! Your flesh and blood!" Xander roars at his twin.

"I had no choice... you don't understand." His voice is barely a whisper that I'm not sure I even heard him correctly.

"You have done well, my pet." A dark voice comes from the tree line.

My eyes snap over to see Viktor stepping out of the darkness and into view with a dark haired woman at his side. My wolfs hackles rise and a deep growl tears up my throat from my chest. The smirk on his face almost makes me lose control to my beast.