The Alpha and The Enforcer [TATE]

Chapter 50

Jacob's P.O.V

Lisa's hands were already glowing with pale silver light. The air around her shifted, sharp and cold, like a sudden winter wind slicing through the lingering heat. Frost began to spread from her fingertips, spiderwebbing across the grass.

"Brace her," Miranda said. "She's going to shiver involuntarily."

I knelt at Ellie's head, cupping her face in my hands. "I've got you, baby. I've got you," I whispered, brushing back damp strands of hair that clung to her temple. Her skin was losing color fast. Even her lips were beginning to pale, as though the warmth was draining from her soul.

Lisa pressed her hands over Ellie's ribcage, just above the wound, and took a deep breath. After a while I felt the chill sink into Ellie's body almost immediately.

Her body shook uncontrollably, small at first, then stronger, as the cold gripped her limbs and spread. Ice laced over the ground beneath her, killing the grass, turning the earth brittle and white. The frost crept along her skin like veins of silver, leaving her looking fragile, ethereal.

"I-I'm c-cold," she said.

"I know, I know."

I cradled her head in my lap, wiping away the frost that clung to her lashes. "You're gonna be okay," I whispered, even though I didn't believe it. "You're gonna be okay, Ellie. Just hold on."

She didn't respond.

Her breathing was shallow. Each inhale slower than the last.

"She's going under," Miranda warned. "Lisa, hold it. Just a little longer. If we drop her temperature too low"

"I know," Lisa said, her voice tense with strain. "I'm trying to balance it."

The glow from her hands began to dim. The frost slowed.

Ellie stilled.

Too still.

"Is she...?" My voice broke. I could not even finish the sentence.

Miranda pressed a hand to Ellie's neck, her brow furrowed in concentration. "She's alive," she confirmed, but her voice was thin. "Barely. Her heart rate has slowed. Her system is suppressing everything. It is like she is in stasis."

"It is up to her now." Lisa responded as she sank down to the ground beside Ellie breathing heavy.

I looked down at Ellie, so still in my arms, as if she were carved from ice and silence.

But I could still feel something beneath the surface. A flicker. A whisper. A thread of warmth deep inside her chest.

She was not done yet.

I bent my head, pressing my forehead against hers. Her skin was freezing against mine.

"Come back to me," I whispered. "You promised me, remember? You said you would always be with me. So come back, Ellie. Burn through this. Find your way back to me."

The world was too quiet.

Then, a faint heat pulsed against my palm, brief, almost imaginary.

I did not know if I imagined it.

I really, really hoped I did not.

But even if it was a trick of my mind, a desperate illusion, I held on.

Because I was not letting her go.

Not like this.

Not her.

Every part of me was screaming. My wolf paced and thrashed beneath my skin, howling against the walls of my chest. He wanted out. He wanted to claw the world apart for letting this happen. But I could not move. All I could do was hold her.