Forever (Book 1) (Editing)

Chapter Forty Seven

My heart was breaking with excruciating pain as I held her lifeless form in my arms. The tears were rolling down my face in excessive waves and the pack was at a loss for what to say or do. Nothing would make this better. She was gone from me now. She was truly and deeply gone. There was no way to make this up to her. There was no way to fix where we’d gone wrong. It was too late for me to fix the problems I was facing in myself or to be there to support her. She’d left me alone to face my future without her. She’d been by my side for such a short time and I’d messed everything up.

If I could have only treated her better, if I had taken the time to realise how selfish I was being, I could have saved her. She never would have run off into the woods. She never would’ve had to see that man or deal with him. It was my fault that she was laying in my arms now, no beat from her heart or air filling her lungs. It was a mate’s worse nightmare. To know that your other half was dead, that you hadn’t done all you could to save them. I was too busy blaming everything on her that I had never took the time to think about blaming myself. Now there would never be a chance to say I was sorry. There would never again be the chance of being a better man for her.

I stared down into the soft features of her face and cried harder. My beautiful mate lay within my arms. Her eyes were open but infinitely lifeless. The green orbs staring back at me like they were asking me why? Why would you do this to me? Why would you keep doing everything to hurt me? Why? And the guilt enveloping me was nearly unbearable. The pain was squeezing my heart in its giant fist sucking out the last bits of me that would ever feel. She was gone. I couldn’t believe that she was gone.

This strong and independent young woman had fallen to such a violent death. This girl who had never done wrong to anyone, who was innocent and cared so much for others, was gone. The beauty she had brought into my life had only been temporary. She had only been temporary. She had been there one minute and then gone the next. Her last breath had hissed out slowly as she lay so broken in my arms. Her eyes had stared into my own as the life had drained from them. And then her heart had stuttered to let out one final beat and she was gone. Just like that. In the blink of an eye she’d slipped away from me and I had no way of stopping her. No apology could make her stay.

It wasn’t long before my tears slowly began to melt into anger, anger so deep it burned from the inside out. I felt such seething rage that I’d never before experienced as my eyes shot to see Greg standing stiffly looking down at my mate. The very same mate he was to protect.

“Where were you?” I screamed out at him. “Where were you when she fought that bastard?”

My grip on her tightened as the anguished words left my lips. I didn’t want to let her go. I knew this was the last time I would ever hold her so close to me, the last time I would smell the thrilling scent of my mate. The moment my arms released her I would be walking a lonely existence.

“Where were you that you couldn’t save her?” I screamed out at him again.

I didn’t understand how my mate could be lying here lifeless while he wore not a scratch on him. He stood there and didn’t say a word. He didn’t offer a single excuse as to why he hadn’t come to her defence. No excuse would have been good enough though. There is nothing he could’ve said that would make this any more bearable. The fates had given her to me, and they took her away. They’d deemed me undeserving of someone so pure.

It wasn’t just Lady that the pack lost today. They’d lost all hope for the future that she had brought with her. They’d lost the very last of the Royal’s. They’d lost everything they’d need for the coming years. A ruler unlike any they’d had previously. One that was good and kind and accepting. She was the best thing to ever happen to the pack, to me, and it wasn’t realised fully until the moment it became too late.