RHEA’S POV I turned to look at him and froze.
He looked like he wanted to pass out.
Kael let out a sharp, choked gasp.
The color instantly drained from his face, his gray eyes blowing wide in sudden, agonizing shock.
The sheer, overwhelming physical exhaustion of using his Alpha aura to stop a dozen guards, coupled with the freezing mountain air had finally caught up to his weak body.
His knees buckled.
“Kael,” I shrieked.
His massive frame collapsed forward, coming down like a falling oak tree, burying me completely underneath his heavy weight as we both crashed hard into the deep, freezing snow.
A sharp gasp tore through the freezing air as numerous heads snapped in our direction.
“Kael!” Panic seized my chest like a physical hand as I pressed my palms against Kael’s broad chest, trying frantically to push him off me.
He didn’t respond.
He didn’t even groan.
His towering, broad-shouldered frame was complete dead weight, pinning me down into the freezing snow.
Worse, the intense, radiating warmth that had enveloped me just seconds ago, that overwhelming cover of Alpha heat was fading at a rapid rate.
Beneath his heavy leather coat, his body turned cold.
It was an unnatural, icy chill that made my skin crawl with dread.
“Kael, please.
Alpha Kael.
Please wake up.” I put my knee beneath his hip and groaned with everything I had, hyperventilating as I finally managed to roll his massive body off my chest.
I rushed onto my knees beside him, the sharp wind whipping my dark hair wildly across my face, and pressed two trembling fingers to the side of his cold neck.
His pulse was dropping quickly.
“No, no, stay with me,” I pleaded, my professional doctor’s composure completely shattering into raw, serious panic.
“You were just talking to me.
Come on, open your eyes.
Look at me.
Please look at me.” As I shifted my position to check his chest and airways, my left knee sank into something thick, sticky, and warm beneath the fresh snow.
I pulled my hand back from his side and gasped.
My palm was coated in dark blood.
The sheer, violent strain of using his Alpha aura to force the guards to their knees coupled with the bitter, freezing cold had torn open his unhealed wounds.
The stress had reopened his flesh from the inside out, soaking through his clothes and staining the white snow around us a sickening dark red.
Before I could scream for Garrett or the guards, a heavy shadow fell over us, blocking out the faint moonlight.
Strong, brutal hands grabbed my shoulders, yanking me violently backward onto the ice.
Four guards surrounded us in a tight ring, their swords drawn and glinting sharply against the blowing snow, while the traditionalist Pack Elder stepped forward.
A sinister, triumph-filled smile slowly curved the old man’s thin lips as he looked down at Kael’s unconscious body, and then up at me.
“She has struck down the Alpha,” the Elder yelled, his loud voice carrying clearly over the howling mountain “Look at him.
Her dark sorcery has drained his life force.
Drag this witch to the dungeons before she tries to kill him again.” “Wait.
Listen to me,” I screamed, struggling desperately against the two warriors holding my arms in a tight grip.
“He is dying.
His wounds tore open.
He needs all the help he can get right now—he needs my help.” The Elder’s cold eyes narrowed into dangerous, lethal slits as he sneered down at me, his wooden staff planted firmly in the snow.
“Our pack has ancient healers of our own,” the Elder barked dismissively, his lip curling in utter disgust.
“If the Alpha is in true danger, we will summon registered healers of noble blood—not a low-bred human who carries dark curses and practices witchcraft.” “Your healers can’t remove that poison,” I yelled back, tears of frustration burning hot against my freezing cheeks.
“I saw his blood.
I know what’s in his veins.
If they touch him with their herbs, you’ll kill him.” A powerful, undeniable feeling flared inside me, louder and stronger than anything I had ever learned.
I knew it with every fiber of my being.
I was the only person capable of keeping his heart beating.
That blinding, white-hot light that had exploded from my skin in the courtyard wasn’t a curse, it was the key to saving his life.
If I could just touch him…
if I could just make direct contact with his skin for a few seconds, I could stabilize his pulse, at least until Garrett returned with proper medical supplies.
“Kael,” I cried out, wrenching one arm free from a guard’s grip through sheer desperation and lunging forward toward Kael’s unmoving form on the snow.
A sharp, searing pain ripped across the back of my left hand.
I gasped, pulling my arm back to my chest as the Elder’s heavy wooden staff struck my skin with brutal force.
A dark blood cllt formed instantly across my knuckles, burning like fire.
The Elder stepped closer, towering over me as I cradled my injured hand.
A strange, mysterious gleam flickered deep within his eyes—a calculated look that held far more than just normal hatred.
It was an ambition.
It was an opportunity.
He wanted Kael to be bed ridden, and he wanted me out of the way so he could do whatever he was planning.
“Do not lay your filthy, hands on our Alpha again,” the Elder whispered darkly, his voice laced with venom.
He turned to the surrounding warriors, raising his staff.
“Chain her.
Take her to the deepest cell in the eastern tower and lock the doors.
Make sure she doesn’t escape.
She will be tried by morning.” “Let me go.
Kael,” I screamed, kicking and twisting as two more guards pinned my arms behind my back, snapping heavy, freezing iron chains around my wrists.
They dragged me backward through the deep snow, my boots leaving deep, desperate marks as I watched Kael’s motionless body shrink into the snow from afar.