A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 13: Choice

Autumn’s breath hitched, her eyes locked on the hand stretched towards her...dark, tempting, promising freedom... she definitely did not ponder over the cost but she did not move either.

Kieran’s voice roared behind her once more. "AUTUMN, RUN! RUN, DAMN IT!" His voice was raw!

But she could not.

Her feet refused to obey. Her fingers trembled, curled against her sides. The scene blurred as her eyes welled up.

"Why can’t I move?" she whispered to herself. "Why the hell can’t I move?"

Kieran, bleeding and bruised, gave one last desperate cry and hurled himself forward towards the shadowed man.

"NO!" Autumn shrieked, finally finding her voice, but it seemed like it was too late... at least for Kieran.

The man turned lazily, catching the lunge like he was plucking a moth from the air. The dagger shimmered in his hand, glowing with unnatural energy.

Kieran grunted as the blade drove into his chest, right through his heart. The sickening crunch...that unmistakable sound of puncture...echoed like thunder in her ears.

"No... no no no no!" Autumn screamed.

"You should have chosen faster, pretty thing." The man smirked and leaned close to Kieran’s ear. "A shame. Such pretty eyes wasted on loyalty."

He turned to Autumn with a crooked grin. "You should have come with me sooner, little wolf. I would have given you a better show." His eyes dragged all over her in a way that made her blood boil. "Might still, if you are lonely tonight."

Then, like mist under sunlight, he vanished. Just gone. The shadows retreated along with him, slithering back into cracks in the earth like snakes returning to their holes.

Kieran’s body began to fall.

Time slowed.

"No, no, please no...!" Autumn lunged forward, catching him just before he hit the bloodied stone.

His weight sagged in her arms. His head lolled back, blood pouring from the wound in his chest. His skin was rapidly turning pale. His breaths...if any...were nearly silent.

"Kieran..." she whispered, shaking him gently. "You idiot, why did you do that?!"

His eyelids fluttered weakly. A smile ghosted his lips.

"You... didn’t run," he rasped.

"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" she sobbed, pressing her hands desperately to his chest, trying to stem the bleeding. "I don’t take orders from you and you don’t get to die! Not like this!Ah, damn! You ruined my one chance at freedom! I hate you! "

Her hands were slick with his blood. Too warm and sticky. Her heart felt like it was being ripped out, torn into a thousand pieces.

"The mate bond... must be the mate bond, " she tried to explain the scenario to herself because she was literally bawling her eyes out and loosing her head.

"I hated you," she whispered again and again. "I still hate you. But you can’t die. You don’t get to die like some tragic hero ,fucker! I will screw your pack if you die...you moron! "

Kieran blinked slowly, his gaze glassy now but Autumn could swear,she saw him smile. "Better me... than you."

"Stop talking like you are going somewhere!" she shouted through her tears. "You owe me explanations! You owe me a thousand apologies!"

She leaned down, forehead pressing against his involuntarily. "You can’t just leave me like this."

His hand twitched. Barely. His fingers grazed her arm. "I... meant... to protect..."

" Dammit! Fight for your life like you fought me!You are no hero,dammit! You are a fucking villain. You don’t get to change the story. Get up! Drop the act! " she sobbed, shaking his shoulders. "Don’t you dare give up now!"

Autumn looked around...there was no one...she was all alone.

Kieran’s chest was slowing down it’s movement.

Her hands shook. Her throat burned. And then...

A pulse.

Faint. But there.

Beneath her palms, where his blood still seeped between her fingers... his heart gave one weak, stubborn beat.

Autumn’s breath caught.

"...Kieran?"

Something inside her twisted.

And then...snap.

A scream tore from her throat. A raw and guttural scream. A sound that did not belong to anything human.

The ground trembled. Stones cracked. The very air vibrated with the force of it,Her voice cracked ...filled with a power she did not understand. The earth shook again and again. The wind howled through the trees, and every shadow in the courtyard pulled back as if afraid of her fury.

"KIERAN!" she screamed. "Please... please..."

Silence fell.

And then...

A faint, flickering breath. Barely there. But enough to tell her... He wasn’t gone.

Not yet.

Autumn gasped. "You are still with me...Thank the Moon! "

She cradled him tighter, her bloodied hands pressing over his heart, willing it to keep beating.

"I swear," she whispered fiercely, "if you die, I will drag you back from whatever hell you land in just to kill you all over again."

Kieran made a faint sound...it might have been a laugh. Or just another dying breath.

And still she held him.

Unmoving.

Unyielding.

Tears mixed with his blood as Autumn rocked slightly, whispering again and again, "Stay with me. Please, please stay with me..."

Her body trembled with panic, rage, and heartbreak as she kept trying to stop the impossible ... to hold back death itself.

She hit his chest with the heel of her palm, not knowing what else to do. "Wake up, you bastard!"

Thud.

"You were supposed to protect me, remember?!"

Another desperate thud.

"Didn’t you say I meant nothing to you? Didn’t you say you just needed to use me...like a tool! So why the hell did you let yourself get hurt?Stop confusing me, you motherfucker...say something...!"

Thud.Thud.

Her hands were slipping...not just from Kieran’s blood, but her own. Her knuckles were torn, skin shredded from her fingernails digging into his flesh, from dragging him to safety, from fighting shadows and maybe...fate itself.

She let out a broken scream, leaning over his unmoving body. "Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me alone...again!I don’t know what to do...it’s so damn confusing..."

And then... thump.

Her breath caught.

She froze.

Thump.

It was faint... but it was there. A beat. A pulse beneath her palm.I little bit faster than the one she got before.

"Kieran!" she gasped.

His chest jerked slightly as he coughed again, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes remained closed. His skin was still cold, but life...life was slowly seeping in and out. Just what Autumn needed.

Relief shattered through her like sunlight through storm clouds.

No time.

She slid her arm under his shoulders, gritted her teeth, and pulled him upright. "Come on, you stubborn bastard...get your ass up..."

With sheer force of will, Autumn threw his arm over her shoulder, dragging his half conscious, blood soaked body to his feet. He sagged against her, dead weight, but she refused to let him fall again.

"I have got you," she murmured. "You saved me. Now it’s my turn.Autumn doesn’t do debts. Thanks fucker for breathing for me...now keep breathing till I can get you safely to Mango...but...where the hell are we..." She looked around.

It took her only a few moments to realise that they were quite far from Blackmoon pack borders!

She started moving, stumbling through the broken terrain, blood painting a trail behind them. Trees passed in a blur. Her limbs burned. Every step felt like walking through fire. Her knees were ready to give out...but she kept going, dragging Kieran’s weight along.

The forest finally opened.

Far off, she spotted the first glimpse of the Blackmoon pack border.The steel fences reinforced with runes, watchtowers barely visible beyond the treeline. She more than anyone else knew how they had several ambushes and traps in place to secure their perimeter, having breached them a couple of times . However, she was in no shape to do so at the moment. Not with their Alpha almost dead on her back.

Relief mixed with dread.

Kieran groaned faintly, his head lolling. "Almost there," Autumn murmured, brushing her blood streaked cheek against his. "Stay awake for me, please...your pack might think I tried to kill you while fleeing...stay with me Kieran..."

As she crossed the final ridge, motion caught her eye.

Guns.

Guards on patrol spotted her.

A sharp whistle. Muzzle flashes gleamed in the moonlight as weapons were raised and pointed directly at her.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" one of them shouted.

"Drop the body and put your hands where I can see them!"

"It’s the rogue girl Alpha brought...Autumn!"

"I SAID DROP WHAT YOU ARE CARRYING!"

Autumn did not stop. Her voice cracked through the air with a desperate and wild please.

"THE ALPHA IS INJURED!" she screamed. "HE IS DYING! CALL MANGO! CALL HER NOW!"

The guards hesitated. One of them ran for the emergency horn. The sound rang out...long and deep... BLARING.

Commotion exploded at the border. Wolves rushed out from the trees and buildings like floodwater breaking through a dam.

Autumn stumbled again, nearly falling, but clenched her jaw and kept going. She felt her legs tremble beneath her. Her heart pounded out of rhythm.

"BETA DAX!" someone shouted.

A figure emerged through the trees already running before she even saw him.

"Autumn?!" Dax’s voice boomed across the clearing. He looked both shocked and furious. "What the hell happened?!"

Autumn’s lips moved but no sound came out at first. Her vision swam. The pain in her body, the blood loss, the terror...it was all catching up to her.

She staggered the last few steps.

"Help... him..." she managed, her voice cracked and hoarse.

Dax’s eyes went wide as he caught sight of the blood soaking Kieran’s entire chest, the unnatural paleness of his face.

"MEDICS!" Dax roared over his shoulder. "GET HEALER MANGO! NOW!"

Autumn gave one last broken sob as her knees buckled. She and Kieran both collapsed in a heap right in front of the Beta. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

"Shit...AUTUMN!" Dax dropped to his knees, catching her just before her head hit the ground.

"I couldn’t... let him die," she whispered, barely clinging to consciousness. "He was gone. I brought him back...I couldn’t run..." she murmured.

Dax’s expression, usually a fortress of steel, cracked with panic. "You did good," he said, gripping her hand tightly. "You hear me? You did good. Stay awake. Mango’s coming."

From a distance, she heard more shouting. Footsteps. The howl of sirens. The pounding of paws.

Then...soft hands touched her. A voice she barely recognized murmured something in an unknown tongue.

And Autumn slipped into darkness, Kieran’s blood still warm on her skin.

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