The One Who Would Not Leave Her
834 Words
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Darian POV
The rain eased into a cold drizzle, washing the blood into the dirt.
Warriors gathered fallen rogues.
Alpha Kael stood in the clearing, chest heaving, his eyes locked on the spot where Roseline’s body had fallen.
But he didn’t move toward her.
Not once.
His jaw tightened.
His gaze hardened.
And then...
He turned away.
“Clean up the area. We move at dawn,” Kael commanded, voice flat, emotionless. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
My stomach twisted.
Roseline had died saving us.
Saving the pack.
Saving a child.
And Kael walked away as if she were nothing.
As the Alpha disappeared into the trees, warriors bowed their heads respectfully… but no one went to her.
No one except me.
I stepped toward the patch of scorched earth where the moonfire had burst. Steam still curled from the ground.
And there she was.
Roseline.
Lying so still… too still.
Her hair spread in a dark halo over the burnt grass.
Her skin pale, faintly dusted with silver, like leftover starlight.
I swallowed hard.
“Roseline…”
My voice cracked...softly, privately...because she deserved more than silence.
I knelt beside her, pressing my fingers gently to her throat.
No pulse.
But her body wasn’t cold.
She still held warmth, impossible warmth, like a dying ember refusing to go out.
A strange pressure filled the air...like the forest was holding its breath.
I lifted her wrist…
A faint shimmer pulsed beneath her skin.
A heartbeat.
Weak.
Barely-there.
But real.
“Moon help us…” I whispered. “You’re still here.”
I looked over my shoulder.
The others were distracted.
No one cared enough to notice.
I carefully slid my arms beneath her fragile body and lifted her against my chest.
She weighed almost nothing.
She felt breakable.
But the moment she touched me, a silver spark flickered across her skin.
Her eyelashes trembled...just once.
Not dead.
Not gone.
Not yet.
I held her closer.
“You fought alone…” I murmured. “You won’t wake up alone.”
The little boy she saved peeked from behind a warrior’s legs.
His eyes widened at the sight of her in my arms.
“Is she… okay?” he whispered.
I forced a calm voice.
“She’s alive.”
The pack stirred at the announcement...gasps, murmurs, shock.
Beta Rowan stepped forward.
“Darian… are you certain?”
“She’s breathing,” I said. “Barely.”
Rowan’s expression collapsed into relief and dread at the same time.
“Kael needs to know.”
“No.”
The word tore from my chest sharp and immediate.
Everyone stared at me.
Rowan frowned. “This is the Alpha’s mate"
“He rejected her,” I said coldly. “He left her to die. I won’t.”
Silence fell over the warriors.
I adjusted her in my arms, her head resting against my shoulder, her soft hair damp against my neck.
“We’re taking her back to the pack house’s infirmary. Now.”
Rowan hesitated… then nodded.
The little child ran to my side and clutched Roseline’s limp fingers.
“She saved me,” he said. “I want to go with her.”
I softened my voice.
“You will.”
We started moving.
But not five steps later...
A roar split the forest.
A furious, animalistic, unhinged roar.
Kael.
He stormed through the trees, eyes blazing silver, his wolf on the edge of ripping through his skin.
“What the hell are you doing with her?” he demanded, voice shaking with rage.
The pack stiffened.
Warriors bowed their heads.
But I didn’t.
I held Roseline tighter.
“She’s alive,” I said.
Kael froze.
His breathing stopped.
A flicker of shock...real shock....crossed his face.
“What?”
“She’s alive,” I repeated. “You left her, Kael. But she’s still fighting.”
Kael stepped forward slowly, gaze locked on her pale face.
He lifted a trembling hand
As if to touch her
As if he couldn’t believe she was real
But the moment his fingertips reached her skin
A violent surge of silver light shot out, burning the air.
Kael stumbled back, eyes wide.
“What was that?” he hissed.
I stared at Roseline, at the soft shimmering glow now pulsing faintly beneath her chest.
Her heart.
Her wolf.
Her prophecy.
“She’s changing,” I said quietly. “The Moon Goddess is not done with her.”
The child gripping Roseline’s hand whispered:
“She’s gonna wake up again.”
I looked at her beautiful, fragile face...so unfairly bruised, so undeserving of this pain.
Then I lifted my eyes to Kael.
“For the first time,” I said steadily, “you’re not in control of her fate.”
Kael’s wolf growled inside him.
But it didn’t matter.
Roseline had chosen her own path
Even in death.
Even in the darkness.
Even in the space between life and rebirth.
And I…
I was the one who would carry her through it.
- Writer
