The Child She Saved
704 Words
CHAPTER TEN
Kael POV
Rain pounded the forest floor.
The scent of blood, moonfire, and fear hung thick in the air.
Roseline’s body lay limp in my arms...too still, too cold.
Her head tilted against my chest, her silver-lit veins fading to dull gray.
No breath.
No pulse.
No warmth.
Dead.
My wolf tore through my mind with a howl so painful it nearly dropped me to my knees.
“Mate....NO! Get up! Get UP!”
I clenched her closer, fingers digging into her hair, her back, anything I could hold.
“No,” I whispered....not to her, but to the world.
To fate.
To myself.
“She can’t be dead.”
My voice cracked.
The warriors around us watched in stunned silence.
Even the forest went quiet.
Only the rain moved… falling over her lifeless face.
“Roseline…”
I shook her gently.
“Open your eyes.”
Nothing.
Her lashes didn’t flutter.
Her fingers didn’t twitch.
Her chest didn’t rise.
The reality hit with the force of a blade.
I had rejected her.
Humiliated her.
Despised her.
And still…
She died protecting me.
Protecting all of us.
My throat tightened painfully.
I lowered my forehead to hers.
“Please…”
A rustle snapped through the trees.
Beta Rowan stepped forward cautiously.
“Alpha…” he whispered. “We… found something.”
I didn’t move.
Not until Rowan added:
“It’s a child.”
My eyes snapped open.
“What child?”
Rowan hesitated.
Swallowed.
Then stepped aside.
Two warriors emerged from the shadows carrying a small bundle wrapped in a torn wolfskin cloak. A little boy....no older than three.... clung to the warrior’s tunic, sobbing silently.
His eyes...wide, terrified...locked onto Roseline.
He reached out with tiny fingers.
“Her…” he whimpered.
“S-she saved me…”
My breath caught.
Saved… him?
Rowan bowed his head.
“Alpha, we found him hidden under a fallen log. Roseline must have pushed him there before the battle began.”
My heart thundered.
The rogue attack…
The screams…
The desperate she-wolf who begged Roseline for help…
It made sense now.
“Where is his mother?” I asked quietly.
Rowan lowered his gaze.
“She didn’t survive.”
My chest hollowed out.
The child crawled from the warrior’s grip and stumbled toward me.
Toward Roseline.
He reached my knees, tiny hands shaking.
“H-help her,” he begged.
“She kept me safe… you can keep her safe…”
My throat burned.
This girl…
This girl I rejected…
This girl I discarded like nothing…
She had died saving a helpless child.
While I...
I had been blind.
The child tugged her lifeless hand, desperate.
“Wake up…”
“Please wake up…”
“You said the bad wolves won’t hurt me anymore…”
His tiny cries sliced through every wall I had built around my heart.
Thunder rolled across the sky.
Lightning cracked.
I lifted Roseline into my arms again...slowly, reverently...as if she were something fragile and sacred.
Because she was.
The prophecy’s words echoed through the trees:
“She will die… and return.”
My wolf growled deep, grieving.
“We failed her.”
I stood, holding her close to my chest.
The warriors stepped back respectfully.
Even the trees seemed to bow.
I looked down at her pale face... serene, beautiful, gone.
“Roseline…” I whispered, my voice raw,
“…you saved an innocent life before your last breath.”
Rain streaked down my cheeks.
Or tears.
I no longer knew which.
“But I swear on the silver moon…”
My voice hardened.
“…I will bring justice to whoever did this to you.”
I turned to the child, kneeling just enough to meet his frightened gaze.
“I will protect you,” I promised him.
He nodded, trembling.
But as I stood, carrying Roseline toward the pack grounds, something cold brushed the back of my neck.
I stopped.
The forest wind whispered...too soft to be normal, too clear to be imagined:
“She will rise.”
My blood ran cold.
I looked down at the girl in my arms...lifeless but still faintly touched with silver.
And for the first time since she died…
Hope flickered in the dark.
- Writer
