Hello! So, you all probably want to beat me up right now...especially one person I know...but I hope you like this chapter :( it made me so sad to write.
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"That's not possible, I haven't felt the bond break," Lilia shouted.
The tears she had been holding back finally broke through their dam as Lilia looked over her mate's injuries. He should be healing instantly.
Why wasn't he healing?
"C'mon, think, think," Dr. Walahan muttered to himself. His eyes were frantic.
"No. This isn't happening. Lev? Can you hear me?"
"What's going on? Is everything okay?" Lilia's head snapped up at the sound of her mother's voice.
"Mom!" She wailed loudly. She heard a deep male voice and more footsteps rushing next to her. Large hands set Kate on the ground next to her daughter and Lilia pulled her mother into a hug as quickly as possible.
"Lev? No, no. Not again. Not my daughter!" Kate screamed at the sky. Lilia pulled back and stroked Lev's face and whispered happy thoughts to him. Johanna joined them shortly after.
"Goddess," Johanna breathed, looking at the situation with wide eyes. Dr. Walahan rushed through his supplies and told someone to call the other doctor.
"I'm going to open him up," Dr. Walahan announced.
"No!" Lilia flung herself at the doctor angrily. Johanna caught her quickly and held her back, trying to console her. It wasn't working.
"We haven't had any time," Lilia whispered to herself. Johanna hugged her tighter and Kate brushed her hand through Lilia's hair.
"I'm so sorry," her mother whispered. She sounded like she was crying too.
"Don't look," Johanna told Lilia. She covered Lilia's eyes with her hand.
"No, no. I've already seen him like this. I want to know what's going on," Lilia pushed Johanna's hand away and scooted forward on her butt.
She winced at the sound of the incision and focused her eyes on her mate's face.
"Please," Lilia pleaded with the Moon Goddess, "Please help him."
"I'm here, I'm here. What did I miss?" Dr. Nylan sprinted up to the scene.
"No heartbeat. I'm going to open it up and see if there's any magic in him," Dr. Walahan explained quickly. Dr. Nylan rushed to put gloves on and grabbed some tools as well.
It wasn't long before they made it to his heart. Lilia gasped at the beating heart surrounded by another magical substance, clear this time, and fell forward in relief.
He was still alive...hopefully.
"Go get that silver box," Dr. Nylan shouted to anyone who could hear. Footsteps ran away and returned shortly with the box.
"Alright, I've got it out—shit! That hurt," Dr. Walahan yanked his hand back. "He must be in a shit ton of pain. We have to hurry."
A few curses later and the substance was thrown in the box with the black mass they had removed from Lev's body.
"They must have impaled him with something. They wanted us to bury him alive," Blaton snarled. He turned to the warriors. "Back to your positions. Now!"
"Let's stitch this up, he might shift back soon." Dr. Walahan calmly stitched the wound and cleaned some of the other wounds on Lev's body before it shifted back into his human form.
Lilia held onto his hand the entire time as warriors and Alpha Luke lifted Lev's human form up and moved him to the medical center.
Lev's face grimaced every time he was jostled and Lilia's heart clenched when she saw him in pain.
Goddess, please...
The mumbled words about his condition fell into the background as Lilia cupped Lev's face in her hands. He was alive, somehow. Thank the Goddess.
What were they supposed to do now? How were they supposed to defeat Roman if he could take out their strongest warrior, their Lycan.
"Lev. Lev! Can you hear me?" she pressed into his mind. His face twisted into a grimace, whether from her words or the doctor's work...she couldn't tell. Either way, she stopped pressing and simply held his hand until the work was done.
"He will be fine, Lilia. Come, let's take a break," Dr. Walahan tried to coerce Lilia out of the room.
She shook her head, sniffled, and wiped one side of her face. Everyone in the room silently left without her.
Lilia pretended she couldn't hear her mother weeping in the hallway, thankful the Moon Goddess hadn't taken away both of their mates.
Lilia felt guilty her mother had to go through that.
After a while her crying mother was moved from the hallway and it felt like the world fell silent. Now that the magic had been removed from his body his Lycan healing could begin.
Lilia felt like she was growing stronger as she watched his injuries heal. Her sniffles slowly stopped and about two hours after he was brought inside, his eyes opened.
Lev glanced at his distraught mate, confused, and started to sit up. Lilia began to fret over him; fluffing his pillow, making sure his body was tucked into the blanket...he just wanted to hold her.
Lev ignored the blanket and pillow she was fussing over and pulled her into his arms. He gripped her tight and rubbed her back as she began to sniffle with her head tucked into his shoulder.
"I'm sorry," Lev started. She pushed back from the hug.
"Why the hell are you apologizing?" Lilia asked. She used both hands to wipe the rest of the tears off of her face. Lev didn't take his hands off of her.
"I wanted to come back to you," he smiled softly. Lilia grabbed both of his cheeks and pulled him into a long overdue kiss. He responded instantly and pulled her on top of him. They both relaxed on the bed, Lilia stretched over her mate.
A knock on the door had them rushing to pull away, but it was pointless. Alpha Blaton was already standing inside with a smirk on his face.
"Honey!" He called loudly.
"Yes?" They all heard Alpha Luke respond from down the hall.
"You owe me twenty bucks!"
"Why? What are they—" Alpha Luke's voice got closer and closer until he stopped at the entrance of the room, next to his mate. Lilia fought the urge to wipe the kiss off of her lips, as if that would make it go away.
The two Alphas giggled like children as Lilia tried to wipe her embarrassment away.
"How are you feeling, Lev?" Alpha Blaton calmed down and asked.
"Fine. Normal." Lev pushed in his head.
"That's good," Blaton responded. "Doc said you can leave whenever you feel up to it. I'll call a meeting in an hour so we can get your side of the story on what happened. Sound good?"
"Thank you for calling your warriors off," Lev murmured. A look of guilt took over the Alpha's face.
"I tried to come after you. The Council stopped me," Blaton began to get angry. Alpha Luke rubbed his back.
"I understand," Lev said. "We'll all be a little less stressed with them around. I'm glad you stayed. Things got intense."
"We'll let you get some rest, eat, etc. You can tell us later," Alpha Luke said softly. He took his mate by the hand softly and led him out of the room.
"I'm so glad you're okay," Lilia whispered. Lev, who had laid back down, pulled Lilia to lie next to him.
"What happened after I blacked out?" He asked quietly.
"Your heart stopped beating," she whispered. Lev hugged her tighter when she sniffled again. "They found more of that gunk in you."
"Gunk?" He chuckled. Lilia rubbed her nose below his ear and flinched back in surprise when his chest rumbled softly.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. Lilia knew he was all healed but feared there might still be magic inside of him.
"That felt good," Lev gave her a cheeky grin.
"Want me to do it again?"
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So...are you less mad at me now? I hope so! Lev was never meant to die, so don't worry!