(...continued)

Selene hugged Kieran too tight.

But that embrace did not last long.

Behind them, the air shifted.

A low, feral snarl tore through the moment...too close...if not too sudden.

The beast attacked again.

Its presence slammed into the space behind Selene and Kieran like a wave...claws slicing through air, breath hot and vicious as it lunged for them from the back.

Selene did not scream.

She did not even turn fully.

She simply loosened her hold on Kieran just enough to move.

Her head tilted slightly, as if irritated.

And she snapped her fingers.

The sound was soft.

Almost delicate.

But the beast behind her, answered it.

Power rippled outward...silent, crushing, absolute.

The beast froze mid-motion.

Its roar cut off in its throat.

Then, like a puppet whose strings had been severed, it collapsed. Limbs went slack. Bones hit the ground with a dull, lifeless thud. Dust rose around its massive form as it lay there, unmoving, eyes dull, breath shallow but present.

Alive.

But utterly undone.

Kieran never saw it.

His vision had already darkened, the edges of the world bleeding into black. Sounds stretched, warped, drifted away from him. Selene’s scent was still there, all over him but even that felt distant now.

His body sagged fully into her arms. Involuntarily.

"Kieran..." Selene called his name sharply this time, catching him before he could fall. "Stay with me, alright? I got you."

No response.

His breathing was shallow. Uneven. Too slow.

"Damn it..." she muttered under her breath.

She lowered him carefully to the ground, movements precise despite the urgency. One knee hit the dirt as she leaned over him, her hands already moving...too deliberate to be frantic, too controlled to be careless.

Her fingers brushed his jaw first, tilting his face slightly to the side.

Blood smeared across her skin.

Her touch lingered.

Not because she wanted it to.

But because she had to feel... feel him.

She traced the line of his throat slowly, checking for breath, for a pulse...her thumb resting just a second longer than necessary against the strong column of his neck. His skin was hot. Too hot.Feverish almost.

"Still here," she murmured softly. "Good."

Her hand slid down to his chest.

Over his heart.

She pressed lightly, then firmer, listening, feeling the uneven rhythm beneath her palm. Her fingers spread slowly, almost reverently, as if memorizing the rise and fall of his chest.

Her gaze almost looked melancholy.

Blood soaked the fabric beneath her touch.

Selene inhaled sharply.

Her hand moved lower, skimming his ribs next...each inch traced carefully, methodically. Her fingers slipped under his torn clothing, brushing bare skin as she searched for broken bones, punctured flesh, wounds that refused to close.

Kieran ought to have healed already but his mother’s spells or the place they were in, was rendering his healing powers useless. He was a wolf... just an ordinary wolf... nothing special about him other than the fact that he had a human form. His healing properties and heightened senses were numbed...suppressed.

Her touch was unhurried.

Intentional? Of course intentional in all sense of the word...but of course what she was doing was important. She was checking for all the fatal wounds... the ones which were openly bleeding. The ones which could actually kill Kieran. Simply by bleeding him dry.

Her fingers lingered at his side, her palm warm against his skin, thumb tracing a slow, unconscious arc as she felt for internal bleeding. Anyone watching might have mistaken it for something else entirely ...something intimate, something forbidden... almost a slow, well paced foreplay.

But Selene’s eyes were sharp.

Focused.

"She did a number on you," she whispered, more to herself than to him.

Her hand slid to his shoulder...the one torn open earlier.It was the worst of them all. Where his bone actually showed.

She peeled back the shredded fabric gently, exposing the gash. Blood welled fresh as air touched it.

Selene’s jaw tightened.

"Of course," she breathed. "Of course she went for your dominant side."

Her fingers pressed around the wound, slow, assessing. Kieran twitched faintly at the pressure...a barely there reaction.

"Easy," she murmured, instinctively softening her touch. "I know. I know."

Her hand moved again...down his arm, along his forearm, over his wrist...checking for fractures, feeling the tremor in his muscles, the way his strength had completely abandoned him.

Kieran was slipping.

Fast.

His lashes fluttered weakly, eyes barely slitted now. He didn’t see Selene above him. Didn’t feel the weight of her gaze. Didn’t register the way her fingers stayed on him longer than necessary...how they hesitated each time they moved away, as if reluctant.

"...Autumn," he whispered faintly, the name barely a sound, more like a prayer...like his breath...like necessity.

Selene froze.

For just a moment.

Her hand rested flat against his chest again, fingers curling slightly into the fabric there.

"I know," she said quietly. "I know who you are holding on for."

She leaned closer, her voice dropping, almost intimate despite herself.

"But you are not allowed to call her here...you are not allowed to leave yet, Alpha."

Her fingers resumed their slow, searching path...thorough, precise, lingering...while Kieran drifted further into darkness, too far gone to question the closeness, too weak to resist it, his body wholly at her mercy as the world finally began to fade.

Selene felt it...the moment his weight truly left her hands.

His breathing stuttered once, twice, then fell into something dangerously shallow. His chest barely rose now, as if even the act of drawing air had become a burden he was tired of carrying.

"Kieran," she said again, quieter this time. Firmer now.

Her palm pressed to his sternum, not hard enough to hurt...just enough to remind his body what it was supposed to do. Breathe. Stay. Live.

His lashes fluttered once more.

Then stopped.

For a heartbeat...too long...there was nothing.

Selene’s fingers froze.

The world narrowed.

Slowly, deliberately, she shifted her hand upward, two fingers sliding back to his neck. She counted. One second. Two.

There it was.

Faint.

Erratic.

But present.

She exhaled, a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

"Stubborn wolf," she murmured, something dangerously close to fondness threading through her voice.

Her hand moved again, this time more decisively...though no less slow. She brushed blood-matted hair back from his forehead, her knuckles lingering there, tracing the edge of his brow as if committing it to memory.

His skin burned beneath her touch.

"This place is killing you," she said softly, eyes flicking briefly to the fallen beast in the distance before returning to him. "Suppressing you. Draining you."

Her thumb ghosted over his temple.

"But it won’t take you," she added, quieter still. "Not today."

Selene straightened slightly, one hand remaining on his chest as the other lifted...hovering in the air above him. Power stirred again, subtle this time. Controlled. It hummed faintly, responding to her presence alone.

She hesitated.

Just for a fraction of a second.

Her gaze lingered on his face...bloodied, pale beneath the grime, impossibly calm now that he was slipping under. Vulnerable in a way Alpha Kieran had never been in all the centuries she had known of him.

"You would definitely hate this," she said under her breath. "If you were awake."

Her fingers lowered.

They did not touch him immediately.

Instead, they traced the air just above his skin, following the path her hands had already taken...jaw, throat, chest...like she was retracing her own steps. When she finally pressed her palm flat over his heart again, the power flowed.

Not violently.

Not painfully.

Warmth spread outward, slow and steady, threading carefully through him as if afraid to break what little remained intact. His body reacted instinctively...muscles twitching, breath catching faintly before evening out by the smallest margin.

"There," Selene whispered. "That’s it."

She leaned closer again, her forehead nearly touching his, her voice low enough that it felt meant only for him.

Her thumb brushed his cheek once more...gentler this time. Lingering. Almost... protective.

"Rest," she murmured. "I will carry the rest for now."