Page 61 of Keeping His Mate
This isn’t the end.
This can’t be the end.
Lowering my head near his lips, I listen for breath. “Elle...Elle-noor,” he whispers, so faint I almost didn’t hear him, even though my ear is right next to his mouth.
“Hey,” I say through tears. I’m trying to smile, trying to put on a brave face because that’s what he needs right now, but I can’t pretend I’m not scared to death of losing him. “There you are.”
Then I turn away to shout, “Help! We need help here!” Grotahk is wrestling with two of the guards and Eduno is currently kicking the shit out of Bzzsil Chi, but upon hearing my call, Drasko races away, yelling for Kaiva.
Bruvix lifts his other hand, guiding my face back toward him, and cups my cheek. “I–I have always s-seen you in the piloi flowers,” he mutters, trying to keep his focus on my face, despite it becoming harder for him to catch his breath. “Your softness. Your co-courage.”
“Shh,” I tell him. “Just rest. Help is on the way. You don’t have t–”
“No. P-please,” he begs. He tries to pull himself up but can’t do much more than slightly lift his head, so I lean down, bringing us closer, mere inches apart. “We shall meet again, Elle-noor, among the flowers.”
“Enough of that talk,” I scold him. Shaking my head, I pinch my eyes shut, feeling annoyed by his constant pessimistic thinking. He’s going to be fine. Kaiva will get here, and we’ll take him back to the med tube, and that thing will perform an operation to remove the bullet and sew him back up, and he’ll be fine.Wewill be fine. But Kaiva needs to get here before the rest of that can happen. “Where the fuck is she?” I grumble, looking around.
After a few moments, I look down at Bruvix, readying for another battle of hope versus doom. His eyes are open, but his gaze is unfocused. And unmoving.
No.
I put my ear next to his mouth, and I hear nothing. He’s not breathing. “No. No, no, no. You are not leaving me,” I mutter as my blood-covered hand frantically presses against his throat, searching for a pulse.
Nothing. Nothing is what I find.
“No! You can’t leave me,” I shout, my voice cracking as a sob wrenches from my throat. “No, Bruvix. Yo-you can’t leave. Don’t leave,” I cry, pressing my face into his neck. At some point, my commands turn to pleas.
Again, I try feeling for a pulse––this time on the inside of his wrist. Maybe his alien body is different in that sense. Yeah, that’s all this is. He’s just asleep, and I’m going to feel his pulse beneath my fingers because I was merely checking the wrong spot before.
“That’s all this is,” I say to no one.
When I don’t feel it, I try with my other hand.
The tears pour from my eyes when my other hand detects nothing, and soon I’m mumbling incoherently for him to please don’t leave me as I press his wrist against my forehead.
When I lift my head, I notice Eduno on his back, and Bzzsil pulling himself to his feet as he pulls a long, twisted blade from the belt of his pants. He doesn’t look down at Eduno, though. His gaze is now locked on me. But I don’t care. I don’t have it in me to care about anything but Bruvix.
I don’t know when it happens, but moments pass, and at some point, I realize there is no pulse to be felt because… he’s gone. Bruvix is gone.
My big, scarred alien protector has been taken from me.
Tilting my head back, I open my mouth and let my pain come pouring out in the form of a scream. All my anger, my sadness––I let it all fuse together in my throat, then unleash it into the air.
When all that’s left are tears, I press my face into his neck once again and hold him. Just hold him.
Out of nowhere, trees rustle a few feet away, and for a moment I hope it’s another one of Bzzsil’s guards coming to kill me too.Take me to Bruvix,I silently beg as I lift my head.Take me home.
But it’s not.
Stepping through the tree line is Nanay, followed by the five adult members of her pack. Her lips curl, revealing her sharp, deadly fangs and her blood-red eyes meet mine. She looks down at Bruvix, then back up at me, and… then she leaps.
CHAPTER 28
BRUVIX
Dry. My mouth is dry.
I do not care for it.