Chapter 0130

Alexander

“Damn it! Alexander, can you hear me? Wake the hell up!” My brother’s voice cuts through the fog in my mind. He sounds panicked, distant.

“ALEXANDER!”

“Shut the fuck up!” My eyes snap open. I’m hanging upside down. Blood trickles down my arms and face. I struggle to process the scene.

‘What the hell happened?’ Titan’s voice echoes in my head, groggy.

I ignore him, focusing on my surroundings.

The car is overturned, roof crushed against the ground. The windshield is completely shattered. Shards of glass lie beneath my head. A searing pain shoots through my chest, making each breath a struggle. The sharp scent of gasoline fills the air. This car could explode any second.

“Shit!” Julian mutters. He’s fighting against the dashboard pinning him down. He pushes it back slowly, inch by inch, using all his strength. If we were human, we’d be dead already.

I reach for the seatbelt release. Then I feel it. A large piece of glass lodged deep in my chest, dangerously close to my heart. It might have already pierced the organ keeping me alive. I never imagined I’d die like this.

“Julian, look at me.”

“Hold on, I’m almost free.”

“Julian.”

He stops fighting the dashboard and turns to me. The cuts on his face from the glass are already healing. His eyes widen in horror when he sees the glass protruding from my chest. The same terrifying thought flashes through his mind.

“No… no, no, no, this isn’t happening. You’re going to be a father! You can’t leave Athena. She needs you. We all need you.”

“Julian, you know the pack already senses something’s wrong. That’s why you didn’t want to look at me—you felt my distress. Athena will feel it too.”

‘Alexander!’ Isabella’s voice screams through the mind link. ‘What happened?’

‘Car accident,’ I reply, half-chuckling despite the pain. ‘Some idiot came out of nowhere.’

‘But you’re okay, right? Please tell me you’re okay!’

I glance at the glass in my chest. Julian uses one foot to kick the dashboard off his other leg.

‘Promise me you’ll protect Athena,’ I murmur through the link. ‘If I die, promise me you won’t abandon her.’

‘No.’ She begins to cry. ‘She’s carrying your children.’

‘Until they’re old enough, I need you and Sebastian to help her lead the pack.’

Julian presses his hands against my chest. The fear in his eyes is unmistakable.

He carefully unbuckles the seatbelt holding me upside down. He catches me before my body shifts too much and dislodges the glass. Slowly, he drags me out of the wreckage, pulling me across the road just as the car erupts into a massive fireball.

“Go!” I gasp. “The human cops will be here soon.”

“I’m not leaving you.” Julian rips my shirt open, applying pressure around the wound with all his strength. “It might not have hit your heart.”

‘If it did and you remove it, I die.’

‘If I don’t, you’ll die anyway from blood loss and failed healing. What about Athena? What about the twins? You know Ethan will take her if you’re gone! You know she’ll never be the same if she loses you.’

I turn my head and spit out the blood filling my throat. I try to link Athena, but Nyx has blocked her off.

“Are you trying to piss off a dying man?”

“You’re not dying.” He wraps something around the glass and yanks it out, tossing it aside. He presses his hands firmly against the wound. His eyes glaze over.

“Who are you linking?” I cough up more blood.

“My sister. If anyone can help, it’s her!”

Sirens wail in the distance. No one had passed us or stopped, meaning someone else alerted them. The other car that hit us is long gone.

“You have to go!” I snap.

“Not a chance. I made the mistake of following your orders before.” He prods at my wound and smiles. “It missed your heart.”

“Are you sure?”

“Isabella said you’d be dead by now if it had. And you’re healing. The cuts on your face are already gone.”

I look down. The wound is knitting itself together. A thick pink line forms, gradually thinning until it looks like I was never injured.