Free Web NovelChapter 203: Chapter 202: Saved
On the bed, Eve’s breathing was evening out...still rapid, still shallow, but steady. Regular. The terrifying pauses and gasps replaced by something that resembled normal respiratory function.
Her eyes were closed now, the terrifying green glow faded, just her normal face....pale and bloodstained and battered, but alive. Definitely, unmistakably alive.
The brothers didn’t move. Didn’t dare to. Their hands still on her body, still pouring energy through the bond even though the immediate crisis seemed to have passed, terrified that if they stopped, if they let up even fractionally, she’d start convulsing again.
Minutes passed in awful silence.
Then Eve’s eyes opened....not glowing now, just her normal amber eyes, confused and unfocused and trying to make sense of where she was.
"What..." Her voice was barely a whisper, raw and broken. "What happened?"
"You collapsed," Silas said, his own voice unsteady. "After the trial. Your body....you burned through too much power, accessed abilities you weren’t trained for, and your system shut down. You were bleeding, convulsing, dying...."
"Raphael saved you," Damian interrupted. "He forced energy past your body’s defenses, and we fed you through the bond until you could accept it."
Eve tried to process this, her mind clearly struggling. "I died?"
"Almost," Raphael said from his position against the wall. "You came very, very close. Another minute and..." He stopped, unable to finish that sentence. freewebnovel.cσ๓
"I’m sorry," Eve whispered, and tears began tracking through the blood on her face. "I’m so sorry. I didn’t know...I didn’t mean to...."
"Shh," Damon said, one hand gently stroking her hair. "Don’t apologize. You did what you had to do. You fought brilliantly. This isn’t your fault."
"It’s mine," Raphael said quietly. "I taught you techniques without properly explaining the risks. I told you to trust your instincts without making clear that accessing untrained power could kill you. This is..." His voice cracked. "This is my failure."
"No," Eve said, with surprising strength despite her condition. "No. You taught me what I needed to know to survive that fight. The rest...that was my choice. My decision to push past limits. Don’t...don’t take that from me by claiming it as your mistake."
Raphael looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. "Understood."
Eve tried to sit up and immediately discovered that was a terrible idea....her body screaming in protest, every muscle feeling like it had been individually beaten with a hammer.
"Don’t move," Damian commanded, pressing her gently back down. "You need to rest. Let your body finish processing the energy we transferred. Let yourself heal."
"The trial," Eve said. "Did I...did we win?"
"You lost," Silas said honestly. "Submitted after twenty minutes of combat. But...." His expression shifted to something warm and proud. "....Katerina endorsed you anyway. Said you’d earned her respect. That the Military faction wouldn’t oppose your claim."
Eve processed this, a small smile appearing despite the pain it clearly caused her split lip to curve. "Lost but won. That’s....that’s something."
"That’s everything," Damian corrected. "You went into that trial with most people expecting you to be humiliated, broken, dismissed. You came out with Military faction endorsement and the respect of a five-hundred-year-old warrior. That’s a victory by any measure that matters."
Through the bond, Eve could feel their emotions....fear still prominent but easing now that she was conscious and stable, pride mixing with relief, love so overwhelming it made her throat tight.
"I scared you," she said quietly. "All of you. I’m sorry."
"You terrified us," Damon said bluntly. "Watching you convulse and bleed and...." He stopped, clearly unable to continue that thought. "Don’t do that again. Whatever you need to do in future fights, whatever power you need to access...we’ll figure out how to do it safely. This...." He gestured at the blood-soaked bed, at her battered body. "This is not acceptable."
"Agreed," Eve said.
A knock on the door made everyone tense....protective instincts flaring immediately.
"It’s Elena," came the quiet voice from the hallway. "And Maya. Catherine sent us. She said....she said Luna would need cleaning up, and we should help because the Alphas wouldn’t want to leave her side."
The brothers exchanged glances. It was true...none of them wanted to leave Eve, not even for the time it would take to gather supplies for cleaning her up.
"Come in," Damian called.
Elena and Maya entered, both carrying supplies...clean cloths, warm water, fresh clothing, medical supplies even though they clearly didn’t know if standard medicine would help with supernatural injuries.
They stopped just inside the door, both of them going pale at the sight of Eve on the bed...blood-soaked and battered, clearly having been at death’s door very recently.
"Oh my god," Maya breathed. "Eve...."
"I’m okay," Eve said, though her voice was so weak it probably wasn’t very convincing. "I just need....I need to rest. And apparently to be cleaned up."
Elena and Maya started cleaning up. They worked around the brothers, who refused to fully move away but shifted enough to give them access.
Elena handled the blood....wiping it away carefully, checking the cuts to make sure they weren’t still bleeding, her hands gentle but efficient. Maya focused on helping Eve out of the destroyed training leathers, into clean, soft clothes that wouldn’t irritate her battered body.
Through it all, the brothers maintained physical contact....a hand on her shoulder, fingers at her wrist, palm against her calf. Touching her, reassuring themselves continuously that she was alive, she was breathing, she was still theirs.
Raphael had recovered enough to stand, though he still looked exhausted. "I need to contact Seraphine," he said. "Let her know Eve is stable. The trial ended with...." He paused. ".....with confusion. People saw her collapse, saw the blood. They need to know she survived, that she’ll recover."
"Do it," Damian said. "But...." He looked at Raphael seriously. ".....thank you. For saving her. We couldn’t have done it without you."
Raphael’s expression softened. "She’s my niece. My last family. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do." He moved to the door, then paused. "She needs to rest for at least three days. Complete rest. No training, no Court politics, no stress. Her body needs time to fully integrate the energy we transferred and heal from the damage."
"She’ll rest," Silas promised. "We’ll make sure of it."
After Raphael left, after Elena and Maya had finished cleaning Eve up and departed with the soiled linens and water, the brothers finally allowed themselves to relax slightly.
Eve was clean now, dressed in soft clothes, tucked into bed with fresh sheets. The blood was gone. The immediate crisis was over.
But she was asleep, her breathing deep and even and normal.
"That was....." Damon started, then stopped, unable to find words.
"Too close," Damian finished. "Way too fucking close."
Silas didn’t say anything. Just positioned himself on the bed beside Eve, his hand finding hers, his body close enough that she’d feel his warmth in her sleep.
The others joined him....Damian on Eve’s other side, Damon at the foot of the bed where he could watch her face, could see the rise and fall of her breathing. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
They would stay like this for however long it took. Days if necessary. Weeks. However long it took to be absolutely certain their mate was stable, was healing, was going to be okay.
Through the window, evening was deepening into night. The estate had settled into its routines....pack members processing what they’d witnessed, court representatives departing, life continuing despite the drama.
But in the master bedroom, three alpha wolves kept vigil over their mate.
Who had fought a five-hundred-year-old warrior and survived.
But they were never, ever letting her get that close to dying again.
’’Never’’
