The Alpha Kings And Their Stripper Mate

Chapter 43: Chapter 42: ON THE ROAD

Three SUVs tore down the highway, exceeding every speed limit.

Damian drove the lead vehicle with white-knuckled intensity, his foot pressed firmly on the accelerator. Beside him, Silas monitored his tablet....pulling up traffic reports, calculating routes, finding any way to shave minutes off their travel time.

Damon sat in the back, weapons still strapped to his body, too keyed up to sleep despite his brother’s order.

"Call Dr. Thorne," Damian ordered. "I need an update." fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Silas dialed, putting it on speaker.

"Status?" Damian demanded the moment Dr. Thorne answered.

"She’s alive," Dr. Thorne said, her voice exhausted. "Barely. Temperature hit 106.1 an hour ago. I’ve got her packed in ice. The medically induced coma is helping, but her body is still fighting the transformation even while unconscious."

"How?" Damon asked. "How is she fighting it while in a coma?"

"The bond," Dr. Thorne said. "The soul bond is so strong that even unconscious, she’s holding onto you. Waiting for you. It’s medically impossible, but she’s doing it anyway."

"How long can she last?" Damian asked.

"I don’t know," Dr. Thorne admitted. "Hours, maybe. There’s only one unmarked spot left on her body.....less than an inch on her left palm. When that mark appears, the spell will shatter whether she’s ready or not. And if it shatters while you’re not there..." She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.

"We’re ten hours out," Damian said, his voice tight. "Maybe nine if traffic is good and I push the speed."

"I’ll keep her alive until you get here," Dr. Thorne promised. "Somehow, I’ll keep her alive."

"You’d better," Damian said, the threat clear in his voice. "Because if she dies while we’re racing home, if we lose her because we couldn’t get there in time....."

"I know," Dr. Thorne interrupted gently. "I know what she means to you. I’m doing everything I can."

The call ended.

Damian pressed the accelerator harder, pushing the SUV to ninety miles per hour. Behind them, the other vehicles matched his speed.

"We should have stayed," Damon said quietly. "We should have told Konstantin to fuck off and stayed with her."

"Those children would be dead," Silas said.

"I know," Damon said. "And that makes this whole fucking situation even worse. Because we made the right choice. The alpha choice. The choice that saves the most lives. But it might cost us everything."

"She’ll survive," Damian said, his voice hard with determination. "She has to survive. She promised us she would, and Eve Chen doesn’t break her promises."

"She also promised to wait for us," Silas said quietly. "And she’s keeping that promise even though it’s killing her."

The SUV flew down the highway, eating up miles.

But not fast enough.

Never fast enough.

"Drive faster," Damon said.

"I am driving faster," Damian snapped.

"Then drive faster than that," Damon insisted. "Because if we get home and she’s already gone, if the last thing we said to her was goodbye through a fucking phone call....."

"She won’t be gone," Damian interrupted. "She’s too stubborn. Too strong. Too determined to prove she can survive anything."

"You don’t know that," Damon said.

"I have to believe it," Damian shot back. "Because the alternative is unthinkable. So yes, I’m driving faster. And yes, we’re going to make it in time. And yes, she’s going to be alive when we get there. Because I refuse to accept any other outcome."

Silas’s phone buzzed with a text from Dr. Thorne: Final mark is appearing. Spell will break within hours. Hurry.

"Fuck," Silas breathed.

"What?" both brothers demanded.

"The final mark is appearing. She has hours. Maybe less."

Damian’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. "How far out are we?"

"Eight and a half hours," Silas calculated. "If we maintain current speed and don’t stop for anything."

"Then we don’t stop," Damian said. "No food breaks. No bathroom breaks. No stopping for anything. We drive straight through and we get home before that spell breaks."

"And if we don’t?" Damon asked. "If we’re still hours away when it shatters?"

"Then we pray," Damian said grimly. "We pray that the bond is strong enough to keep her anchored even without physical touch. We pray that she’s as strong as we think she is. We pray that love is enough."

"Love isn’t enough," Damon said bitterly. "Not against supernatural forces. Not against binding spells and transformations."

"Then what is?" Silas asked quietly.

None of them had an answer.

So they drove.

Faster and faster, pushing the vehicles to their limits, racing against time and fate and magic.

Racing to get home to the woman who was dying while waiting for them.

Racing to make it in time.

Please let them make it in time.

FRIDAY, 6:00 PM - FOUR HOURS FROM HOME

"She’s seizing," Dr. Thorne’s voice came through the phone, panicked. "Full grand mal seizure. Temperature is 107.3. I need you here now."

"Four hours," Damian said, his voice breaking. "We’re still four hours out. Can you stabilize her?"

"I’m trying," Dr. Thorne said. "But Damian....the final mark just completed. Every inch of her skin is glowing. The spell is going to break any second now."

"No," Damian said. "No, she waits. She waits for us. Eve!" He raised his voice, speaking to her even though she couldn’t hear him. "Eve, you wait for us! You don’t transform without us there! You hold on!"

"She can’t hear you," Dr. Thorne said gently.

"The bond can hear me," Damian insisted. "Eve! Hold on! We’re almost there!"

For a moment, impossibly, the seizure stopped.

Dr. Thorne’s gasp was audible. "She... she heard you. I don’t know how, but she heard you. Her vitals just stabilized slightly."

"Keep talking to her," Silas urged. "Use the bond. She can feel us even at this distance."

So all three brothers began talking, sending their voices through the bond, through the phone, across the miles separating them.

"Hold on, baby," Damian said. "We’re coming. We’re almost there."

"You promised to wait for us," Damon added. "You promised. Don’t break that promise now."

"We love you," Silas said. "More than anything. More than our own lives. Hold on for us. Please hold on."

Dr. Thorne’s voice was thick with emotion. "Her vitals are holding. I don’t know how, but they’re holding. Keep talking. Don’t stop."

So they talked.

For four hours, as they drove through the darkness, they talked to Eve through the phone, through the bond, sending their love and their desperation across the distance.

And somehow, impossibly, she held on.

She held on for them.

Because she’d made a promise.

And Eve Chen didn’t break her promises. fгeewebnovёl.com

Not even when dying.

Not even when every cell in her body was screaming for release.

She held on.

For them.

FRIDAY, 10:00 PM - ARRIVING HOME

The SUV screeched to a halt in front of the estate.

All three brothers were out and running before the engine fully shut off. They took the stairs three at a time, bursting into the bedroom where Eve lay surrounded by medical equipment and glowing like a small sun.

Dr. Thorne looked up, relief stark on her exhausted face. "You made it. Thank God, you made it."

Damian crossed to the bed in two strides, his hand reaching for Eve.

The moment his skin touched hers, the world exploded in golden light.

The binding spell shattered.

And Eve’s transformation began.