1. Time of death
The last thing that Lyle remembered was unimaginable pain.
What had shocked him though was that he didn’t just feel the emotional pain that came from Chloe but he also felt his own pain of loosing Alpha Alex.
At first, when he entered the pack hall, he got nothing through the link from Alpha Alex and Chloe. When Marcus told him what they were being accused of, he hadn’t been sure what to believe, which is why he confirmed it with Chloe.
But from Alpha Alex, the only thing he got was the look of helplessness and desperation in his eyes. It didn’t take a genius to guess that he just wanted Chloe safe.
Surprisingly, when Alpha Alex had pulled at the silver chains in anger, somehow they had managed to link. He was sending so much through that Lyle had trouble keeping track. He was sorry, he was adamant on going ahead but mainly he wanted Chloe to survive this. It hadn’t been till those silver chains had creaked that Lyle understood how strong the Alpha’s feelings were for Chloe and that the Alpha could actually pull this off so that they could save Chloe. Together. Like they had planned to.
So he prepared himself and lunged for Chloe just before the pain of loosing a marked pierced through his heart like a hot blade. After that, he had felt peace. He was sure that his beautiful, sweet Chloe was going to survive and he had tried to send her all the love he had for her in his heart because he knew she was going to need it.
If she had one mole in the pack, there could be others and if the Alpha’s seed took she would have to raise the next Alpha all by herself with no one to watch over her. That was the only regret he had, that he was leaving her unguarded and vulnerable.
What he hadn’t expected was to open his eyes with a snap and see Gio leaning over him in the pack hall with loud crying and noise in the background.
“Lyle! You’re up! Oh thank the goddess for …” he looked behind himself at someone else. “He’s up Freya.”
But it was Garrett who was frantically slapping Lyle’s face. “Focus boy, focus. Is it the first time you’re waking up?”
Lyle had no idea what the old wolf was talking about, didn’t he understand that his ramblings were the last thing on his mind right now? Just to get him off his back, Lyle shook his head. Garrett’s face dropped and he comfortingly patted Lyle’s hand once and walked away.
Gio was gone to the other group and the omegas around him were crying but held up a glass of water to Lyle’s lips. He took a small sip and slowly moved his head down to see he was on his back and attached to his chest were two plastic patches and some wires. He peeled the patch off, ignoring the chest hair it pulled off and he sat up to look around him.
Chloe was still in the same spot she had been when he went down, kneeling beside him like she was frozen. Someone had put their shirt over her as she stared ahead at the group of people a few paces from them and tears flowed freely from her eyes. But her face wasn’t moving and neither was she, her eyes set in a thousand yard stare. She had just witnessed her loving Alex shift through the spikes of the impaler collar as his body grew with shifting.
That was the reason impaler collars were even invented, ironically by Alex’s parents. If a wolf took enhancers or sorcery to overcome silver, they still couldn’t shift till the collar was removed. Unless of course they grabbed the collar too and broke it but Alpha Alex did not have time with Marcus so close to him and Mia right next to Chloe. It must have been the sheer magnitude of his need to protect Chloe that gave Alpha Alex the ability to break through those silver shackles and shift with that collar on.
Lyle gently leaned over and touched Chloe’s arm, “Chlo? You okay?” She didn’t register his words, didn’t flinch or respond. In fact, she didn’t react at all. His heart ached at the feel of her cold skin as he wrapped his arms around her and held her stiff yet lifeless body for a brief moment.
There was no grief, no sorrow, nothing coming from her through the link. She had gone completely numb.
“Lyle, I know we just brought you back but could you …” Gio was beside him requesting help but Lyle was ahead of him. He walked straight to the group working on the Alpha like he should have done as soon as he woke up and put his hand on the Alphas’s chest which too was covered in those plastic patches.
But he felt nothing. The Alpha felt human with how little his supernatural strength was at that moment. How much weakener did they give him?
“It’s not working.” He said to Freya, “can you give him some blood? Get his heart going?” Freya was covered in blood and her hands looked burnt, next to her sat the impaler collar cut in half and the axe from the fire cabinet.
“I can’t, he doesn’t have any family. And his heart won’t start, they must have given him a lot of weakener, I’m surprised they managed to even wake him up at all.”
Freya was frantically trying to keep the punctured wounds pressed down because there were ten of those, each for one spike of the collar, and the others standing around were pressing on to the wounds too.
But the Alpha was in his human form now. And that didn’t happen till….
“How long ago did he shift back.”
“Just now, after you woke up.” Denni was holding on to two of the holes on the side of the neck and she looked worse than the doctor with the blood drenching her face, hair and hands.
They all kept doing what they were doing without looking at each other and without making any progress. No one wanted to acknowledge it, no one wanted to do what was right.
“You have to call it Freya,” Gio gentle voice broke through their collective illusion.
Lyle looked at the doctor who was just not ready to give up even though everything was against her. Alpha Alex had shifted to human as his magical spirits had left his body, he wasn’t healing because of the weakener, his heart wasn’t starting and he had no family who could give him blood.
Lyle’s eyes went back to Chloe who was still sitting like a statue with the unfocused eyes fixed on her face. The pain he felt now was a heartache of his own at letting her down. As the others all gathered around the small group of Alphas, Lyle felt his brother’s hands on his shoulder.
Freya was still her professional self but her voice quivered slightly when she announced for all to hear.
“Alpha Alex of New Kurt, time of death, 2:35 am, date, 6th of October, 2003.”
