Page 87 of Alpha Brock

I rush toward them, and thankfully, Sam lifts his head and starts to get to his feet. Brock’s still lying there motionless, his mangled body covered in blood. Just looking at him, at the severity of his injuries, my heart feels like it’s being torn open.

“Brock?!” I call out to him desperately, sinking to the floor beside his bloody body and throwing my arms around him. I try shake him, tears springing to my eyes. “Wake up!”

“He got away,” I hear Cole grumble, and I pick my head up to look toward the far door where he’s standing with two of our strongest soldiers from Denver. They’ve all shifted back to their human forms- and I turn over my other shoulder to see that everyone else has, too.

“We should go,” Jax growls, his voice tense as he glances back toward the corridor.

I choke on a sob, pressing my hand to Brock’s chest. His heartbeat is weak, his breathing shallow. He’s losing too much blood, and I’m not sure if his shifter healing is keeping up.

A hand comes to my shoulder, a gentle and reassuring voice accompanying it. “Come on, we’ve got him,” Reid says, and though the last thing I want to do right now is relinquish my grip on Brock, I know we need to get the hell out of here.

I push to my feet, wiping my tears away with a hand. After I do, I realize that I’ve got Brock’s blood all over my hands, so I probably look like a fucking mess- but that doesn’t really matter right now, does it? Not when my soulmate is potentially bleeding out on the floor. I feel so helpless; I don’t know what to do to fix him. A heaviness settles in my chest as I watch the guys lift his limp body, carrying him to the door.

We hustle out of the warehouse, and along the way, I get a glimpse at the carnage that my rescue team inflicted. The hallways are littered with bodies, lights flickering above, the stench of death permeating the air. I try to keep my eyes trained ahead so I don’t have to look at the dead, and my brother silently takes my hand in his, guiding me through the minefield of corpses.

We’re all on high alert, adrenaline pumping as we hurry through the corridors, but thankfully we aren’t met with any resistance. I feel a whoosh of cold air as someone ahead pushes open the exterior door, and I suck in a deep breath of fresh air as I follow the others out of the building. I’ve been dreaming of this moment ever since I woke up as a prisoner in that filthy place, but I can’t enjoy my freedom yet, not with Brock’s life hanging in the balance.

There’s a big black van waiting outside for us, and the back doors fly open, Quinn jumping out.

“Well?!” she demands, but then her hazel eyes fall upon me and I see relief wash over her features. “Oh thank god,” she gushes, rushing in my direction and wrapping her arms around me tightly.

Jax presses a kiss to Quinn’s hair as he scoots by, reaching into the van for a pile of clothing, which he starts tossing out to the other guys piece by piece. Meanwhile, Theo, Gray, and Reid get Brock into the back of the van, arranging him on his back and tossing a blanket over his body. Quinn finally relinquishes her grip on me, following my line of sight to Brock’s unconscious form.

“Oh shit,” she mutters under her breath, then quickly recovers, flipping to reassuring friend mode. “I’m sure he’s gonna be okay,” she says unconvincingly, twisting to grab something from the back of the van and thrusting it in my direction. A stack of clothes.

“Thanks,” I whisper, taking them from her and slipping into the t-shirt and sweatpants. We’re all moving quickly, feeling the urgency to get the hell out of here.

“We need to round up the perimeter team, get them home safe,” Cole mutters.

Sam speaks up immediately- sure, he’s Cole’s Beta, but I also can’t help but think that he might be looking for an excuse to peel away, since he basically watched the mate bond snap in between Brock and I tonight. “I’ve got it, Alpha.”

“I’ll come help,” Reid offers, and Sam nods, the two of them jogging off together while everyone else is loading into the van.

“Astrid,” Cole calls, gesturing for me to follow him around to the side doors of the van.

I give a little shake of my head. “I need to stay with him,” I say, climbing in the back next to Brock. “The bond will help heal him.”

Cole’s eyes narrow dubiously. “How do you…?”

I shake my head again. “I just know, okay?”

My brother doesn’t question me further- he just gives me a sympathetic look and sighs, reaching for the back doors and swinging them closed. Then I feel the van shift with Cole’s weight as he climbs in through the side door and slams it, and moments later we’re peeling out, the van lurching onto the road.

I realize Fallon’s the getaway driver when I hear her speak up, asking how everything went with the rescue mission. Then the van is buzzing with excited chatter, everyone recapping what just went down with the shadow pack inside the warehouse. I draw a deep breath, squeezing my eyes shut, trying to block out the noise.

I lie down beside Brock, slipping under the blanket and tucking into his side, resting my cheek against his chest. “I’m here,” I whisper, pressing my palm over his heart. I can feel it beating weakly beneath my hand. “You did it, Brock. You saved me. Now you just have to hang in there, because we didn’t both just go through all of that for nothing.” A tear slips from my eye, sliding over the bridge of my nose and falling onto his chest. “We’re supposed to have a beautiful future together, you know. It’s going to be amazing and we’re going to be so, so happy,” I sniffle. “So just hang in there, okay? And when you wake up, I’ll tell you all about it.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Brock

Darkness. It’s all-consuming, and it keeps pulling me under. Every time I start to come back into myself, it sucks me into its depths again. Fuck, maybe I’m dying. Maybe this is it for me. Nothing has ever come easily, so it’d make sense that death wouldn’t, either. Astrid’s the only thing keeping me anchored. Some part of me can sense that she’s near, and I keep reaching out to tug on the bond between us, trying to pull myself back to her somehow.

Peaches. The scent tickles my nose, along with something else- strands of hair, as soft as spun silk. I bury my nose deeper, inhaling her into my lungs, into my soul. My eyes fight to adjust to the light as I blink them open. My limbs feel heavy. I wiggle my fingers and toes, testing their dexterity as my mind slowly clears out the fog, waking up.

My left side is cloaked in warmth- Astrid is curled into my side tightly with her head resting on my chest, right below mine, with a leg and an arm draped over my body. She’s tucked herself under my left arm and as the feeling comes back to it, I tighten it around her, my dry lips parting, my voice raspy as it leaves my scratchy throat. “How long was I out?”

Astrid sucks in a little gasp, waking with a start and pushing up off of my chest. She pops up beside me, her big brown doe-eyes peering down into mine. “You’re…”