Chapter 213: Chains of Fate
Chapter 213: Chains of Fate
Alessandro’s POV
I was vomited from the void onto a desolate wasteland, the earth was so cracked that it reminded me of a scorched land.
The air was thick with the smell of ash and iron.
From the ground, chains suddenly grew and encircled my wrists and ankles, they pulled my down to my knees.
I fought, snarling, but then I heard her scream.
Aurora’s voice.
“No!”
I went into a frenzy, tearing at the chains.
“Aurora!”
Out of the gloom, a pale and frail Aurora came towards me, her gown with the stain of blood.
There was a shapeless figure behind her holding a shiny knife at her throat.
“You want her?” the figure laughed bitterly.
“Then take her suffering.”
On a flash, fire embraced my flesh and I felt an agonizing pain through me.
My whole body shook. It was like every nerve, every bone, every vessel was being set on fire.
I yelled.
“Alessandro!”
Aurora shouted.
“Stop!
Don’t do this for me!”
“I—can’t—let go of you!”
I said with difficulty, my voice breaking as the fire tore through my body again.
The figure grinned.
“Are you really in love with her?
Then show it.
Experience each wound she ever had.
Every scar.
Every heartbreak.”
The flames turned into knives. Stabs at my side. A crushing heaviness in my chest.
The sound of her crying when she was betrayed. Her loneliness. Her terror.
Her suffering burned into me.
“Stop!”
Aurora yelled, trying to break free from the grasp of the abductor.
“You’ll kill him!”
Nonetheless, through clenched teeth, I shouted back,
“I’d rather be dead than let you suffer alone!”
The suffering subdued to some extent but then the voice came again, very loud and shaking the ground.
“Very well. You went through her suffering. Now the real choice.”
The wasteland moved. I could see two doors in front of me.
One door revealed Aurora still feeble, still bleeding. If I went in there, she would live.
However, behind the other door… was my pack. My father. Rafael. Gabriel. Children. Warriors. All of them on fire, screaming, asking me to save them.
The voice ridiculed me.
“You cannot have both. Choose.
Save your mate… or save your pack.”
I stood frozen, my heart beating.
Aurora’s eyes filled with tears.
“Alessandro, save them.
Please!
Don’t choose me over your people!”
My throat tightened.
“I can’t—I can’t lose you, Aurora.
Don’t ask me to—”
“You’re their Alpha!” she said.
“They need you more than I do. If you love me, you’ll protect them.”
The chains felt like they were cutting deeper into my flesh as if trying to force me to come to a decision.
The shadow’s voice came out as a venomous whisper.
“Pick the wrong and they die both.”
I closed my eyes, heart breaking in two. My father’s voice was clear in my mind: An Alpha must always put his pack first.
Then, after a pause, came Aurora’s voice, Please don’t leave me here alone.
Tears burned my eyes.
“No… no, I won’t lose her.
I won’t lose either.”
The shadow hissed.
“Impossible.
You cannot have both!”
I growled, and with all the strength I had, I fought the chains.
“Watch me!”
The pain was so intense that I felt like I was being torn apart. My bones were breaking.
My muscles were tearing. Blood was flowing down my face. But I didn’t stop and with a loud roar I broke the chains with a bang.
The earth was shaking so hard. The doors were no longer there, they had been destroyed.
Aurora’s wolf came out again, her silver shining eyes. She stood there, looking at me as if I were beyond her understanding.
"You won’t choose... You took her pain.
You went against the trial’s rules. You... are the one who deserves it."
Out of breath and bleeding, I dropped to my knees.
"Get me to her. I beg you, please."
Her wild animal got closer to me; though she seemed a little spooked her voice was soft:
"In that case, bring her back yourself."
The desert disintegrated into photons.
I was out of it. I was in the infirmary, at Aurora’s bedside, holding her hand so tightly.
Her breathing was minimal and her eyes were still shut.
I said with a low voice,
"Aurora... I am here.
Please... come back."
Her fingers moved slowly.
Time that had seemed infinite was suddenly over.
I failed to think, I just did not think. Only one instinct was dominant in me. I held her hands tight, my throat almost burning.
“Aurora,”
I gasped, each one of her syllables being like a supplication.
“Aurora, wake up.
Pleeaasseee. Come back to me.”
The healer, came hurriedly into the room. His hands were kind but accurate as he checked the pulse and checked the pupils.
“Sir, Alessandro, please, do not get worried right away,” the healer said, but his voice was shaking.
“This is positive. Small motor response. Neural activity detected. It’s… promising, but we must not—”
“Promising?” I yelled, because that’s not what I wanted to hear.
Promising was the brink. I wanted certainty.
Looking up at me she slowly got up, "It is really the first sign after a number of days.
She’s reacting. Using your voice, be calm. Don’t yell. It can frighten the system further."
The lump in my throat was big. I had not taken her hand off nor had I moved my hands from hers; like a link to the ground, I was holding on to the warmth of her fingers.
“Aurora,”
I said when she was louder, running my hand through her hair.
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.
I promise—”
Through a blink, her eyelids moved.
From her something very small came, it was a dry, lost sound that was half-breath and half-word.
My heart trembled.
She had opened her eyes a little. The healer leaned in, looking at the whites of the patients’ eyes, then she looked at me with a flash of something like hope.
“She is responding to light,” the healer informed.
“Keep talking.”
I touched her with my forehead and felt her very weak and irregular breath under the skin.
“You’re so damn stubborn,” were my words and the voice was shaking.
“You have no right to make me suffer like this.
Open them.
Look at me.
Please.”
Her fingers moved against mine and for one second I figured they were going to actually clench and then her eyelids went back down.
“No,” I said in a low voice, panic inside me going up like bile.
“Stay with me. Stay with me, Aurora.”
Just a gentle and short breath, then, defying probabilities, her lids were wide open.
It was as if only her face, bathed in a halo of lamp light, remained in the room.
Her eyes were not quite focused; at the beginning, they were shaky, glassy and far away.
But very soon, as if a curtain was lifted, they locked with mine.
I was speechless. One noise that I made was a choked laugh and a sob combined into one.
“Ale...”
She moved her lips to form the word, however, the voice was much weaker than I thought.
Her look became sharper and a faint, bewildered smile brushed past her lips.
“Al...” She tried again and this time the sound was clearer, as if it had been released by fighting its way out of her.
“Alessandro,” she exhaled.
At that moment everything else stopped the blood in my veins, my breath, the hammering panic.
The world narrowed down to that one and only sound.
Relief flashed there, my chest was on fire with it; I leaned down until my forehead was resting against hers, grabbing her hand like I was never going to let go.
“Shh,”
I said in a low voice, my voice breaking.
“I’m here. You’re safe. You are home.”
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