Fighting Through Death

Gerry
When I pulled up into my rented parking spot on the main campus, Corey was waiting for me, making me narrow my eyes on him. I had purposely been avoiding him the last few days, going so far as to block his links. I was so over him lecturing me about getting involved with Annie. If I didn’t care about what our family would think or say, Corey’s opinion didn’t matter in the slightest. I clenched my jaw as I got out before slamming my door shut and leaning against my car.
“If you’re here to tell me that I shouldn’t be with Annie, you can just stop now. I don’t want to hear it,” I said.
He sighed as he put his hands in his pockets. “That actually wasn’t what I was going to say.”
“Well, what do you want to talk about then?” I asked impatiently.
“It’s about Annie, but not that,” he answered. “I—”
I held up my hand, silencing him as a wave of fear flowed through my link with Annie. I focused on it for a moment, trying to see if it was something that I needed to address or not. When it remained steady, I let out a loud growl before getting back in the car. I met Corey’s eyes as I started it.
“If you want to talk, get in. Annie needs me.”
I waited for him to jump in the car before I shut my door and reversed out of my parking spot.
“Speak!” I ordered.
“Since you are so set on Annie being our Beta Sow, I have asked Molton to watch over her while we are at school. He’s in the program with Annie. I have given orders not to let anyone get close to her. He knows that if anyone messes with her, it’s his ass,” he informed me, making me bare my teeth at him as I drove carefully through the campus, trying to hold back my worry enough that I didn't mow down pedestrians in my rush to get to Annie.
“You should have told me,” I hissed.
“I’ve been trying to. You have been avoiding me!” He snapped.
I knew that I should feel guilty about ordering the hit on Molton—shit! The hit! Was that why Annie was afraid? Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I sped up, in even more of a rush to get to her. A wave of intense pain went through me, making my body jerk. After pulling my car over onto the side of the road, I slammed on my brakes and threw it into park as Kraven fought to be set free. I shoved my door open before letting myself fall out of the car as even more pain crippled my human body. Before we even hit the ground, Kraven had already shifted, tearing all of our clothes as our body transformed. He started sprinting toward the other part of campus where our mate was attending her classes, trying desperately to fight the pain that was threatening to drown us while Corey’s bear ran beside us.
As we were running up the sidewalk to run inside the building, all of my pain disappeared at the exact moment my link with Annie broke, sending Kraven face first into a stair. We slowly got back to our feet, howling in both agony and denial. Kraven crashed through the front doors, barreled down the hallway following Annie’s scent to a classroom halfway down, and froze as soon as we entered. We quickly took in the scene before us, noting that two bears were fighting another bear together while two alphas stood, laughing as they looked at the ground. I took one step toward the alphas as a bad feeling dropped into the pit of my stomach.
The second I saw Annie lying on the floor with a pool of blood around her, Kraven launched himself through the air, shredding both of the alphas the minute he took them to the ground before shifting so we could check Annie’s pulse. When we didn’t find one, I panicked. I tore into my wrist to feed her blood, begging her to come back to me as I forced her to swallow. I hit her chest hard as Kraven let our aura out.
“ANNIE! WAKE UP!” I screamed. “BREATHE, DAMMIT!”
Suddenly, I was shoved away from her and went sprawling on the floor. I rolled over, ready to tear whoever pushed me away from her into pieces. I paused when I saw Giselda there with her backpack. She tore Annie’s shirt down the middle before running her fingers quickly over her breastbone. Once she found whatever she was looking for, she turned her head to glare at me.
“Get over here and help me fucking save her!” She ordered.
I scrambled up, and she put two of my fingers on the spot where hers had been. I held her place while I anxiously watched her reach into her bag and pull out a lethal-looking syringe that already had blood in it. I narrowed my eyes on it, knowing that it was Logan’s blood, but I didn’t care about whose blood it was if it saved my Annie. She stabbed the needle down into Annie’s chest, quickly pushing the blood into her before pulling it out to grab a vial of blood out of her backpack.
“Chest compressions while I pull more blood for her!” Giselda growled, snapping me out of my trance of watching her prepare another syringe.
I started chest compressions like she asked, barely managing to pull my hands back before she jammed the needle back into Annie’s chest. When she withdrew the needle again, I started chest compressions again without her having to tell me. My heart sped up when Annie’s beat once before falling still again. After a few more chest compressions, her heart started to beat slowly, picking up speed and strength. I took a deep breath as I stopped the compressions, moving my fingers to the pulse in her neck to keep track of her heart rate. Giselda gave her one more syringe full of Logan’s blood before pushing my hand away from her neck to monitor Annie’s pulse herself for a moment before sighing in relief. Giselda turned her head to pin me with an angry glare.
“Please tell me that you have more use than a big brute who tries to control every little thing around him!”
I bared my teeth at her, growling warningly. “Watch how you speak to me!”
“Do you know how to do transfusions, or did you think your aura is all you need to survive?” Giselda snapped.
“I know how to fucking do transfusions,” I roared before getting to my feet. “And my aura is more than useful!”
“Whatever, asshole,” she grumbled.
I stomped across to grab what I needed to do a transfusion before letting my aura out as I ordered everyone to line up so that I could take blood from them before going back over to kneel beside Annie’s body. I waved my hand at the line of people waiting for their turn to give blood.
“See? My aura did that!” I snarled.
She rolled her eyes as I hooked the first male to the line. The room was completely silent while we all watched Annie. I heaved a relieved breath as weakness fled my body and my link with Annie grew stronger. The more blood Annie received, the more her skin gained color until she no longer looked like death. When she shifted, gagging on something, I gently helped her roll on her side, opening her mouth. A mixture of blood and bile was expelled from her mouth, making me a little anxious, but all Giselda did was lean past me to wipe the blood from her mouth.
“That’s it, Annaria. Get it out,” she whispered soothingly. “I’ll take care of you.”
As much as I wanted to rip Giselda away from Annie, I was grateful that she was here, helping me. When Annie lay still on the floor, breathing evenly, I gently picked her up to cradle her on my lap, rocking her back and forth while I sent up several prayers to the Goddess for bringing her back to me. When Annie roused in my lap, I stopped rocking to look down at her. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she struggled to focus on my face. She weakly raised her hand to my face as her cloudy eyes met mine.
“Logan?” Annie whispered, making my blood go cold. “Thank you for saving me…”
As her voice trailed off, I turned to glare at Giselda, who swallowed hard.
“Look at what you did,” I hissed.
Her eyes dropped to Annie before coming back up to meet mine. “I saved her life, Gerald! Your blood didn’t do that! So I think you owe me a ‘thank you’ not this little attitude you have going on,” she retorted, waving her hand at me.
I clenched my jaw as I narrowed my eyes on her. She frowned at me as she tilted her head.
“Or does this mean I must die? Just like everyone else that you deemed a threat to your obsessive love for your sister!”