Chapter 75|Never Again.

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**Arabella's P O V


My breath came out in a rush as I grappled for life, there was pain in my leg but it was nothing compared to what I felt the moment my eyes parted open and caught sight of Lucas being wheeled towards an ambulance.

There were lots of uniformed personnel on sight, police officers, paramedics, Pack warriors etc.

I sat up as fast as my body could let me ignoring the sting I felt when I was fully raised to a standing position.

"Ma'am, it's best if you relax and we take a look at your wound, you were shot." A man garbed in a uniform I didn't bother to decipher belonged to what tried to hold me back. Note the keyword, tried.

His attempt to keep me from moving was in vain as I swerved past him, rushing to the ambulance paying no heed to everyone and the dead bodies around. They were up to three.

I reached their side in no time, took in the sight of Luke's pale face. His skin was turning paler at each passing second and my eyes moved below to his waist area where despite the fact that a bandage was wrapped around his body to stop the bleeding looked too bloody I fought the urge to swoon at the sight.

It looked too red.

"Lucas," I cried frantically, "Lucas, open your eyes. Don't leave me! You can't do this to me."

I clutched tighter unto the stretcher whispering repeatedly, "You're mine! You can't leave me."

My chest felt heavy as we wheeled him to where the ambulance was left open. The paramedics tried to brush me away but I stood solid by his side. Nothing could keep me away. Not even the two approaching men with creased foreheads.

I was born ready for the pain in the ass they'll prove to be right now.

Alpha Alexander detached me effortlessly from the stretcher, stood between myself and the van, placed his hands on my shoulders, taking note of my frantic expression to reason logically with me.

Today isn't one of the days I understand logic.

Worried eyes stared right at me.

"Arabella, you need to calm down, Lucas was shot but he'll be fine, you need to return to the Bane Pack so that you'll be examined too at the hospital." He tried to reason with me but I was having none of it.

Not in this lifetime.

Not in another.

Not when he's my mate.

Not when he took a bullet for me.

Not after being through so much without truly being together at all.

"I can't, I'm sorry Alpha, but I can't. I need to be by his side, make sure that he's okay with no barriers between us. Please." I found no fault in pleading, not when there was no reasonable justification for me to be away from him.

Lucas came to dine with me, he found me when I got missing and was shot all because of me. There's no valid point for us to be separated when this truly is the time we need each other most. We yearn for it. If he didn't yearn for my presence he wouldn't have risked his life as he did.

"Arabella, listen to the Alpha." Alpha Drake interjected, he wasn't wearing one of the usual scowls reserved for me. His expression was far more accomodating if not sympathizing.

I didn't want anyone's symphathy. What I want from them is understanding and no one looked willing to give me that, so I decided to play it differently.

I swallowed a lump down my throat as I noticed how the paramedics began to attach stuff to his body. I whimpered at the sight of it. It hurt to look but it hurt more to be left in the dark about his situation.

I pointed at him, "That man took a bullet for me, he placed himself in harm's way for my life. You both would've done the same thing for your mates and I'm sure if the situations were reversed none of you will let his mate go away alone. You'll push your way until your hands are holding tight unto your partners'. Why can't I have the same? What if it were Aunt Angelina, the Luna?" I looked up at Alpha Drake who shied away from my gaze. Deliberately turned to Alpha Alexander and asked, "Or Isabelle being wheeled into an ambulance while you're forced away? Would you have stood back as you're suggesting I do?" I shook my head incredulously, my words had both men squaring their jaws and avoiding my eyes.

We're progressing.

"For the sake of my sanity," I growled, "Please I beg of you let me be with my mate. Please let me be by his side when he needs me most. Lucas needs me and I need him more." I was on the verge of screaming my acceptance of him at the top of my lungs for everyone to hear.

"You need to be calm. You've got a wound that needs to be checked." Alpha Drake pointed out.

To hell with that flimsy excuse.

I pushed my hair out of my eyes, "All the more reason why we should be together, we'll heal faster having each other close. I love him. I love him so much it hurts knowing I am supposed to be the one fighting for my life and not him, he took it away because he loves me too. I can feel it in me that he loves me as I love him. You can't do this to us." My voice was croaked, the admission tore a sob from my throat and I found myself giving in to my emotions.

I sobbed hard.

Alpha Alexander nodded at Alpha Drake before the former took me into his arms, "Shh it's been a long day, Lucas will be glad to have you around when he awakes. We need to move fast if we want him to be alive for that though." I couldn't even smile at his little joke because of how overwrought I was with emotions.

I rode in the same van as my mate, my hand interlaced with his all through the ride as a paramedic saw to the bullet wound on my left leg.

Martin didn't cross my mind until I was staring at Lucas with all the tubes attached to his body and cursing his reason for being in the hospital bed. Both our reasons for being in it because I was on my own bed a few inches away from him with an iv attached to my arm.

Fuck if I don't loathe Martin with all of my being.

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**Third Person's P O V.

Alpha Alexander shared a drink with Alpha Drake and Alpha Matt in silence, each was engrossed deep in his own thoughts.

Alexander was thinking of how fast everything happened from when Lucas fled to the direction where the first gunshot was heard, him crashing down the door and finding Arabella with her hands bound behind her back and a tape over her mouth to the moment they followed after his tracks and found Lucas standing before Arabella protectively. It was a stance Alexander understood, a stance to protect his mate at all costs.

Just one day ago, Alexander could remember his conversation with Lucas where he informed his brother just how he was expected to protect his mate even with his life if need be. It was ironic that a situation that sought for that sort of protection arose immediately after.

It made Alexander ground his teeth hardly at the thought of the unbending man who was the cause of all of their troubles.

He was the one who pulled the bullet because the sight of the fucker pointing a gun at his brother with every intention of pulling the trigger had him pulling the trigger to his own gun and aiming deliberately at the right side of his chest because Martin did not deserve a fast and easy death. He deserved what he subjected others to.

He deserved what he subjected Stephano De Luca and everyone who was forced to die at his hands to and Alexander had every intention of giving it to him, of being the one to avenge their deaths but first things first.

He had to hear from Martin's mouth how and why some things, scratch that, everything related to the man happened how it did.

And also, how the fuck Alpha Matt had an idea of where Arabella was taken to and in all places, within his own territory.