Chapter 60

Kane's POV

"Aurora!" I called her name again as her body went limp in my arms. Her skin had grown alarmingly pale, blood continuing to seep through the makeshift bandages despite my efforts. Panic – an emotion I'd trained myself to suppress – surged through me with overwhelming force.

I broke through the tree line, spotting my team's vehicle hidden among the dense foliage. My second-in-command, Brian, rushed forward as I emerged from the forest, his expression shifting from alert readiness to alarm when he saw Aurora's condition.

"She's critical," I announced, fighting to keep my voice steady. "Multiple fractures, internal bleeding, possible concussion."

My team moved with practiced efficiency, immediately preparing a field medical station as I gently laid Aurora on the emergency stretcher. The sight of her broken body, so vulnerable against the sterile white of the medical supplies, sent a wave of protectiveness through me that bordered on primal.

"Her pulse is weak," Eliza, our team medic, reported after a quick assessment. Her fingers pressed against Aurora's throat, her expression grim. "We need to get her to a proper medical facility immediately. She's lost too much blood."

"The leg injury is severe," Brian added, carefully cutting away the blood-soaked fabric to reveal the extent of the damage. "Compound fracture with significant tissue damage."

In the distance, I heard Raymond's search party – wolves moving through undergrowth, following our scent despite the false trails we'd laid. His howl carried on the mountain air, a sound of loss and regret that stirred no sympathy in me. After watching him abandon Aurora to certain death, his remorse came too late.

"We can't return to Blood Moon territory," I decided, lifting Aurora's now-stabilized form back into my arms. The IV line Eliza had started trailed from her arm, precious fluids and medicines working to keep her alive. "Giana's influence makes it too dangerous."

I glanced down at Aurora's face, memorizing every detail despite the bruises and cuts that marred her features. When had she become so important to me? The question haunted me as I gazed at her, knowing only that the thought of losing her was unacceptable.

"The sanctuary at Crescent Valley," I instructed my team. "It's neutral territory, and their healers are the best in the region."

Raymond's hunting party was closing in, but we had prepared for this. "Create the false trails as planned," I ordered. "Three separate routes, each with traces of Aurora's scent. We need to buy time."

My team moved with military precision, heading in different directions to lay the false trails that would confuse our pursuers. Years of tactical training were being put to use for something I'd never anticipated – protecting a woman who had somehow breached the carefully constructed walls around my heart.

As we drove away from the mountain, Aurora was secured in the back of the medical transport, IV fluids running into her arm as Eliza monitored her vitals. I kept one hand on Aurora's, as if the physical connection could somehow tether her to life.

"Come on, fighter," I whispered for her ears alone. "Stay with me."

The winding mountain roads gave way to valleys, each mile taking us further from Raymond's territory and closer to safety. Aurora's condition remained critical – her breathing shallow, her skin growing colder despite the warming blankets we'd wrapped around her.

"We're losing her," Eliza warned, her voice tight with professional concern. "Her blood pressure is dropping."

Fear – raw and unfamiliar – clawed at my chest. I'd faced death countless times in my life, both my own and others', but never had it terrified me like this.

"Aurora," I called, gripping her hand tighter. "Fight. I know you can hear me."

Something shifted in her expression – the slightest movement of her eyelids, a subtle change in her breathing. I leaned closer, hope flaring like a fragile flame.

"I've never said this," I admitted, my voice dropping to a whisper that only she could hear, "but I need you to know – what I feel for you isn't just physical. It never was."

Her fingers twitched in mine, the smallest response but enough to send relief coursing through me. I pressed my forehead against our joined hands, a gesture more vulnerable than any I'd allowed myself in decades.

"I'll be here when you wake up," I promised. "No matter how long it takes."

Aurora's POV

Darkness surrounded me, absolute and endless. I drifted through it, weightless, disconnected from pain and memory alike. Was this death? This peaceful emptiness, this absence of the suffering that had defined my recent existence?

Fragments of sensation intruded occasionally – the vibration of a moving vehicle, the sharp scent of antiseptic, voices that came and went like radio signals fading in and out. None seemed to belong to me, to my reality.

Gradually, the darkness shifted, taking on texture and depth. Images emerged from the void – Raymond turning away as my car hurtled toward disaster; Kane's face appearing through smoke; Luna Elena's warnings about Giana. These memories carried emotional weight that anchored me, preventing me from drifting completely into the emptiness.

"She's lost too much blood." "The leg might not be salvageable." "We need to hurry."

The voices penetrated my consciousness like echoes from another world. I couldn't respond, couldn't even find my own voice in the darkness that enveloped me. Yet something in me recognized these fragments as important, as reasons to fight against the comforting oblivion that beckoned.

Time lost all meaning in this twilight state – minutes might have been hours, hours might have been days. The only constant was Kane's presence, somehow felt rather than seen or heard. His energy remained a steady beacon, calling me back when I drifted too far into the darkness.

Eventually, I became aware of movement – being transferred from one vehicle to another, hands lifting me with careful precision. The scent of the air changed, becoming cleaner, infused with healing herbs and ancient magic. I was carried into a building, voices speaking rapidly around me as I was placed on a surface softer than the stretcher.

"Multiple fractures, significant blood loss, potential internal injuries." "Prepare the healing chamber immediately." "We'll need the silver-infused plasma."

Hands moved over me, cutting away clothing, attaching monitoring equipment. Through slitted eyes, I glimpsed Kane standing nearby, his expression ravaged with concern. Blood and soot still marked his face and clothing, evidence of the battle he'd fought to save me.

"You need treatment too," someone insisted, gesturing to the burns on Kane's arms and the deep gash across his shoulder – injuries I hadn't fully registered before.

"Not until I know she'll survive," he responded, his voice rough with emotion I'd never heard from him before. His eyes never left me as the healers worked, his body tense with barely contained fear.

Pain surged suddenly as they manipulated my damaged leg, pulling me briefly back to full consciousness. A sound escaped me – half gasp, half scream. Through the haze of agony, I saw Kane push past a protesting healer to take my hand, his expression naked with concern.

"I'm still here," he promised when he noticed my awareness. "I'm not going anywhere."

I struggled to speak through parched lips. "Raymond... he chose..."

"I know," Kane said softly. "But I chose you, Aurora. I will always choose you."

As darkness claimed me again, I felt something extraordinary – the mate bond with Raymond, already weakened after his betrayal, now flickered like a candle in a strong wind. The connection that had bound us, that had caused me such pain for so long, was fading away completely.

I drifted in this twilight state as the healers worked frantically around me. Their voices grew more urgent, monitoring equipment sounding alarms as my vital signs apparently worsened. Through it all, Kane remained, his hand gripping mine, his voice a lifeline I could follow back from the darkness.

"Fight!" he demanded, his voice breaking with emotion. "Don't you dare give up now!"

In that moment, hovering between life and death, I made a decision. I would live – not for Raymond, not for my position as Luna, not even for Kane – but for myself. For the woman I could become when freed from bonds that had never truly been my choice.

I clung to the new growing connection to Kane, using it to pull myself back from the brink. Whatever the future held, whatever challenges awaited, I would face them on my own terms, with my own strength.

As I fought my way back toward consciousness, I felt Kane's hand tighten around mine – an anchor in the storm, a promise of something I'd never dared to hope for.

A chance to choose my own destiny.