Chapter 21
Mona bolted from the room, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
The sterile white walls, the beeping monitors, the heavy scent of antiseptic–it all felt suffocating.
She needed to get out. By the time she reached the lower floors, her legs had nearly given
out beneath her. Her body, though stronger than before, was still fragile. Panic and
exhaustion mingled, pushing her past her limit.
Just as her vision darkened, she saw a blur of movement, someone rushing toward her.
Then–nothing.
When she came to, she was lying in a familiar room. The scent of cedarwood and crisp linen surrounded her, grounding her senses.
Before she could fully grasp her surroundings, a warm hand enveloped hers.
“Mona, you’re awake,” a familiar voice rasped, thick with unspoken emotion.
Kieran.
His grip was tight, almost desperate, as if afraid she would slip away again. For a moment, she simply stared at him, watching the flicker of raw relief cross his normally composed
features.
No one truly understood what Kieran had endured in those years she had been lost. People
had whispered behind his back, urging him to move on, to accept fate.
But how could he?
F
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her slipping away from him, saw himself reaching–too late, always too late. The nightmares had nearly driven him mad.
Luna’s Dual Destiny: Claimed by Two Alpha Kings
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Chap 21
‘But now, she was here. Alive.
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Kieran crushed her into his embrace, burying his face in the curve of her neck. His body
trembled against hers.
“Don’t leave me,” he whispered, voice raw. “Not again.”
A sharp pang pierced Mona’s chest. The depth of his sorrow, the unbearable weight of his grief–it bled into her soul. She lifted a hand, gently wiping away the dampness on his
cheek.
—
won’t,” she murmured. “I fought to come back to you, Kieran. I won’t leave you again.”
Miles away, Alaric stood knee–deep in the freezing lake, his hands skimming the silty
bottom.
Somewhere beneath the rippling surface lay the ring. The ring he had once slipped onto
Mina’s finger. The ring he had thrown away in his anger, his betrayal.
A symbol of everything that had shattered between them.
Not after transferring her from one healer to another, not after bringing in the most skilled shamans from across the territories, not after exhausting every possible method known to
werewolf kind.
No heartbeat. No breath. Only the faintest, most fragile rise and fall of her chest, as if she were caught in a realm between life and death.
Some had told him to let go. To accept that she was gone. But Alaric refused.
She wasn’t dead. She was simply waiting.
And if there was even a sliver of hope,
