50

Blood rushed slowly through the veins near her ears, sounding like Falcon River back home during the dry months of winter. Her pulse was weak, a slow rhythm that almost lulled her to sleep. Time seemed to slow down as if expressly to watch her life drain away.

But she had to stay awake and fight this. The pain that radiated from the gunshot wound in her stomach was worse than any she'd ever felt. Persia had done her best to remove the silver bullet, but the deep hole in her belly was taking a painfully long time to heal. Every breath she took was like torture, but if she closed her eyes, she'd be giving up. And quitting was not something an Alpha ever did.

So Savannah kept her eyes open and watched as Zion held Parthia up by his neck. The Prince was a gruesome sight, with blood streaming all over his face and from his wrist. It dripped to the floor with an unsteady staccato.

What was worse was the image of Zion, head thrown back as he roared with pure agony. Savannah's own heart felt like it was breaking in sympathy with his. Though they hadn't marked each other yet, their bond was stronger than anything she'd experienced before. His emotions washed over her, compounding the ache in her entire body.

"I won't kill you," Zion eventually growled lowly before flinging the Prince to the ground. Parthia crumpled in a heap, shoving his good hand out to brace himself.

"Death would be too merciful," Zion continued, standing over him, "You can go back to your province. Go to your throne and be the king you've always wanted to be. See how much respect your people give you when they see what you truly are."

Persia rushed to her brother's side as he whimpered in pain. It was almost funny to see how pathetic he now was, all his bravado and dominance gone as he cowered in submission to Zion. It was clear who was the stronger wolf, and if Zion really wanted, he could have easily taken over as ruler of the northern province.

Savannah's heart couldn't help swelling at the notion that her mate was the strongest here, as he stood tall above all the other burly and highly skilled wolves. Yet it was the brokenness of his stature that had her heart pounding with hopelessness. He was spent. He was bruised, beaten, weary and through their weak bond she felt the desperation in his soul.

He'd fought so long for justice for his family, and when he finally had it within reach, he realised that it wouldn't change anything.

Killing the Prince wouldn't bring his dead mate back. Nothing could fill the void that her death had imprinted upon his heart. Letting the Prince go had taken more energy and courage than ending him.

And it had left him an empty shell of the man he was before. As Persia and one of her associates carefully carried Parthia from the room, Zion took a shuddering breath and watched them retreat.

Darek and Niko came in a moment later, supporting Cale between them as Ethan carried an unconscious Willow in his arms. Persia paused briefly, looking back over her shoulder at Cale with a frown on her face. Cale, weak and pale from his captivity, inhaled a deep breath and stared wide-eyed at the Princess. His eyes were unfocused, and he ended up shaking his head in bewilderment as Niko continued to drag him over to Savannah and laid him down to rest.

Savannah barely had time to acknowledge the injured state of her Gamma since her focus was entirely on her mate.

Zion was still staring after his half-siblings as they left the building. It was obvious he was shaken from their bloody fight, and he swayed on his feet before collapsing to his knees.

It cut Savannah deep to see him so deflated and lost. "Zion..." she whispered, tasting blood on her lips as it traveled up her throat.

His shoulders tensed at the sound of her voice, but he didn't turn around. With his back to her, she could only sense the turmoil he must be feeling.

"You should just reject me," he eventually said, the roughness of his voice betraying his emotions. "Now you see what I am. You don't deserve someone like me, so go ahead," he told her quietly, finally angling his head towards her.

She saw a glistening trail down his cheek.

"Just say the words and end this misery."

"Why--" She coughed, trying to say the words that wouldn't seem to form. Justin propped her up at the shoulders and rubbed her back tenderly.

She couldn't stay like this. She couldn't let things end so horribly between them. He'd suffered enough, so now more than ever Zion needed to know that she wasn't about to reject him. Pushing her feet under her, she managed to sit up despite Justin's attempts to keep her resting comfortably in his arms.

"Alpha, your injuries--" he protested.

"I'll be fine," she grunted, struggling to stand up.

Zion watched, confused, as she slowly walked to him. He reached out to steady her as she fell to her knees before him, holding her eyes in his searching gaze.

Broken shards of glass bit into her knees, but she didn't care. "I could never reject you," she spoke haltingly, feeling bile rise up from her stomach as the bullet hole slowly stitched back together. It would take a while to heal, given the poison that was racing through her body.

"But the curse... You're destined to reject me." He peered at her closely, sorrow written in every feature of his handsome face. His eyebrows scrunched in a frown and his jaw ticked as if he was holding back much stronger, bitter emotions.

Shaking her head at his nonsensical words, she tried to make her point clearer. "You're my mate. God gave you to me," she told him, lifting her hands to caress his face.

"You deserve someone good, like your Beta. Justin could take good care of you," he said quietly, his eyes looking over her shoulder to where Justin stood.

"This has nothing to do with him," she replied, turning Zion's head so he met her gaze again. "Don't look at him. Don't mention him again. All I care about is you. You are mine, and nothing you do could ever change that."

A strong feeling of possessiveness took hold of her, a sudden urge to finally claim this man who had been running from her for so long.

She pulled his head closer and stared deep into his eyes. "Zion, you are mine, no matter what you do. You are never too far gone beyond my reach. I will always come after you. Mine." With those possessive words pulsing between them, causing the bond to crackle and sizzle with their proximity, Savannah leaned forward and inhaled his calming scent of cypress wood.

Pushing the collar of his jacket aside, she focused on his skin. It was bruised, cracked, and bleeding in some areas from all the fighting. Her lips tenderly kissed the red spots, causing goosebumps to rise and shivers to race over his skin.

Zion tried pulling away, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him closer. There was no way she'd let him get away now. For all he was, all he'd done and all she knew he could be, was hers. Their future and destiny were entwined together no matter the paths they'd taken to reach this point in time.

She smiled against his skin when she felt him finally give in and rest his hands gently on her waist. Then, with a surge of overwhelming love and devotion, she sank her teeth into his neck, biting down hard to claim the man who was rightfully hers.

All along, he'd been hers, and she would never let him go again. Without any doubt between them, she tenderly licked the mark and pulled away. She looked up into his eyes again, finding they were wide with shock. Black pupils ate up the brown hues that faded into vibrant green. Her mind was flooded with feelings, his feelings, of shock, wonder, amazement and confusion.

The ground shook beneath them, the walls rattled, and a flash of light like an arc of electricity lit up the space between their two bodies. It blinded her vision, pulling her hands tighter around Zion to hold herself steady as his own arms encaged her closely. All she could see was him. All she could smell, taste, hear, and feel. She accepted every part of him; the flaws, the regrets, the tragedies, and the emptiness. She would turn every despair into hope, every horror into joy, and every hate into love.

Her mark on his neck claimed him for all to see, and there was no way she'd ever reject him. He was her everything.

He was hers.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the remaining walls of the lab shattered around them, dust and debris flying everywhere.

"Get on the ground! Don't move! You're surrounded."

Bullets whizzed past them, taking out the few Saints stupid enough to still be there, and the next moment Zion was ripped from her arms.

"No!" she screamed, her body burning from the loss of contact. Why were they taking him away from her? She lunged for him, desperate for his touch, for his kiss now that she'd marked him and their bond was so much stronger. Already, she felt herself healing more quickly. But it wasn't enough. Her body ached for him.

Zion was being dragged away while strong arms held her back, and despite how much she struggled to go after him, she just wasn't strong enough yet.

"Savannah, we have to go," Justin said, his voice by her ear but sounding a million miles away. "There's nothing you can do now. The Council will handle it."

She didn't want the Council to handle it. They would kill him for his crimes, and rightly so. "You called the Council?" she spun in Justin's arms, glaring at him.

"I had to. He's a dangerous criminal and we have to stop him—"

"He's my mate! Why would you do this to us?" she yelled, banging her fists on his chest then shoving him away when he tried grabbing her arms to stop her. She looked at him with disgust, realising Justin had made a terrible mistake by calling the Council to come arrest her mate.

It felt like he'd betrayed her, and the animal inside of her wanted to scream and fight him for what he'd done to her. But despite the flaming anger that was heightened by the growing bond with her mate, she knew she couldn't hurt Justin. He was her Beta, and practically her brother. But she could fix this. Maybe there was a way she could save her mate.

"Zion, stop fighting!" she yelled over the barks and shouted orders of the Council's warriors who'd come for them. She watched with growing panic as Zion wrestled against them, trying to break the chains and ropes reinforced with elizenthium.

"Stop fighting!" she repeated, hating the way he struggled, growling and snarling as his strength refused to be tamed by the law. "It's okay, I can save you," she called, hoping desperately that he'd comply. Her mind raced ahead to his trial for multiple murders, realising that now he'd been arrested with enough evidence to put him away for a lifetime. It wouldn't be hard for the Council to charge and sentence him for all his brutal crimes.

But... but maybe they'd listen to her. Being an Alpha and his mate, she figured that it counted for something and she'd be able to broker a deal. There was no way she'd let them sentence him to death, not now that she'd finally accepted him. All he had to do was stop fighting, repent of being a rogue, and join her pack. "I can save us."

With these desperate words dying on her lips, she was led away by the medical officers and checked over for injuries. Her stomach wound had almost completely healed, but her knees were bruised from being shoved to the stone-hard concrete, and her head still pounded from the injection of poison.

But none of that mattered. She barely felt anything besides the ache in her heart as the image of Zion being dragged away replayed over and over again in her mind like a tragedy. She was cleared of life-threatening injuries, but her heart remained gasping for life as the distance between her and the man she'd claimed grew.

"Come on, let's get you home," Justin said softly as they all climbed into Uncle Roman's helicopter. But with every mile they crossed, she realised she'd never feel at home until Zion was by her side. Her heart lay with him only, and she would do everything in her power to ensure his safety.

The next few days passed by like a horrible dream that she couldn't wake up from. She spent hours writing letters and emails to Council members, pleading with them to go light on Zion's sentences when it came time for his trial. She held meetings with the neighbouring Alphas, convincing them to stand by her in her plea for Zion, instead of arguing for his punishment.

Every so often, she'd visit Alpha Jonas's territory and make her way to the highest security prison on the continent. The Justice Pack wasn't named so for no reason. As he awaited his trial, Zion was being kept ten levels below ground in solitary confinement. His cell was lined with elizenthium and cabrium, two elements that were known to weaken even the strongest wolves no matter their invulnerabilities. Only the highly trained and most trusted guards were tasked to go down and deliver his meals.

However, as Savannah found again now, he hadn't touched a single morsel of food given to him.

He sat, as always, leaning against the far wall of his white cell, legs out straight and hands folded loosely in his lap. She'd watched some camera footage of him at other times of the day, and seen him exercise, sleep and read books brought down by Luna Danella. Yet always when Savannah came, he appeared indifferent to her presence.

His eyes were closed as he rested his head back on the wall. Not a muscle moved, yet she knew he'd heard her approach. Even the most cushioned soles echoed on the tiled flooring of the long corridor to his cell, alerting the sound sensors and anyone nearby of movement in or out.

Alpha Jonas himself unlocked the door and allowed her into Zion's cell. The strong elements in the walls sent a wave of dizziness through her, but she willed herself to be strong.

However, there was something else in the air that weakened the Alpha's strong defences. As she stepped into Zion's cell, his scent immediately wrapped around her, invading her senses and messing with her rationality. She'd come to talk logically, to reason with the cold and impassive man who sat before her. But, as always, her emotions rose to the surface, heightened by the proximity of her mate and even more so now he wore her mark on his neck.

Her body itched to be in his arms, to hold him close and to be held by the other half of her soul. Turning back to nod gratefully at Jonas, she hastily wiped a tear from her eye before facing her mate once more.

"I suppose you know what I'm here to say," she began, lowering herself to the floor opposite him. She didn't trust herself to be any closer than necessary.

When Zion didn't say anything, she tried something else. "You know, Talei is seven floors up. Her trial begins this Thursday. I don't even know how I should feel about that," she said, sighing casually yet watching closely for Zion's reaction.

"She claims everything she did was for you. That she wasn't really working for the Prince. Apparently, she figured by betraying me and handing me over to Parthia, that it would eventually lead you to me. To him. She knew that's what you wanted all along. A showdown with your mate's killer. I guess by playing double agent, she helped solve the situation. Albeit in a painful way," Savannah rambled, subconsciously resting a hand on her stomach where the bullet had penetrated. She still wasn't back to full strength, and probably never would be. Parthia's deadly poison had knocked her good.

"Anyway, you might like to know," she continued, hating the awkward silences between them, "The Council has set a date for yours. Tuesday, week after next. If we can put forward a good case, you might only have a light sentence to serve. Best case scenario, you'll be restricted to my territory for ten years or so, then your case might be reviewed based on good behaviour and positive testimonies from my pack. Worst case..." she hated saying it, knowing once the words crossed her lips, they'd become more real. "Death."

He didn't flinch. Didn't move. Even when she thumped her palm on the cool floor, he didn't respond. "Don't you care?" she asked, voice rising and betraying the tremble in her entire body.

Coming here had turned out to be a waste of time, just like every other time, but still.... He drew her like a magnet and she couldn't stay away. Rising to her knees, she crept over closer to him until her face was only a foot from his. She could see the lines on his forehead, the creases between his eyes that hadn't been there before.

"Don't you care about us?" she whispered, "About what could happen during the trial? They could kill you for your crimes! Then what? What about our future?"

"What future?" he suddenly responded, eyes opening and focusing on her.

The hazel irises she loved so much seemed to sparkle with even more gold than she remembered. Their depths drew her in until she almost forgot how to breathe.

His voice was raspy as he said, "Parthia almost killed you. It seems all I'm good at doing is placing my mate in danger. I lost Leila, and I refuse to lose you too. Staying away from you, maybe even being dead, is the best thing for your future," he told her solemnly, yet she didn't miss the gravity in his deep voice.

"So that's your solution? Just to give up on us? Are you kidding me?" Savannah rocked back on her heels, astounded by his melancholy and completely absurd response. Against her better judgment, she placed her hand on his chest and leaned in close. "Does my mark on your neck mean nothing? I chose you, Zion. I chose our future together."

"We're destined to fail," he immediately replied, turning sideways so her hand fell away.

"Destined. That word..." She recalled what he'd said in Parthia's laboratory. "What do you mean by it?"

Zion took a deep breath, then released it heavily. "Let me tell you a story."

Intrigued, Savannah gave him space and began listening.

"Once upon a time, there was an Alpha who met his mate while partying in a city near his territory. They spent a glorious night together, going so far as to mark each other. The Alpha had accepted his mate despite the fact she was a rogue, notorious for wild behaviour and violent crimes. He wanted her to move to his pack and be his Luna."

Savannah swallowed hard, having heard minimally of his family's history. Her eyes were drawn to the medallion around his neck, his family's crest and symbol of his rogue ancestry.

"But the next morning," Zion continued, "she had second thoughts once surrounded by her rogue friends. Her habits and old life refused to be buried. A fight broke out, resulting in the Alpha's murder."

Savannah felt a cold shiver run down her spine. This part of the story she hadn't heard.

"While running, her demons caught up to her, and she was cursed for how she'd rejected her mate and spurned the opportunity he'd given her for a good life. The blood of her dead Alpha mate was crying out for justice. Since then, in every generation of her descendants, someone has been rejected by their Alpha mate and doomed to live in desolation and sorrow. Hmm," he grunted lowly, closing his eyes and once more leaning back against the wall. "My father knows the feeling all too well."

"The Alpha Queen," Savannah remarked. She still couldn't believe that Zion was not only the son of an Alpha, but the Queen of the northern province. No wonder he was infinitely strong and able to outsmart every Alpha and rogue on the continent. It was a fact that sent pride surging in her heart, that her mate was so highly ranked and magnificent in stature.

But it was also a fact that made his story even more heartbreaking, how his parents couldn't be together all because of their vastly segregated social standings.

None of that mattered to Savannah. Wasn't the matebond meant to transcend it all? From the moment she'd met him, she knew she'd accept him eventually no matter how lawless and untamed a rogue he was. In her own personal view, she looked far beyond the upbringing and decisions that turned her mate rogue, and accepted him as the man destined as her mate. Nothing could change that.

"You may have ended the curse, but it doesn't change anything. We can't have a future together," Zion's rough voice broke through her thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to join your pack, even if the Council allows it on conditions."

"But..." she sputtered, her hand flying up to her neck, her fingers tracing the flower pendant he'd given her. " But you promised." A sickening feeling invaded her stomach and filled her body with dread. Weren't rogues known for being untrustworthy? Had she been the epitome of foolishness for falling for his sweet words and meaningful gifts? Had everything been a lie?

"I will plead guilty to all charges brought against me. I deserve more than any punishment the Council could give."

"I don't care what you deserve! They can pardon you, if we just—"

"Forget it, Savannah!" he interrupted sharply, his eyes flashing as they collided with hers. "You don't understand the kind of things I've done. The monster I've been. Nothing can save me from my own curse."

She recoiled, struck by his words as if he'd lifted a hand and beaten her. Where was this emotion coming from? She hated it. She hated his defeatist attitude, because it made no sense. If there was one thing she knew best about her mate, it was that he never let anything defeat him, even if it was a centuries' old curse working against them. He even admitted she'd broken it! Her mark on his neck was proof that this rogue hadn't been rejected by his Alpha mate.

He'd been accepted. Chosen.

Claimed.

"My mark...." Tentatively, she reached out a hand and was about to trace the faint scar on his skin, but was stopped by his vice like grip around her wrist.

He shoved her hand away, his face a stony warning. "It will disappear over time. You should leave, before the bond becomes any stronger," he said flatly, angling his body away from her so she couldn't read even the masked emotions in his eyes.

His next words were distant, sounding like they were coming from under water as he faced the wall, his back to her in an unmistakable message of dismissal. "And don't waste your time coming back, Savannah. I don't want to be your mate."