Rejected His Miracle Luna Fated Her Second Chance Alpha by Paprika
Chapter 69

Chapter 69

-Ignatius-

It was Dorothy’s hand in mine that brought me back,

It was her voice in my head that cleared my stormy thoughts. “Ikisow you’re angry and I know that you’re scared. You have every right to want your enemies to suffer for what they’ve done

Her voice was a cold press to my hot forehead and her hand tightened around mine. “But I don’t want to know what kind of pack the Bielke will become if it’s run by an Alpha governed by his own hatred.”

That was all it took. I felt my own murderous expression soften and the dying shifter’s howls pierced my ears and made me

blink

He had picked up the serrated knife that I had thrown to him, a blade I had only brought with in case things got ugly. With one agonized screech he took the knife to his shoulder and attempted to sever his grotesque, shriveled arm.

Angie turned away from the gruesome scene but both Dorothy and I watched as he struggled.

H ook no pleasure in watching the d amned man suffer. All of the fury and sad ism had drained out of me the second Dorothy’s mind touched mine. Dorothy herself donned a blank stare as she regarded the struggling man through the bars.

When the shifter was only halfway through sawing and hacking when he threw himself down on his back, panting in a pool of dark blood that looked more akin to tar than liquid. The searing pain seemed to prove too much for him to hear.

His semi-detached arm lay beside him, blackened and stiff like it had been snapped from the branch of a dead tree in the middle of winter.

“Come here”

Dorothy knelt and extended her arm out through the bars

“He’s dangerous”.

I gripped her shoulder to pull her away but she had already touched her fingers to the defeated man’s shoulder as his contorting sent him rolling against the bars.

A white glow burst from her fingertips and Dorothy’s eyes rolled back in her head as she drove her claws into the man’s skin.

I had never before truly seen her gift in action and it left me stupefied for a moment. Her own pale skin was aglow with the same white light that shot through her hand and into the b*dy of the shifter.

Snapping back to my senses I pulled at her shoulder, dead set on not allowing her to give away her own precious life for the man who wanted her blood. But Dorothy was immovable in her trance-like state and she sat like a stone statue as the shifter’s b*dy began to repair itself.

It didn’t happen the same way that Angie’s healing had been described to me. The man’s arm could clearly not be saved. Instead, it dropped off of his shoulder completely and lay at my feet as the skin around his exposed socket began to knit back together. It was gruesome as it was hauntingly beautiful.

After a moment longer, Dorothy slouched forwards and the glow from her b*dy resided. Her head hit the silver bars and she slumped against them and lay motionless.

I rushed to pick her up and sna tch her away from the shifter’s reach, cradling her in my arms and desperately listening for a heartbeat. The shifter himself was gawking at my mate, his gaze snapping from her to the healed stump of his shoulder and down to his severed toxic arm.

I glowered at the man and then glanced down at Dorothy who stirred in my arms. “I couldn’t heal all of him,” she said quietly as she blinked her eyes back into focus. She motioned for me to put her down and I gently touched her feet to the floor, keeping a hand on her back to steady her

10:59 Fri, Jan 26

Chapter 69

She looked at the Tally shifter with a kind of reserved sympathy. “I could stop the spread of the iron’s poison,” she directed her solemn words at the man who was still crouched on his knees, cupping his shoulder with his remaining hand.

“But there is another poison inside of you. It’s a part of you, and there is no healing that.”

Her l*ps set in a tight line and I felt her shoulders shake against my palm. “You’re already dead, aren’t you?”

-Dorothy-

Healing the Tally shifter did not feel the same as my previous attempts. Nor did it feel like the time I sucked the life from a victim instead of the other way around. When my own pure energy touched that man, it was met with a blank wall, nothing more than dead cells.

In a sense, even though he could clearly walk and talk, even though there was clearly a soul in there, with a wolf and purpose, he was little more than a walking corpse.

There was only so much my powers could do to revive flesh that was long since dead and to kickstart the flow of blood that had long ago grown sluggish and stagnant. This man’s b*dy was a vessel powered by magic and willpower alone

“You’re already dead, aren’t you?”

The man regarded me coldly, his yellowed eyes glinting in the artificial light of the cell’s interior

“I have endured multiple deaths to get to where I am now. My b*dy was a small price to pay for the ultimate reward. For freedom and victory”

I examined his rotting flesh, his skin that looked thinner and more papery the longer he sat in that cell. “It doesn’t seem worth it to me, I murmured

Unable to stand another moment inside the cramped building that suddenly felt ten times smaller and uncomfortably suffocating, I turned abruptly and walked back to the main doors.

“You’re going to regret saving me one day, Luna,” the shifter called after me. “You’ve done nothing but throw away your own life. And that of your precious child too.”

I kept my mouth tightly shut and ignored the man’s taunting, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing me falter. I stayed true to my conviction that I had done the right thing.

On my way out I passed the other cells where the prisoners regarded me with both awe and fear. I felt undeserving of both. and kept my eyes straight ahead until I was out of the door and drinking in fresh air and sunlight once again.

Ignatius and Angie followed me out and sat me down on the gravel outside when my head began to spin. Concerned, Ignatius hurried over to my side. “He didn’t deserve your gift,” he muttered and pulled me tighter against his chest. “Are you alright?”

I leaned into him and closed my eyes as I allowed his scent to wash over me and lull me into a state of tranquility.

“There is something very wrong with his b*dy” I said quietly as Ignatius ran his hands over my stomach to check on our children. “It’s some kind of magic. You might be right about the Not Deer. About the witch’s blood. If their entire army is just like that guy, then we’re essentially going to be fighting the undead”

“So they’re like, zombies?”

Angie pinched the bridge of her nose with her hand planted on her hip. “I don’t see them hunting anyone for their brains.”

“No”

I took my little iron blade back from where Ignatius had pocketed it and held it up to the light. Sticky spots of blood had stained the tip, blood so dark that it was almost black.

“It’s not like that. Their bodies run on magic, on witch blood. I think that’s why all of the past attackers we managed to catch eventually fell apart. They went too long without their supply.”

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10 59 F, Jan 20

Chapter 69

Angie’s brows furrowed as she thought. “That tent that Fae and I spotted. We thought there was some kind of powerful healer inside. But if even you couldn’t fix his failing form then it couldn’t have been that, Whoever was in there was performing magic”

I wiped the blade against a small sprout of weeds and slid it back into the sheath at my calf. “It’s possible, if we can take down whoever is supplying them with this magic, or at least limit the supply, we might stand a chance against their army

Ignatius helped me to my feet and I cupped my aching stomach where one of our children had begun another torrent of kicking and twisting

He frowned as I groaned, “I think you’ve had enough for today. But you may be right.” He glanced at Angie. “Schedule a council meeting tonight. We have the knowledge that we need, it’s time to act.”

Ignatius took one look at my grimacing face and guided me back towards the car. “Time to go. Angie, can you handle things from here!”

Angie ran a hand through her matted hair and nodded. “I have some guards posted around the area to keep an eye on things. Then it’s time to go home and take a shower, just being around that guy has left me feeling filthy.”

“I think that’s just because you’ve been hiding in the bush for neo days. Angie.” I turted and then groaned when baby number two shifted in my belly to press right up against my already struggling bladder. “But yeah, we need to go before I pi ss myself”

“What a beautiful thing it is, to bring a child into this world.” Angie said in a sing-song sigh of sarcasm. “Get going before you d*rty Ignatius’ car more than you already have”

Her words alluded to my very first meeting with Angie, back when she had caught Ignatius and me humping uglies in the front seat of his car on my first day on Bielke territory.

Those days seemed so long ago and I was surprised every time looked back and recalled how young and naive I had been. Back then, I could never have anticipated the life that was in store for me. I was just a girl from nowhere, desperate to feel

wanted.

I no longer yearned for love as I had before meeting Ignatius. I no longer bent over backward to please people, and I was slowly but surely learning that just existing did not warrant an apology to anyone.

I allowed myself the tiniest moment of pride at just how far I had come. It stole my resolve even further to protect the life that I had built and the family that I had found.

We waved goodbye to Angle and then sped off back towards the mansion. In between questioning me on whether or not I was still feeling lightheaded. Ignatius fell deep in thought and he leaned over the wheel as he drove.

His shoulders looked a little broader than they had back then, and he had grown into his lanky frame somewhat. Everything about his features was just as sharp as when I first laid eyes on him, but I now knew the gentle soft heart that beat beneath

the exterior.

Ignatius glanced over at me and caught me staring. The corner of his mouth turned up and revealed the little dimple in his check that hadn’t made an appearance in a while. “Enjoying the view?”

“Reminiscing mostly, But yes.”

“Thank you, by the way. For earlier.”

He followed up my questioning glance with a hand on my leg and the other on the wheel. “I lost it a little there. He was threatening you and I saw red. But you pulled me back. And you were right in what you said.”

I interlaced my fingers with his. “You said it yourself, we aren’t here to relive the past. We’re going to rewrite our future.”

He leaned over to k*ss my forehead. “I look forward to a long future with you.”

10:59 Fri, Jan 26