Keisha.

My heart was breaking... shattering into a million tiny bits and pieces and girl, that was the best way to describe the searing pain I felt in my chest as I watched Leilani walk out of the room holding up Jarek with one arm while Alpha Kael held him up from the other side.

And as they all walked out of the room, they looked like the perfect depiction of the word: ’loyalty’.

They seemed as though they all belonged to one another, and I... I was an outcast.

The outcast who now bled profusely, her blood appearing as streaks of red on the dirty damp floor. And the outcast who was the villain in all of their stories including those three filthy Alphas who have never had to taste just what I could do to them.

My eyes brimmed with tears as I watched Jarek go, and truth be told, I know that I may have always been a ’if I cannot have him then no one else can’ type of person, but that doesn’t mean that I wanted him dead.

I wanted him alone, yes, not dead or passed out or fighting for his life. And I certainly never wanted him to be dragged out of here with a gaping bullet hole in his chest.

The bullet wounds on my own legs pulsed from all the pain, and the fact that it was silver... a poison for our kind... made it even more painful and excruciating.

For a very brief moment, even with the intense pain I suffered, I thought back to a couple of minutes ago. I thought back to the moment when Leilani had looked me dead in the eyes and pulled the trigger...

And girl, I am not talking about the moment she pulled it, shooting me in the legs, I was talking about the moment she pulled it at my head without hesitation.

Without any hint of emotion on her face.

"If there were any bullets in my gun, then I would have been dead meat by now." I mused, hating the way my heart raced at the thought, and hating myself more for underestimating her like this.

She was no wimp. No weakling. And that in itself was more scary than the stink eye she had blessed me with before turning to leave in disappointment.

I was, however, pulled out of this haze when I heard the sounds of heavy footsteps approaching me. My head shot up at that moment to see a familiar figure coming close... but I could hardly make out who they were due to the fact that my vision was waning.

I do not know if it was because of the tears in my eyes or if this was just as a result of something else— maybe pain— but my vision was fast becoming blurry. My head swayed and pounded with a whack headache. But that wasn’t all.

Chills spread across my body which now shook with violent spasms.

In the next second, I fell to the floor on my back, but despite the filth on the floor, despite my pain and despite the hurt in my chest, I could only think about one thing:

Jarek.

And I prayed to the goddess that he survives what I had just done to him.

"Keisha!" A familiar voice called out to me but at this point, I was already too weak to answer. Even breathing felt like some massive job.

Next thing I know, cold fingers were cupping my cheeks, pulling my head upward with a force. I groaned against the hands with my eyes squeezed shut and when I tried to pull myself away, the person persistently held on.

"Do not die on me!" He shrieked, sounding worried.

Ohh Gerald. At least there’s still someone out here who cares about me...

"You are the only one who knows about the location of the diamonds and money I kept under your care. So don’t you dare die on me, Keisha!"

Oh.

His unflattering words, coupled with the rage I already felt made me want to roll my eyes at him, but because I didn’t even have the strength to do that, I simply closed my eyes even tighter and let myself drown in the void abyss that desperately called out to me.

He can go to hell with all his money and gemstones. I don’t care!

However, Gerald didn’t feel the same way as he roughly grabbed me by my shoulders to shake me awake. The force made my body jerk upright and caused a searing pain to lance through my legs— at the spots where I had been shot.

I gritted my teeth in pain but refused to open my eyes, even as he came so close, I could literally feel his breath on my face.

He yelled; "Don’t die on me Keisha! Don’t you dare do that!"

And at his words, I slowly peeled my eyes open, glared straight at him and seethed; "Fuck you."

—

Leilani.

For the last couple of hours, Caelum, Kael, Zevran and I could only pace up and down the eerily pristine halls of the hospital, waiting for any news concerning Jarek’s current health condition, and as the minutes quickly slipped into hours, the air slowly grew more pensive. Thoughts— very crazy ones— slipped into my head at intervals and I couldn’t help the tremor that coursed through my spine.

My legs shook as I stumbled around the halls with my heart racing dangerously in my chest. But do you know what was worse than the silence echoing in my head?

The expressions on the doctor’s and nurses’ faces as they ran from one ward to the other, during the whole surgical operation being carried out on him.

It was about several hours later when the main doctor finally stepped out of the operating room, his head downcast and his shoulders slightly sunken as he walked towards us.

Merely looking at his whole body language made me feel things that I didn’t want to feel. It made my heart race with fear and filled me with a kind of apprehension that was impossible to express.

I turned to cast a look at the triplets who also seemed as worried as I was and then I muttered; "Doctor?"

He turned to me, his frown still evident on his face before he lowered his head one more time. "Are you Ms Leilani?"

"Yes, I am." I rushed out quickly. "How is he?"

"Not so good." He answered. "We successfully got the bullet out of his chest but because it had exploded into tiny smaller bits, we couldn’t get everything out."

Something about those words didn’t fully sit right with me. My heart skipped another beat way before I could help it.

I looked up just in time to see that Kael had gulped and then he pushed past Caelum to come stand beside me. He asked the doctor; "What do you mean?"

Yes, what does he mean?

Goddess, why can’t I make my lips move to form the words I needed to say?

Panic and apprehension made goosebumps sprout on my skin but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to speak, move or even form coherent thoughts.

"That we couldn’t get the silver— poison— fully out of him. We’ve been able to stop his bleeding and treat his wounds but he’s not healing properly, and we think we have to resort to other means."

"What other means?" Zevran asked the question that bugged me the most. And when the doctor heard him speak, he turned to cast him a look, shrugged and whispered;

"Suction it out of his system or force him into an induced coma."