Claimed by My Mafia Alpha King

Chapter 206: Chapter 206

Irina’s POV

"Nicholas!"

My scream tore through the freezing night air, raw and pathetic. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything anymore. I dropped to my knees in the wet, muddy dirt.

The mud instantly soaked through my jeans, freezing my skin, but the cold was nothing compared to the absolute ice inside my chest. It was a freezing void. An empty, gaping hole right where my heart used to be.

*Nicholas... please.*

I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my bloody, shaking hands against my temples. I threw my consciousness out, diving deep into the mind link. I searched frantically. I reached out for that familiar, comforting warmth. I looked for his scent of pine and rain, for the deep rumble of his voice that always calmed my racing heart.

Nothing.

There was just... nothing.

The mate bond, that beautiful, unbreakable golden thread that tied my soul to his, was dead silent. It wasn’t just quiet. It felt severed. Cut. Gone.

"No," I whimpered, rocking back and forth in the mud. "No, no, no. You promised me. You promised you would come back."

Hot tears streamed down my freezing cheeks. My chest heaved as I gasped for air, but my lungs felt like they were filled with shattered glass. I was choking on my own grief.

"Luna," a gruff voice said softly.

Heavy footsteps crunched on the bloody gravel behind me. It was Roman. His massive hand gently touched my shaking shoulder.

"Luna, please," Roman said, his voice breaking. I had never heard the tough warrior sound so shattered. "We have to go. It’s not safe here. The enemy..."

"Don’t touch me!" I screamed, violently shoving his hand away.

I spun around, glaring at him through my blurry, tear-filled eyes. Andrei stood right behind him, his head bowed, his broad shoulders shaking as he quietly cried for our King.

"He is not dead!" I yelled at them, my voice cracking wildly. "Do you hear me? He is Nicholas! He is the Alpha King! He doesn’t just die! He is out here somewhere!"

"Irina," Andrei whispered, stepping forward. He dropped to his knees right in front of me, ignoring the pools of dark blood soaking into his combat boots. "The link is broken. The pack feels it. We all feel it. He’s... he’s gone."

"Liar!" I shrieked.

I hit Andrei’s chest with my weak fists. I hit him again and again, sobbing uncontrollably. Andrei didn’t try to stop me. He just let me hit him, his own tears falling onto his tactical vest.

"He’s not gone," I cried, my voice dropping to a desperate whisper. My strength completely gave out, and I collapsed against Andrei’s chest. "He can’t be gone. If he’s gone, I die too. I can’t breathe without him."

The battlefield around us was a living nightmare. The stench of iron and death hung thick in the misty air. Hundreds of bodies lay scattered across the rocky ground. Torn limbs, shattered weapons, and rivers of blood painted the valley floor.

It was a graveyard.

I cried until I had no tears left. I cried until my throat tasted like copper and my vision went black at the edges.

Then, I heard it.

*Ugh...*

It was a sound so faint, so impossibly weak, that I thought my broken mind was playing tricks on me.

I instantly froze.

My breath hitched in my throat. I stopped crying, my eyes snapping wide open.

"Did you hear that?" I gasped, pulling away from Andrei.

Roman and Andrei instantly tensed. They raised their weapons, scanning the dark, misty tree line. Their warrior instincts kicked in, eyes glowing slightly in the dark.

"Hear what, Luna?" Roman asked in a low, dangerous whisper.

I didn’t answer. I just held my breath, straining my ears against the howling wind.

There it was again.

A low, wet, agonizing groan. It sounded like someone drowning in their own blood.

I scrambled up from the mud. I didn’t care that my legs were shaking so hard I could barely stand. I spun toward the sound. It was coming from a massive pile of bodies about twenty feet away.

"There!" I pointed wildly.

I didn’t wait for the guards. I rushed forward, slipping and stumbling over the wet rocks and dead wolves.

"Irina, wait! It could be a rogue!" Andrei yelled, chasing right after me.

I didn’t care. If someone was alive in this hellhole, I was going to find them. Maybe they knew what happened. Maybe they saw Nicholas.

I threw myself onto the pile of corpses. My bare hands dug into the heavy, blood-soaked armor of the fallen warriors. I gritted my teeth, pulling and shoving aside the dead weight with a hysterical kind of strength I didn’t know I had.

"Help me!" I screamed at Roman and Andrei.

They dropped their guns and rushed to my side, grabbing the heavy bodies and tossing them away to clear the pile.

Finally, at the very bottom, I saw him.

It wasn’t Nicholas.

My heart broke all over again, but I pushed the grief down. It was one of our warriors. I recognized the royal crest on his shredded tactical jacket.

He was in terrible shape. It was a miracle he was even making a sound. Half of his face was covered in deep, jagged claw marks. His armor was completely crushed inward, and a massive, terrifying pool of dark blood was spreading from a fatal wound in his abdomen.

He was taking tiny, bubbling gasps of air.

"Goddess," Roman cursed softly, kneeling beside him. He pressed two fingers against the warrior’s bloody neck. "His pulse is fading fast. It’s a miracle he’s even breathing, but he’s too far gone, Luna. He won’t make it another minute."

"No," I said fiercely. "I am not letting anyone else die tonight."

I dropped to my knees right beside the dying man. The smell of death was overwhelming, but I ignored it. I wiped my muddy hands on my jeans and held them out.

"Luna, you can’t," Andrei said gently, trying to pull me back by my shoulders. "You are completely exhausted. The grief alone is killing you. Using your healing magic right now could literally stop your heart."

"Back off, Andrei," I growled.

I shook him off and leaned over the warrior. I took a deep, shaking breath, closing my eyes and digging deep into my core.

I bypassed the empty, freezing void where my mate bond used to be. I pushed past the unbearable pain in my chest. I reached for the sacred, ancient magic that slept in my blood.

At first, nothing happened. My body was too cold, too drained, too traumatized.

*Wake up!* I screamed at my inner wolf. *Wake up and save him!*

Suddenly, a familiar warmth sparked in my chest. It started small, like a flickering candle, and then it roared into a blazing fire. The heat rushed through my freezing veins, traveling rapidly down my arms and straight into my fingertips.

I slammed my palms firmly onto the warrior’s crushed chest.

A blinding, pure golden light erupted from my hands. It illuminated the dark, bloody battlefield like a miniature sun. Roman and Andrei gasped, taking a step back as the magical shockwave pushed the mist away from us.

The light poured out of me, sinking deep into the warrior’s broken body.

It was agonizing. I felt my own energy draining rapidly, leaving me dizzy and nauseous, but I pushed harder. I funneled all my love, all my pain, and all my desperation into the magic.

I watched in absolute awe as the golden magic did its work.

The deep, jagged claw marks on his face slowly began to close, the torn flesh knitting itself back together. The terrible, fatal wound in his stomach stopped bleeding. The crushed bones in his chest popped and cracked loudly, realigning themselves under the force of the healing light.

I held on until my vision started to spin. When I felt like I was going to pass out, I finally pulled my hands away.

The golden light faded, leaving us in the freezing dark once again.

I collapsed backward, sitting heavily in the mud, panting hard. Sweat mixed with the tears and dirt on my face. My whole body was shaking violently.

Roman and Andrei stared at the warrior in stunned silence.

The warrior was still.

For a terrifying second, I thought I had failed. I thought I had poured my soul into a dead man.

Then, his chest heaved.

He took a massive, greedy gulp of freezing air. He choked, coughing up a small mouthful of black blood, and then his breathing leveled out. It was no longer shallow and bubbling. It was deep and steady.

His fingers twitched in the mud.

Slowly, agonizingly, his heavy eyelids fluttered.

He opened his eyes. They were hazy and unfocused at first, staring blankly up at the dark, cloudy sky. Then, he blinked. The fog in his eyes cleared, and he slowly turned his head to the side.

His gaze locked onto me. He stared at my pale, tear-stained face, recognizing the golden magic that was still faintly shimmering in the air around me.

His cracked, bloodstained lips slowly parted. His voice was incredibly weak, harsh, and raspy from the screaming and the blood.

"Luna..."