CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED & FIFTY SIX


    Talia’s POV


    Maggie’s breath was shallow and wet. I pressed harder on her wound, but she was losing blood faster than I could stop it.


    “Stay with me,” I told her. “Maggie. Please stay with me.”


    Maggie opened her mouth to speak but only more blood bubbled up. She coughed hard and I felt it warm against my hands. ” Don’t try to speak.”


    “I am sorry,” she said. Her voice was barely there. “I am so sorry, Luna. I let them deceive me again. I hurt you again.”


    “Stop,” I said. “You did not hurt me. You saved me. Do you understand that? You saved me!”


    Maggie attempted to speak again, but she began to gasp. She strained as she tried to get air in. Maggie’s eyes were ssy, but she was still looking at me.


    ‘No, no, she couldn’t die, not like this!’ I thought.


    “The baby,” I pleaded. “Maggie, you have to hold on for the baby. Help is on the way.”


    Behind me I heard Nn yelling. “Where is the healer? What is taking so long?”


    “You’re going to be okay. You have to keep breathing. Think about the baby,” I told Maggie.


    “I’m…sorry,” Maggie muttered.


    “You don’t have to keep telling me you’re sorry. You have to stay alive. Stay alive! That’s how I will forgive you,” I yelled at her. Maggie nodded. Maggie’s hand came up slowly and found my wrist. Her grip was weak, but she held onto me.


    ‘She is strong. She won’t give up,’ my wolf reassured me.


    A few minutes passed and I felt Maggie’s grip loosening. “Maggie! Maggie, stay awake!” I said, “Nn! Help me!”


    “Hey, Maggie. Come on, Maggie. Open your eyes, it’s me, Nn,” Nn said, dropping down next to me. He tapped Maggie’s face and her eyes fluttered open. She focused on him smiling. “Stay awake. The healer is on the way.”


    Maggie smiled faintly. Her eyes began to flutter. “Come on, Maggie, stay with us,” Nn said before standing up to wave over


    the healer.


    Maggie’s eyes closed. Her chest rose once more and then it did not rise again. “Maggie, Maggie wake up!” I wailed. Nn pulled me up from the ground and held me and I let him.


    The healer arrived and knelt beside her, and I already knew there was nothing to be done. I turned into Nn’s chest and cried. Nn held me and I could tell from his trembling breaths that he was crying too.


    We buried her the next day.


    Nn told the pack her funeral would be at noon. De immediately volunteered to help ra with the arrangements. I couldn’t work. All I could think about was Maggie’s blood on my hands.


    “Luna, you don’t have to do this,” ra said when I showed up to help.


    “No, I have to…I need to do this,” I told her. “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”


    ra nodded and began giving out instructions. All three of us moved quietly through the preparation. At one point she stopped and pressed her hand t against the table and stood there without moving for a few minutes.


    “ra, are you okay?” I asked.


    “I have done this for dozens of our pack members,” ra replied. “I didn’t expect it to be this hard for her.”


    +25 Bonus


    I didn’t know what to say. Only those close to us knew what Maggie had done. Even though I was giving her a chance, there were some that saw her as unredeemable and it seemed ra had been one of those people.


    “She was hard on me when I first came to this pack house,” ra continued. “She had high standards that she did not change for anyone. I used to think she was unkind.” She paused. “I think now she just wanted to be loved. Maggie did not deserve to die like this.”


    “No, she didn’t,” De added.


    ra looked at De in surprise. “You really believe that?” she asked. Everyone knew how much De hated Maggie from her past betrayal, so hearing her agree was shocking.


    “She died protecting Luna Talia,” De exined. “Maggie made things right and she paid the ultimate price. So, no, she didn’t deserve to die like this.”


    “De…” I started.


    “Come on. Preparations areplete. We need to wee people in,” De said and I nodded.


    I was surprised to see so many pack members show up for Maggie’s funeral. Warriors, kitchen staff she had trained, and the majority of rogues that she saved. They paid their respect, grieved for her, and told stories about her. The elders led the funeral. Nn kept hisposure, only speaking to tell everyone how she died bravely protecting me.


    When thest of them had gone home, it was just Nn and I at her grave. He finally allowed the tears to fall. I gripped his hand tightly.


    “Maggie, thank you. You didn’t have to do what you did and I’ll be forever grateful,” I said. It still made me sick to my stomach that I doubted her. If I had known it was Jason, all this could have been avoided. I could have saved her.


    “I am sorry, Maggie,” Nn said quietly. “I didn’t protect you.”


    I closed my eyes and sped my hands together. “Moon Goddess, please give her peace and in the next life, let her find the love she couldn’t find in this lifetime.”


    Nn and I walked back to the pack house. Grief was now gone and reced with anger. How did Jason get into the pack without us knowing?


    “We should be happy,” I finally said.


    “What?”


    “We should be happy, celebrating her pregnancy, not this. This is all Jason’s fault. Everything he touches, he ruins,” 1 growled.


    Nn was quiet for a long time. “I know,” he said.


    “He even tried to convince Maggie to steal the map. Thankfully, he never got it,” I continued. “From that to the burned supply point, it was all him from the very beginning.”


    Nn exhaled slowly. “I was foolish.”


    “What do you mean?” I asked.


    “I was lenient with him, and it cost me my little sister.”


    “Nn, this was not your….”


    “I will never make that mistake again,” Nn said, cutting me off. “If hees back, nothing will stop me from killing him!”


    +25 Bonus