Saving Bennett Reid (Book 3)

Unhinged (Part 1)

(Carter)

The pressure in my head came before the snap. Unable to focus on anything other than the gaping wounds on my mate's neck, his breathing slowly fading away, and the bond fading into obscurity, I begged him for everything I was worth.

I begged him to fight and stay with me.

But I should've known better.

He was as stubborn as they came, and he didn't listen to me. He didn't hear the complete devastation in my voice, he didn't feel the shattering of my heart. He didn't feel the otherworldly pain I had felt the second he took his last breath, and the weight in his arm dropped flat, becoming heavier.

That was when the shatter came.

Pain so powerful and crippling shot through faster than I could comprehend. It started in low at my chest quickly igniting and growing to exponential heights. My heart felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, covered with sharp shards of glass. It felt like they were battering it with a steady rhythm to some sinister tune.

That pain quickly surged through my entire body, shocking each nerve ending and sending an electrical signal to my brain.

My mate is dead.

Because I was not alert enough. I'd cost him his life in trying to protect me when I should've been protecting him. His blood was forever on my hands.

My body convulsed, reality becoming blurred ever so slowly. The pain went deeper than ever, something so deep and terrifying that I could only describe it as a gaping hole at the centre of my soul.

I braced the fall by my hands, my breathing coming in shallow puffs as I made the fatal mistake of looking around me. Jessica had left her post on the third floor and was sat in shock, her jaw left ajar and eyes wide as she stared down at the lifeless corpse of my mate. An agonized, soul-wrenching scream drew my attention away and what I saw succeeded in further breaking me.

Jasmine was distraught. Completely destroyed. She kicked and screamed, cursing the name of every god we believed in; had devoted our trust, loyalty, and lives to. She appeared crazed, having to be restrained by her mate who also had tears in his eyes but for whatever reason, perhaps, for the sake of his mate's sanity, he repressed his own emotions. Jasmine crumpled to her knees, but she wasn't the only one crippled by the heartbreak we all felt in that moment, to varying degrees, but a pain we wished never to feel.

I had never seen Jaxon react this way.

He was screaming, something so deafening that I was sure, it roused the dead. Forgetting any shred of civility, he appeared almost deranged staring down and shaking the lifeless body of his best friend.

"B...please...now's not the time to play! Get up, B! Open your eyes! That's an order!" Jaxon futilely shook Beehive's shoulders, his face contorted with the pain he felt over the death of his best friend. He appeared to know what was happening, but the power of denial was strong in him.

Jaxon paused, stifling a sob. He stared intently carefully watching Beehive's face as though he would suddenly open his eyes and make a foul curse because he'd been injured again. But one second turned into five before Jaxon exploded.

"Wake up!" he screamed, succumbing to another round of fresh tears. Devastation was what had been written on his face in that moment. He looked completely lost slumping back and sitting down, caught in a daze. He was here, but at the same time, somewhere far away.

Blood pooled around my mate's body, drenching the cloths used to sap the blood. It soaked his clothes and skin, the coolness of the night steadily turning his body colder. My own trembled with the unfathomable weight of grief, my mind tearing between light and dark.