Page 61 of Knotted By the Triad

He tried to lift himself. His arms immediately shook.

“That's enough.” I worked the linen beneath him as quickly as I could before lowering him again.

I wrapped the linen around his torso several times, making it tight enough to keep pressure against the wound without restricting his breathing. When I finally tied it, I sat back on my heels and looked at my work. It wasn't pretty.

But the blood wasn't pouring out anymore. That was all I cared about. Daemin shivered. I grabbed another piece of cloth and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His skin was still cold, far colder than it should have been. I grabbed the final length of linen I had and draped it over him, tucking him in.

His eyes opened slightly. “Zuri.”

“I'm here.”

His hand moved across the couch, searching blindly until his fingers found mine. I closed my hand around his. He stared at me for a moment, fighting to keep his eyes open. The energy reserve he'd been holding himself together with since the forest was slowly disappearing.

“Stay by my side,” he whispered. “Don’t run away. Don’t leave me. Please.”

My heart melted for this alpha.

“I’m not going anywhere. Rest. Let your dragon heal you.”

His lips parted like he was about to say more. But then his eyes closed again.

“Daemin?”

He didn't answer. Fear slammed into me until I saw his chest rise and then fall. He was breathing. Good. I touched his face, then his neck, reassuring myself that he was still here, he was still alive, he was still with me. His skin remained cold, but I thought I could feel the faintest warmth blooming beneath it.

Mate safe.

“Yes, he is,” I whispered.

I stayed on my knees beside him until they started hurting. Then I lowered myself onto my bottom, too exhausted to find a chair and unwilling to move too far away. I wanted to be able to see his chest rising and falling.

The events of the night finally caught up with me. My ribs hurt. My clothes were filthy. Daemin's blood covered my hands, and I was pretty sure there was still dried dragon blood on me too. Allie had no idea where I was.

Kai and Zian were probably looking for both of us, and somewhere in the middle of all of this I'd apparently acquired an inner dragon who’d decided one of my husbands was our mate. Yeah, those were all problems for tomorrow.

I rested my head against the edge of the couch near his arm. My hand was still wrapped around his, and even unconscious, his fingers remained loosely curled around mine. For once, my dragon had nothing demanding to say.

Her presence settled quietly beneath my skin, focused on Daemin without the frantic fear that had driven her earlier. I watched his chest rise and fall until my eyes became too heavy to keep open.

The last thing I remembered was his thumb moving faintly against the back of my hand. Then I fell asleep beside him.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ZURI

I slept fitfully. I kept waking up to check on Daemin, who slept soundly. I wanted to check his wound, but didn’t want to wake him. I was happy that his body temperature was back to normal and he was no longer sweating.

I fell back asleep beside him. It was then that I dreamed of my headmistress back at the orphanage. In the dream, darkness stretched around me, endless and still. A woman with beautiful dark brown skin and long curly hair stood in the distance.

I knew her immediately. Especially since she was dressed in one of those long floral dresses she always wore. And her hair was pushed back with a floral headband. But this time, her eyes were different. They seemed to glow as she stared at me.

“Ms. Ellora?” I whispered.

This was the woman who’d raised me, who had raised all four of us. The woman who'd given me my name when I hadn't had one of my own. A blood moon hung behind her, enormous and red, outlining her body in crimson light. Her lips moved.

“Ellora, I can't hear you,” I called out.

I walked toward her, but instead of getting closer, the distance between us grew. I moved faster. She floated farther away.