Axton drew away from Natalia quickly, his throat feeling like something was clamping down on it. His breaths were short, and his eyes bulged and widened. He lost balance in the water and started to sink below it, his right hand firmly clasped around his throat.
 
"Axton? Axton! What is wrong? Axton!" Natalia pulled his head give the water, hitting his chest so he could breathe. It proved abortive, and he felt weaker and weaker.
 
"Beta? Beta! Help!"
 
Beta Scott turned to the door, and opened it. "Did you call for me?"
 
"Yes, please! Come! Please come here!"
 
He opened the door wider and ran inside, then opened the door to the bath house. Axton was gasping for breath, his eyes bloodshot, and his lips parted open.
 
"I do not know what is wrong, he just...please help."
 
Beta Scott wasted no time as he ran to the tub, then pulled him over and rested his body on his shoulder.
 
He walked out the bathtub as Natalia followed too, each dripping with water, but no one caring for it.
 
"What is wrong? Did he inhale too much water? Is something wrong? Tell me."
 
She shook her head. "We were just talking..and then suddenly...suddenly he just started gasping like this."
 
Beta Scott turned to Axton who was not shaking, his eyes closed. He was not gasping anymore, but he looked like someone that was going through an epileptic attack.
 
"Let me go get the healer, okay? Please stay with him."
 
Before she answered, beta Scott shifted to his wolf and bounded off through Axton's window, having no time for the door.
 
"Axton. Axton please."
 
Axton's eyes were closed. He could see his life flash in front of his eyes, the first time he met Natalia, and then Selina on the night of the blood moon.
 
He watched as it unfolded before him, the voices sounding far off.
 
"You are his mate. The werewolf alpha's mate. But you dare not have a single drop of my craft in you?"
 
"You will carry disdain on your face."
 
"Natalia! Natalia. Do not be scared. I will take you with me."
 
"You have no right to do that, Nicholas. Let that beast find her and send his mate to her death like he did me! Let him suffer with the curse till the day he decides to die!"
 
"She is only but a child..."
 
"Then I will make him end her too."
 
"She will find the necklace, and I will bait him with healing. Until he needs it the most, and I will take it away. He will beg for healing, but his only option will be to end her. If he does, I will win. It does not matter whether I live or not!"
 
Alpha Axton's eyes opened, and he took in a final long gasp, then suddenly went limp.
 
"Axton?" Natalia said, shaking him. He was stiff and limp.
 
Bets Scott came in with the healer, who immediately started to say a prayer to the moon goddess. Alphas do not die like this. They should not die like this.
 
"Axton, please answer me. Tell me this is a joke. What is wrong with you?" She slapped his hand hard and shook him violently as she lay on his side, her cries loud enough to reach the heavens.
 
"You can not leave me alone. You told me not to go so where are you going to? Why are you leaving? You said you loved me. Wake up, you liar!"
 
Beta Scott's eyes were filled with tears as he watched her try hard to wake Axton. The healer stopped praying and looked at Beta Scott. She shook her head, and Beta Scott took a long breath.
 
"You have to do something."
 
She shook her head. "I wish I could. But, at this point, there is nothing I can do for him."
 
She walked out of the room, her head lowered sorrowfully. She was sure in a few hours, a funeral howl will sound throughout the pack.
 
"Miss?" Beta Scott called.
 
She did not reply, just shook her head as she proceeded to bath Axton with her tears.
 
"Miss, look up!" He said again, his voice urgent.
 
She slowly looked up to Axton, whose eyes were still closed. The difference was in his body. All the hideously burnt skin slowly started to fade away, as if retracing their steps away from his body. Natalia sniffed and stood up, watching. His shoulders were the first to clear off, and where his body had seemed so thin and frail, it started to come back as if pumped up by something.
 
"Beta. Can you see this too?"
 
He nodded, his hand clasped over his mouth, finally releasing the tears that had stood in his eyes for so long.
 
Axton's hands slowly cleared off too, then his body to the visible part and then lastly, his foot. His hair had turned the same silly black texture, and the volume and shine were intact again. He was beautiful. Almost too beautiful.
 
Like a finishing touch, the black tattoo that graced the left part of his upper back, and span across his shoulders to his collar bone came back, the tattoo of his very own wolf.
 
Natalia gasped when it was all done, and sat beside his again. He only needed to wake up now.
 
"Axton?" She called.
 
He didn't turn or move. He just stayed there, as if asleep. As if in his best dream.
 
"Alpha, please wake up. This is enough." Beta Scott wiped his tears as Natalia held on to Axton's hand.
 
"Please," She repeated.
 
The night passed by with both of them wide awake, waiting for Axton to open his eyes. Through the night, he never did, and they took turns dozing and waking to check if he did. By morning, however, both were fast asleep on each side of an empty bed.
 
Natalia woke first, and her first instinct was to reach out to Axton. Alarm bells rang in her head when she did not feel him on the bed, and she immediately stood up. She first checked the bath house, but he was not there. She then ran outside, and below the stairs was Axton. He was sitting at the foot of the stairs, his hair bundled up in a man bun, and his face turned to the side.
 
"Axton?" Tears filled her eyes again as he turned to her.
 
"Natalia." His smile reached his eyes, and he stretched his arms to her. "Come."
 
She nodded, tears running freely down her cheeks, and without reservations, she ran down the stairs, sometimes taking a couple at a time.
 
She finally got to the foot and threw herself into him, her legs wrapped around his waist, her hair falling on his shoulder, as he buried his face into her neck.
 
"Do you need me to tell you just how much I missed you?"
 
She shook her head as she turned to kiss his hair, then his ears. "I can feel it," she answered.
 
"That is what I aimed for." He said against her lips.
 
THE END.