The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate Chapter 125

Tristan

The first thing I felt was Athena's hands on my chest, warm and steady and alive.

The second thing was air filling my lungs without that horrible rattling sound that had been there before. I could breathe, really breathe.

I opened my eyes and everything was blurry at first, just shapes and colors that didn't make sense.

Then my vision cleared and I saw Athena's face above me, tears streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were glowing with this soft light that should have been scary but wasn't.

Was I dead or alive?

"Did it work?" I asked, and my voice came out weak but getting stronger with each word.

She laughed and cried at the same time, and the sound was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard.

"Yeah," she whispered, and then she was kissing my forehead. "It worked."

I tried to sit up but my body felt heavy, like I'd been asleep for days instead of minutes. Athena helped me, her hands supporting my back as I pushed myself upright on the mattress.

That's when it really hit me. I'd been dying, actually dying. I'd felt my heart slowing down, felt the cold creeping through my body, felt everything starting to shut down. And now I was sitting up and breathing and alive.

But something felt different. I pressed my hand to my chest where the wound had been, expecting to feel torn flesh and broken ribs that my alpha healing would need hours to repair. Instead, there was nothing. Not healing, not scarred, just smooth skin like I'd never been injured at all.

"Wait," I said, looking down at my blood-stained shirt in confusion. I pulled it up and stared at my chest. "How is this possible?"

"She healed you," Athena said, and her voice was full of wonder. "The power, she's not what I'd thought. She's exactly as you said she is. She's not trying to hurt anyone, she just needed someone to understand her."

I kept staring at my chest, at the place where there should have been a gaping wound. .

My alpha healing was strong, one of the strongest in our pack, but it wasn't this strong. Even with my abilities, that kind of injury would have taken hours to close, days to fully heal. But there was nothing there, like it had never happened.

"She healed me completely," I said, the realization washing over me. "I didn't even have to heal myself."

I looked at Orion standing by the wall, his eyes red like he'd been crying. Sarah was next to him with her hand over her mouth. Derek was staring at me like I was some kind of miracle, and maybe I was.

"You're really okay?" Orion asked, his voice rough.

"I'm better than okay," I said, and it was true. I felt good, better than I had in days, maybe better than I had in my whole life. "I thought she'd just bring me back and then I'd have to heal myself the rest of the way, but she did everything. She actually healed me."

The plan had been simple in my head. Let Athena drain me to the point where she'd be forced to go inside herself and confront whatever was causing this power.

I knew my alpha healing would kick in once she figured out how to stop taking, knew I'd survive long enough for my body to repair itself. It was a calculated risk, one I was willing to take.

But this, what she'd actually done, this was so much more than I'd hoped for.

"Do you know what this means?" I said, looking at Athena with pride swelling in my chest. "You didn't just stop taking, you learned how to give. You learned how to heal."

Athena made a sound that was half laugh, half sob, and then she threw her arms around me. She hugged me so tight I could barely breathe, but I didn't care. I hugged her back just as hard, burying my face in her hair.

"I thought I lost you," she said against my shoulder, her whole body shaking. "I thought you were gone and it was my fault."

"I'm here," I told her, running my hand through her hair. "I'm right here, and look what you did. Look what you're capable of."

She pulled back just enough to look at my face, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "You planned this. You knew you were going to die."

"I knew you needed to face it," I said, cupping her face in my hands. "I knew that as long as you were too scared to look at what was really happening inside you, you'd never be able to control it. And I was right, wasn't I? You found her, you understood her, and now you can heal instead of hurt."

"You could have actually died," she said, her voice breaking.

"But I didn't," I reminded her. "Because you're stronger than you think you are. Because you're exactly what I always knew you were, someone who saves people instead of destroying them."

She kissed me then, and it wasn't careful or gentle. It was desperate and relieved and full of everything we'd both been feeling. When we finally broke apart, she was crying harder than before.

"I was so scared," she said. "When I saw you lying there, when I felt how close you were to dying, I thought I'd never get to tell you how much you mean to me."

"You just did," I said, wiping the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. "And you did it by saving my life in a way I never could have saved myself."

She laughed again, that same broken, happy sound, and hugged me once more.

Over her shoulder, I saw Orion step forward. He looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. When Athena finally let me go, she turned and saw her brother standing there.

"Orion," she said, and then she was crossing the room to him.

He caught her in his arms and held her like he'd never let go. I saw his shoulders shake as he buried his face in her hair.

"You did it," he said, his voice cracking. "I knew you could do it."

"I couldn't have done it without Tristan, without you or any of you in this room." she said, pulling back to look at him. "He was willing to die so I could understand what was happening. He saved me. You all saved me. Thank you."

"He saved you. You both did it all, we only assisted" Orion said, glancing at me over her shoulder, and I could see the gratitude in his eyes.

Athena turned to Sarah next, and Sarah opened her arms without hesitation. They hugged and cried together, and Sarah kept saying "thank god" over and over like a prayer.

"You're so brave," Sarah said, holding Athena's face in her hands. "You're so incredibly brave."

Derek stood off to the side, looking uncomfortable with all the emotion but happy at the same time. When Athena moved to hug him, he patted her back awkwardly but I could see how relieved he was.

"The readings I got during the process were remarkable," he said, unable to help himself. "The way the energy shifted from taking to giving, it was like watching a complete reversal of polarity."

"English, Derek," Orion said, but he was smiling.

"It means she's not just controlling it," Derek explained. "She's transformed it into something entirely different. Something healing instead of harmful."

Athena came back to me then, and I held out my hand. She took it and didn't let go, her fingers threading through mine like she was afraid I'd disappear if she wasn't touching me.

I managed to get to my feet, and everyone rushed forward like they thought I might fall over.

But I didn't. I felt steady and strong and more alive than I had in weeks. Whatever she'd done to heal me had done more than just close the wound, it had restored everything. I felt like I could run for miles, like I could shift and not feel even a hint of fatigue.

"I need to hug all of you," I said, because the emotion in the room was overwhelming and I needed to do something with it.

Orion came first. We'd never been the type to hug much, but right now it felt necessary. He grabbed me in a bear hug that probably would have hurt if I wasn't feeling so good.

"That was the stupidest, bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do," he said quietly, so only I could hear. "Thank you for believing in her when the rest of us were too scared to try."

"It was always going to work," I told him. "I knew she had it in her."

"You couldn't have known that," he said, pulling back to look at me.

"Yes, I could," I said firmly. "Because I know her. I know who she is at her core, and that person would never let someone die if she had the power to save them. And you know it too, isn't that why you didn't use your Alpha command on her as you did that day at the cave." He nodded and tapped my back twice.

Sarah hugged me next, and she was crying again. "Don't you ever do something that stupid again," she said, but she was smiling through her tears.

"Can't promise that," I said. "But I can promise it'll always be for a good reason."

She laughed and shook her head at me like I was hopeless.

Even Derek gave me a quick hug, clapping me on the back like guys do when they're trying not to be too emotional. "That was either brilliant or insane, I haven't decided which yet."

"Can't it be both?" I asked, and he actually laughed.

I was glad it's over.