“Come on! It’s too dangerous!” I insist urgently, and Delilah finally places her hand in mine. Mustering all my strength, I pull her forward and slide her over the desk. She’s barely on her feet when I slink my arm over her shoulders and brave the torrent of fire consuming the room with careful dodges until we’re in the corridor, joining the furious stampede to exit the building.
Once we’re safely outside, Delilah turns to me in a fit of coughs, thanking me with a sincerity I never thought she might have.
“Thank you so much, Luna Aurora,” she says as she touches my arm. Just then, Rissa comes out with a sooty face, lugging an elderly she-wolf along.
“Belinda is the last of the patients,” Rissa informs me. “Everyone is out.” She nods to the dispersed gathering of both patients and clinic staff.
“Get them to clear the area,” I instruct Rissa. “The building’s gonna collapse.”
Rissa nods receptively before turning to the crowd and belting out instructions for everyone to clear the area of the clinic. As soon as they rush out of the clinic garden, I’m about to follow the crowd from the back when I hear a child’s cries that grip my heart and pull at my maternal instincts.
“Rissa! Go on! There’s a child still stuck inside!” I yell out.
Rissa snaps around, her eyes wide with the deepest worry. “No, Aurora! I’ll go back!”
“No! You make sure everyone else is safe! I got this!” I spin back toward the clinic building, shocked at how thick the flames are that engulf it. But they’re not enough to stop me from rushing in when I know there’s a child inside.
I must save the child.
Chapter 21 - Elias
As I rush toward the burning building, the terrifyingly thick clouds of gray smoke whirl into the navy blue sky and spread over Girdwood like the smell of oaky death and terror.
The members of the Snehvolk Pack run past me, all escaping the fire that consumes the building. One of them stops before me, throwing a hand up in the air in front of my face as she keels over in a flurry of coughs and splutters.
“Alpha Elias!” she wails when she’s able to look up and speak through a series of pants. I recognize her as the healer who’s been tasked with checking on my mate’s well-being throughout her pregnancy. “Aurora! She—”
Immediately set into panic, I step forward and grab the healer by the shoulder, glaring into her eyes with a ferocity that sends a growl rumbling through my chest.
“What happened to Aurora?!”
“She went back inside!” Rissa yelps. “There’s a child stuck in the building. She’s gone—”
Before Rissa can complete her sentence, I’m sprung into action, my feet ignited by the urgency of needing to get my mate to safety. Without thinking, my inner wolf spurs out from its confines, sending me charging forward on my wolf paws to take me as quickly as I can to the burning building.
From every corner of the forest behind the clinic, my guards emerge, wielding hoses and buckets of water to put out the fire. But the ruthless flames have consumed most of the building, and it’s too dangerous for anyone to go inside.
Dillon is in wolf form as he runs toward me, but I send him a mind link to warn him against going inside.
“What are you doing, Alpha?!”he asks when I continue my sprint toward the building.
“I’m saving my mate! She’s gone in to save a child!”
“We’ve already done a headcount, Alpha. Everyone is out and safe.”
My ears drum with panic when I slow down and glance over my furry shoulder to get Dillon’s confirmation with a piercing nod of his wolf head. If everyone had been evacuated from the building, then why did Aurora go back, thinking there was a child stuck inside?
Sensing the danger and suspecting that something is terribly wrong, I leap forward, springing off my hind legs and crashing against the burning front doors of the clinic building. A gust of fire comes smacking toward my face, but I duck my wolf head just in time to dodge the deadly fire.
The flames are out of control, surrounding every inch of the inside cavity of the clinic, with Aurora nowhere to be seen. Though I’m safer in wolf form and able to withstand the gruesome heat, I shift into human form.
“Aurora! Aurora, where are you?!” I yell out, shielding my face with a bent arm and dodging licks of flames as I head further into the building in search of my mate. My heart is pounding, and my eardrums are filled with a deafening ringing that warns me that something is very wrong.
Why did she come back in here?
Was she lured in by the bullies who are against her being the luna of this pack?
My blood boils, the heat of the fire sending it to tumultuous heights as I mentally vow to kill whoever is behindthis foul play. Racing through the corridor, I pick up the sound of movement from the bottom and rush forward.
