I step away from Ryder, halting when a streak of dark fur flies forward.
Forty-One
RYDER
Not hearingthem approach until it was too late will haunt me for the rest of my life. My mate has been left defenceless, in the wide-open environment. It’s a nightmare come to life.
A nightmare that gets worse when she refuses to leave, but talks to them, like it’ll save her. Between my racing mind and vocal growls, I barely comprehend—nor care—what they’re saying. Something about a deal to ensure the pack and Highridge are left alone because she’sstillworried about everyone else, not comprehending the only person in danger is her.
Protect her.
Kill them.
Instincts demand snatching Carina and running, but common sense from my mortal side remains. If I run, they’ll follow, which could lead them straight to the pack.
Then Carina steps forward, and newly discovered reflexes take over. She’s going to them, but if there’s nothem, then she’ll have nowhere to go but to our home. My claws dig into the earth for momentum as I dart at the three witches.
“Ryder, no!”
No to protecting you? Impossible.
The second I’m a short distance from Carina, my body is flung into the air like a marionette. A whoosh of air brushes past me just before black tendrils wrap around my middle, tight enough to make me I whimper. A rippling sensation covers me head to toe as my body is shrunken, wolf features forced to revert to human.
Fuck.
“No! Let him go.”
The centre witch—the leader, I’ve come to presume, the one with the same voice who cursed Dad—tips her hood-shielded face up as her arms lower. Her spells remain intact, suspending me in the air.
“He’ll be fine, but before anyone else believes they can save you from your fate…” She faces Carina again. “Shame your mother doesn’t understand that I’m trying to saveeverywitch. One would think, after the Sinclair incident, she’d be more understanding.”
Carina sniffs. “You sent the Hartmans after them. Harlow lost her parents because ofyou.”
“Casualties of war. You’ll understand one day. Now, come.” Before Carina can take a step, the witch flicks her finger, dropping her to the ground like a ragdoll. Her head rolls to the side, asleep.
“No!” Hands claw at the black magick around me.
The witch slowly looks from Carina and back up to me again, the hood falling back enough that her dark purple eyes become visible. There’s no warmth in them—they are nothing like Carina’s. She hums after a moment, which leads into a throaty chuckle. “I suppose this makes sense.”
“You fucking bitch. I willslaughteryou. Bring her back to me.”
She whirls and gestures for the two others to follow. As the High Priestess disappears into thin air, one immediately follows while the third lingers, sending a spell towards Carina that hoists her sleeping form into the air before they walk away.
The pulse beside my heart—her pulse—weakens the farther away she gets. The tug in my stomach is stretching, elongating, pulling…
A male face peers through the dark up at me before he, too, blinks from existence, taking my mate with him. And once the clearing is empty of all magickal beings, the tendrils holding me up release. Gravity whips me twelve feet to the ground. My body shifts mid-air, so when I land, it’s on four paws, not two feet, and I take off into the forest.
I failed. I made Carina mine and then failed to keep her.
The chord between us is wire-thin, stretched by distance, and extremely faint. Directionless, too, which is a heartbreaking realization. Apparently, there’s a limit to the connection, and Twilight Grove found it.
Carina!I mentally scream to the moon above—to their deity.You failed her.
In the end, the Goddess didn’t fail Carina.Idid.
I didn’t keep her safe. I should have kept her safe.
The strange scent of the three intermingled with Carina’s sweet one burns my nose until dying off by the edge of the forest where they disappeared. I continue scouring, the wolf and man refusing to be told no, to accept she’s gone and unreachable.
