“For takingherlife.”
Anna felt alarm run down herspine. “What?”
“We are absorbing her soul, her essence. That’s why we are seeing hermemories.”
“Why can’t we let goofher?”
“I’m not sure. I just know that I killed her.” Jewel sobbed. “I took awayherlife.”
Chapter2
“I feel her distress, her shock and guilt, yet I do not know what has caused it. She is beyond my reach, beyond my ability to help and protect her. For centuries I have waited for her, and now that I’ve found her, I may very well lose her before I even meet her face to face.” ~Gustavo
Gustavo stood abruptlyas he felt the pain shoot through him. It was her. It was his Anna. What was happening to her that she was feeling such pain? He attempted to reach her through their mental bond, but he kept hitting a wall. A minute later, sadness, guilt, fear, and an array of more complicated emotions floodedhismind.
“Are you alright, G?” Adam asked. The fae had taken to calling him the annoying nickname, if it could be called a nickname, considering it was just aletter.
“Something’swrong.”
Heather, the blind healer, snorted. “Are you just now figuring that out? We’re stuck in a realm full of little winged beings, while an evil fae attempts to hunt us and turn us into wicked witches, and you are just now deciding something iswrong?”
“Heather,” Crina whispered. “Probably not a good idea to provoke the already-wound-tight Alphawerewolf.”
Gustavo glanced over his shoulder and saw Heather raising her hands up in front of her. “You’re right. I apparently have a death wish or, at the very least, amaimingwish.”
He would normally have found that amusing, considering no wolf in his right mind would ever hurt a female, let alone a healer. But there was no humor inside of him now. All he could think about was the fact that something was seriously wrong with his mate, and there was nothing he could do tohelpher.
He began to pace as he ran his fingers through his hair. His wolf was itching to run, to tear into something, but the only things around him were beings he was not permittedtokill.
“Anna.”He tried again, and this time he used as much as his Alpha power as he could, drawing on the power of hiswholepack.
“You have to leave mealone.”
Gustavo gasped as her voice, soft and anguished, filled his mind.Leave her alone?Had she losthermind?
“Criña, that is something I cannot do. The Great Luna has given you to me, just as she has given me to you. I can help you if you will let me. Mí amõr, por favor, what iswrong?”
He could feel her need to hide from him. Whatever she was doing, or wherever she was, Anna did not want himtoknow.
“There’s nothing you can do to help. There’s nothing anyonecando.”
Shock filled him as he felt a familiar bleakness come through their bond. It was dark, sinister, and very similar to the darkness that lived in him and the other males of his kind. How could a healer possibly have darkness like that inside of her? Healers were light and goodness. That is why they so perfectly complemented their dark mates. And why were there so many damn unansweredquestions?
“He looks like he’s about to have an aneurysm.” Stella’s voice grated on his nerves because it wasn’t the voice he wantedtohear.
“Are you alright? Can you tell me that much?”Gustavo asked her. He was still having to use a large amount of his power to get past whatever block she’d managed to put up between them. He wanted to crush it. He didn’t want any boundaries between their minds, especially since he couldn’t physically see andtouchher.
“I don’t know how to answer that,”she said, sounding veryhesitant.
“Are you physically un-harmed?”
“Iguess.”
“Are you mentallyunharmed?”
“Pretty sure the answer to that one isano.”
No? What the hell did that mean?Cago, she was going to be the death of him.“Can you explain whatyoumean?”
