He looks down at me, his voice cold and clipped with anger. “Stay here! I mean it, Hopeless. I’mdonesaving you.”
“I never asked for you to save me, Blackfire. Go chase a cat,” I snap back.
His growl is menacing, and I should be scared. I should flinch as he leans down and grabs my chin, putting our blood-soaked faces inches apart. I don’t know what he was going to say, but Reed shouts, this time in pain, and Blackfire lets me go and runs off. The fire around him seems to grow colder, not warm, and it surrounds him like it is alive.
Elizabeth. My head swims as I stand up, holding my hand to the back of my head, feeling a cut and lump there. I just need to find her, and then we can run. I spot the log, knowing she is behind it, and begin to run. I slip in someone’s blood, and more bones crunch under my feet, but I don’t stop.
I wince as the cat roars in pain, and I risk looking for a second to see what is going on. Blackfire is fighting it now, flames licking at the side of its face, but the fire does nothing, bouncing off the stone of its body, and Reed holds it with a leash of ice, which is snapping under the pressure. Orion has opened theground around it in a circle, vines wrapped around its legs, and the vines are trying to yank it into the hole with no luck. Orion turns, seeing me, and follows my path. He sees Elizabeth, and he smirks.
He lets go of the cat, his vines disappearing, and turns to Elizabeth. With one hand outstretched, vines tug the log into the air and throw it away. The snake-like vines wrap around Elizabeth, pulling her into the air. “You will die for him, sister.”
“No, she won’t,” I whisper under my breath. I don’t think twice about it as I run straight up to Orion, and with every bit of strength I have, I slam into his back. He stumbles straight into the hole he made.
Oh, my god. Did I kill him? I don’t have time to lean over the hole and look in as I race to Elizabeth, but she isn’t where I saw her. The vines have thrown her across the forest, and she is lying near the edge of the river. I turn, the ground shaking under my feet, and the cat’s tail swishes between us. I could run for it, but one smack of that and I’m going to go flying in the air and die.
I glance around, seeing a hedge running across the border of the magic barrier, and I know I can climb through it to the riverside. I don’t pause, knowing I’m running out of time. The moment the heirs deal with the cat, they will be mad about Orion and likely kill me. I climb into the hedge, pausing when I see I’m not the only one who has hidden in here. There is a man on the ground, and he’s unconscious and mumbling, and I recognize him. His hair is a whip of blond messy curls, he has a full blond beard that is very well groomed considering the situation, and he is pretty average-looking otherwise.
“You’re Reed’s selected,” I mutter, remembering he had hazel eyes. I see the barrier edge and sigh. “Why do you have to be so big?” If Tannith were awake, she’d have made a joke about that statement. I grab his legs and yank him with me, out of the other side of the hedge and right through the barrier. The secondhe is on the other side, the cut on his chest heals and his eyes widen as he wakes up with a cough. I run away from him, just in case he tries to kill me like everyone here has done, and back through the barrier. I slide into the hedge and push through it, hearing the cries and hisses of the giant cat until I burst out of the hedge on the other side.
A smarter version of me would have stayed in the hedge and had a nap. I don’t want to be a hero; heroes always end up dead. In painful ways. I’m also not good at being a villain; I’m not mean enough. The dumb version of me is currently in control and running right past the cat, which is now missing a leg. I’m not sure which one of them cut the leg off, but it’s on the ground, and Blackfire is on its back, fire as dark as the night smothering the creature.
Brambles and twigs are sticking to me, cutting into my clothes, but I don’t stop. The cat’s paw stomps on the ground, and I nearly fall over. The flames burn so cold that my teeth chatter, and one of the flames jumps from the cat, landing on my arm. It looks like it’s alive, a wisp of flame, and it dances on my arm. I look down, horrified, only to see it disappear underneath my sleeve.
What the fuck?I pat my arm, hoping to put the fire out, but nothing burns me. I can’t focus on it, not as I keep running to the river’s edge. The cat roars like it is finally dying, and I finally get to Elizabeth. She is shaking from head to toe, her eyes wide and full of fear. Okay, isn’t she meant to be a bloodthirsty alpha killer? If anyone should be scared right now, it’s me. I’m human and well out of my element here.
“We should go,” I say in greeting. “Far, far away from the cat from hell and your psychotic brother.”
She shakes her head. “I can-n’t. I’m scared-d.”
My heart drops to my stomach, and I touch her arm. “I’m scared too, but staying here is a bad idea. If you want to die, sure,that’s your choice, but come on, that thing eating us is going to hurt.”
“Us?” she whispers, her eyes searching mine.
I tap the mark on my wrist. “Hey, we got matching tattoos; that means we are friends for life.Us.”
“I didn’t mean to kill him. I lost control…but I amnotsorry. I’d do it again,” she whispers, and I nod. I don’t need to know what happened between her father and her to end up with him dead. Wolves are monsters in my opinion, and alphas are the worst. I’ve only met one, and I know I never want to meet another. I offer her my hand, and she reaches for it, only for the cat to fall and roll to the side, right next to us.
“MEREDITH!” Reed screams my name in warning, but it’s not me he needed to warn. The cat’s giant paw stretches out, hooking around Elizabeth’s stomach, and it pulls her straight down into the river. On instinct, on nothing more than that, I jump straight into the water after her and the cat. I slam into the freezing water alongside the cat, which climbs out of the other side just as I grab Elizabeth’s hand, and we both get sucked deep into the current, and the sky disappears.
The cold water freezes my body. My hand locked around hers is all I can feel until I slam into a rock, and I scream as I feel my ribs crack. The water smothers me. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I spin in the water, the rapids pulling me along, my hand barely clinging to Elizabeth as I struggle to hold my breath. Everything becomes hazy as I see those strings again, see them vibrating through the water, and the shadowy dark string is the closest. I can almost reach for it, almost tug on it, feeling my stomach burning.
I smack into the river’s edge, the water rushing into my lungs, and Elizabeth shifts before my eyes, a slender brown wolf appearing, and she tries to catch me with her paws, but it’s too late as we slam straight into debris at the bottom of theriver. Vines, trees, all catch across me and hold me there, and I cry out as they lock around my body. The more I struggle, the tighter they seem to get, and I can’t get out. My body shakes and convulses as I drown, as I realize this is my end.
I didn’t save either of us, and I’m going to die.Tannith. She’s in my bag, drowning too, and I have to save her. I reach for my bag to unzip it, and the water stills. The rapid water currents go completely still. Like the water itself has been told to stop. Like something demanded it. I know exactly who did. Maiden goddess above, the water bows to him.
Gleaming blue eyes glow under the water, locking with mine, as he appears like a god. Reed runs through the water, and it parts around him. His clothes are bone dry, even in the deep depths of the river, and the water shimmers like it’s his. His fury seems boundless and possessive as he rushes to me, time slowing between us, one hand stretching out.
Elizabeth’s wolf is pushed straight up and out of the river. But he doesn’t do that to me. Reed delicately picks me up, the vines and debris breaking under his strength. I don’t expect it; I don’t see it coming, but suddenly his lips slam onto mine. The world stops, at least for me, as he really kisses me. It’s not a sweet kiss; it’s nothing short of a claiming. Air fills my lungs; my body heals as his lips harshly explore mine, marking and taking as I cling to his shirt. “Reed,” I whisper his name as I fall back, drifting in and out of consciousness.
Reed’s lips find my forehead as darkness pulls me under. “You will never drown while I live. You. Are. Mine.”
Chapter Fifteen
I snuggle into the warmth smothering me, deciding if this is death, I’m happy. I’ve never felt so comforted and at peace. No nightmares of monster men, no nightmares of other things, and just peace. I snuggle closer, feeling something hard pressing against my stomach, and I wiggle closer. I press my face against the warmth and breathe in. I snuggle even closer, smelling the soft scents of the sea, of water, salty and—wait…my pillow smells masculine? First, I realize my warm pillow has a heartbeat, and it’s not a pillow at all. Second, an amused huff blows the hair on the top of my head.
“Mere, stop moving.” His groan sends heat coursing down my spine. “Are you okay?”
My eyes widen as I look up and realize I’m snuggled against Reed’s chest. His very naked, hard and muscular chest. In fact, all of him is naked. My legs are woven in his, my core pressedagainst his thick thigh, and something very, very hard and big by the feel of it is pressed against my stomach. My heartbeat kicks up a notch as I meet his amused eyes, and his lips tilt up in a smile. “You’ve been asleep for hours. The healing kiss should have worked quicker.”
