“Miracle,” I said softly, bowed over the woman with one hand still on the bleeding wound and the other across her neck, two fingers feeling her pulse flutter too rapidly. She was losing too much blood. “Hurry!”
“I’m just going to sit over here and put my feet up for a sec,” Sixten groaned, staggering to a rocking chair facing a smoldering fire. “Damn it, how does this lady not have a foot rest? What is this horrible place?”
Tanix knelt beside me. “Let her go, Alpha. I’ve got it.”
“Bro, that’s his true mate.” Dante wiped his forehead. “How’s he gonna let her go when she’s all fucked up like that. Just give her the stuff.”
Tanix’s head didn’t snap up to look at me as I’d expected. Instead, he nodded like he’d already known and pulled out a syringe. She was unconscious so she couldn’t simply swallow; injecting the elixir was the best way to administer it, and would yield the fastest results.
I forced myself to unlatch my grip and pull back my hands, giving him some space.
“I need a numbing agent or something,” Niven murmured, leaning hard against the wall. “Or that other elixir. She got me good. How the hell can she move like that without access to her animal?”
“She obviously has a shit load of power, fuckwad,” Dante replied. “She’s the Alpha’s true mate. Have you ever met an alpha as powerful as him? No. Even without access to her animal, she’s lethal.” Dante issued a prolonged grunt, forming a ball on the ground. “Fuck this hurts. Like... this really fucking hurts. I want a numbing agent too. Anaxe? This is the first time I’ve been cleaved. Cloven? I don’t even know the right term for it!”
“It sucks—that’s the term for it. I just stood there and watched as it happened, too.” Niven straightened up a little, his expression tight. “I saw her cut into you, then just stupidly watched her prance toward me with the edge dripping blood.”
“She threw that fucking thing perfectly, that’s my excuse,” Sixten said, her head resting on the back of the rocking chair. “Well... that and she’s seriously fucking beautiful. I was too busy being jealous?—“
“That’s enough,” I barked, issuing a pulse of power within that command. “You four should’ve been watching for any enemy we missed along the perimeter.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Sixten said dutifully, though we were pretty well secured at this point. We’d taken out the sentries with no problem, as well as most of the patrol. They hadn’t known when they were beaten, rising up against my pack only to be efficiently struck down. I’d roped the rest of their patrol into our pack bond, holding them for now. They’d be smuggled out of this kingdom and placed before the dragon king and queen for their part in the atrocities they’d committed. They’d have their day of judgment, and dragons were not so lenient as wolves.
“It felt like she stunned us,” Tanix said, leaning back and looking at the woman. “Confused us might be a better term. It was like a whirlwind, almost. I knew something was happening but couldn’t seem to react as I normally would have.” He shook his head. “If you weren’t sure she was your true mate, I’d wonder if she was even a shifter.”
“She’s a shifter,” I said, doing everything in my power not to lean forward and cup her head. It was still gushing blood, pooling on the ground underneath her head. That elixir would heal her, though. Anything enhanced with the blood of a phoenix, a mythical and incredibly rare type of shifter, could bring people back from the brink of death. All we had to do was wait.
“What are we going to do with her?” Tanix asked me, his expression neutral and his eyes full of pity.
He was asking if I’d go through with this, knowing if they killed her, it would kill a piece of me as well. I’d feel her loss even though I didn’t even know her. That’s what everyone said would happen, at any rate. Given the tight knot in my middle at seeing her bleeding now, it was probably accurate.
I steeled myself. “I’m going to fulfill my duty. I’ll deliver her to the dragon king and queen, as promised. She committed a crime against the people in my care. She will face judgment for her sins.”
The room was quiet as I watched her face, my fingers on her pulse, feeling it struggle to keep going. I wanted to hug her to me. To carry her in my arms and secure her in our—no,mytent, watching over her until she got better.
I clenched my jaw. That was a primal response. It wasn’t rational. I didn’t even know this woman, and given what she did for a living, I didn’t want to. I could not give in to nature’s siren song.
“Put her in Hadriel’s care.” I pulled my fingers away from her and forced myself to stand. “The rest of you, get the healing you need and meet us in the village.”
“Yes, alpha,” they all said dutifully if not exactly sharply.
I rolled out my shoulders as Tanix scooped her up carefully and carried her from the room. I pulled my gaze away, refusing the suddenly overwhelming urge to rip her from his grasp and carry her myself.
“Anything of note in this cottage?” I asked when he’d gone, closing my eyes against the woman’s lingering scent.
“Yeah. The axe wielder has been here before,” Sixten said. “Someone stoke that fire. It’s cold, isn’t it?”
“No, you’re just dying, thank the gods,” Dante said, still curled up in a ball. “I’m tired of listening to you snore.”
“Won’t you feel bad if I am actually dying,” Sixten muttered.
“No,” Dante replied.
“There’s only a few scents around this place, and hers is one of them.” Niven pulled his crimson arms away from his stomach. He looked down at the wound, stitching together fast. “From what we know of Granny, she keeps her private quarters in the city for essential personnel only. It means the axe wielder was important. If she was in the workhouse, as you said, she’s likely important in their operation. Does she also have a personal connection? That’s the question.”
“It’s a good thing our fearless leader punched Dante where it’d hurt the most and ensured her survival,” Sixten said. “Though punching him might’ve just been for funsies.”
“We’re going to see how you like getting punched for funsies just as soon as I can use this arm, how about that?” Dante bit back.
