“How—how are we gonna get down?” Rissa shrieks when she notices how high we’re suspended. I grip her shoulders tightly, forcing her to look into my eyes, an idea immediately popping into my mind.
“Do you trust me, Rissa?”
Rissa whimpers and shivers in fear, but she nods fervently through her panic. “I do. I do,” she wails, pressing her eyelids shut. “Get us out of here, Brooks. Please.”
The intense need to protect my mate and get her to safety spurs me into action as I get to my feet, pulling her along with me and lifting her onto the seat we’d been sitting on. “Get onto my back, and hang onto me tightly. Close your eyes and keep them closed until we’re at the bottom.”
“What are you gonna do?” Rissa asks, but I shake my head and turn around just as the whooshing of the demon’s dark presence gusts through the air, fanning my hair back.
If we don’t get down now, it’s going to attack us on top of the Ferris wheel, and one of us will get hurt.
“Just trust me, Rissa!” I yell out. As soon as Rissa’s arms wind around my neck and her thighs are draped around my waist, I open the safety gate and step onto the edge, closing my eyes and letting my inner wolf take the reins. When it takes control, I leap out of the cabin, and Rissa and I plummet to the bottom. I shift into wolf form midair, landing on cushioned paws on the ground.
As soon as we’re safely on the ground, I shift into human form, simultaneously spinning over to catch Rissa in my arms. I notice her eyes fixed on the forest behind me, her face paling with horror.
“I’m gonna go after it,” I tell her. “Go back home, Rissa.”
“No!” she exclaims. “I’m not leaving you to face it alone! Aurora’s spells aren’t protecting you out there!”
“It’s dangerous!”
“Exactly! You can’t defeat it by yourself! You need me there. You need magic.”
Huffing because we’re losing time as the dark clouds float toward the forest, I know there’s no point in arguing with her. I nod quickly before flashing into wolf form again, and Rissa is on my back in no time before I chase the eerie black mist into the forest.
But as we rush through the forest, the dark smoke above our heads doesn’t stop moving, and Rissa tugs on my fur, prompting me to slow down,
“It’s a trap, Brooks! There’s more of them!” she yells out, pointing ahead to where two other demons stand as shadowy silhouettes.
The one circling the air comes down in a torrent of dark smoke, and Rissa suddenly hops off my back just as the three malevolent spirits charge toward us in their physical forms. Rissa springs into action, throwing flames of green magic bolts at them, creating a boundary line between us and the demons, and they whimper as if afraid of the magic currents ablaze in front of them. With the demons distracted, Rissa runs back to me, hopping on my back.
“Let’s go!” she yells out the command that I’m suddenly compelled to follow, her instruction sending me into a race back into Girdwood’s main area. I don’t stop running, chasing the adrenaline that pulses through my veins as if Rissa is the one who fuels me while her fingers are wound tightly in my fur.
I don’t stop until we’re safely on the other side of the village, on the south side where my house stands. Only when we’re near the porch do I shift into human form and grab Rissa’s hands.
A surge of electric awareness shoots through my arm from where I’m holding her hands, and her eyes light up as if she’s wielding her magic. My attention only goes to the sidefor a split second to make sure that we weren’t followed, but I know there’s no way the demon would have followed us into the residential area of the village when Aurora has cast enough spells to keep them out.
When I turn back to Rissa, her jaw drops, and her eyes turn even lighter as adrenaline sparks in them.
“I can feel it…” she whispers in awe. “You’re my fated mate…”
I chuckle through the awareness coursing through me now. “Finally! It’s about damn time you figured it out!”
“Shut up and kiss me, silly! My heat’s about to take over!”
Rissa doesn’t have to tell me twice. Sweeping her off her feet, I press her flush against me as my lips crush hers.
At last!
Sweet relief of getting to do what I’ve been dying to do…
Chapter 19 - Rissa
As my heat rises in me with hot, licking flames warning me of impending pain, the most natural thing to do is ask Brooks to kiss me.
No.
Iinstructedhim to kiss me, and for an alpha heeding an omega’s command, he’s sure doing a great job at distracting me from the pain of my sudden heat.
