“She won’t.” He lowered himself to all fours. “Stay here with Mara, Cade, and the baby. If she doesn’t see you, maybe she’ll forget about you.”
Hardly.
Celia knew exactly where she was. Sameen could feel it. As Peter’s bones cracked and his skin darkened in to a thick pelt, the sigil on her side started to burn. “Caitlin. Please,” Sameen whispered. “I need your help.”
Peter slunk off, keeping to the edges of the room as Caitlin clutched Sameen’s hand. “Anythin’, luv. Ya’ risked everythin’ for us.”
Pulling up her tank top, Sameen struggled against Celia’s call. The witch wanted her to take the baby. To snatch it away from Mara and bring it to the center of the ritual space where Eli and Paddy were currently locked together.
And if she couldn’t get Sameen to do it, Mara would be the next one she called to. “Cut it. Scar it. Dosomething. Anything. For me…and Mara.”
Cade growled and got between Mara and the other two women. Despite not speaking wolf, Sameen knew exactly what those vocalizations meant.No one touches my mate. I’ll kill them first.
“She’s right,” Mara said. The water elemental slumped against the wall, her child calm for the first time since Celia had set her on the altar. But Mara looked like she was about to pass out. “She…wants the baby. I don’t…I’m not strong enough to fight her. Not after…she drugged me. Rachel too.”
This time, Cade’s snarl took on a deadly warning. Torn between protecting his family and ripping Celia’s head off, he nudged Caitlin’s shoulder and yipped.
The air elemental reached for the athame Peter had pulled out of Paddy and brushed it off on her pants. “This is going to hurt,” Caitlin said.
“I just had a baby. Without an epidural,” Mara muttered. “After being branded, drugged, and chained to an altar. I can handle this.”
Sameen grit her teeth and closed her eyes. At least Caitlin was quick. Two cuts. Deep ones. They stung, then started to burn, and when her blood flowed, seeping into the waistband of her pants, she jammed her fist against her mouth to stifle her scream.
Across from her, Mara handled the pain much better, though Cade pressed his entire body against his mate and let her snake an arm around his neck. The wolf nuzzled the baby’s head as Caitlin cut across the half circle that represented the Thirteen’s magic.
As soon as the connection had been severed, Sameen felt like a giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She had a chance now. A real chance. If they escaped this room…she could be free.
Celia rose to her knees, a green ball of magic growing ever larger between her hands.
No.Sameen knew that spell. It would kill Peter in an instant. Scrambling to her feet, she ignored the pain and pushed herself as hard as she could, leaping at the last minute and tackling Peter’s wolf.
The spell hit her in the shoulder, and her entire right side went numb, but she’d protected the man she loved, and that was all she cared about.
Cade growled, long and low and feral, and bounded for Celia. His massive paws hit Celia’s neck, and the snap of her spinal column reached Sameen’s ears just as Peter nuzzled her cheek and whined.
“I’m sorry, Peter. Your family…needed you. I’m free now.”
The wolf pawed at the ground, then leaned in and bit Sameen’s shoulder. The sound he made…it was almostplease.
“I want to live, Peter. I want a life. With you. But…it’s all right. Because I’ll die free.” She stopped fighting, truly relaxing for the first time since before she’d been taken. Peter’s howl was the last sound she heard, and she smiled. “Love…you.”
* * *
Peter
Hell, no. He was not going to lose his mate now. Calling for Regulus, hoping the vampire could understand him, he lay down next to Sameen and rested his muzzle over her heart. When Regulus took a knee next to him, he frowned. “I am beginning to think the only reason you want me around is to resurrect your dying.”
Peter growled, and Regulus patted his shoulder with his mangled hand.
“Watch, wolf. And never forget the miracle that is your mate.”
That’s when Peter realized the conflagration that had only moments ago been ready to consume the entire space, had faded into nothing.
Eli lay on his side with Farren, naked as the day she was born wrapped around him, tears in her eyes and a harsh expression on her face. “If you ever do that again,mo grá,I will find a way to lock you in our bedroom for at least a month.”
“I’d like to see you try.” His voice didn’t hold its usual strength, but he was very much alive. So was Paddy. The old man slung an arm around Tierney’s sleek lupine body and let the wolf steady him. Only Ewan, now back in human form, looked at all unsettled.
“Sire…the hunger…”
