“Hurry up!” the other woman shouted to her. “We don’t have all day! I told you I have my own things to do! If you want to eat his magic, you better hurry up or I’m not showing you how to do this.”
“Hold your fucking horses, Sharon,” Pami rolled her eyes. “That bitch just won’t stop rushing me. I’ve been saving you for when I needed your magic. Broug’s was holding me just fine until your pet bear bit me, Vallis. That means its time to cut your life short.”
Sharon Claudis? Here? I knew she came this way but I never imagined Pami would want to work with her.
“Why do you need her then?” I spat out the words.
“Because for whatever reason you refuse to waste away,” Pami said and clicked her tongue at me. “I’m tired of waiting for you to die of natural causes.”
“FINN! I came with Colton’s brother! Go find him!” I hissed.
It was too late to keep quiet if I ever wanted to see my mate again. I didn’t say Mori’s name just in case Sharon put two and two together.
Finn disappeared leaving me alone with Pami. We weren’t far from the island now. I wasn’t sure how my body would react if I forced it to swim or run but I had to do something. I wasn’t as strong as I once was, but I had more to fight for than ever before. Plus, I’d been eating like a Nightshade Bear at every opportunity. That had to count for something, right?
My bear crouched low inside his inner sanctum, gathering up his strength and muscles. He forced his way out of me, making me contort and shift. Pami moved to crash into me and keep me on the boat. It was a small boat. More like shrunk down row boat than anything else. She crashed into me, finding fur and teeth and I rolled hard. We both crashed into the water. Ashore, on the island, Sharon Claudis laughed her fluffy ass off. I’d deal with her later. For now, it was time to end Pami’s reign.
She struck at my shoulders and neck with the heels of her palms. The strikes hurt but I was beyond pain now. I’d spent too long locked up in a coffin to be bothered by her hits and she was too nervous to go for her daggers or the potion vials at her side. Besides, the potions and powders were probably ruined by the water. I managed to climb on top of her flailing body. She bit my back leg but we both sank down. I held my breath, praying that I could outlast her in holding my breath. If I could get her blood oxygen low enough I might have a chance to win the fight. She bit me again, elf teeth tearing into my hind leg. I swiped at her, catching the side of her face. I prayed that Broug was mad enough to forgive me for the flesh I took from the woman he once loved. Her blood fled into the water and I thought it was pity the lake didn’t have sharks.
I kept my senses as keen as possible as I came up for air. I spotted a glimpse of Sharon, sitting in a lawn chair, watching us. It had to be her. She only had one hand and the air steamed around her chest like it was dry ice. As long as she stayed out of the way, I’d probably be okay. I could fight Pami until Mori got here to help. Maybe I’d win without her.
My mate was eating steak in an unusual sauce. My mouth watered as the flavors danced over his tongue. Soon. Soon. I told myself again and again. Pami bit me on the foot and I swiped again. This time her head flung back and for half a second I thought I succeeded in breaking her neck. If only I had been so lucky!
My muscles were tiring quickly. Too quickly. Whether or not Pami clung onto me like I was her safety raft, I had to get to shore before I drowned. So I swam, doing my best to keep her head under water. I needed her as weak as possible before we reached the shore. I needed her gasping for air and sputtering out water before she could find her air to speak and cast spells.
Sharon moved her chair back and I blinked. Why wasn’t she helping her friend? Then again, if you asked Lero, he’d probably say Sharon Claudis didn’t have friends.
“If you can’t conquer him, you can’t sacrifice him,” Sharon shouted as my paws touched dirt. I dug in my front claws and kicked at Pami with my hind legs, forcing her to stay in the water. The edges of the world were black, but I kept kicking, trying to scratch and gouge her even as the universe decided that it was my fate to die on the shores of Moonbottom Lake.
Somewhere close by a wolf snarled and I prayed that they didn’t sacrifice him too. Enough innocent people had died without them adding some poor wolf into the mix.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Mori
Fallen Star Territory
I watched from the bushes in wolf form as Vallis passed out and Pami climbed on shore. She swore at Sharon, calling her everything but a lady and a bear. Sharon merely crossed her legs and waited for Pami’s tantrum to pass. She turned to kick Vallis’s unconscious form. I glanced at Finn’s ghost, hoping he knew enough not to let Sharon cast a spell at me or eat me. Hoped he was corporeal enough to stop that from happening. My carrier was going to shit a house of bricks when he found out how helpful Finn had been.
I lunged out of the bushes and landed on Pami’s back. She sputtered twisting and grabbing her dagger at the same time. She charged me and Sharon’s roar cut through the island and the geese and ducks swimming on the lake’s surface fled for safer waters.
“NO!” Sharon roared again as I dodged the dagger and leapt over the elf who was nearly foaming at the mouth from all the lake water she must’ve swallowed and asphyxiated down. I got a bite in on her left thigh and she howled. Her dagger swung down and I didn’t move fast enough. I braced for the stab to my neck or shoulder, praying that if I died someone would still saveVallis, but it never came. Sharon bowled Pami over and they hit the ground hard.
“Not him! Stop it, you stupid, insipid elf! Killing indiscriminately will get you nowhere! Crossing me by killing part of my backup plan will get you nowhere! Stop it!”
The elf brought the dagger up and stabbed Sharon in the one hand she still had. The shebear stared at it for a long moment and laughed.
“You stupid little bitch!” She slapped Pami in the face and the woman’s head flopped from the impact. The dagger gouged the elf’s cheek and tore further into the meat of the shebear’s palm. It was enough to make my hand and neck ache just watching. It also got my furry ass out of freeze mode. I sprinted to Vallis. He was still breathing. His pulse was weak, but it was there. His breath sounded rattly. I shifted back and thumped him hard around his ribs and back until he started coughing up water in his unconscious state. I couldn’t let Lero’s mate die! I couldn’t live with myself if I came all this way and then he died on my watch.
The women wrestled but Pami wasn’t giving up even if Sharon was out of her weight class.
“Mori is mine until I say otherwise!” Sharon growled.
Yeah, we needed to get out of here. I rubbed circles on Vallis’s back, trying to rouse him. His paw kicked and his teeth snapped in between coughs but his eyes didn’t open.
“Come on, friend. Come on. We gotta get you back to Lero. Come on. You have a baby on the way. We’ve got to get you---”
I threw my body over Vallis to protect his unconscious form as the women’s fight to the death rolled over to us. Sharon snarled and roared and then she was on top of the smaller woman again. She now had the elf’s dagger in her one hand and brought it down through her chest.
