This was it.
I steeled myself, ready to watch Butcher rip Sawyer’s throat out, but … it never came. The moment Butcher landed on Sawyer, he kicked up with all four paws and bucked him off, sending him flying through the air. Then Sawyer clambered to his feet with surprising agility and strength and stalked across the space like a cheetah.
“Paris!” Eugene yelled, and one of the Ithaki nearest Eugene kicked the back of his knee out, sending him crashing to the ground, the word dying in this throat. It had now become very clear to everyone here that Eugene and Sawyer were a team. Sawyer had clearly trained for these types of fights and Eugene was directing the show.
Butcher had landed hard when Sawyer kicked him off, and he was still struggling to get up. He probably had some broken ribs too. Sawyer tore across the space so fast, even with a slight limp he was on Butcher in seconds. That electric charge filtered through the air again and that ultrasonic painful sound ripped through the space, but it was lesser this time, frantic and uncoordinated. Sawyer’s wolf flinched, but dove for the kill anyway. The entire crowd that had assembled held their collective breath as Sawyer wrapped his teeth around Butcher’s jugular and clamped down with a sickening crunch. He jerked his head to the side and came away with a chunk of flesh. Butcher’s body jerked, spraying purple blood in a high arc, and then he went still.
Holy shifter.
The knife at my throat tightened, began to cut into my skin, and then a gunshot cut through the space and the knife fell away as the vampire-fey dropped to the ground behind me. Eugene stood five paces away, sleek black gun raised.
My legs were suddenly too weak to hold me. The fall down the mountain and the fall out of the tree had injured me so badly I wasn’t sure how I’d stayed standing this entire time.
“We’ve met the requirements of your demands and wewillbe taking the girl,” Eugene called out to the people, who looked shocked at their dead leader on the ground. “We will leave the money for any inconvenience we’ve caused you.”
A helicopter whirred overhead and people started to back up, holding their spears to the sky as if they’d never seen a helicopter before.
Maybe they hadn’t.
Eugene reached me, cutting my hand and leg bindings, and everything spun as the last drop of adrenaline left me.
I was saved. I wasn’t going to be skinned alive. Sawyer won his fight.
I started to fall forward when a blur of dark hair flashed before me and Sawyer caught me right before I hit the ground. His strong arms scooped under my knees and behind my back, hauling me against his chest. Warm, tight, safe arms cradled me so hard it actually hurt. My cuts and bruises weren’t healing like a shifter’s should, and I winced as Sawyer loosened his hold.
“Oh God, Demi. I’m so fucking sorry,” he murmured against me, the warmth of his breath feathering over my face as my chest tightened.
Eugene approached him. “Sawyer, you’re badly hurt. I can carry her.”
His response was a guttural growl and Eugene dropped his head in response, giving Sawyer the top of his head in a submissive gesture.
Sawyer walked me to the helicopter and called out over his shoulder, screaming over the whirring blades. “Get me a witch to get these fucking cuffs off of her!”
When he looked down at me, his blue eyes held so much anguish, so much regret, it broke my heart. “Can you ever forgive me?” His voice cracked and he looked genuinely panicked that I would say no.
I’d never met a guy like Sawyer, one who was so intense and protective, and one that asked forgiveness for his mistakes. I had to be honest with myself here, this was an all or nothing moment in our budding relationship. I either said yes and we moved forward in the direction of where we were going, or I said no and probably cause irreversible harm to any future we might have had.
Honestly? I’d never had a man fight for me like Sawyer did. From day one he’d been in my corner. And people made mistakes.
“Yes.”
I forgave him. I forgave him for thinking that hiding what I was would protect me. It obviously wouldn’t. We were going to have to come up with a plan B, together. With a deep sigh, he rested his forehead against mine and everything inside of me opened to him. I realized I’d been keeping a wall up, something to protect me in case he chose another girl, but now I was all in. I wanted to win his heart and in order to do that, I needed to lower all of my defenses.
“I’m going to make this up to you,” he whispered as we climbed into the chopper. Everything hurt, my skin, my bones, my muscles, everything.
“Thanks for coming to save me,” I told him.
He shook his head and swallowed hard. “It’s the least I could do afteryousaved me.”
I frowned. A medic started to look at a gash on my elbow and his words pinged around in my head.
How did I save him? Maybe this had to do with the brokenness I saw inside of him the day we met, the heaviness in his deep blue eyes that sometimes came to the surface to signal that he was dealing with too much.
“You’re going to need surgery,” the medic said to Sawyer. “A skin graft, and then your healing should take over from there.”
He shook his head. “No. I’ll be fine.”
The medic, a blond female about thirty, frowned. “It will scar, it will take days to heal.”
