“Are you okay?” I asked Astra, looking from her to Demi with a frown.
Demi had stopped convulsing, and I shook my head in disbelief when my gaze narrowed to her shredded and bleeding stomach—or whathadbeen her torn open and bleeding stomach. Now it was … healed. Five metal shell casings littered the floor underneath her ribcage as if they’d been magically pushed out.
What the hell kind of healer was this girl?
I looked up in absolute joy to thank her, then I noticed blood blooming in Astra’s abdomen. That’s when she started to fall.
Moving quickly, I rushed forward, leaping over Demi to catch Astra. She collapsed into my arms as the crowd broke into sobs. I gathered from the headdress and amazing healing abilities that she was important to these people, and now I was at a loss of what to do.
I knew she was their priestess, but I didn’t know culturally what that equated to. President? Pastor? Mother Teresa?
“Get a doctor!” I shouted, moving Astra to her back so that I could start plugging holes in her stomach just as I’d done for Demi. She had bullet holes in the same place that Demi had.
What the hell kind of sorcery is this?
Chills ran up my arms when I realized what Astra had done. She’dtakenDemi’s injury, not healed it. She took it into herself. A small, innocent seventeen-year-old girl.
“Fuck. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” I told the girl, reliving the nightmare I’d just went through with Demi, but now with a stranger that I somehow felt responsible for.
Astra reached up, grabbing the sides of my face, and smiled sweetly. “Take care of Demi. She’s special.” Her voice was weak, too weak.
Shit.No.
I looked over at Demi just in time to see her chest rise with a giant breath as she gulped in lungfuls of air.
Oh thank God! She was alive, and I’d killed her most cherished pack member.
She is going to kill me.
“What did you do!?”My voice croaked as I gasped for air and rolled onto my side to see Sawyer holding a bleeding Astra in his arms. I remembered getting pumped full of bullets and then losing consciousness on Pearl. Now Sawyer held Astra, who was bleeding from the stomach in the exact places that I had.
She’d healed me.
No!
Dizziness and panic slammed into me as I tried to remember what had happened when she’d healed Walsh. How had I helped her? I’d claimed her … but now she was already mine.
Mine.
My alpha power surged inside of me and I sat up, reaching out to take her from Sawyer, who looked crestfallen at the seemingly dead teenager in his lap.
There was so much blood…
Sawyer released her and I pulled her to my chest, tears brimming in my eyes. There weren’t many people that I truly cared about like I cared for this girl. Her faith in me, her belief that I would return from the Wild Lands and save the Paladin people, kept me alive in my darkest moments in the woods.
‘Astra … take from me what you need. You’re mine. You have to stay with me. I need you.’I spoke into her mind, latching on to her soul with my alpha power. I felt my power, like small tendrils, hooking into Astra’s energy and pulling her back from wherever she was drifting off to.
‘Careful, Alpha. You could kill the both of you.’Rab’s warning washed ice-cold fear down my veins and I froze.
Willow knelt beside me, fanning sage smoke at the both of us. “You can’t take too much of the injury from her. She’ll need to be the one to heal that wound. Just take enough to keep her alive. Otherwise, you’ll take it all back into yourself and you’ll both perish.” Willow’s voice shook. I nodded, and the realization that I was about to do some very serious and advanced magic with zero training came over me.
“Demi…” Sawyer’s voice pulled my attention and I snapped my head up to look at him.
‘Don’t you dare tell me not to save this sweet girl,’I growled through our bond, and he balked, looking guilty, before nodding and lowering his head in submission.
Taking in a deep breath, I let my intuition guide me. My power was so enmeshed with Astra’s soul, it was hard to tell where she began and I ended. My stomach cramped as I pushed energy into her and she sucked it from me like a vacuum. I could feel the magic leaving me in gushes and I gasped as more pain sliced into my stomach.
“That’s enough!” Sawyer yelled, stepping forward, but Rab was quick and positioned himself between Sawyer and I.
