Page 29 of Fated Alpha Baby

One lunges instantly, and I barely dodge, my mouth burning from when I ripped the other’s arm off.

But what surges through that burning sensation in my mouth is my power—air power—almost restored to its full capacity and bursting instinctively from my body in a violent gust that sends the creature smashing sideways through a pine tree.

I freeze, realization washing over me in waves. I just used my air power after years of feeling it falter, feeling it leave until there was nothing left but my breath. The power hums beneath my skin—not whole, not steady, but alive.

Because of the mate bond.

Because of Hannah.

A savage thrill tears through my chest, prideful and natural. The demons feel it too, and their screeching intensifies.

Simon bursts from the wrecked front cabin in a massive silver-gray blur, blood coating his muzzle as he barrels into another demon hard enough to crater the dirt.

“Watch Hannah and the girl!” I command through the mind link.

Simon tears his teeth through a demon’s throat before answering.

“What the hell happened to your air magic?! It’s back?”

“Later!”

Simon backs up toward the van just as the third demon charges. I meet it head-on, spurred on by the resurgence of air magic. Volatile, unsteady, but still present enough to make this count.

The demon’s claws rake across my shoulder, ripping through fur and flesh as pain explodes through me, but I retaliate with a violent blast of unstable wind that sends gravel and broken branches spiraling into a miniature cyclone around us.

The power is raw, too sudden after years without it. But Goddess, it’s there, and that’s what matters right now.

The demon shrieks as the wind current slams it upward, and I use that moment to leap, my jaw closing around its neck midair.

Crunch!

Black blood rains down just as another scream erupts behind me. It’s human this time.

It’s Hannah.

I spin on my hind legs, seeing the first demon—the one I blasted into the tree—charging toward the van again, aiming for Clarissa. That’s when rage detonates inside me like a ticking time bomb on its last second in its countdown.

Nothing else matters when my vision tunnels on the girl, my protective instincts naturally kicking into full gear. I unleash another burst of air magic, stronger this time, but the power surges too violently through my body. Pain rips through my chest as the unstable current spirals out of control, uprooting dirt and branches in every direction.

The demon powers through the magic I just unleashed, able to move through it with ease. It’s too fast, too close, and my wolf wails from sheer panic and defeat.

But then fire explodes across the darkness, sending a current of light that brightens the entire road in ropes of gold. The demon shrieks as flames wrap around its body like living ropes, forcing it backward.

My breath catches, my heart hammering with the realization that the source of that magic was none other than Hannah.

She stands outside the overturned van with Clarissa behind her, one hand outstretched as fire spirals around her arm in brilliant waves of red, gold, and white.

But it’s the wind around her that steals the breath from my lungs.

Air currents thrash violently around her body, her hair whipping wildly, feeding the flames until they become an inferno. She isn’t using ordinary magic—not one isolated attack against the demons. She’s using air and fire, together, perfectly fused like a wildfire carried by a storm.

The demon lunges anyway, but Hannah lifts her other hand until both palms face outward. The air changes, the pressure dropping violently as wind erupts down the road in a screaming torrent powerful enough to force even me backward a step while flames twist within the current like dragons made of molten light.

The demon is swallowed whole. Its scream lasts only seconds before the fire tears through its body completely.

Ash scatters into the night in the aftermath, whispering to the gravel road like snow.

I stare at Hannah in stunned disbelief, understanding the full extent of my true mate’s power. She isn’t like the others—the lunas of the alphas in the valley. She wields Ashclaw fire and Iron Breath air as one.