Page 78 of Brock’s Mate

The purple dragon lurched again, and Brock could feel himself losing his grip. As he lost contact with the dragon, he felt Desi shove all that pain back into the beast. The dragon gave an earth-shaking cry, and dropped like a stone, taking Desi with him. No!

Then Brock was falling, falling, watching the tops of the trees come up to impale him.

There was a huge tearing sound, like the sky ripping open, and a small black dragon shot out of an interdimensional rift just below him. Brock landed across DB’s back, the wind knocked out of him, and watched the purple dragon crash through the trees to the ground below.

They found Desi on the ground near the purple dragon. Bruised, battered, bleeding—Brock could feel the life seeping out of her.

He limped up to her, almost too weak himself to Change, but he made it back to human. He had to talk to her. She had to hear his voice.

“Hang on, babe,” he said. But he knew she was slipping away. He had to do something for her.

She opened her eyes. “You’re okay,” she whispered. “You’re here.”

“Of course. Always. I’ll never leave you.”

But she was leaving him, and he could tell she knew it. He reached into her mind, trying to hold her with him.

I love you, she said. I’m sorry it turned out like this. I wanted to stay with you…

You are not fucking dying!

But her internal landscape was ravaged and broken, her mind and body shattered. Her wolf was broken too, lying in the stone courtyard in her mind.

I’m sorry, she said again.

He had to do something. “DB,” he said. “Do you have your magic back?”

DB knelt beside, him, looking shaken. “Some of it,” he said. “But I can’t heal.”

“I can. But I need more juice.”

Brock lifted Desi’s arm, then Changed his jaws and bit into her arm, right over Jered’s bite. I claim you, he whispered into her mind. You are mine.

He felt her smile. Yes.

He knew the power of the bond could heal, but she might be too far gone, especially because he was weak, so many of his neural pathways damaged. Faint blue light flickered around them, and he felt a small surge of magic, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly.

Now! he said to DB.

The dragon put his hand on Brock’s shoulder, feeding his magic into the bond. The blue light glowed brighter, and inside Desi’s mind, he could see the pieces of inner space begin pulling back together.

That’s it, he said, not knowing if he was talking to himself or her.

But he was still weak, and there was so much damage. He was barely holding on to her, barely keeping ahead of it.

Then he felt a rush of wings, and an owl and a winged leopard landed beside him. Remy and Colt. Help me, he called to them desperately, unable even to speak. She’s dying.

Oh hell no.

Not on our watch, brother.

They threw the power of their crew bond into the healing. Then Jaeda and Kitty arrived as wolves, and Titan and Mari. The rest of the crew, brought through gateways by Kira and Flynn: Callie and Damien and Lila, Nick and Brittany, and Brandon to pull their bond together and make them whole.

And then he felt others in the circle—his parents, Tristan, Emon—the people who loved him, the people he’d saved. The Bad Blood Crew, who’d shown him so long ago what it meant to put your life on the line for someone, just because it was the right thing to do.

He was here because of them.

Their love and strength poured into him, helping him put the shattered pieces of Desi back together, helping him put his own pieces back together: mind, heart, body and spirit. Cementing them with love. Curing them with the heat of passion. Sealing them with magic. And decorating them with devotion, the forever kind, shining in darkness, more precious than gold.