His roar of frustration that I wounded him there, that I’m matched in every way, fuels his rage, and I pull backward with a slight limp because of my now bruised kneecap. It was so worth it, though, even if it might mean our twins don’t get more siblings in the future.
I grit my teeth, show my fierce, and, using a throw he taught me yet again, wedging my butt as I swiftly turn in his abdomen. Grabbing his upper arm, I throw him right over me in a forward flip. I toss him several feet with the exertion of using what I’m absorbing by touch, then jump to straighten to meet him face-on when he recovers his standing. I can feel my energy building again, although it seems my vampire gifts are the ones weakened by my blood loss now, while the wolf and her ability to absorb are still going strong. It makes no sense, but I’m glad a part of me is still in this fight, even if I am stealing my mate’s abilities. Colton would tell me to do this, and I know when we break this curse, he’ll be thankful that I could use his alpha power against him.
Carmen flashes into sight from the left. Seemingly she finally shook off the wolf she had been battling and goes straight for Colton’s face, side on, taking him down to the left with her, and they roll away from my sight under bushes and roughage. I move to help her, but I’m held still by a sudden gentle touch on my back.
Come… Meadow and Leyanne will be at the mountain by now. We’re barely holding on here. We need to get you out of the thick of it. Colton’s too strong, and you’re not going to maintain this energy.
Sierra’s voice floors me as she jumps in front of me and tries to trip me over onto her back the way Carmen did earlier, but I stand my ground. I know she means well, and she thinks I should retreat and stay safe now that I've proven myself. That’s not how this works.
“No. No other wolf can match Colton, and I won’t let someone die trying… he’s mine! I have to keep his focus on me. Carmen won’t be able to hold him.” He’s my mate, my responsibility, and he would annihilate any other in the pack without breaking a sweat.
Carmen yelps out in a ringing blast as if proving my point, her whimper echoing from nearby, and I turn in time to see her being tossed thirty feet in the air like a ragdoll with no weight to her. She comes down to earth with a bone-shattering thud, a slight tremble of the ground beneath my feet which leaves her panting and whimpering. Internally things crunch and grind as her body starts to insta-heal. Unlike before, when Colton’s attention always came back at me, this time, he turns and heads to her for a second blow before she’s had time to recover. My stomach lurches into my throat, knowing the killing intent across his face and her lack of seconds to get herself up.
I fly forward without hesitation. I run at full speed at his back and throw myself onto his back as he rears to deliver a smack to Carmen’s exposed underside while her body tries to repair broken bones. It would be a death blow in her vulnerable state, and she wouldn’t stand a chance.
I grab him around the head, pulling his jaw left, and dodge his claws as he grapples, reaching back to dislodge me to no avail. Sierra works with me and swipes under his legs with a fast maneuver that brings him down backward, almost on top of me. At the last second, I let go and leap away so his crushing weight misses me, or else I’d be squashed. I’m not fast enough to escape though, as he catches hold of my left ankle and yanks me back brutally. He digs his claws into bone and flesh on one of the smallest parts of my body, following with a crushing snap of searing splice that makes me cry out in wailing pain.
I turn impulsively, shocked into retaliation by the instant agony, and hit him full-on with a powerful ball of energy. I get him right in the face, smack, and it sends him rolling away, releasing my broken and slashed ankle as I crawl away as fast as I can for Sierra. Aiming for her healing help as she closes the gap between us once more.
This is not a plan…. this is not a plan. This is barely keeping our shit together.
Her panicked rambling comes at me in repeated mumbles as she quickly, hands-on, tries to heal me as she turns human again. Only too aware he’s getting up and already coming for us. Her anxiety rises with mine, and the sense of urgency becomes almost hysterical in its weight around us.
“No, it’s not….. I don’t know what else to do but keep his focus.” I compel her, hands up in bewilderment of ‘what else can we do?’ “We have to give the witch time.”
She heals me only seconds before I dodge out of the way, instinct kicking in. His claws miss both her and me as she turns and leaps back. I know this isn’t working. Colton is hard to defeat on any day of the week, and even with my gifts, I’ve never overpowered him when he wanted to fight back. He’s never actually properly intended to win anytime he trained me and always held back and tried not to hurt me. It’s becoming obvious that the advantage in that was what made me think I could always kick his ass.
Like this, with no holding back, I’m barely keeping up, and I squeal mid-run as my hair is caught from behind me with a brutal tug of ripping roots. I’m dragged backward while distracted by my own stupid thoughts. Panic searing through me that I so easily got myself captured but followed by relief when I realize it’s not Colton
Sorry, I didn’t know what else to grab.
Carmen growls through the link, releasing my chunk of hair from her mouth as she lets me loose. Right away, I see she saved me from the lunge of another wolf who had tried his luck going for me. One who has gone crashing right into Sierra’s angry thrust. She head-butts him low and then tosses him backward over her body with little effort and sends him rolling into the forest behind with a crash.
What the hell is taking so long with the witch? It feels like it’s been hours already.
Carmen snorts, pulling my mind away from her question by pushing me full force back as two wolves dive over us accidentally when clearing the log and don’t see us at all. I realize they are being pursued by enchanted wolves and heading into the mini battle that’s pulled Colton away from us while he deals with a group of protective land wolves. This is chaos, and the only way to tell who is who is by looking at their eyes. Only Colton is an obvious target as he stands huge and foreboding with being the only black male among us.
“Where is he?” I gasp with breathlessness, my eyes scanning our surroundings when I stray back to arm myself to take him on again, and I realize Colton isn’t here anymore. In the blink of an eye, he seems to have disappeared into thin air, and it kicks my manic panic button into fury.
I span the circle around us, a flurry of worry and anticipation spiking inside me. Dodging another fly attack from a brown wolf that Carmen flips on its side and tosses backward. My panic rises further, and I spin around, visually raking every space in front of us. I know I can’t let him out of my sight. I can’t lose the one person who may be able to chase the witch down.
I take in the trees, the bushes, the rocks, and all around us, frantically searching for a sign to locate him, then weaken instantly, blood draining from my face when I spot what I seek. Twenty feet to our left, almost concealed by a thick tree trunk. He’s holding up a smaller, grey wolf by the throat. His teeth close to their jugular in a threatening manner and about a second away from tearing it out. There’s no mistaking that’s his intent.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
My ears almost explode, and I swear my heart erupts in my rib cage as though it has already combusted as I crumble to the ground, grasping the unbearable pain in my skull as even my vision begins to vibrate. I forgot how painful Carmen’s scream could be, guessing earlier she had gone lightly, and by God, it’s so much worse when her emotions kick in.
I feel like my eardrums are bleeding as I force myself to clutch my head and struggle to look up to see Colton has dropped his prey long enough for it to crawl away. Every single wolf around us is cringing in pain at the awful noise from that girl. It’s effective, to say the least, but it’s not directional, and all of us are being wounded to save one.
If I thought I could deal with this pain for the long term, it would be a great weapon in keeping everyone here from killing each other, but as soon as it’s stretched into long seconds, my vision begins to blur and blacken, and the pain in my head threatens to knock me out. It’s that moment before glass shatters with high frequency, and even though I know she isn’t trying to hurt me, my nose starts to flood, and a trickle of blood runs over my top lip.
Thankfully she stops. Before my mind and heart give out, I’m left with a woozy sensation, and all my senses seem to be knocked sideways. I’m back to dizzy and disorientated. Feeling surreal, like I’m caught in a dream where this isn’t happening in reality. I impulsively lift my hands to the wet warmth rolling over my mouth, knowing it’s blood but startled to find it’s also coming from my ears as it makes its way down my neck. I shiver with the sudden dampening on the clothes inside my body shield, and aware Carmen has ruptured something.
Oh my god. I’m sorry.
Her voice comes at me, but I shake my head and push away the furry body that moves to help hold me up, suddenly attentive to my fragile movements.
“I’m fine. It’s okay.” I soothe, my voice sounding alien and detached from my own head, and fake a show of stability. Pushing myself to my feet and ignoring the sway of my limbs.
I’m too weak like this, too vulnerable, and I can’t keep screaming on Sierra to heal me every five minutes.
I stagger on my feet, trying to pull my brain back together and click on the fact I can’t see her. Carmen is between Colton and me, as he’s now heading this way and other wolves also roll into view. They seem to distract him long enough that Carmen pushes me bodily backward, so we fall into a gulley flanked by fallen logs, and I collapse in a hazy mess with the sudden vertigo of her fast shove.
Shit. I didn’t think … I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to hurt you. I forgot that humans can’t take it for long and that you can’t heal…. I’ll find Sierra. She was there a second ago…. Hide, stay low. Don’t move while I get her.
Carmen’s panicking, appraising my face and the continued blood flow down my chin and from my inner ears. The rising sickening nausea in my body has all my senses swirling, and I feel like I’ve had a blow to the head. I can’t see straight, the ground waving up and down, and little stars of glittering lights start coloring my vision. I’m in a bad way, just from a sound.
“No, it’s okay, I’m just dizzy… I’m good.” I lie to her, feeling worse than I want to admit, but I can still get up and fight if I take a moment. I don’t want her to blame herself for anything more in this life than she already does, and I don’t want to prove Meadow right in being the useless deadweight in this.