Ryan
I’ve been dreaming about tying Aviva to my bed, but I’m going to make it a reality for entirely different reasons. Now, I’ll be tying her to keep her there, forever. No more hunting. No more fighting. No more killing rogues barefoot in the woods.
No more putting herself in situations like this. I will do her dirty work. I will gladly do it.
I roll with Hardan in his… hellhound form? Whatever the fuck he is now. I wish, Goddess, I wish I could have faced him man to man instead of beast to beast. I would have loved to see the look on his face when I ripped out his heart for even thinking for a second he had some kind of claim to my mate, even before I found her.
We roll down a decline. I sink my talons into his belly, ripping hard, but I already know hellhounds aren’t that easy to kill.
We crash into an oak tree. Leaves shower over us as he tries to claw free of my grasp. He’s calling out, bellowing strange, high-pitched howls. The forest floor rumbles as I sink my claws into his neck in the promise of death.
‘He’s calling the rogues back!’ Aviva shouts through the mind-link like she’s out of breath. I can sense her coming nearer.
‘Get out of here, Aviva!’
‘He’s controlling the rogues!’
I look up, past the tree, and notice we’re only a few hundred yards from a cliff. An idea sparks to life in my mind, but now Aviva is racing toward me, her red hair dark and matted with black blood. ‘Ryan, kill him! We have to get out of here!’
I sink my claws deeper. Hardan bellows again, his calls echoing off trees and into the valley below us. The rumbling increases to the point Aviva yelps and crouches, bracing herself with her hands planted on the ground.
“Ryan?” she croaks, meeting my eyes. She looks over her shoulder at the tidal wave of shadows breaching the trees and heading in our direction.
‘Go,’ I beg her through the mind-link. She has seconds to move before it’s too late. ‘Please, Aviva, go.’
“I’m not going without you,” she says out loud, shaking her head as she rises on unsteady legs and walks toward me. Hardan snarls and lurches beneath me. I have him pinned against the tree, and just beyond is the drop off. If I can hold him here, the rogues will come rushing down the hill in his direction, his calls driven by whatever fear he had left in the human side of him, and they’ll take us, tree and all, over the cliff.
The battle will be over.
‘James will be Alpha,’ I say into her mind. ‘You will return to your family.’
“No,” she grinds out.
‘If you’re–if you’re pregnant,’ I begin, and it kills me, knowing I’d promised to be by her side, that we’d do this together, ‘My family will help you. You won’t be alone.’
Her eyes fill with angry tears. “I’m not going anywhere! You’ll have to get up and move me, Ryan. I’m not leaving without you. If you’re doing this–if you’re going over the cliff, I’m going too!”
‘Please!’
Hardan takes advantage of my sudden distraction and lack of awareness about anything but my mate and gets a claw between us. I cry out in pain and frustration but fight it, keeping my eyes locked on my mate. This stubborn, bull-headed, sharp tongued woman I love and didn’t have enough time with. Not nearly enough.
I won’t lose another mate. I can’t.
But Aviva was never going to give me the choice.
The rogues appear, toppling trees and leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. Aviva launches herself toward me at the same moment Harden wiggles loose. His claws stretch as I lift off him and shift to catch Aviva in my arms in my human form and curl around her.
The next moments are blurry. I roll with Aviva. I lock an arm around her as my free hand grasps for anything to grab as we careen toward the cliff edge. At the last moment, I catch a thick root coming from the willow tree hanging from the cliff. I curl my fingers around it as we fall and jerk to a stop, our bodies slamming against the rocky face of the cliff. I curl into Aviva, tucking her as close as possible while we hang, my head covering hers as bodies start to sail over us into the void of shadow and nothingness below.
Rogue after rogue falls from the cliff. Dozens. The last sounds are Hardan fighting for his footing before he topples over the edge, stuck between two of the beasts he was controlling, likely calling to Navvan to create a sick, twisted army he planned to unleash on the tribal lands.
The trunk of the willow tree snaps, falling over the side, its leaves brushing over the top of my head as it falls.
We hang in the silence. Aviva is completely still, her arms growing limp at my sides.
“RYAN?!” Jacob’s voice echoes down to us, followed by Andrew and the voices of many, dozens of warriors racing to the cliff edge.
I look up into the light of the moon as people appear several feet above our heads. I am exhausted. I couldn’t pull us up if I tried, and Aviva is…
“Aviva?” I rasp, clutching her as her hands hang at her sides. “Aviva–Aviva?!”
Her head falls back, her eyes open and unseeing. In the glare of the moon, I see the blood streaming down her neck and chest.
* * *
Aviva
I’m standing at the edge of the cliff watching the warriors. They stand in somber silence as Ryan bends over my… my body, his hands clasped on either side of my face. Andrew falls to his knees beside Ryan while Jacob remains standing, repeatedly running his fingers through his short hair.
“No, no, no, no,” Ryan rasps, choking on the words as he drags a hand over my torn neck and chest. “Aviva? Av-Aviva? Please–” He groans, choking out a sob that rips into my heart and shatters it.
I look down at my hands and it hits me…. I look back at Ryan, and my… my body. I’m not in my body right now. I’m standing outside of it, watching as my mate begs for me to take a breath.
“No,” I say, trying to take a step forward, but my progress back to my mate, myself, is blocked by two white wolves standing on either side of me, their fur dripping with silver mist.
I try to shove against them but they herd me back every time I take a step.
“Stop,” I command, grimacing as the scene playing out before me starts to fade, like I’m being pulled away. “Stop! No, no, no! I’m not ready to go, not without him! I’m supposed to go with him!” My voice is distorted and desperate as I fight against a preternatural pull yanking me further from my mate.
I tug on the bond between us. “Please! No! No, no!” My voice breaks as I watch Ryan scream as he bends over my body again, gathering me into his arms and rocking me back and forth.
Warriors lower their weapons as they kneel. Those in their wolf forms bow.
No. This isn’t happening. I’m not ready. We won. I should be there, beside them. I should be going home with my mate to our village. I should be seeing my sisters again.
“Let me go!” I scream at the white wolves as they push me back into the black, starless night. I look at Ryan in a desperate attempt to get his attention, screaming his name as he cradles my limp body. “I’m here!” I plead, sending the words through our weakening bond. “Please, I’m still here!”
I feel myself starting to… go. I’m out of time.
Screaming with every ounce of my soul I have left, I reach for my bow like it would still be on my back. It’s there. It’s still there, even when I’m being carried away by the Goddess’s angels. I pull it forward, loosing the single, bent arrow and pulling back with all of my earthy strength, and send it soaring.
The arrow is pure gold as it breaches the body Ryan’s holding. My own body. Light explodes through my vision, viciously bright and unending. The feeling of nothingness is replaced by pain, sharp and deep, and then I’m opening my eyes and looking up at Ryan.
He looks down at me in confusion.
I’m holding the golden arrow in my gnarled, bloody fingers. I can feel my fingers gripping the solid metal. I can feel my back against the dirt. I can feel the slight, smoky breeze in the air and see my mate's face as he looks down at me, shaking his head like he doesn’t believe it.
Bodies drop to their knees all around us, voices lifted in murmured prayers.
Ryan closes his hand over my cheek as he eyes drop to my neck, where Hardan’s last act had been to flay me open.
Blood fills my mouth. I can’t breathe. I sputter his name, choking as I fight the strange feeling starting to numb my body.
My wounds are knitting themselves back together–but slowly. My vision goes in and out, and Ryan’s voice fades as shadows pass over me. Someone presses heavy fabric to my neck. Commands are shouted. My head lolls as I’m lifted and carried away from the cliff, warm and whole in my mate’s arms. I refuse to give into the darkness swirling in my peripheral vision. I refuse to fall asleep, to risk seeing those white wolves again. Why did they change their minds? What exactly did I do?
“It’ll take hours to reach Silverhide and return with the tears,” Jacob says somewhere nearby as I’m laid down again. Ryan sits down beside me, arranging me so my head is in his lap. A blanket is laid over my mangled body, but I still can’t see much of anything. I can’t feel much, either. Another length of thick, folded fabric is pressed against my neck, but I’m so weak. I’m slowly dying, I realize. Those fucking angels gave me another chance just to revel in my suffering like it’s some kind of punishment for not going with them willingly.
“What happened?” Jacob rasps. “How is she surviving this? Where did the arrow come from?”
“She found her bow,” Andrew says softly. His words are a near whisper as I blink back the darkness trying to swallow me again.
“What are you talking about?” Jacob asks, exasperated.
My vision clears enough to see Ryan’s profile against a backdrop of fire. He’s resting his back against a patch of rubble. He looks so tired, so worn and empty as he holds Andrew’s gaze, and nods gravely, closing his eyes. “I need scouts sent to the Roguelands, immediately. I need to get in touch with my uncle. He likely knows something of this magnitude just happened, somehow. But I need to get her out of here.”
“We can try moving her to Endova,” Andrew whispers, but Ryan shakes his head.
“She can’t heal these wounds fast enough. We won’t make it to help in time.”
My eyes leave his face and fall to the remains of a building across from us, where the white wolves lurk, their eyes holding mine in challenge.
I refuse to die. I will suffer like this forever out of spite, unable to speak, unable to see my mate clearly, unable to take a full breath.
But that weakness creeps in again, making me shiver. Ryan holds me close but doesn’t look at me, which breaks my heart.
I was given a second chance, and I’m losing it. I watch the white wolves move closer, and closer, waiting for me to just give up.
The sun is rising again when Ryan moves, lifting me into his arms. I’m not sure how long he’s sat here with me, watching his mate slowly die. It must have been hours of me holding on and him tortured in silence.
My mouth fills with a metallic taste reminiscent of blood. Ryan’s talking to someone, but all I can hear is my own heartbeat as I watch the wolves no one else can see. They’re so close now. I could reach out and touch them if I wanted to.
“Maatua?” Ryatt’s voice says in a distorted whisper, questioning whatever Ryan just said that I must have missed.
“Take her. I’ll come as soon as I can.”
Ryan puts me in Ryatt’s arms, and I feel… safe. Safe enough to turn to the wolves as that horrible magic swirls around me, fracturing me into tiny little pieces.
I flip them off right as my vision goes black, and Ryatt spirits me away.