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I muster enough of my dwindling energy to stop him short, but I can feel it failing even as I grasp at it and tug it into my palms. There’s no building of it, no ball or orb and I feel like I’m grasping at air and nothing materializes like it should. I feel like I’ve gone back to that time in the woods when I didn’t know how to pull it to me or control it, but this is all wrong. My powers are failing me, and I don’t understand how or why or……. What the hell the fates are doing to me.

It’s faster than I thought. The witch said they would weaken in time, not completely die the second I need them, so this can’t be the babies. I can’t have come out here to be a deadweight of useless and stand in the face of mate so he can strike me down. This isn’t the god damn plan.

I stumble backwards as both femmes tag him, sensing something is wrong with me. One each side, teeth to throat, both bravely surging in and latch on. Trying to help me by dragging him down between them and give me time and space to move away. I have no other option but to turn and run as I fail to muster anything at all, so I make a move, but weariness and dizziness start to kick my ass and panic floods my body with the knowledge that I’m completely powerless. It’s like being human. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I try to mind link them and even that seems impossible as I’m met with darkness, and I wonder if the fog has started to affect me too.

I need to recover my power first, before I turn back on him, because I’m literally useless and practically pointless in this state. I stumble, and trip, and roll into a ditch, my hand instantly damp with the way I fold into myself and end up in a bedraggled heap. It causes me to look down to see why I’m so wet and it dawns on me why my gift is failing.

The pain in my leg is nothing compared to reality of the injury I can see through torn fabric and torn skin. Judging by the amount of blood seeping through my clothes, staining the ground even where I just laned, I’m literally bleeding to death… fast. My skin is pale, my hands are trembling as icy coldness sweeps through and I panic as I look out, hoping Sierra is close enough to help me. My inner wolf is restless and scraping inside my head, trying to turn me and I have to fight myself to remain as I am. Her inner need to heal me, my survival instinct suddenly ferocious now I realize the depth of my injury, yet I hold it still. If I turn, they die, so I can’t sacrifice them, even if I’m this close to death. I calm my breathing, focus all I have left and put all my energy into one little mind link.

Sierra…I need to be healed. I’m dying.

I call to her, but the chaos of wolves rolling around and the addition of more to what I left, makes it hard to tell who is who, and Colton is seems to be surrounded by multiple grey wolves hauling him down. It’s no longer one against two like it was a second again, but many on top of their own Alpha, subduing him.

I blink as I realize the pack of wolves swarming him and coming to our aid, taking down their own to protect the Luna, are the land dwellers and our most peaceful. They heard Carmen’s cry to shield me and they did what a pack is meant to do. Protect the heart! I want to cry with the swelling it causes inside my chest.

I’m here, I’m here.

Sierra startles me from behind as she lands in the ditch beside me and instantly turns to naked human, pulling my leg to her and gasping at the crimson clothing that tells her all she needs to know. Her hands shake, her face pales, and she takes a moment to collect herself before instinct kicks in.

“Jesus Christ, Lorey. You would be dead in a few more minutes, maybe even seconds. This is why you should never have come. This is too dangerous, he’s too strong for you this way.” She yanks my thigh into her abdomen, her hand glowing blue as soon as she touches me and places her warm palm flat on my leg where his claws made multiple incisions. It’s only now I see he got my femoral artery with a nick, and it’s that wound that’s literally killing me. My powers were fading because I was losing all the blood I possess. Vampire and wolf alike, so neither was prevailing.

The gentle healing power works quickly, and I watch in fascination as skin closes up like reversing in time and my pain begins to dimmish. Sierra may have been losing her gifts these past months, but she heals me with speed as though she has re-found her abilities.

“I wasn’t careful enough… I lost focus…. I won’t make that mistake again.” I tremble the words out as my body heals fully, relieved as my internal low temperature starts to warm and the invading darkness of my vision begins to retreat. Sierra grimaces at me though, not looking as relieved as I am.

“The blood loss takes longer; we need to stay low while I recover all you lost. You are not going to be stronger until then.” Her words fade out fast as three wolves come trundling through the undergrowth, swiping us out of our hole accidently, and sending us both flying across the ground in shock as I try to regain equilibrium. We were run over and thrown apart by our own side, such is the chaos of what’s happening around us. Sierra turns and flies to me with a leap, transforming back to wolf, and shoves me over into another ditch with her nose before rounding on a suddenly invading brown Lychan as it leaps at us.

Pressed into a hollow that caught my body snugly, still weak, but slowly regaining my energy, all I can hear are howls, wails, and ripping of wolves on wolf. The stench of their blood in the air catches in my nostrils, and the cries of distance battles as we try to control our own kind without killing them. My heart shatters as the pain of my pack filters through, and the loss of many rips up through my stomach and into my soul. I can feel their life essence leave as it happens, and as mother to all, their passing breaks my heart.

I take a deep breath, organizing my thoughts and push down the emotion the best I can, because I know it will only hinder me. A tug in instinct pulls me mind left, sensing Colton through the dark and misery… somehow, I can feel him coming closer, and I know he’s looking for me. For some reason I’m the target he wants.

I don’t know if it’s because I stick out as a human and the alpha wants to be the one to take it down, or if somehow our bond is the reason, I’m the one he wants to kill most. A craving in love to be together, is like an urge in hatred to rip me apart. Maybe on some level, as the leader of his side, he senses that I am the leader of mine, and maybe it’s only instinct that pushes him to be the victor. To take down a Queen when he seems to know he’s King of the opposing side.

I peek out and see him sniffing the air where he stands, looking for my scent in the many, and I gasp and recoil back, holding my breath as my heart rate increases. Suddenly afraid, because I know like this, I am no match and until my strength recovers, then my gifts are all but gone. I frantically panic and push myself into the snug of this space, looking to find something as a weapon while concealing myself. My body trembling and reminding me that I was never worthy to lead this fight, I was too stupid to realize it when I had the chance to stay back.

He’s pushing debris and rocks aside, searching for me, ignoring the ongoing battle between Carmen, Sierra, our pack and his wolves, between him and I. Covering the space between us, yet his focus goes beyond them and through. He seems uninterested in the fight and as I zone out the world, the noise, and the chaos, I lock onto that imposing figure turning my way as he seems to find what he’s looking for.

He catches the scent of my blood; I see it in his changing expression, the sudden pause, his growing taller as he latches on, and my skin goosebumps all over. My body freezing, as my gut tells me I have nowhere to run and I know deep down he has found me. From where he’s standing, from a drop of my red fluid I must have left in my trail, he’s locked onto me now and knows exactly what to follow. He stops to inhale, like savoring the moment and a snarl of pure menace crosses his face, increasing the sheer terror on mine. He’s a predator who knows he’s onto a win, before looking up and spotting me easily and I swear as his eyes lock onto mine, he smiles, and licks his teeth in an almost excited gesture.

Shit….