Page 265 of Alpha Mates

“What happened?” Beckett demands, scanning Julian’s unconscious face. “Is he okay?”

“He will be,” I promise, meeting his gaze. “He’s resting. She got Alex to come out, but it took a toll.”

“So, she really helped you?” Isabel asks, her disbelief as clear as mine.

“She’s a little crazy, but yeah,” I admit, still kind of surprised myself. We went to a witch for help, and she actually came through. “She wasn’t so bad.”

“Yeah, the witch with the flaming scythesisn’t so bad,” Emitt deadpans, forcing a laugh out of me.

“Let’s head back,” I say, nodding towards the path. “We’ve been out here long enough. I want him to wake up at home.”

In full agreement, the others fall back into their former positions. Isabel takes the lead, and Emitt hangs back, letting Beckett fall in step with me.We’re just as careful going as we were coming. Maybe that’s why, in the silence, something else clicks.

“I’m just filling the tank.”

“I’m not drawing from your pack or anything. You’d feel it if I were, right?”

Yeah. We’d feel it. But that doesn’t change the fact that Katerina is syphoning magic fromsomewhere. But if it’s not us, then who the hell is she drawing her power from?

There aren’t any packs out here. No other covens. No other supernatural or human groupings either. Just rogues—and they’ve been multiplying like rats. Every time we take one group down, two more crawl out of the dirt.

There are more of them now than I’ve ever seen. And we’re not the only ones noticing.

I glance back at where Katerina’s tear used to be. Nothing. Just trees, wind, and the hum of somethingoff.

Swiping a hand over my forehead, I clear the sweat there before scanning the room.

The place looks almost as good as it had been when we first moved in—a huge step up from the wreck I walked into with Julian half-dead on my shoulder.

Our fractured bedroom door was as much of a shock as the state of our bed. It had been covered with all of my clothes, scattered in a circle like he’d tried to build himself a den.

I couldn’t put Julian back in that, not when it was too easy to imagine what he’d looked like sleeping there without me. Cleaning it all up was the only option, but it’d taken longer than I’d expected. Not that Julian stirred once.

He’s still out cold when I sit beside him with a glass of cold water.

My heart sinks, and not for the first time today. Maybe we were idiots for trusting a witch.

We had no other choice. We listened to our instincts, but if Katerina was as powerful as she seemed, what’s there to say that she hadn’t manipulated us somehow?

I pray she didn’t. And if she did, Goddess help us for being stupid enough to believe her.

Climbing onto the bed, I feather my fingers down the side of his face.

“Hey, Jewels,” I whisper. “Time to get up.”

His eyelids twitch, breath hitching just enough to make my heart leap.

“Come on, baby,” I whisper as I shift closer. I stare at him for a second before it comes to me. My lips twitch. “Salmon.”

One crystal-blue eye pops open, then the other. Julian looks around for a confused moment before he shuts his eyes again and groans. I snort.

“Hey, you’re okay. I’m here,” I whisper, relief slamming through me, making it so much harder to breathe. I brush his hair out of his face. “How are you feeling?”

“Alright,” he mumbles, rubbing his sleepy eyes. “Ifalrightmeant I got hit by a bus.”

Laughing, I watch as he finally opens his eyes again, this time looking right at me. The world stops spinning, finally ending the wild rampage it’s been on since I realised that something was wrong with my mate.

As Julian stares at me now, he’s my Jewels—too quick, too smart, and too fucking beautiful.