Page 38 of Brave Spirit (Bound Spirit #6)
“I’m his alpha,” I reply, hoping I can convey that Felix’s reaction isn’t personal or forever. “His wolf knows I’m pack. It’s my responsibility to protect him and keep him safe.”
Holding Felix close, I turn my focus to Callie, sending whatever love I can through the bond and into the abyss she’s lost in.
The bastard is on his hands and knees, gasping for air as the smoke from the burning floor beneath him fills his lungs.
His skin is burnt and blistered from his clothes catching fire, and every weak attempt to use magic to attack is immediately turned on him to feed the flames.
Mi reina neatly trapped the man who thought he was immune to her attacks, burning everything around him and making sure the smoke couldn’t escape.
Callie looks at him with her head cocked to one side, her face filled with cold rage.
“You deserve to heal and burn over and over again like I did. You deserve to suffer everything I did—all the pain with none of the relief of death. Be grateful that the Lyncas arcane focus gives you the mercy of a single death so the pain may end so quickly.”
When the bastard finally hits the ground and gasps his last breath, the storm stops, and all the debris that was flying through the air drops to the ground.
Ravaged by her internal storm, Callie walks with bloody shoes over to the blackened, blistered body.
Carefully, she bends her knees, her skirts stained with ash, and rips the necklace from the corpse.
She stands, her gaze focused on something I can’t see.
Her expression shifts into an ugly sneer as angry tears drip down her face. “You will never know peace or freedom ever again! Hell is too good for you. You are a stain, a blight on this world, and I won’t let you ever come back!”
“No,” I mutter, realizing what she’s about to do and whom she’s talking to, but I’m in no position to stop her.
Her hand reaches out like she’s ripping someone’s heart from their chest. Unlike the last soul she wiped from existence, there’s no beam of magic that shoots out and makes a miles long path of destruction.
Instead, the magic is contained to a blinding flash of white light around her fist, and then she drops to her knees.
She weeps, the sound a heartbreaking cry of all the pain and anguish that still lives inside her.
Her fists slam against the floor, the wood creaking and splintering under her fury.
“Fuck you, you bastard! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! ” Callie collapses forward, the fist holding the necklace clutched against her chest. “Why couldn’t you have loved me? ”
Weighed down by a wolf that’s the size of a small pony, I’m unable to move, and Nolan beats me to her. He drops to his knees and wraps himself around her, holding her as best as he can in their awkward position.
“He can’t hurt anyone else,” she whispers, her voice hoarse from screaming. “It’s over, but it doesn’t feel over. Why am I not free?”
“It’s going to take time, my love.” Nolan brushes back some of the hair stuck to her face. “He’s gone, but the wounds will take time to heal.”
She shakes her head. “Gone, but not gone. He’s still a part of me.”
Nolan misinterprets what she means, telling her that even though he may have donated some DNA, there’s no part of him that lives within her.
Only I understand that she means it literally.
The price of destroying a soul is that all they were and could have been remains as a part of her, like a grizzly dark stain that will forever haunt her.
Feeling all of Callie’s anguish, I shift back to my human form and put Felix down so I can go to her as well.
As I get to my feet, though, I realize this is a mistake when Felix starts sniffing the air, reminding me that he’ll need to eat soon.
A new wolf needs a lot of meat after being turned.
As much as it would be satisfying for Felix to eat the bastard and then shit him out, I know Felix would not be okay knowing his first meal was a person.
I scoop him back up, earning a huff in reply, and then stand rooted to the ground with indecision. I need to get Felix out of here, but I can’t leave my mate when she’s in so much pain. The mere idea has my wolf whining and pushing to the surface.
Sensing me hovering, Nolan looks up from his position by Callie. The anger and fear in his eyes are replaced with a sense of knowing and compassion that comes from feeling exactly like I do. “He needs you right now. I’ve got her.”
He stands up, wincing with the pain marked by a long, bloody night, and then he scoops an exhausted Callie into his arms. Holding her close, he murmurs, “It’s going to be okay. We’re all safe. I’m going to take you home now.”
It’s clear that his words don’t fully register for her, too consumed by her pain, but she doesn’t resist. Her head rests against his shoulder, and her eyes begin to glaze over. Scared, I reach for her through the mate bond and find pain, weariness, and the abyss of darkness.
“Losing her!” I call out, rushing toward them, half forgetting that Felix shouldn’t be around non-wolves at the moment.
Nolan moves swiftly away and holds her tightly against his chest. “I’ve got her. I feel the same things you do. I promise I’ll take care of her.” He motions with his head toward Felix. “Get him somewhere safe.”
I feel split in two as I watch Nolan walk away with my mate, while holding Felix in my arms. He’s right. Only I can bring Felix to pack land. Only I can make sure he gets what he needs as a new wolf.
Felix whines again and starts getting restless as the scent of roasted human flesh taunts his hunger.
In the time it takes me to carry Felix over to what remains of the cabin’s threshold, Nolan is long gone, likely using his super speed to get to his car.
I walk barefoot over to Callie’s car, hoping that I won’t have to hotwire it.
I’m relieved when I peer through the window to find the key in the ignition.
While trying to hold Felix with one arm, too afraid he’ll run right for the dead bodies if I let him go, I try the door handle, and thankfully, it opens.
After clicking the button to unlock all the doors, I carefully place Felix in the back seat, giving him a comforting pat when he looks up at me with worried eyes. “It’s okay. I’m going to be right up front. I’m taking you home.”
He curls up and settles across the entire back seat, his big wolf head resting against the driver’s side headrest. The adrenaline seeps out of my body, and exhaustion begins to take over as I close the door and make my way to the driver’s side.
Felix growls when the seat is pushed back as far as it’ll go, offended that his pillow would dare to move, but then he returns to resting his head on it.
When I settle into the seat, I reach back to give Felix a scritch behind his ear. He nuzzles my neck with his wet, brown nose, and then he licks the side of my face. My eyes burn with building tears as I release a choked laugh. Even as a wolf, he’s trying to comfort me.
The seat belt is uncomfortable over my naked body when I click it into place, but I can’t ask Felix to run to pack land when he’s in this state.
Hoping the local police have better things to do than pull me over for indecent exposure, I start the car and make my careful, winding trek back down the muddy dirt road toward Twin Cedar Pass.
“It’s going to be okay,” I insist within the quiet darkness, unsure if I’m trying to comfort Felix or convince myself.