Page 26 of Denying Her Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #3)

Chapter 26

Sawyer

T he emotions coming through the bond tear at my gut. I can feel Roux’s uncertainty, her fear, and I can’t reach her. I am locked in a battle for my very survival. There are wolves nipping at my flanks, trying to rip at my throat. Blood mats my fur, and there are deep wounds in my hindquarters.

I can hear my brother and the other wolves fighting around me, but I don’t dare look. I have to focus or I will die, but the only thing in my mind is where the hell is my mate ?

I don’t see her anywhere, and that terrifies me. The only thing that keeps me from going feral is that I can still sense her awareness, so I know she is breathing.

A large marl-colored wolf slams into my side, nearly knocking me off my feet. In the moment it takes me to right myself, teeth sink into my flesh. My wolf raises his muzzle and howls with agony. Every inch of me hurts, and I want desperately to lie down and let the fight be over.

Not while Roux is out there.

If it is the last thing I ever do, I will protect my mate. Even if I don’t get to live, she will.

A flash of teeth snaps toward my neck, and I twist, my movements sluggish to ward off the attack. I don’t have the strength to fight any longer, but I have to.

A gray and white wolf jumps between me and my attacker, blood spraying over both of us. My back legs want to give out but, somehow, I keep traction as my cousin defends me.

The wolf goes down, whimpering as blood gurgles in the back of its throat. Wyatt swings his head toward me, his red eyes pinning me, and I feel his awareness brush through the pack bond.

I send back gratitude, before he lopes off to fight someone new.

The scent of blood is thick in the air, choking the back of my throat. I can taste it on my tongue, can feel it on my fur. My white coat is thick with blood, some of it mine, some of it my enemies. The burning smell of magic also clogs my nose, and I know the girls are working hard to defend us, but it feels as if the tide has shifted in a direction that is working against us.

If they kill us, they will take the girls. Roux will be subjected to the same hell Dove has been through. I can’t allow that to happen.

I try to pinpoint the direction of my mate, and I sense her toward the cabins. I start to limp in that direction, ready to lose my life to protect her.

I barely take a handful of steps before I feel an enormous surge of power. I swing my head over my shoulder and see Dove is standing, her hands raised to the sky, her milky eyes too. As she screams, a wave of magic explodes from her body. It is like a blast from a bomb, and it nearly knocks me off my paws as it hits me.

The tau males go down like pins on a bowling lane. She screams again, and among the burning smell, I scent something else. Rotten eggs. Sulfur. I’ve never smelled that after any magic, but wave after wave of it fills my nose as Dove continues to attack the men trying to take us.

I use the distraction to go after my mate. I can sense her general direction, but my wolf uses his nose to pick up her scent. I don’t need my senses. As I round the back of the house, I see her. She is hidden beneath the form of a large man. Her hands fumble through the snow, as if trying to get her fingers to something. Blood stains the blanket of white around them, footprints and drag marks ruining the surrounding, untouched snow.

There is no thought in my head for my own safety, of my own pain. My wolf moves, closing the space between me and the danger facing my mate in just a few steps.

I sink my teeth into the nearest part of her attacker I can find. His arm is thin, my teeth hit bone as tear through his flesh. I have so many different kinds of blood on my tongue that I barely register the coppery tang of his as it floods my mouth.

Her attacker throws his head back, yelling his frustration and anger, as I pull a chunk of flesh free. An invisible fist slams into my gut, throwing me back at least ten feet. I can’t stop the whimper that escapes my mouth as pain reverberates through my wolf form. There is no part of me that is not in agony.

“Stop!” Roux screams the word, the sound broken and gut-wrenching.

My wolf scrambles upright, ready to fight again despite our injuries. There is no scenario that ends with me dying before I make sure my mate is safe.

I snap my teeth, my hackles rising as I drop my head low into a fighting stance.

The man climbs off my mate, clutching his bleeding arm to his chest. He has other injuries, ones I hope Roux gave him. There is a swell of pride in that thought. My mate is capable and fierce. I should never doubt that.

Naked, covered in blood, welts, swelling, and the start of bruises, I can see she fought with everything she had to stay alive for us.

Peace washes over me. Whatever happens here, I’ll make sure she lives, even if I die.

You are not dying.

Roux’s voice sounds in my mind, and it only adds to the tranquil serenity I feel in this moment. This is what mates are meant to do. We are meant to protect one another, and I know there is no way I can come out of this alive. I am already barely on my feet, and although her attacker is also weaving, he has an advantage. He can destroy me without touching me.

My vargr blood makes me bigger and stronger and is the only reason I am still standing. A normal wolf would have succumbed by now, but I am not normal, and I will use every ounce of available advantage I have.

The air suddenly feels oppressive, and I know he is drawing on magic to attack me. My only hope is to be faster than he is. Before I can move, Roux grabs his arm, the one I have not savaged.

“Edward don’t.”

Edward…

That was the name of her chosen mate, the one she killed. I don’t have time to unpack what it means, because he turns and shoves her so hard, she’s back in the snow.

I peel my lips back to show my teeth and then I attack. He raises his hands, as if he is holding an invisible ball of power, ready to throw it at me. There is madness in his eyes as he takes me in, a darkness that, under normal circumstances, would terrify me, but before he can unleash his power, Roux is on her feet.

A knife materializes in her hand, the scent of her magic very faint on the air as she steps up behind him, wrapping an arm around his chest and slamming her arm forward.

I don’t see the knife enter his body, but I see the jerk Edward makes, and the way his back arches as she twists her hand. Roux closes her eyes as she draws her hand back again and slams it into Edward’s side.

I can feel the agony through our bond. As fierce as her attack is—and it is fierce—there is remorse, a sense of only doing what she has to.

Over and over, she jabs the knife into him until blood drips between their bodies. Edward’s eyes flare wide as the life starts to leave his body. Roux does not stop stabbing until he slides onto his knees out of her grasp and hits the ground face down.

There is a moment of complete silence and stillness as we both compute what just happened. Roux lowers her gaze to the knife in her slick, bloodied hand, before it disappears into thin air, as if it never existed. She curls her fingers into her palm as she closes her eyes.

My wolf limps forward, wanting to check if our enemy is truly dead. At the side of his body, I pause and grab his throat with my teeth, ripping the flesh there. Blood flows freely, and the lack of sound from him tells me he was dead when he hit the ground. It pays to be sure though. I’ll never leave behind an enemy who has the potential to harm my mate.

Roux stumbles over Edward’s body and drops to her knees in front of me. Her fingers slide into my matted fur, her head resting against my neck. “I was so worried.” The words come out choked, broken, and I wish I had been the one to kill that motherfucker.

My legs choose that moment to fold like wet cardboard beneath me. I slump into the snow, exhaustion making my bones feel heavy.

“Sawyer!” The panic in her voice makes me want to stand again, to prove to her that I am okay, but my body is not cooperating. “You need to shift back to your human form.” I know I should follow the order, that it makes sense, but I cannot find the strength to make the change.

My tongue lolls out of my mouth as my breaths become shallow and painful.

I love you.

I speak these words through our bond, and I know she hears them because her eyes fill with tears. “No, you don’t get to say goodbye yet. This isn’t over.”

She turns away from me, yelling in the direction of the house for Halle, for help, for anyone.

My head feels sluggish, my thoughts slow and my vision wrong. I try to focus on her, wanting only her as I succumb to my injuries.

“Just hold on,” she commands. All of her words seem to be orders, but I am not capable of following them.

Movement behind her flickers through the darkness that is starting to encroach in my vision. A flash of red hair is all I see before Halle is in front of my face, blocking my mate from me.

I growl, irritated at having her taken from me, but no one is paying me any attention. Instead, clipped words are spoken around me, but I can’t focus on what is being said. I let my eyes drift, every breath feeling like a monumental effort.

“I’m going to save you,” Halle says close to my ear.

I want to believe her, I don’t want to leave my mate, but even my wolf can sense our time is near.

Warmth spreads through my body as Halle lays her hands on my side. My skin itches and prickles, and I feel strength beginning to flow through me again. The extreme exhaustion starts to lift, and I blink my eyes as my vision clears, the shadows chased away.

But Halle is tired.

I can see how spent she is, and I know in this moment she does not have the energy to save me. Roux also realizes this at the same time. She reaches out to grip Halle’s hand, and I feel a greater surge of strength wash through me with their combined magic. A moment later Hester joins them, Tessa too.

I close my eyes as my body repairs itself, each wound knitting back together, the blood I lost replenishing itself instantly.

“Shift,” Roux orders in a quiet voice that demands my attention.

My wolf relinquishes control without a fight, and I feel the shift move through me as I transition back to my human form. When I open my eyes I can see clearly, and the cold seeps through to my bones in a way that tells me I am no longer wolf.

Halle slides back onto her heels, her shoulders slumping, but Cade is there to hold her up. I want to ask her if she is okay, but Roux is filling my vision and I can’t help but smile at my little mate.

“I thought you were going to die,” she admits.

As did I, but I don’t want to add to the burden she is clearly carrying. “I would never leave you,” I assure her.

She grips my hand, her grasp an iron band around me. “Good, because where you go, I go too.”