Page 21 of Rejecting his Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #2)

Chapter 21

Halle

M y head is swirling with everything that has happened in the last few moments. Hester says Cade and I are connected through our wolves, and I believe it. Even when I was with my old pack, I was drawn to Cade just as much as he was to me. I don’t know what it means, though. The mating bond between Dalton and I should have stopped any other connections from forming.

Then again, Dalton and I haven’t exactly worked on our relationship. Since the bond was created, we mostly ignored each other’s presence. I slept in my own bedroom, kept my distance from him, and his anger toward me, his need to control me, meant he could never truly let me in. We’ve never been a normal couple, and even after six months together, I don’t feel like our mating bond has grown stronger in any way.

As with all things, if you leave them, they will wither and die. Perhaps that is what has happened to our bond. It feels nothing like the connection I have with Cade .

I watch as the guys drop into fighting stances, ready to take on the monsters hunting me. I don’t want any of them to get hurt trying to save me, but we are out of options.

Even if we drove away now, we would not get far. So, as much as I don’t like this plan, I don’t see what other choice we have.

Stand and fight.

Flee and die.

What a decision.

I stand behind the other tau wolves, feeling the power swirling inside them. I’d never felt magic, and certainly not like this. The air is heavy with its force, and I wish I were able to help. I feel so useless.

I don’t have wolf strength, and I don’t have access to my magic, either. I am more of a hindrance than anything else, but if Hester can unlock my magic, maybe I can be something more.

The cars stop in front of us, and one of the doors opens. People start to pile out, and I notice they're not carrying guns, even though they probably have them inside the truck. They expected to fight in their wolf forms or that I would come in willingly.

The guy at the front is tall and stacked, his frame suggesting he is definitely wolf, and even if it didn’t, his scent does.

He scans us as a group, and I can see the delight as he realizes he has not only one hybrid, but four.

“Like Christmas came early,” he says, his accent thick. “Where in the hell have all of you been hiding?”

My pulse is racing so fast and hard that I feel it everywhere. Some of the other hunters are out of the trucks, loading guns, ready for whatever happens after this change of plans.

I glance at the restaurant, wondering if the people inside are watching the showdown. The first rule of being a wolf shifter is that the human world can’t know about us. A mass shootout seems like a good way to make humans aware.

It won’t matter, though, because the hunters will kill everyone inside that building.

As soon as the thought enters my head, I know I’m right. No one is going to be left as witness to what happens here. The place is so remote it is unlikely the truth will ever be discovered.

Not only have I brought the guys into my mess, but now I have handed over the lives of the three tau wolves, Tessa’s mate, and a bunch of innocent human bystanders. Maybe I should just give it up already. I would do it, but something inside me tells me that won’t protect anyone. These hunters came to destroy, and that’s exactly what they are going to do.

“Walk away while you still can,” Hester tells him.

“Yes, run away, little pup,” Apryle adds, goading him. I’m not sure that is the best course of action, but the hunter merely smirks.

“Those are mighty big threats considering we outnumber you.”

“If you think we need numbers,” Tessa says, “then you know nothing about us.”

The three of them start chanting under their breath, and I feel the power growing in the air. I glance up, almost expecting to see a ball of it over their heads, but there's nothing there.

I don’t think the hunter can see it either because he still smirking, and if he realized how much power the three of them are gathering, he would run for his fucking life. He stands there, oblivious to what I can sense.

“Do you think you can beat us with a little chanting?” He scoffs. “Come quietly and without fuss. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

“Yes, because you look so accommodating with the military-grade vehicles and your little band of soldiers,” Sawyer’s sarcasm has my lips lifting at the corners.

“No one is going anywhere.” Cade smiles, but it is not a nice smile. There is malice behind his eyes that should scare the hunter.

“It’s been a while since I came across a vargr. I’d ask how you got caught up in this, but I don’t care. My only task is to take the females. The rest of you can leave.”

“You’re assuming we’re going to allow you to leave,” Abel says.

The wolf hunter tilts his head to the side as if considering his next course of action. The others are still chanting, and the power is growing with every passing second.

“I’ve had enough of this game.” He turns to the wolves behind him, lifting his chin. Guns are suddenly raised in our direction, and my heart nearly explodes beneath my ribs. We can’t outrun bullets.

I think about my life and the things I never got to do. I think about Cade and how he and his pack saved me even though they barely knew me. I think about how he and I never really had a chance.

I stare at Cade’s back, wishing I could magic him out of here, but when I reach for my magic, I don’t feel it.

The guns fire, popping loudly through the air. I close my eyes, waiting for the pain to hit, but it never does. Instead, I hear the clinking of metal as the shells hit the asphalt. I open my eyes and see empty cases littering the ground in front of us. It is as if the tau wolves have created a force field around us that can’t be penetrated.

The hunter signals again for his wolves to shoot at us. I cover my ears and watch as the bullets are repelled before they can hit anyone, dropping to the ground.

There’s a crack in the magic, a wavering of strength. They are not going to be able to hold it long.

“Hold steady,” Hester bites out the words, sweat beading on her forehead as she does.

Apryle and Tessa are struggling too. The magic around them is winking in and out as more bullets are fired.

Suddenly, Cade drops to one knee, holding his shoulder. Blood pours between his fingers, and it feels as if I have been dunked in an icy bath. The redness of it seems unnatural as it spreads down the back of his hand to drip off his wrist.

Sawyer and I reach him at the same time, both of us grabbing a side of him as he lurches. Fear like I have never felt, even when I was staring death in the eyes, crawls over every inch of me. I can’t lose Cade. I won’t .

“Shit,” Sawyer mutters as he presses his hand over his brother’s.

“You’re going to be okay,” I say, more for my own benefit than Cade’s. There is no other option.

My wolf is going wild inside me. She never did that when Cade was attacking Dalton.

Because Cade and I are connected. Our wolves are connected. Not in the same way as Dalton and I—this is something different. I don’t know what that means.

Another bullet whizzes through the force field surrounding us, sinking into the asphalt behind Wyatt. Rage fills me, and anger consumes every cell in my body. I turn my head to look at the group of hunters that are firing non-stop at us. Do they not understand we are living, breathing creatures? Are they so clouded by hate that they would end our lives just because of what we are?

I get to my feet, anger still swirling through me. I want to kill them, every single one of them. I am so over being chased down by these predators.

Sawyer says something to me, and Cade tries to grab my hand, but I pull away. I glare at the hunter in charge, letting my hate flow through me.

This needs to end. I have to get Cade somewhere safe, so I can patch him up. Without thinking, I grab Apryle’s hand.

Joined to the others, power surges through me, nearly knocking me down.

Pain fires through every synapse, from my feet to the tips of my hair. I feel as if I am being torn inside out. Someone is screaming, and I realize it’s me. This is worse than my failed first change. It feels as if a dam has been broken, and all that repressed power has turned into a tsunami, flowing freely.

My head slams back, and I look at the sky. The power inside me is too much to handle, and it explodes out of my body, pushing against the force field until it breaks, slamming into the hunters.

Bodies fly through the air, some hitting the side of the vehicles they came in. I’m still screaming, my throat raw as if I have swallowed razor blades.

The power that surges between the four of us is so intense it nearly drives me to my knees.

As my magic frees itself from the confines of its binding, images start to play through my mind like a movie reel. Flashes of the past, of moments spent with my mom, spin through me.

Everything comes flooding back in one hit, and it is too much to handle. I remember my sixth birthday party. There is a cake in the shape of a clown. It made me cry. My mama taking me to the mall and getting me a milkshake.

And Adeline.

Adeline taking me to that house, the one with the perfect lawn and the gray siding. The one where she told a witch named Delphine to bind my magic and take everything from me.

I drop to all fours, another scream wrenching out of me. My body feels as if it is on fire. Maybe it is, I don’t know anymore.

I can feel blood trailing down my face, warm and wet, but I can’t stop my power. It feels as if it is going to consume me and tear me apart. My fingers touch the asphalt as I try to ground myself, trying to release the stranglehold it has on me.

Cade is suddenly in front of me, his hands cupping my face, trying to bring my attention to him. I don’t miss the fact that his hands are soaked in his own blood or the sheen of sweat covering his face.

“Stop, Halle. Please , stop. You’re going to kill yourself.”

The moment he touches me, everything quiets. My power recedes, and I suck huge breaths as I feel it returning to the back of my mind.

All I can focus on is Cade’s face in front of me. “You’re bleeding.” It is an obvious thing to state, but it is the first thing that comes to my head.

“So are you.”

I reach up, touching beneath my nose. My fingers come away bloody, but my cheeks also feel wet. There is blood coming from my eyes.

Terror punches through me. I don’t know much about being part witch, but I figure bleeding from the eyes isn’t a good sign, no matter what you are.

“What happened?” he asks.

“She broke through her binding,” Hester says, helping Tessa to her feet. She has blood on her face too. All the tau wolves do.

I did that. I hurt people who are trying to help me. It doesn’t matter that I don’t mean to. An ugly feeling slithers through me. Is this why my aunt bound me? Because I am too dangerous to be out here alone?

“I could have killed us…” I gasp out the words as I cl ing to Cade. He is the only thing keeping me from losing my shit right now.

“You saved us.”

I narrow my eyes, uncertain of what that means. People are bleeding because of what I did, even if I didn’t know what I was doing. “I didn’t do anything,” I say, hating how much my voice wobbles.

“Uh, yeah, you did.” I follow Sawyer’s line of sight and see the hunters all lying in the middle of the road, out for the count.

“I suggest we get the fuck out of here before they come around,” Jackson says.

“You wanna leave without putting these assholes down?” Cade’s words shock me. I don’t want to turn him into an animal willing to kill to protect me.

“No,” I say.

“You want to leave them to come after us?”

“I don’t care about them. I care about you and what that would do to you.”

“When it comes to protecting you, I don’t give a shit about anyone else. I’ll kill a hundred hunters. I'd kill a thousand if it keeps you safe.”

My pulse flutters wildly at his words, my wolf liking what he’s saying. We want a protective mate, but Cade is not our mate.

Even as I think it, I know it's not true. Cade feels like ours. And I feel like his.

Abel, who has walked over to the hunters, bends down and presses his fingers to the neck of one of the downed wolves. He moves to another and does the same, and then another. “They’re dead. ”

My body jolts at that statement. I killed them. Whatever I did, it ended their lives. Bile climbs at my throat, even though I know it was either us or them.

“Oh, shit.” My tongue feels thick, and my mouth dry as I stare at all the bodies lining the road.

Hester urges me to my feet. “Forget about them. We need to leave. More will come. The Order won’t rest until you're found. We’ll head to the sanctuary. We’ll be safe there. You have a vehicle, I assume.” Sawyer nods. “Then follow us.”

Numbness spreads through me as Sawyer gets an arm under his brother and helps him toward the truck. Wyatt grabs me, dragging me with them.

“What about the witnesses?” Tessa says.

“They’ll clean up.” Hester gestures in the direction of the trucks.

An awareness trickles through me, and I twist to look back at the carnage I caused. The back door of the car bringing up the rear opens, and a man with a shock of white hair climbs out. He glances around at all the bodies, but it is not him who draws my attention.

Dalton.

He gets out of the other side of the vehicle, and I feel his presence weakly through our mating bond. It is so faint, hardly there, but I feel him brush through my mind, and what I get from him is horror and disgust. That’s fine—it's what I feel about him too.

Sawyer pushes me into the back of the truck before we speed out of there. I try to glance behind to see what Dalton and the white-haired man are doing, but I lose sight of them quickly .

Turning forward, I sag into the seat. My body feels spent and shaky, my mind is in turmoil. Everything feels overwhelming. Memories are still flooding back into my brain, making it hard to discern what is present and past.

I watch Sawyer as he rips open Cade’s shirt to get a look at the gunshot wound in his shoulder, and I try to cling to something before I drown. There is a lot of blood, making it hard to see the damage.

“Now would be a good time for you to do some of that healing stuff,” Sawyer says, a hopeful tone in his voice.

I reach inside me, trying to find the magic again, but it is like wading through molasses. I can see it pulsing and shining brightly within my mind, but I am too exhausted to reach it. “I think I overdid it back there. I can sense the magic, but I can’t use it.”

“We’ll just do it the old-fashioned way, then.”

I close my eyes, trying to stop the flood of memories that are still infusing my mind. I wanted to know who and what I am, but not like this. It is sensory overload, and I lean forward in my seat, fisting my hands over my ears.

A hand slips into mine. Cade’s. “You okay?”

“No,” I admit. Only he would ask if I’m okay while bleeding all over the car.

“Those fuckers deserved to die, Halle.”

He thinks I’m torn about what I did to the hunters. There will be time to digest that later, but that’s not what’s eating at me. “Whatever I did back there, when I broke the binding, it broke everything. ”

“What do you mean?”

The truck jostles me as Wyatt darts around a big van to keep pace with the other car.

“When my magic flowed, it released my memories. That’s all I’m seeing. An endless showreel of my past.”

Cade and Sawyer exchange glances. “I don’t want to trust these women,” Cade says, “but Hester seems to know about these things. When we get to the sanctuary, maybe she can help slow down whatever is happening.”

“Still not too late to run,” I say with a lopsided smile.

Despite his injury, he pulls me against the opposite side, tucking me against him. “I’m not going anywhere.”