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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

logan

M y stomach churned as I slowed the trajectory of my four-wheel-drive truck. The sense of Emma spurred me on, but nobody was at the gate.

Of course not.

Not one of them appreciated how serious this was.

They were all at their dens, enjoying the primal shifter magic show. Or they were all dead, their energies absorbed by Acheron. Maybe the dark mage had already captured her, her life force, her shifter magic fading with every ticking second.

The engine roared when I crammed the accelerator to the floor, spraying dirt and gravel like a rooster tail out behind me.

Racing through the entrance would get me shot on sight for trespassing in most territories.

Aggression wasn’t tolerated in the uneasy peace we all shared, but Emma had changed everything…

When the gap between the trees grew too close to allow my vehicle through, I slammed the truck into park and launched from the driver’s seat. “Emma,” I roared. “Where are you?”

Panicked yaps surrounded me, and multiple bursts of shifter magic prickled across my skin, but I didn’t slow. I couldn’t.

A line of figures led into the largest den, the council den, and they all peered inside.

“Where is she? Where is Emma?” I demanded.

Every fox shifter in the line turned to glare at me with eyes so wide I could see the whites around their pupils. Large foxes of all colors appeared on top of the den, their teeth bared in warning. The peace between the clans wasn’t worth the cost of her. The danger didn’t matter. None of it did.

Not with Emma in the balance.

I swallowed the fury rolling through me, and my shoulders drooped. “Please. Where is she?”

The line glanced to the right and then moved back slightly.

Flynn stepped out of the underground meeting place. “Logan,” he barked. “What are ye doing here?”

“I think you know,” I said, and my voice cracked, unable to articulate the rush of feelings inside me.

He grimaced. “You may be the first, but you won’t be the last to show up. Not after that primal burst.” He evaluated me, looking me over as though weighing his options. Then he waved at me to follow him. “Come with me. She needs all of us.”

“Show me. ”

I marched after him, meeting the gaze of each challenger who still had anger kindled in their eyes, but I didn’t slow. My eyes rapidly adjusted to the shadows inside, and the sight sent my heart slamming against my rib cage so hard I stopped short.

A naked Emma had been laid out on the council table with ten Red Tail shifters, probably healers, encircled around her and Dr. Wise at her head.

The doctor smoothed her hands over Emma’s forehead, as though closing her eyes.

Emma’s multi-colored hair flared out over the ancient wooden surface, tangled and limp.

She’d gone completely pale, and her chest didn’t rise or fall.

Her arms hung over the edges of the table.

My limbs shook, and a chill passed through me.

My love.

That was what she was, what she had become, and the revelation cut through me, slicing through every layer of armor I’d ever had.

Maybe it was too soon to profess anything about love, but the way her eyes flashed when she disagreed with me, the way she didn’t care about the rules, the way she set her own course…

Fuck me. Everything about Emma called to me, and I had to save her.

“I knew better than to leave her here. You’ve killed her,” I bellowed, charging past Flynn. If Emma was dead, tearing Jasper into a million pieces was quickly becoming an option.

Flynn stuck out his arm, knocking me back on my heels. “You’re not starting a civil war, arsehole,” he snarled. “Watch yerself. ”

I knocked his arm away, whirled toward him, and bared my teeth. “Fuck off.”

Flynn dropped his hands to my shoulders, gripping so tightly that I couldn’t move. Sorrow flooded his eyes. “I know what you’re going through,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I lost my Emma.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Her name may not be Emma, but my mate has been missing for months.”

“Let me go,” I snapped.

What the hell did his missing mate have to do with my need to keep Emma safe? It’s not like Flynn’s mate had been the freaking multimorph.

“Emma’s not dead.” He paused. “She’s not well, but she’s not dead, Logan. The primal energy depleted her and nearly killed her. Now she needs you, and she doesn’t need ye to murder everybody who looked at her.”

My inner wolf whined in the back of my head, and my gaze moved over the woman on the wooden slab, the one who had captured nearly every thought I’d since the moment I’d met her. Gingerly, I reached out to her through my enhanced senses, and even unconscious, she reached back, ushering me in.

There. Her weak heartbeat thrummed in my mind, and I knew what I had to do. I knew what she needed from me.

A breeze moved through the council den. The eyes of onlookers widened in the gust of my summoned shifter magic.

One step to the side brought me out from under Flynn’s hands, and I leaped toward Emma, shifting mid-air and landing beside Emma in my wolf form, my head at the same end of the table as hers.

Dr. Wise gasped as I encroached on her space. She caught the fur on my shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I brought my snout close to her nose, defying her as my wolf self, staring into her eyes until she stepped the side and glanced away. The confrontation lasted mere seconds, but they were moments Emma needed from me.

Settling beside Emma, I ensured as much of my body met hers as I could, wiggling until my fur parted and her cooling skin met the warmth of my own.

If Acheron had worked out a way to absorb shifter energy, then I could try to share my strength with Emma, drawing her back from the edge of whatever oblivion she fought.

Dr. Wise frowned at me, as though she was attempting to figure out what I was doing or how to send me on my way, but she didn’t understand yet.

I’m not leaving her, Doc.

My eyes closed, and I blocked out the noise of the other shifters in the room, centering myself until peace took the place of my earlier anger. Delving could be dangerous, and if I frightened Emma, she might destroy us both by drawing another surge of primal energy.

Mentally, I reached for Emma once more, using my talent to delve.

Sending my energy into her, I brushed against the heart in her chest, feeling the tremor inside her as she realized I was here.

Her lungs were fine, her bones were fine, but her grip on the physical world was slipping.

The primal energy had been too much for her so soon in her shifting journey, but she couldn’t help the strength of her ability.

Acheron’s strength is growing, and the shifters need you. I pushed the thought toward her, ignoring the fear that I might expose the depth of my attraction and devotion to her. Being in love with her would show me as weak, and alphas could have no weakness in them.

My mind circled the cloudy depths of hers. She was in there. Come back to us, Emma. Come back to me.

I don’t know how. She breathed the words inside my mind. Logan, I don’t know how.

Delving the edge of the fog obscuring her, I formed an image of my wolf self and pushed my muzzle into the murky haze. Fingertips grazed my snout, and I stretched toward her.

What happened to me?

I shivered as her words filtered through to me. The primal shifter energy overwhelmed you, and you’ve slipped into something like a shifter coma. Your brain is trying to protect you, but we need you.

I don’t think I can do it. Her voice wavered, and it sounded as though she fought tears. I don’t think I can save Six-Mile, Red Tail, or any of the others. What happens if I fail?

You won’t.

You don’t know that. This is proof I can’t do it.

I hoped she could sense my laughter. This is only proof you’ve been a shifter for all of a week. Come back with me, and we’ll figure it out together.

Emma appeared at the edge of the mist in her human form, and a massive rush of her sensations and feelings, poured over me.

The cloud wrapped around her like clothes, and her expression twisted with concern.

Exploring the internal depths of her enticed me in ways I couldn’t fathom, and I could almost grasp the idea of me she had inside her.

But that wasn’t all…

Linked like we were, I could detect the feelings she had for me, the desire she was afraid to feel, and the overpowering fear that threatened to overtake it all. It had been so much for her, and she was so much stronger than she realized.

I bumped my nose against her hip. You ready?

Yes. She ran her palm from the back of my head down along my spine, and I savored the feel of her touch. How much better would it be in the real world in our human forms?

Her fingers curled in my fur, taking hold so I could lead her out, and I was powerless to stop our energies as they twined together, forming unbreakable bonds.

For as long as Emma needed me, I would be by her side, and I would work to keep her safe.

Were we fated mates? I wasn’t ready to believe that yet, though how many circumstances had to align before I admitted that it seemed like we were?

I snorted. Fate had nothing to do with any of it.

Whether she realized it yet or not, I was going to be her mate in this new life she had entered .

Not Jasper.

Not Marcus.

None of the others.

My eyes fluttered open to find Dr. Wise staring down at me, and I sniffed, still in my wolf form.

“What did you do?” she asked, filling a syringe with a golden liquid. “Nothing was working. It was as though her body had been on the verge of giving up.”

I jumped down from the table and landed on human feet, carefully straightening and stretching as I waited for Emma to wake.

If Emma hadn’t been a healer, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to successfully delve her mind so easily.

So many details made sense, as though the universe had written our story while we were unaware, but feelings weren’t helpful to any of us right now.

I turned to Dr. Wise. “I delved her mind, and I brought her back. She’ll wake up shortly.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know.” I shrugged. “Primal energy can overwhelm the best of us, Doc, burning us out and reuniting our shifter souls with the energy we all draw from. If we lose ourselves in the ether, our bodies have no reason to go on.”

She frowned. “I’ll need to record what happened. May I take your statement later?”

“Not this time,” I said.

She opened her mouth to argue.

But I shook my head. “Not this time. ”

Dr. Wise glared then turned away with her bottom lip poking out slightly.

Huh. That had to be the first time I’d seen her pout. I wouldn’t have thought she was capable of it.

But I didn’t want to talk about the private link between shifter souls or what happened when I delved someone so intimately, and it was Emma to boot.

No, I would be processing the experience for a long time, fighting the urge to link with her like that as soon as I could.

Besides, I wasn’t really sure how to explain the strength of the connection to anyone, and the idea of being studied like a historical specimen wasn’t on my bucket list.

I took a step closer to Emma, tucking her arm onto the table, and I drew my fingers from Emma’s shoulder to the back of her hand, mimicking the way she’d stroked my back. Then I moved out of the way of Dr. Wise and the other Red Tail healers as they worked for several minutes.

Suddenly, Emma shot straight upright, took a deep breath, and pressed her hands to her eyes. “What happened?”

Flynn stepped forward. “Ye went primal and then passed out. Maybe don’t do that again until ye’re ready?”

She dropped her hands and searched the room until her gaze landed on me, devouring every inch of me. “You brought me back.”

“Always,” I said, keeping my voice low.

“I wanted to give in to disappearing.” Her eyes turned glassy, and her chin quivered. “Thank you. ”

A rush of Red Tail shifters surged toward Emma, anxious to meet the multimorph, pushing in around us now that she was going to be fine, so I ducked my head, slipped back through the crowd, and worked my way out of the den.

The danger had passed, and my emotions were too raw to remain.

I had too much to process and too much to do.

Inexplicably, I already loved her too much.

Also, not for the first time, I wrestled a rush of panic, and the walls pressed in so close I had to find some fresher air. Two worries warred against my reason.

What happens if I lose Emma to Acheron… or lose her as she fulfills her destiny?

Beyond the large den, my hands curled into fists, and I clenched my jaw, snapping my teeth together to punctuate my vow, my promise to Emma. Well, there was only one answer I allowed to either of those questions: Emma Carter was mine.

No matter what it cost me…

No matter what I had to do…

Acheron couldn’t have her, and I wouldn’t let her die.