Page 25 of The Healer and the Wolf, Part One

“ Leo! Fuck, Leo! Just hold on!”

I yanked at the door like it would do anything, pausing only to beat at it with my hands. My knuckles and the side of my palm were bleeding, but I didn’t care. Leo was right in front of me fighting for his life, and I couldn’t help him.

I’d never felt so helpless, and when our eyes locked, he looked so fucking guilty. That was all my fault. I’d yelled at him for how he had handled himself at the estate, but this was different. There were no innocents in that room, only Leo and the assholes attacking him. I needed him to get out. I just needed him to be safe.

“Ricky!” I screamed, not caring that my voice cracked. “Open this fucking door!”

“Don’t you think I’m trying?”

“Try fucking harder!”

Was it the nicest thing to scream? No. But all I could think of was Leo. Of the fact that he was only a few feet from me, but I could do nothing. How had the night changed so quickly?

Leo was doing an incredible job fighting, but every time I saw him get hit, I wanted to vomit. It was all too much, and it felt like it was entirely my fault. How had I allowed us to get separated? I never should have let him wander into that other room alone.

Would I be good in a fight against so many magic users? I had no idea. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I would be with him, not stuck on the other side of the door only able to scream.

Just as I thought I was going to combust, the door finally, finally, let out a happy beep. I kicked it open, surging inside with zero survival instincts, but I didn’t care. I grabbed the closest batch of test vials to me and threw it at a one of the lab coats chanting something. It hit with a satisfying shatter of glass, but it had little effect other than that.

It had distracted him enough for Leo to jump on his back and begin ripping out his spine, though. Was it gruesome? Yes, but again, I didn’t care. There was a time and a place for violence, and I was pretty sure this was it.

I looked for my next target, intending to throw more, when another dozen figures barreled into the room. They were barely in when someone shot something toward me. I couldn’t make out what it was, but I had the good sense to throw myself backward.

I tumbled out of the room, caught by a half-transformed Ricky. He was just as ready to throw down as I was—no surprise there—but as we both stood and moved to join the battle again, Leo leaped toward us.

Oh, were we retreating? Risky, but I was fine with it. Or at least that’s what I thought was happening until Leo slammed into the door, closing it with a finality that thundered in my very soul.

“W-what did y-you just do?” I shrieked, feeling like I had just gone from a terrible nightmare to the worst one I’d ever had. The light was red again, meaning we were locked apart for the second time. But he’d done it so purposefully? I didn’t understand.

Leo didn’t answer me—he couldn’t in his wolf form. He looked at Ricky. The two of them seemed to have a silent conversation before a deluge of water washed Leo’s legs right out from under him.

I started toward the panel, determined to find a way to get that door open again, but the next thing I knew, I was being picked up.

“What the fuck?” I flailed. “Ricky, let me go!”

He didn’t. Ricky dragged me toward the narrow opening in the double doors. I screamed and I kicked, but wolf shifters were so goddamn strong. Even when I threw my weight around with the full force I could muster, it barely made Rick stumble.

“Stop it! Why are you doing this? Let me go! Let me go, let me go, letmegoletmegoletmego! ”

I was sobbing, clutching one of the bent doors to stay close to Leo. The entire time my eyes were locked on that window as I watched my lover fight tooth and nail to survive. All alone.

“I’m sorry,” Ricky said, his voice barely understandable through his snaggled and elongated teeth. “But I promised.”

His words were mostly noise, however, and I continued to fight him. It was enraging that a wolf who had so recently been starved could overpower me so easily, but try as I could to resist, Leo slowly got farther and farther away until we were in the elevator.

I threw myself at the doors as they closed, and when that didn’t work, I attacked Ricky. I punched his chest, shoving him into the wall. He made no effort to fight me, and it wasn’t until I saw the tears in his eyes that I stopped.

“Why?” I gasped as sobs tore out of my throat. God, we weren’t really abandoning Leo, were we? “Why did you do that? We could have helped him!”

“Because he made me promise to get you to safety if things went sideways. Our pack has had our time, and while we want it back, Leo said it’s not worth your life. My job now is to protect you, Vanessa. Do you understand that? All of this, everything, didn’t matter to him as much as you. ”

It was too much. It was all too much. I sank down to my knees as more sobs consumed me. I was faintly aware that the elevator stopped and Ricky practically dragged me out. Despite everything Leo and I had been through, we’d come so close to having a storybook happily ever, and now it had all been ripped away.

Leo was trapped in there while I was stuck out here.

I resisted Ricky all the way into the truck and while he drove away. It wasn’t until we got on the highway, and I tried to grab the wheel, that he grabbed my throat and pushed me as far away as he could.

“Listen! I don’t like this anymore than you do. I should be in there fighting and dying beside him. My alpha gave me an order, so I have to make sure that happens. He wants you safe. So, for the love of God, stop trying to fight me.”

“H-he ordered you?” I barely managed to get out between my sobs.

“Yeah, and I’m not happy about it.”

I forced my sobs to quiet, and when I spoke again, I made sure it was with a steel I didn’t have before. “Did he give you any orders about not going back to rescue him?”

Ricky didn’t answer for at least a minute, and I watched a procession of emotions march across his profile. Eventually, he turned his head and flashed me a wide smile.

“Now that you mention it… no, he did not.”

To Be Continued…