Page 66 of Tangled Hearts

Taylin howled in pain when he caught me in his power. My body was still tender from the partial healing not holding up as he broke my ribs easily. He stole the air from my lungs as I tried to gasp for oxygen, but nothing happened. Panic flooded my system when I couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be the end. My brain felt fuzzy when I shifted back into a man. I coughed as I took a deep breath.

“This is your last chance to step away, brother.” He clenched his jaw as he stood up, holding his arm close. “Next time I will kill you.”

“Never,” I gasped trying to stand.

“Maxton, don’t be stupid,” he growled, looking around, but I heard no one except us.

“Fuck you,” I said, before I forced another shift that was surely going to mess me up.

I shifted into a gorilla, catching him off guard, tackling him to the floor and trying to knock him out. He cried out when I landed on him, throwing a punch to knock him out when he threw me back with an air gust. My entire body was burning with pain while I got up to run back to him, but he opened a portal and ran towards it.

“This won't be the end.” He glared at me. “She is mine and if I can’t get her, I’ll wait until Laima does.”

I stumbled forward trying to get to him, but he disappeared. The guys came running towards me as the portal closed. My magic couldn’t hold my form anymore and I shifted into a man.

“Whoa, big guy.” Ryder caught me before I could fall flat on my face.

“Oria.” I managed to get out.

“She is safe. She’s coming, man,” he said, laying me down.

“Need to leave,” I said, trying to get up.

“Nah, man, you need to lay down.” He left his hand on my chest. “Once she patches you up a bit, we can leave.”

“Max!” Oria’s scream made the tension in my body leave and once she touched me, it didn’t take long until I was pulled into darkness now that I knew she was safe…for now.

19

ORIA

Max was lifeless on the floor as I pushed as much power into him as possible. It was reckless, but I was too panicked to regulate my feelings. All that mattered was I could heal him quickly and we could get out of here.

His body was broken in several places, but I was most worried about his ribs puncturing his lungs. I cried out when I started to work on repairing his bones and muscles. Ryder's stab wounds were just as bad, but this was so much more extensive. I was reckless pushing all that power into him, but Gray gave me five minutes and that was not nearly enough.

“We have to leave now,” Ryder said, wanting me to stop, but Max wasn’t nearly ready to be moved.

“Sunshine, we have to go now.”

Someone touched my shoulder, and it was like a rush of power flowed from where he touched me.

Quickly pulling away from Max, I looked over my shoulder at a wide-eyed Gray, who had the same expression as I.

“Did that?—”

“We’ve got to move now,” Soren said, lifting me up.

Panic took over my senses. “No, not yet!”

“I’m sorry, Blondie, but if we don’t leave now, someone will find us and then we will have to protect Max,” he said, kissing my temple. “We can’t protect him and you.”

“He needs more healing,” I said, looking over his shoulder to see Max being carried by Ryder and Gray.

They were illuminated by the fire that Max had unleashed. He was magnificent and when he first shifted, fear hit me because he was so big. In my wildest dreams I never thought Max would be able to shift into a dragon.

Ryder picked up Max's torso and Gray grabbed his legs, following us with no signs of exertion. I had seen Soren holding Gray before so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised.

“Give me the potions and let me get us out of here so you can heal Max,” Soren said, as I reached into my bra to pull out the potion, thankful it didn’t fall or break against me. “We won’t let anything happen to any one of us, ok Blondie. We are a team. There is no us if there is no you, and that rings true for all of us. It's always us.”

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