Page 29 of Owning His Mate

“What are you doing? Are you crazy? We need to patch up your wound.”

She comes up with me, gripping my biceps as I wobble. Everything sways around me and melts together before sharpening again. “There’s no time.”

I tear the gate open and shove her through it as the door behind us opens. Bullets start flying again, and I wrap myself around my mate as I maneuver us behind the wall of the adjacent business.

Apryle fights my hold, trying to take care of me, but I’m stronger, even with my energy depleting rapidly. There is no fucking way I’m letting her go while bullets are raining down around us.

We need to keep moving, but I don’t think I can. The pain in my back is stealing my breath, making it hard to draw air into my lungs.

Apryle curls around me, as if trying to shield me with her small body, and I like the way that makes me feel. She tries to be cold toward me, but there is a part of her that is in this as deep as I am.

I’m about to drag her along the wall when a figure rounds the corner into our hiding place. His gun raises and my wolf tries to seize control, but my body is too hurt to shift.

I prepare to attack, but before I can do anything, Apryle blasts power in his direction, almost taking him to his knees as she defends us both.

The pain in my back is spreading at an alarming rate, making it hard for me to breathe. Every inhalation feels tight and wrong.

A second hunter appears to my left, and once again I’m looking down the barrel of a gun. I bare my teeth, peeling back my lips to snarl at him. In response, I get a smirk.

He can’t be more than twenty, with floppy hair and angry-looking scars covering his neck. I feel a hint of satisfaction as I realize those wounds were made by a wolf. I can’t scent him, but the tinge of magic clings to him, masking whatever he is.

“Stop attacking, or I’ll put a bullet in your dog.” He presses the gun against my temple hard enough to leave a bruise.

Son of a bitch.

Apryle’s terror spreads through our bond even though her expression remains unreadable. I admire her strength, and I send her reassuring thoughts.

Raising her chin, her teeth gritted, she lets her power die down as her eyes lock on the gun pressed against my head. Then her beautiful irises find mine.

It’s goingto be okay,I tell her through the bond.

It’s a lie,and we both know it. We are supremely fucked right now. Where the fuck are Callum and the others?

You’re a terrible liar,she responds. I don’t know why, but it eases some of the growing tension inside me.

It doesn’t solvethe problem, though, and the gun digging into my temple is insistent to the point of pain.

“Walk away while you can,” Apryle threatens. Her eyes are dark, menace in every word, and I’ve never been more aroused.

The hunters laugh, the one pointing his gun at me looking at his friend. “These fucking tau bitches.”

“You have no idea how much of a bitch I am,” she threatens, and he just presses the gun further.

“Keep talking and I’ll smear his brains across the asphalt.”

While they’re both focused on Apryle, I attack. I grab the gun by the muzzle, twisting it away as a shot breezes past me.

Apryle’s screams will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my days, but I can’t focus on her right now. I can sense through the bond that she’s unhurt and I can smell her magic as she unleashes it on the other attacker.

Trusting that she’ll take care of her side of things, I slam my palm under my attacker’s nose, enjoying the blood that spews from it. The coppery scent fills the air, and my wolf howls his approval.

I’m going to enjoy killing both of these assholes, but we have to do it quickly. There is no telling how many hunters are with them, and I’m fading fast. We have to get somewhere more secure before they catch up with us.

The hunter I’m fighting doesn’t give in easily. We both know this is a deathmatch and only one of us is walking away, which will be me. I’m not dying at his hands.

He comes at me with everything he has, but without his gun, he is not a fighter. I get him to his knees, but before I can take him out, he slams the fist into my side, just where my wound is.

I let out a roar as pain spreads through every inch of my body. I can barely breathe, the wind is sucked out of my lungs as I stagger and drop to one knee. Spots dance in front of my eyes, and I try to blink them away quickly so I can get back on my feet.

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