Page 95 of Owning His Mate

She places a hand on my shoulder, and I feel the surge of magic burn through me before the sensation of being pulled and tugged attacks every part of my body. Pain stabs through my skull like an ice pick is being driven into my brain. I fist my hands over my temples, squeezing my eyes shut as I scream and my wolf howls.

It feels as if my insides are melting, my brain is on fire, my thoughts scattered, my bond silenced.

And then it suddenly stops.

I peel one eye open and then the other as the hazy shapes and shadows around me come into focus. Heavy metal manacles have appeared around my wrists, binding me and my magic.

Not again…

Avalana glances down at me as if I am beneath her. “Get up.”

An invisible force drags me up, and I teeter on the balls of my feet as I find my footing. She curls her fingers into her palm, and a stone table appears in the middle of the grass.

I don’t like the look of it, and those fears are confirmed when two of her witch friends appear on either side of me, latching their hands around my biceps and dragging me toward it.

My legs feel like lead, the effect of whatever magic is being used to hold me, making my body sluggish, but I try to fight what they’re doing, even though it makes no difference. All that training, all those hours spent on the mat learning to defeat enemies bigger than me, and I’m as helpless as I have ever been. Flashbacks from when I was younger spin through my mind, my old pack holding me down and trying to hurt me after they discovered what I was.

I blink, trying to block it all out, trying to find Kye in my mind, but there is a wall between us that I can’t penetrate. Instead, I turn my head, twisting in their hold to try and find my mate, but I can’t move far enough. My wolf is freaking out, and so am I.

They walk me over to the table and force me onto it. The stone is cold beneath my back, and they bind my arms over my head, spreading my legs to either corner. My pulse is racing, my fear growing with every second as I keep trying to find my magic.

“Stop this,” Erik demands again, as if he is still in control.

Avalana laughs. “Do you really think you have any power here? You’re just a silly little boy throwing his toys out of his crib. You’re about to see the real definition of power, Erik. You’re about to have a front-row seat to mother returning, and I cannot wait to see what she does to you. Months of doing your every whim, of selling my pride to you.” She says it with such disdain, such vitriol.

“I broke you,” he says, his eyes wide with fear. “I rebuilt you, made you one of my soldiers.”

“Do you really think you could destroy a Seidh witch? I am more powerful than you could ever imagine. Your little hybrid experiments have nothing on the power my coven and I wield. Everything I did was to get to this moment, to find the one prophesized to free Revna.”

I twist my head on the stone to try to find my mate. Is Kye about to see me die? Am I about to die? My chest heaves as I try to suck in air, but it doesn’t feel as if it gets into my lungs. I’m lightheaded, and every inch of my body is trembling. Then I see him through the crowd. He is lying on the ground, desperately trying to fight the magic holding him in place. The look in his eyes cuts through me and makes my stomach fill with ice.

I wish I could hear his voice in my head, wish I could speak to him one more time and tell him that no matter what happens, he made my life worth living. I tried to convey it with my eyes before mouthing “I love you,” but he doesn’t say it back. Instead, his terror reflects in his eyes, and I understand why when Avalana steps up to me, holding a wicked-looking knife.

I want to close my eyes, to block out what is about to happen to me, but my body is paralyzed with fear. There’s nothing I can do as she lowers the blade, pressing it into the skin along my wrist. The first bite of the blade takes my breath away, and then she drags it up the length of my forearm toward my elbow. Blood instantly rushes out of the wound, dripping down the side of my arm and onto the table beneath me.

The other witches gather around the table, holding hands and chanting. I can feel the magic growing with every passing second, smell it thick in the air as my eyes start to become heavy and my vision fuzzy.

Avalana grabs my chin before her fingers trail over my cheek in an almost loving way. “In years to come, it’ll be your name they speak, Apryle, when this story is retold. Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.”

There is a change in the air as power surges. The weight in my chest only allows me to draw in small breaths. I’m going to die on this table, and if my mate survives whatever is about to happen, my death will end him anyway.

Tears leak out of my eyes, rolling down my cheeks as I stare up at the stormy sky overhead.

The power is gaining momentum, and lightning flashes along the clouds, cracks of thunder following a moment later. My arm is numb, and I make one last attempt to reach my magic, coming up empty.

There’s a flash again, but this one hits the ground in front of the table. The smell of burning fills my nose, and my wolf roars as every single person writhes as if their bodies are being shattered. One by one, they all shift into their wolves, and not just the vargr. Through my hazy vision, I see the girls’ bodies twisting and cracking as their wolves take over.

It shouldn’t be possible. Tau are latent, though there are a few exceptions to the rule, but right now every single tau is in their wolf form apart from me. Still, my wolf feels stronger, closer to the surface than ever before. She was distant in the past, almost like an imprint in my mind, but now she feels solid, and she’s urging me to get up and fight.

I can’t… I’m dying.

Darkness is creeping into the edge of my vision, and the last thing I see just before I pass out is a figure standing at the end of the table—a figure I recognize as the female I met when I dreamwalked…

Revna.

Chapter 25

Kye

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