Page 16 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

I nodded weakly as my feet dragged along the ground, his strength keeping us both up while the girls ran ahead towards a bright light. The edge of the forest was in view, and as I turned to look along the trees around us, I could see the tethers of creatures coming nearer.

“You have to hurry,” I gasped out. “The creatures, I don’t know what they are, but they’re coming this way. They sense. The ward is severed.”

“Don’t worry about any of that, man,” Baer assured me. “You just hang on. Once we get out of this forest, we’ll get some meat in you, and you will be back to full strength. Just worry about staying awake right now.”

I nodded at his words, though the world around me was fading out. All I could see was a bright light growing closer. The strands of colored tethers and the creatures they belonged to were being washed out by the bright light.

My body grew heavier with every stride that Baer made, and voices that I couldn’t quite place called out to me to just stay awake. To not give up.

A singular voice threatened me. The sound choked as she begged me not to give in. That she would hunt me down in the afterlife if I didn’t make it through this.

I held onto that voice. Even as the light began to darken in my view, I held onto the voice that threatened my afterlife if I gave up on my life. There was just something so calming about it, I couldn’t quite place it.

‘She is all that matters,’my wolf said, his voice as groggy as I felt.‘We will not leave her. She needs us more than ever before.’

I felt myself agreeing with him, but I couldn’t quite understand why.

‘She needs us more than she knows,’he added, his eyes drifting closed as he faded into the back of my mind.‘Protect our mate.’

I gasped, my lungs burning as they filled with air, as if they had been emptied before. I could feel pain in my chest, my ribs somehow broken. I could feel them healing now, slower than I’d like. The pain still evident.

As I opened my eyes, Baer leaned over me, his mouth inches from mine and eyes locked on my chest.

“What the hell?” I coughed.

His gaze turned to me, relief in his eyes as the sound of sobs came from behind him.

“He’s awake! He’s okay!” Baer called over to the other two.

“What the hell happened?” I asked, my head throbbing as I tried to shield my eyes from the sudden bright sun when Baer moved away.

“You lost a lot of blood with that last wisp. You even stopped breathing for a minute there. I thought we lost you.”

I frowned, groaning as I sat up, the pain in my ribs sending shocks through my nerves. “That doesn’t explain why my ribs are broken.”

“My bad,” Baer said. “I guess I pressed too hard in the chest compressions. But hey, good thing you have a wolf to heal you.”

He patted me hard on my back. I winced from the impact as my body jolted forward and my ribs screamed.

Everything slowly came back to me then. The wisps. Their name. How to kill them. And how we knew how to kill them.

I looked over at Sasha, her eyes puffy and red, a scowl on her face as she attempted to hide the fear and relief in her eyes, but all I could do was wonder.

How did she know?

Chapter Eight

Sasha

Ididn’tknow.ButI did know. I just didn’t know how I knew.

Until today, I had never known what a wisp was, let alone the monstrous creature that attacked us. That nearly killed Ayden, who put himself in harm’s way to protect me.

I froze up. I never froze up like that before, but that voice in my head had paralyzed me.

The voice was in shadows in my mind. It sent chills down my spine and made my birthmark burn. Something that had only ever happened once in my life. Back when I had that premonition about Ayden on graduation day.

Because of my fear, I didn’t help in the fight. The most I could do was tell them how to kill the damned things, but now I saw the looks in their eyes.

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