Page 31 of Bound By My Alpha Mate

“We can go back if you believe she’ll still be alive.”

My voice died in my throat. I was unsure of what I wanted to believe versus what I already knew.

“We can try to save her, Kiara.”

She was still in human form when we left her. If she died in human form, David and Lothair would need another unicorn horn: mine. I was sure they would try to keep her alive long enough for her to shift into her beast form. But the instant she transformed, they’d kill her, and she was already so weak…

“Kiara?”

“There’s no point,” I croaked finally. “She’s as good as dead.”

“We can still save her,” Everett insisted.

“They’ll kill her as soon as they can get her to transform. She won’t survive the next few days.”

Both of the women pushed toward me. I felt a hand on my shoulder and tensed, even if it was only the gentle consolation of Billie’s touch, an expression of her understanding—I didn’t want that from anybody. I whipped away from them, facing everyone with tears in the corners of my eyes. I focused on Colt, who had never stopped looking at me. My frown deepened with hatred and anger, but I could no longer tell if he deserved it.

“I saw her dying,” I said venomously to everyone in the room. “She used too much of her magic trying to heal people who took her for granted, who were too weak and scared to try to save her until I took the risk first. My mother is as good as dead. You’re better off waiting until you have Lycans rampaging through town. They’ll be an easier target than cowards hiding behind their minions in that mine.”

I resisted the urge to storm off before they could react, my feet remaining anchored to the floor. But nobody said anything. Just giving up didn’t feel like something I would do, but what other option did I have? Going back meant certain death, and chances were my mother would already be dead. If she wasn’t, then chances were her body would fail before long. I felt pathetic and weak and didn’t want to stand before the others any longer.

“Ais, why don’t you show Kiara to one of the guest bedrooms,” Everett suggested softly.

I was about to rush outside, but a warm bedroom sounded much nicer, so I begrudgingly allowed Aislin to lead me upstairs, down the hallway, and into one of the Eastpeak Alpha’s spare bedrooms. Once inside, I lingered, looking at the bed and breathing in the amalgam of scents belonging to all the room’s previous inhabitants, none of them my mother.

“Kiara, I’m sorry,” the redhead offered.

“Leave.”

Aislin sighed and shut the door behind her on her way out.

I crawled onto the bed, wrapped myself up in the comforter, and retreated into the silence of solitude. The past few days had given me no respite, and even this was barely a reprieve from the harshness I had endured—but at least it was a warm, safe place, so I closed my eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

The moss-covered boulders towered over me. Long fronds of bright green grass tickled my ears as my eyes opened to golden sunshine. Dandelion fluffs drifted overhead on the gentle breeze. Lying on my back, I watched clouds amble across the sky, a sense of peace coaxing me into awareness of my surroundings. I was back in the sacred place I had been taken away from.

A buzzing sound flew past my ear, jarring me off my back and onto my stomach.

Wide-eyed, I searched the glade for the source of the noise. The light breeze was all that moved. I stood, looking around, and was met with a sweet, familiar smell that reminded me of home: my mother. I parted my lips to call for her, but in my hybrid beast form, I uttered nothing but a whine.

Something moved between the trees. A dash of pearlescent white, silky strands raised by the wind like a banner. I moved after the illusion, lured by the sunlight glinting off her horn. I had to be with her! I needed to embrace her, to feel her in my arms again.

Insects whirred past me, distracting and loud. They kept diverting me from my path, pulling my eyes off the unicorn ahead of me until I feared too long a distraction would cause her to vanish. I tried to focus on her, but the glass-winged insects began to swarm. The dragonflies were back. A dense cloud of them gathered between me and the unicorn. This feeling of desperation and fear was familiar; I was scared that my mother would be taken from me again. I ran faster, calling out for her, but my words were distorted and surreal.

The dragonflies swarmed me again. So many of them landed on my shoulders that I felt too heavy to run. They bit my legs and crawled into my ears, dragging me down to the grass. My calls turned into cries as I became incapacitated by them.

Then, there was a hard wind blowing the dragonflies away from me. The wind didn’t stop. It ruffled my fur and howled in my ears. With all my strength, I raised my head and looked between the trees, and there was the unicorn with her horn raised skyward—her magic rescuing me from the dragonflies. Her eyes were a dulcet blue. It wasn’t the face of my mother.

Welkin, I realized.

The Sky Goddess drifted closer as hurricane gales wrapped around me. With each step, the wind blew even stronger until it was nearly enough to sweep me off my feet. I could barely look up at her. Welkin stared down at me, unbothered by the wind, her command unspoken.

She would not stand for the affront that had been committed against her.

My mother’s death could not go unpunished.

I woke from the dream with a gasp. Seconds later, someone knocked on my door.

“Kiara, are you awake?” Billie asked gently.

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