Page 82 of Fire Bound

I move as fast as I can. A few times my shoes catch on debris I can’t see through the fire. By the time I make it up to the top, my palms and knees are scraped from catching myself on the rugged terrain.

There’s a break in the flames before I come to a wall of them. I stand examining all eight feet of them. The rest of the flames behave like normal fire, it spreads and moves about, burning everything in its path, but these stay completely in place.

When a pained wolfish yelp comes from behind the wall of flames, I jump into action. I don’t know who the sound belongs to, the noise is garbled by the rushing sound of flames, but it doesn’t matter. If there’s even a chance that it’s Jax, nothing is going to stop me from getting to him.

I leap through the wall of fire and land inside what I can only describe as a bloody arena. The ground that was once dirt and grass is now red with spilled blood. The two gladiators that fight in the middle look like something from a nightmare.

I don’t know how either of them is still standing. They both look like they’ve taken a thousand lashes with a whip and were then run over with a semitruck. And then backed over just for good measure. The blonde wolf’s right ear is gone, adding to the rest of his disfigured appearance. Deep claw marks are raked across the black wolf’s face.

Despite the horror show in front of me, I’m still hit with a wave of relief when I see that my hellhound is still standing. He’s injured, but he’s alive and that spark of hope is enough to instantly make my tired soul feel stronger.

Or it did for a second, but when the ungodly looking blond wolf lunges at Jax and sinks his teeth into Jax’s shoulder, the hope is replaced by a bloodthirsty vengeance I didn’t know I was capable of feeling. “No!” I scream before my wolf flies out of me.

There have been so many times that stress or high emotions have hindered my ability to shift when I need to, but not now. My wolf explodes from my skin with a venomous snarl, the scent of her mate’s blood only making her angrier.

Without hesitation or reservation, I barrel into the fray. I want to be able to greet my mate and revel in the fact that we are both here now, but there isn’t time for that.

My body slams into the blond wolf, forcing him to release Jax’s flesh. We roll on the bloody ground together. Nothing but a mess of legs and fur before coming to a crashing halt near the flames.

I scramble to my feet, not wanting to give him time to get over me and pin me to the ground. While he’s still slightly dazed from the hit his body just took, I dive for his throat. My canines embed into the side of his neck. I rejoice and feel triumphant when I taste his blood on my tongue. I lock my jaw and shake my head violently to cause further damage.

He howls in pain and rolls to his back in an attempt to free himself. His paws kick out and try to shove me away. I hold my ground until the claws of his front paws slice across my chest. Pain rips through me, and I’m forced to let go of his neck as I cry out and retreat a step.

Behind me, I’m vaguely aware of the hellhound finally getting to his feet in slow, stiff movements. When he’s finally standing, he limps forward a few painful feet, the wound in his shoulder affecting his mobility.

Sterling pulls himself off the ground and lowers his head while snarling. Blood-stained drool drops from his equally stained mouth. I can’t tell if it’s Jax’s blood or from his own wounds. Most likely it’s a combination of both. I don’t know how long I was hovering in limbo while Kaius put my soul back into my body, but I know Sterling and Jax have been at this a while. Both are hurting and exhausted. Jax always said his wolf was volatile and savage, but Sterling’s is too. Sterling also fought dirty by killing me right in front of Jax. That kind of distraction and pain is bound to have an effect on the hellhound.

Doesn’t matter now, because I’m here and if Jax and I have proven anything, we’re stronger together.

Weneed to end this.

Now.

I match his snarl with one of my own as I slowly begin to circle him. He follows my lead, watching and waiting for me to make my next move. Both Genevieve and Pruitt are powerful alpha wolves, it’s not surprising that Sterling would also be one. He pushes his power out, letting me know he outranks me in the natural order. He wants me to know he’s stronger.

I already knew he was stronger, but he doesn’t know just how strong my determination is when I set my mind to a goal. He doesn’t know the lengths I will go through to keep the people I love safe. As long as he breathes, he’s a threat to my family and to the life I want to build with my mate. It simply won’t do for him to be allowed to breathe any longer than he has.

A giant, unbelievably warm body brushes up against my side when he joins me in my slow, methodical circling. I want to turn into his body and revel in the sensation of having Jax close, but I force myself to keep moving while watching Sterling’s body for any hints at what his next move will be.

Finally, having grown impatient and restless, Sterling dives at me. The hellhound is moving before I know what’s happening. He leaps over me and lands on Sterling’s back. His paws made of hellfire sear into Sterling’s already burned skin as they land in a heap on the ground. Jax gets the advantage and pins the top half of Sterling to the ground. He tries to find an opening to sink his teeth into his opponent’s throat or face, but Sterling is able to keep just enough space between them with his thrashing legs.

Diving into the mess, I bite his hind leg. My teeth hit bone, but I continue to add pressure until the bone starts to crack from the force. I rip at his flesh until his leg is nothing but a mangled mess hanging on by a bloody thread.

A sound comes out of Sterling that I can only describe as a scream, even though wolves don’t have the ability to do so. I release the leg, planning on moving onto the other one, but stop when I look up and find Jax holding Sterling’s marred jaw in his teeth.

He bites down until the bone splinters and is crushed from the hellhound’s unforgiving weight.

When Jax lets go of it, it hangs almost completely detached from his body. Blood pours from his mouth and his tongue hangs helplessly out with nothing keeping it in place anymore.

The hellhound backs up until he stands at my side again. He turns his head just enough to lick lovingly at my muzzle before his gaze returns to the broken and quickly weakening enemy in front of us.

I want to stand here and watch as Sterling starts to look less and less like himself and more like roadkill, but we’ve waited a long time for this moment.

The blond wolf staggers, its mangled back leg making him uneasy on his feet. He stumbles forward but catches himself at the last minute. He’s able to hold himself up for a few more seconds before, with a defeated whine, he crumbles into a sitting position.

I cut a quick, confused glance in Jax’s direction, but he doesn’t look back at me. Instead, he watches as the broken wolf morphs back into the vile man. The pained animal sounds transition into a groan of human agony.

In front of the wall of flames, Sterling sits on his haunches, his broken leg is at an unnatural angle. His jaw hangs limply from his already destroyed face and blood pours from the wound on the side of his head where his ear used to be.

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