Page 61 of Destined Mate

I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg.

Gods, I wished I’d been prepared for battle. I had no clue what to do, so I would have to rely on my wolf to get me through.

With how much I was bleeding, my time upright was limited. I had to end this. I stomped my foot and pretended to charge, stumbling a few steps forward.

The wolf snarled but didn’t move toward me.

Dammit. This had to work. I couldn’t launch myself at him.

And he knew that.

Taking another step toward him, I raised my axe high, ready to swing. This blow had to count. What if I didn’t have the strength to lift it again?

I needed to mess with him, make the wolf irrational.

“It’s sad when you’re scared of a shifter girl in human form,” I sneered, my head woozy. I stumbled another step toward him, unable to keep my balance.

The wolf lost it.

He lowered his head and charged.

At the last second, I jumped to the right, landing on my left leg. I adjusted my hold on the axe and hit the back of his head with the handle.

He dropped forward, and his teeth tore into my left leg.

I dropped to the ground on top of him and rolled onto my back, my arms sprawled out.

My vision hazed just as he jumped on top of me. A sickening wolfy smile stretched across his face, and a hard knot formed in my chest.

This was it. This was my last chance.

With every ounce of strength I had, I swung my right arm upward and forward. I got dizzy, but I felt the axe hit something solid. The brown wolf squealed, and his weight disappeared off me.

I couldn’t see. I had to hope the blow had been enough…that I wouldn’t die like this.

Blackness engulfed me.

* * *

Awareness trickledin as coldness seeped over me. I didn’t have the energy to open my eyes. All I could sense was the rain pattering all around me and dripping across my skin.

“Callie,” someone whispered.

The wind blew, making the tree branches creak. For all I knew, no one had said my name.

Agony radiated through me as horribly as when my pack had injured my ribs, but instead of it being concentrated in one area, it coursed throughout my body.

The memory of what had happened flooded through me.

I was outside, in the woods, and there was no telling who might find me. The dark-brown wolf could regain consciousness at any second, or the light-brown one might finish what he started.

I hissed through my teeth, grasping for the strength to do something,anything. Open my eyes, move a hand, something that would give me a chance to make it out of here. All I got was dizzy.

“Callie,” someone called, the voice louder and clearer. It sounded like Stevie.

What was she doing out here? She didn’t need to be out here. It wasn’t safe.

I needed her to go home. I groaned loudly, my strength thoroughly gone.

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