Page 42 of Eclipsed Heart

Even in debilitating pain, he was worried about me.I’m fine. Just concentrate on you.

Samuel’s brown fur caught my eye, and I winced. He’d taken more of a beating than I’d realized. Blood dripped from the gashes in his sides and oozed from his snout.

Kel had to be stopped. She was causing way too much pain and chaos.

Unable to be patient, I connected with Jack,Do you know when you’ll be here?

I can hear you guys barking. We’re close. Any second now.

Our bond buzzed between us, but it wasn’t helping Bodey’s pain. He yelped as the agony intensified inside him.

My eyes burned as I held him. I was afraid to move him and cause any additional suffering.

He’d been spelled and was enduring all this hell because he was mated to me. Maybe I’d had it right to begin with—I wasn’t meant to be part of a pack, and I should have run off and been solo. Had Samuel received the ink, maybe none of this would’ve happened. Now they were stuck with me.

Someone who didn’t know how to be queen.

But I was the one marked, and that couldn’t be undone, no matter how much I wanted it to be. All I could do now was protect the ones I loved.

Which was going swimmingly.

At the end of the day, I felt helpless. The void that had haunted me all my life wasn’t there anymore, but the ghost of it somehow weighed more. People needed me now, and hell…for twenty-two years, I hadn’t been able to help myself.

I had to snap out of this. I had packs to lead, and even if I failed, I’d go down trying.

When I raised my head, two wolves were staring at me while the other seventeen kept scanning for a new threat.

I should’ve pulled my act together sooner. Despite being naked on the ground, my mate sprawled over me; I lifted my chin and nodded to the wolf I’d knocked out not that long ago. “Make sure that wolf doesn’t get away.” She lay outside of the fog. “She could wake anytime, and we can’t lose her. We need answers.”

The two wolves nodded, trotting over to the still-unconscious wolf. At least, that got their eyes off me for the moment.

Michael and Lucas appeared from the gray fog. Michael looked at me and then Bodey. He hurried over, stopping several feet away.

What happened to him?Michael’s eyes widened.

The witch spelled him.And I hadn’t been quick enough to stop her. That was something that I’d have to live with, especially if we couldn’t figure out how to stop the pain.

Miles's dark wolf hovered in front of Samuel, facing the direction the enemy wolves had gone, while Lucas’s brown wolf positioned himself behind Samuel, the two of them guarding him.

All of a sudden, there was a drastic dip in Bodey’s pain. His labored breathing smoothed out.

I gasped.

What’s wrong?Michael moved closer, staring at his son.

The pain he’s in…it’s easing.Hope expanded in my chest, and I braced myself, knowing it could get worse again. For all we knew, the witch was messing with us.

Are you seriously sitting out here naked?Bodey linked, his eyes opening slightly.

I snickered. I couldn’t help it. Out of everything he could have said, that was the first thing he wanted to address?Well, I had to get you out of the mist somehow, and I couldn’t in wolf form without hurting you worse.Warm tears streaked down my face, and only then did I realize that I was crying.

Well, it’s a damn good thing I’m in your lap, but Dad needs to move away.Bodey growled faintly, but it didn’t hold much anger. The noise was still weak.

Why are you crying?Michael’s panic picked up a notch, and he moved so close that he almost touched me, staring into his son’s eyes.

Bodey’s pain was still receding as his protectiveness flared. I said, “He wants you to get away from me because I’m naked.” I laughed. “In other words, he’s getting better.”

Dina, Jack, and Chelsea, a witch who’d helped at the coronation, came into view through the fir trees.

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