Page 69 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

The troll was still backing away, the distance between us growing as he used Leigh as a human shield. Desperation clawed at my throat, and in a last ditch effort, I closed my eyes, turning inward, reaching for the power I was so scared of.

Help me!

The power lashed out of my chest in a mighty sweep, elation flooding me as I unleashed it on purpose for the very first time. It flew up and up, disappearing into the shining ceiling of the cavern. For one despairing moment, I thought it was futile.

But when the ceiling overhead began to shake and a mighty thundering boom filled the cavern, I had hope. The troll stopped and looked up, just as a piece of the glittering ceiling sheered off, tumbling toward the cavern floor as dwarves poured out of homes and screamed, running helter-skelter toward the nearest shelter.

Gael and Reed took the moment of distraction to race toward the troll, but they never made contact.

Elodie, brave Elodie, with the elegance of a dancer and the deadly heart of a warrior, leapt over their heads in a graceful tumble, a song in another language spilling from her lips. She was moving so quickly, she blurred, landed for only a split second before she leapt again, using the nearby building and then the troll’s shoulder as stepping stones to propel herself up, up, up—and bring that sword down in a killing blow, splitting the troll’s skull down the middle in a violent spray of blood and gore.

Between one blink and the next, the three of them were falling, the troll’s blood coating everything and everyone as his lifeless body crumpled.

Gael shifted back to skin and, in seconds, was at Leigh’s side, pulling her from the ground and checking her over for injuries.

The troll didn’t get up, but neither did Elodie.

My muscles unfroze all at once, and I ran to kneel at her side.

“El? What happened, what’s wrong?” My voice was shaking as badly as my hands, but with her so covered in the troll’s blood, I couldn’t tell what was wrong with her. She looked fine—pale and gore spattered, butfine.

Her eyes fluttered up at me, her lips curled into a faint smile. “I have served my purpose. Tell the maidens I died with honor.” She coughed raggedly, sang another bar of the haunting tune, and then her eyes fell closed.

“Shit, that was the maiden’s death song. She’s got to be wounded somewhere. We need to find the wound, get her help.” Reed had appeared naked at my side, and he joined me in feeling her over.

I found a great, sodden gash on her inner thigh, sticky blood pumping from it in spurts with alarming regularity as it soaked her pant leg.Arterial wound. In her thigh, that meant femoral artery.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Reed saw the same thing I did, his face grave. “His tusk. She must have been gored during the fight. Their saliva contains an anticoagulant.”

I stripped off my jacket, doing the only thing I could think of and knotting it around the top of her thigh like a tourniquet, then using the excess material to cover the gash and putting my whole weight onto the wound.

“I thought wolves were basically indestructible!” I was crying, tears washing my face as I leaned over my very new friend, who I did not want to lose tonight. Ever, but especially not right now, like this, as I could feel her blood soaking through the material and between my fingers.

“If she bleeds out, there isn’t a way for her body to recover fast enough to heal. It’s like a beheading, or a gutting. If there’s no blood left in the body…” Reed’s voice trailed off, and I closed my eyes, begging the power inside me to do something, anything—but after calling it earlier, it now lay dormant, unresponsive.

“Over here! We need a medic!” I heard Gael bellowing as if from a distance, his call for help muted behind the blood pounding in my ears.

I held pressure on her wound, and for the first time since I was a child, I prayed.

THIRTY-FOUR

Reed

Dwarven medics swarmed around us, shoving me out of the way to slide a bleach-white stretcher under Elodie. One of them told Fiona to climb onto the stretcher with her to keep pressure, and then they were jogging, and I was following, with Gael and Leigh not far behind.

Thank the Goddess, Leigh was okay; but we were not out of the woods.

We’d been openly attacked in the streets, and with Elodie gravely injured… we were nowhere near safe.

I needed to call Kane, request backup, and let the maidens know what had happened, how Elodie had sacrificed herself to save her charge. How I’d utterly failed, both at diplomacy and at keeping my pack mates safe.

There would be time for self-castigation later. Right now, I had to keep an eye out for further threats and promise whatever it took to anyone who could save Elodie.

After that, I’d spend my whole damn fortune if that was what it took to get my pack mates safely out of this fucking cave.

We were running full speed by the time we arrived at a side entrance of the dwarven castle, much less grand than the front, with nothing over the door to mark it except a simple red symbol.

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