Page 342 of Warlords, Witches & Wolves

“Noah, listen to me. You’ll never get her to a hospital in time.” He leveled his stare with mine. “She’ll die. Do you get that? Your mate will die.”

I lifted Mia, cradling her head in the crook of my arm. How had everything gone so fucking wrong? Ever since that hunter came to Woodland Falls, he’d torn apart my life.

But Joan’s death brought Mia back to Woodland Falls. A second chance I never thought I’d get. I’d waited fifteen years to start a lifetime with my mate. If I didn’t save her now, that fucking hunter had won.

I stared down at Mia in my arms. Her face sickly pale, her breathing labored. She made wheezy coughing noises as blood filled her lungs.

I was out of time. If I didn’t save her now, it would be too late.

After, if she hated me, even if she sold the house and moved back to the city wanting never to see me again, at least she’d be alive. I’d already resigned myself to becoming the lone wolf I feared. If it meant saving her, I’d welcome centuries of loneliness with open arms.

What I couldn’t do was exist knowing I could’ve saved her and chose not to.

I leaned down close to her ear. “I’m sorry, Mia. I can’t let you die. I won’t.” I thrust my free arm to Ash. “Do it.”

Without another word, Ash grabbed the hunter’s blade off the ground and used it to slice my wrist. Blood dripped down my arm. Shifter blood, the only thing that would save Mia.

I eased my wrist against her lips. “Drink, baby. Heal.”

She didn’t react. She lay there motionless.

I wouldn’t let another person die because of me. I came into her life, I showed her the shifter world, I claimed her as my mate. Everything that happened over the past few weeks was because of me.

“Mia. Drink.”

I wiggled my wrist between her lips.

Ever so lightly, her tongue lapped at the cut. Tentative at first, then with more strength, more urgency. Through our bond, I sensed my lifeblood seeping into her mouth, down her throat, repairing damaged organs, sealing torn tissue, breathing life into her lungs.

Her hands shot up and gripped my wrist, holding it in place. Her lips formed a hard seal around the cut, drawing deep pulls of blood. And her moans sent a flash of heat right to my cock. Clearly, she hadn’t drained all my blood.

Now that she was out of the danger zone, I sensed the other shifters back off and give us privacy. Thank fuck. ’Cause healing my mate was the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced and I sure as hell didn’t need an audience.

Too soon, Mia’s lips relaxed, and she eased back from my wrist. Her eyes opened and her gaze locked on mine. Clear, bright eyes full of life, flashed with amber.

In that moment, she became the enemy.

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