Page 13 of Wolf Bound

Talia’s trust in me fills the space in my heart to the point of pain. My mate, the very essence of my soul, is trusting me with her life like we’ve known each other our whole lives. It took one wolfy nod in her direction for her to let go of all hesitation and run head first towards an explosion.

This is our family coming to save us, and I know the moment they catch her scent, they’ll do everything in their power to protect her, just as I would. They’re my packmates and the rest of Talia’s mates; their arrival is the turning of the tides of fate.

There’s one last part of my vision that still needs to come to pass. That bitch from our cells is going to attack Talia from behind a pillar with a dagger. At the time of the vision, I didn’t know it was my mate that she was attacking.

All I knew was that I would have to defend someone that means a lot to me. Stupidly, I thought it would be one of my pack brothers. Seeing the scene in front of me, I know it’s going to be her. There was pain and rage like I've never known before in that vision, which means for the first time in my entire life, I'm going to try to change the future I saw. No one will be hurting my mate today, fate and destiny be fucking damned.

A black wolf dives through the hole in the wall twenty feet in front of us, viciously throwing a body against the wall before turning in our direction. Drayton's light blue eyes train on our mate, his nostrils flaring as he takes in her scent. It doesn't take long for the scent of Talia to light a flame of recognition behind his eyes. Drayton's eyes stay fixated on Talia as she runs toward him, her faith in me leaving her with no hesitation in trusting the massive black wolf in front of her.

My sharpened vision catches every movement of my mate and my alpha. The dawning of realisation on Talia’s face is mesmerising, her jade coloured eyes widening in surprise and confusion. Watching her is quickly becoming my favourite thing in the entire world, which is a dangerous thing.

It's almost in slow motion that I realise the mistake I’ve made. My focus was too caught up on my mate and not enough on keeping her safe. The pillar is in front of us now, and the glint of that bitch’s knife is catching my attention, just like it did in the vision.

The woman from the cells earlier screams in rage as she dives at Talia, her knife striking her in the chest before anyone can react to what’s happening. An anguished howl tears out of my throat, the same one I saw happen weeks earlier.

Lunging without thought, I grab the blonde woman by the throat, whipping her body back and forth as the hot, metallic tang of her blood hits my tongue. My wolf and I are unhinged in our rage, shaking her dead body until all that’s left in my mouth is her torn out throat.

Chaos diminishes around me as more wolves jump into this section of hallway as the gunshots and screams start to die out. Shifting back to human, I move towards Drayton who’s also shifted back and is holding an unconscious but breathing Talia.

“Please tell me she’s okay,” I say, tears already clogging my throat as I see the blood staining her clothes.

“From what I can tell, the knife hit her shoulder. She’s going to be okay. I don’t know what she is, but she’s healing even faster than one of us,” Drayton explains, his brow furrowed in confusion and concern. “Is this— I mean, is she—”

His voice trails off, his gaze never leaving her face as he struggles to voice the question. Drayton has always believed my visions, even the ones that the others refused to listen to, like those of Talia. Even so, I don’t think he ever thought that our mate would come to us now, in this way.

“Yeah,” I answer the unspoken question, brushing a hand down her face. “This is her. Our mate.”

Drayton curses under his breath, pulling her tightly against his body. “Then let’s get both of you the fuck out of here. More of these assholes got away than I would like to admit. I want both of you as far away from here as possible before they come back.”

Turning away, he walks towards our packmates, shaking his head at their looks of confusion. Wes and Forrester are taking multiple glances at Talia, their nostrils flaring as they sniff moreand more trying to make sense of her scent. Neither one argues with the alpha when he walks past, his glance at them saying not now.

Forrester moves beside me, Wes on the other side as I pass through the massive hole in the wall. Drayton and I remain the only ones of our pack in human form as we move quickly out of the destruction of this gothic prison.

Alaric takes the lead with two wolves from his inner circle of enforcers making a barrier to Dray and Talia. It feels like no time at all before we’re outside and running towards the copse of trees that surrounds this place.

Chancing a glance behind me, I almost falter in my steps at the sight. There’s smoke and debris everywhere, leaving the already creepy castle looking like a scene from a horror movie. To think that these insane motherfuckers have been holding our mate as a prisoner here for twenty-four years.

They’ll pay for the things they did to her. This won’t be the last time we fight The Croisés.

We’ve won this battle, but I have no doubt that this is the start of a much bigger war.

Chapter Eight

Alaric

Keep moving and don’t think about the injured, beautiful shifter in Drayton’s arms that I’m pretty sure is my fated mate. Judging by the looks on Dray and Penn’s faces, they also have the mate bond pulling at them. That means that Penn’s constant talk of visions of a beautiful mate that’s bonded to all five of us was true.

I’m not going to lie. I thought he was just a hopeless romantic who had a weird poly kink. Wes and I both assumed he was confusing dreams and visions since he always described them as being similar.

Jokes on us, I guess.

Forrester is going to be super fucking pissed because I know he was planning on bailing as soon as we got back to the packlands with Penn. There’s no way his wolf will let him walk away now, not unless he fully rejects the mate bond which would hurt our mate, and I’ll fucking lock him up and remove his vocal cords before I let that happen.

My wolf is in a bit of a huff that I took more control over the driver’s seat than normal. He wants to run beside our mate, to push his nose against her warm skin until she wakes up and shows us she’s okay. I can hear her breathing and her heart beating strongly in her chest, but we both want more confirmation of her wellness than that.

The run to the vehicles takes far longer than I would like, but the minute we break through the trees, I sigh a breath of relief. Shifting back to my human body, I swing around to bark orders at my men.

“Bronson and Harris, go scout towards the road and make sure the way is clear for us to head back home. The rest of you, shift back and get these vehicles packed and ready to be on the road in the next ten minutes. The SUV stays empty for us. The rest of you will surround the SUV in a security convoy formation.”

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