Page 41 of Wolf Bound

My knees hit the ground and I cradle Talia’s head in my lap, checking her over as I do. She’s still in shifted form, her small doe frame and large teal bird wings are far too much for me to carry as a human and even more so as a wolf. Her breathing is heavy, but it’s steady, and that gives me a small measure of hope.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Forrester mutters beside me, pulling at the strands of his hair. “I didn’t think. I saw him going after her when I finished off that last bitch and I just attacked. I didn’t realize he had a gun on her!”

“Check her for wounds,” I command him softly, not wanting to get into any of this at the moment. Right now, the only thing that matters is keeping her safe and alive.

“There’s one gunshot wound through her back leg, minimal bleeding.” Forrester moves around her, checking her wings as he goes. “That’s it, it seems. Do you think the shock of it is why she’s passed out?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly, placing a kiss on her forehead. “I honestly don’t know.”

A large blinding teal light comes out of Talia and shoots through the packlands. There’s a still silence that follows as Forrester and I just simply stare at her in confusion. The protective shield around Helen fades and she begins to stir beside us. At the same time, Talia shifts back into her human form, her clothes from before still perfectly intact on her body.

Looking over at Forrester, I shift Talia into my arms and stand up. “You grab Helen. We need to get them both to the packhouse and figure out what the fuck else is going on.”

With a nod, he gathers Helen into his arms and we take off. I glance down at Talia, noting the way her cheeks are flushed and an almost invisible shimmer rests across her pale skin. Her leg shows no signs of blood from the wound either. If I hadn’t seen what just happened, I would think she simply fell asleep after a day by the lake.

This mate of ours is as extraordinary as she is delicate. I don’t know how any of us are going to handle her part in this upcoming war.

Goddess, protect us all. No, seriously, protect us all. I can’t live without my mate.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Talia

Waking up after passing out is always a jarring experience for me. It's less terrifying wondering what happened to me now that I've been out of that prison for a while, but it's far more terrifying wondering what happened to the people I love. My mates, Helen, the pack as a whole.

Shooting upright, I stare at the walls of Drayton's room in confusion. There's no way for me to truly tell how long I was out for. Alaric is passed out beside me in bed, not moving an inch. He looks to have no injuries on him that I can see, yet I can't help but worry that something is wrong.

What the hell happened with the Croises? I remember staring down one of them as I stood in front of an unconscious Helen,but everything is kind of blurry after that. Drayton and, I think Forrester, were there with me, but that leaves Penn, Wes, and Alaric completely unaccounted for around the time I passed out.

Wait, why did I pass out? Nothing feels injured on me either, and I can't even recall being in the meadow with my peryton after the fighting. It could be because I was in my peryton form when I passed out, since that's never happened to us before. I can still feel her in my mind, sleeping in the glow of the meadow, which is reassuring. I just don't know why I wasn't there with her.

"Oh thank god. You're awake," Penn says from the now open door.

He rushes towards me and pulls me into his arms. The motion seems to wake up Alaric at last, who pushes up onto his elbows with a gentle, tired smile.

"We were worried about you, kitten." Alaric moves onto his side to face Penn and me, the blankets falling off of him slightly to reveal his very naked, very beautiful chest. "Do you feel alright? Does your leg still hurt at all?"

"Huh?" I mumble, my eyes still fixated on his chest. There's a dusting of dark blonde hair that my hands are itching to caress. "My what?"

Penn adjusts us with a laugh, placing me between his legs as he leans back against the headboard. "Your leg, baby girl. You were shot yesterday."

That shocks me out of my staring, okay drooling, episode.

"Shot?! Is anyone else hurt? Are you both okay? Oh god," I cry out.

I glance between the two of them in panic, searching with my magic to see if either of them need to be healed at all. Both men remain calm throughout my freak out. They seem to realise that I need a magical moment to verify that they are in fact okay.A sigh escapes after I find no wounds on either of them or the other three men I can now feel lurking around the house.

Well, that's new. My healing senses have never spread that far before.

"You scared me! You couldn't have added that everyone else is fine?" I admonish both of them with a deep exhale.

'We didn't realise you had no memory of being hurt," Alaric replies with a wince. "If we knew, kitten, we would have absolutely started with the fact that everyone is okay."

Nodding my head in acknowledgment, I lean into Penn and reach out a hand to Alaric, who takes it and starts rubbing my knuckles gently.

"I just assumed that I had passed out from using too much magic or something. If I'm being honest, everything feels a little hazy from the end of it all."

Wes and Drayton walk in the room as I'm talking, a frown marring both of their faces.

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