Page 58 of Brutal Alpha Bully

Phina shouts something at Nora, but our daughter doesn’t listen, shaking her mother’s arm off and increasing her focus, raising her arms, growing the bubble until it includes Soren, who falls to his knees on the ground, hacking and coughing.

Instead of fighting her, Phina joins in, creating a bubble of her own, pushing it up and out around the other guys, who look around dazed, like they also think they’re already dead. The bubbles grow and grow, though I’m unsure how or where they’re finding the energy for it.

Nora’s small frame trembles with the effort of channeling so much power. Sweat beads on Phina’s forehead. The bubbles grow, and the fire pushes back into the trees, looking for all the world like it’safraid.

“More,” Nora says, her voice shaking. She doesn’t look up from her hands, like a kid who needs to watch them as they type. Like if she looks away, the magic might stop. “I need more!”

For a moment, the bubbles start to shrink, then Phina takes a jerky step to the side, and, her eyes squeezed shut, she takes Nora’s hand, holding it in hers. The domes grow and combine, the magic around us thriving, pulsing through the air with considerable strength.

The barrier becomes something solid, pushing back against the flames with a renewed force. It’s suffocating it. Doing more than we’veeverdone with the extinguisher.

As they push, the daemon fire recoils almost like it’s in pain, the roar of the flames rising in pitch until it starts to sound like screaming again. My head swims with pain, and blood continues to flow down my side, but I stand with my daughter and Phina, hands on their shoulders, not knowing what to do for them.

I can feel how unsteady they are. How much this is taking from them.

It looks like it’s going to work, then Phina slips, moaning as her hand falls from Nora’s. She collapses backward into me, and I catch her, watching as the dome halves in size. Nora throws both her hands up like she’s going to catch it, hold it up.

“I can’t,” Nora sobs, shaking her head, her entire body vibrating with the effort. I reach up for her, taking her hand where Phina held it before, but I have no magic to offer her.

“It’s okay,” I say instead, squeezing her hand, so proud of her for trying. “Nora, it’s okay. You did your best.”

Nora turns and looks at me, tears streaking down her dirty face, and then she does something I wasn’t expecting.

She laughs.

And when she does, it’s like magic bursts forth from her, pulsing into the wall and pushing outward like a sound wave. It sweeps over the forest in a sonic boom, extinguishing the fires atop the trees, muffling them instantly until only tendrils of smoke rise from where it was before.

“Holyshit,” Lachlan breathes, standing there, looking out at the aftermath.

Then, just like that, Nora collapses into me. I hold her, too, reaching up to feel her pulse. It’s weak, but it’s there.

My daughter just saved our lives.

“Did youseethat?” Felix asks, appearing beside me with his hands on his head, his mouth wide open with awe even as he’s still wheezing through the smoke. “Holy fucking gods, Xeran, did you fucking see what they just did? They—”

I turn, still holding the girls in my arms, looking at my friends. The men who have followed me into fires, who would do it again.

“You saw nothing,” I hear myself say, looking at each of them. Soren frowns but says nothing, and the others follow suit. “None of this happened.”

“Xeran—” Kalen starts, but I shake my head, already knowing what he’s going to say. Magic like this could be all the difference in firefighting.

But I have to learn more about it before I go offering up my family to the flames. And after seeing Nora collapse like that, there’s not a single part of me that wants to see her do it again.

“Nothing,” I repeat, and I realize my voice carries with it the authority of the alpha supreme. “Now, help me get these guys to the hospital.”

Kalen and Soren lean down to help, but Felix lets out a low whistle, his hands on his hips as he looks out at the town below us through the drifting smoke.

“Sure,” he says, then frowns. “If the hospital still exists.”

Chapter 30 - Seraphina

I wake to the gentle pressure of a cool cloth on my face. Around me is a sweet, gently charred scent. Something deep and masculine, like cedar wood in a fire that’s been burning for far too long.

My eyelids are heavy, and though I expected my body to hurt, it doesn’t. I feel heavy, like I might not be able to lift my limbs, but there’s no pain there. No hurting.

When I open my eyes, Xeran is there, those dark blue eyes intent on me.

“Nora?” It’s the first thing I ask, a word that escapes my lips before thoughts are even present in my head.

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