Page 61 of Cruel Alpha Beast
Feeling like something is watching me, I glance over my shoulder and nearly scream aloud when I see the shadow monsters eyeing me from between the trees. They stand perfectly still, their misty tails wagging in the air, placidly. I even see one lick its teeth, but it doesn’t come any closer.
Look ahead, I tell myself. Just keep looking ahead.
Finally, I start to smell smoke. Sawyer’s connection is wavering between fear and pain, and I realize that things are getting far more dire than I worried they would be.
There’s a willow tree ahead of me—just like the drawings I’ve seen—and it’s completely engulfed in flames. A figure comes into view, shaped like a small woman, and the closer I get, the more I realize that she’s circling a wolf.
I get closer, and Sawyer’s feelings are almost too intense for me to come any closer. I come closer, grimacing the entire way. Sure enough, there he is, snarling in his wolf form at Violet, blood streaking the brown fur of his lupine face, glittering in the firelight from the tree.
Violet twirls around girlishly, swinging the large knife in her grasp. She lunges forward, and Sawyer yelps, unable to catch her wrist with his fangs, before she cuts him on the other side. I almost cried out in pain, falling to my knees, but Violet still hadn’t laid eyes on me.
Lacey, if you can hear me, stay quiet, Sawyer’s voice says in my head.
My jaw drops. I had no idea the connection was so strong that our minds could be linked together like that. I think back,I’ll try. Are you okay?But if he hears me or not, he doesn’t respond.
“Oh, little wolf,” Violet says in a condescending tone. “You have no idea just how important you will be to this forest. Your sacrifice will bring about a newer, better generation of witches. And we will take this valley back. Itbelongsto us, you know? We founded it, then we let you filthy little pups live with us, until you took it from us.”
Sawyer merely yelps back. All I can do is keep thinking back about how much I need him to stay alive and stay strong. For me. For Shea.
With a wave of her hand, Violet turns Sawyer back into a human. He can barely stand on his knees, and I realize that both sides of his face are covered in blood. It doesn’t look good at all, but what’s even worse is when Violet leans over him and slashes her blade across his chest.
I bite down hard on my own arm to keep myself from screaming along with Sawyer at the pain. I want to run out and help him, but there’s nothing I can do. He told me to stay quiet. And even if I wanted to disobey his orders, my feet wouldn’t allow me to. I’m frozen in fear.
Sawyer falls back onto the ground, writhing in pain. Violet grins devilishly down at him, then she wiggles her free fingers, drops the knife lazily at his side, and in a blink, she’s gone and out of sight. Magically disappeared.
My feet are finally working again, and I run over to his body. I didn’t realize there were other cuts across his chest until I came closer. His dark shirt is soaked in blood, and his eyes are unfocused. I look down and find a hole near his ribs that he’s trying to cover with his hands.
“Lacey,” he chokes out, attempting to smile.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I tell him, reaching for his arm.
“No—you’re not,” he struggles to utter. “You’re not strong enough—and I’m—I’m dying. Might as—well—be dead, already.”
“Sawyer, no,” I say, tears falling from my eyes and cleaning the blood on his face. “No, I just got you. I’m not readyto lose you! Please! W-we can find Danielle! Or P-Penelope! They can heal you!”
Sawyer lifts a bloodstained finger to my hair and strokes a strand behind my ear.
“I’m sorry I was—such a piece of shit to you—all the time,” he says. “I love you, Lacey.”
I can’t even tell what pain is mine versus his at this point. I howl out, feeling my heart actively break inside my chest.
He takes one of my hands in his, his grip uncharacteristically limp around mine. His eyes flutter closed, and his breath becomes shallower.
“No!” I cry out. “You’re not allowed to die! She needs you! I need you! Iloveyou, Sawyer!”
He breathes one last breath, and his hand loses all strength, falling onto his blood-soaked shirt. I watch in horror as the life fades from his body, my mouth and eyes frozen open.
He’s dead. The love of my life. The father of my child. My husband.
I can’t even cry anymore. I don’t know what to do with myself. And if I didn’t know that Shea would be out there, wondering what happened to me, I might even throw myself to the shadow monsters to feast on my bones.
But then, right before my eyes, a tiny ball of white energy escapes from Sawyer’s open mouth, growing in size as it hovers over him. I want to swat it away, keep it from doing anything to his body.
That’s right, all he is is a body right now.
Well, it was, until the ball of energy started splitting apart, finding every wound on his body right now and slippinginto each of them. I watch as they somehow manage to stem the bleeding, sewing his muscles and organs back together until he’s whole again.
Sawyer breathes in loudly, jolting up to a seated position. I watch in shock as we both realize that whatever was inside of him it’s given him a second chance at life. A second chance to save the valley.
