Page 55 of Marked For A Bite
"She says to heal you," Zoe whispered, opening her eyes to meet Logan's gaze. "But I don't know how. I've never?—"
Touch his wound. Feel the energy flowing through your body and push it into him. Guide your healing power into his flesh.
Tears began to stream down Zoe's cheeks as panic threatened her rational mind. The instructions seemed impossible, like asking her to fly or breathe underwater. But Logan was dying beneath her, and desperation made her willing to try anything.
"I don't know if I can do this," she sobbed, but her hands moved instinctively to the bloodied wound between his ribs.
"You can," Logan said with absolute conviction, even as more blood seeped between her fingers. "Trust yourself. Trust what you're feeling."
Zoe pressed her palms against the torn flesh, warmth immediately flowing from her hands into his body. She closed her eyes and focused on the energy coursing through her veins, imagining it pouring from her core into Logan's damaged tissue.
Nothing happened for several agonizing seconds. The wound continued bleeding, the wolfsbane poison continued its deadly work, and Logan's breathing grew more labored.
"I love you so much," she whispered desperately, the words torn from her soul. "I've always loved you, in every lifetime we've shared. I can't lose you."
The moment those words left her lips, something extraordinary happened. The wolfsbane poison began moving beneath Logan's skin, black veins of toxin becoming visible as they traveled toward Zoe's touch. The poison flowed into her hands like water seeking its level, drawn by a power she didn't understand but accepted completely.
Draw it out. All of it. Make him whole again.
Zoe concentrated with every fiber of her being, feeling the deadly substance collect in her palms. When the last trace of wolfsbane left Logan's system, she focused on making itdisappear in her hands. To her amazement, the poison dissolved between her fingers as though it had never existed.
"Jesus Christ," Logan breathed, color already returning to his face.
Zoe looked down in wonder as his wound began stitching itself closed, her healing abilities working in perfect harmony with his enhanced shifter recovery. Within moments, only a faint pink line remained where the gaping injury had been.
"I can't believe I just did that," she whispered, staring at her hands in amazement.
Logan's arms encircled her waist, pulling her down for a kiss that tasted of gratitude and desperate relief.
When they broke apart, he smiled softly at her. "I had a feeling those other abilities you could develop, the ones hinted at in the prophecy, would only manifest when we were officially mated," he said, his voice stronger now but still rough with emotion.
Zoe kissed him again, this time with passionate intensity, pouring all her relief and overwhelming love into the contact. Under the Blood Moon's crimson glow, surrounded by falling snow in her ancestral clearing, she finally understood what it meant to be whole.
TWENTY-FOUR
LOGAN
Logan lay naked beneath the crimson glow of the Blood Moon as snow crystals melted against his heated skin. He stared at that bright full moon, still in shock at what had just happened. His tactical mind, always calculating odds and analyzing threats, struggled to process the miracle that had just saved his life.
I was dying. Actually dying. I saw the light—that brilliant, all-consuming brightness that pulled at my consciousness like a tide.
But in that moment of surrender, his wolf had spoken with absolute clarity.Claim her. She will save you.
The memory of that otherworldly guidance still thrummed through his enhanced senses. His wolf had known something Logan's human consciousness couldn't grasp—that this sacred clearing, this Blood Moon, this moment of complete vulnerability would unlock powers that had been dormant for centuries.
Zoe's healing ability had manifested after he'd marked her neck, and she drew the wolfsbane poison from his body like she'd been born for that exact purpose. Which, according to the ancient prophecy, she had been.
My mate. My fierce, incredible mate who just pulled me back from the brink of death.
Zoe still clung to him with desperate intensity, her naked body pressed against his as though she could keep him anchored to this world through sheer force of will.
"We really should get moving," Logan said reluctantly. The practical part of his brain, the part that had kept him alive through countless dangerous missions, was already calculating their next moves. "We need to get back to Silvercrest territory and make sure your father got out of that experimentation lab safely."
Zoe's head snapped up quickly. Her hazel eyes went wide with panic and guilt.
"Oh my God, I completely forgot about him!" She scrambled off Logan's body, snow immediately clinging to her bare skin. "I was so focused on saving you that I—what if something went wrong? What if they didn't get him out? What if?—"
"Hey." Logan caught her wrist gently but firmly. "Kieran and Maya know what they're doing. Your father is in good hands."
