Page 144 of Awakened
“Celeste. You okay?”
I laughed. “Yes, thanks to your reckless ass, but I need to go get help. So, I’m going to put you in a stall. You should be safe there until I can come back for you.”
He nodded weakly. “Sounds good. Can I get one thing first?”
“What do you need?”
He winced as he raised his hands, groaning as he tried to sit up. I leaned in to keep him from exerting himself too much. His hands framed my face, and gently, he touched his lips to mine. The taste of blood wasn’t enough to ruin the same explosion of butterflies that always happened when he kissed me. Warmth spread through my body as I settled into yet another realization.
Seth was mine. He might not have been my mate, but he was fucking mine. And I was his.
Way too soon, Seth pulled away, leaving me to chase after hislips. When I opened my eyes, his dark gaze was tracing every inch of my face. “I love you, Celeste. I always have.”
He caressed my cheek, and I smiled sadly. “I love you, too. Now let me go so I can save your ass.”
His laugh slowly turned into a cough and then a grimace. “Ouch, that fucking hurts.”
Standing up, gripping him under his arms, I braced myself to take his weight. “I’m sure this won’t feel any better.” I dragged him backward toward an empty stall. His dead weight was like nothing I’d ever felt. Thank goodness Marie made us do extensive training, or he’d have been shit out of luck.
I propped him up on some straw, making sure he kept pressure on his stomach. “Comfortable?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Of course, you aren’t comfortable. Let me rephrase that—not going to bleed out?”
He grunted. “No bleeding out. Promise.”
I bent down and kissed his hair. “I’m holding you to that.”
Standing in front of the door, I tried to push into Marie’s mind to see if the coast was clear, but there was too much static. I wondered if it was part of the coven’s distraction.
I listened for any clues about what was happening. The wind howled, and the rain beat against the barn walls, but I couldn’t hear anything else.
“Fuck this.” I flipped open the latch and swung open the door.
A bolt of lightning illuminated the entire area, stopping me dead in my tracks.
“Ho-ly shit.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
A blinding orb filled the space between the barn and the house. Inside stood Marie and what looked like Alpha Stewart. Surrounding them were the women of the retreat, standing at the ready.
The sound of guns being fired reached my ears, but the bullets never made it to the yard. That didn’t stop the women from flinching whenever one sizzled and hit the ground, waiting for their luck to run out.
“Celeste!” Bonnie’s panicked call drew me out of my daze.
Rushing into the whipping rain, I pushed past a few gawking gammas. Making it to Bonnie’s side on the outer ring of bodies, heat radiated from seemingly nowhere.
“What the fuck is happening, Bon?” I had to shout to be heard over the violent storm that surrounded us.
Her dark eyes were wide, reflecting the sickly white glow of the orb as her tight coils swayed in the wind. “No idea. When you reached the barn, Marie ordered us to the porch and went to the middle of the yard. Stewart walked out of the tree line—” Bonnie’s hand jerked toward the two alphas frozen in time. “And that’s when that thing showed up. I called for just the Amazons,but everyone came out. We’ve been waiting for more of the Old Church to show up, but all they’ve done is shoot at us.”
I tentatively reached out to pick up a melted bullet but stopped when I felt the searing heat. “Shit, what the hell’s going on?”
Sarah appeared next to me, her red hair tied in a wet knot, black mascara dotting her cheeks. “It’s magic, Les. Strong shit.”
I looked around the clearing for the source. My gaze landed on Becca, Hope, Whitney, and a few other women holding hands and murmuring. I jerked my chin toward them. “Are they the ones protecting us?”
