Chapter Twenty-Five

KEYARA

She could feel when Ash lost consciousness, as the piercing pain in her abdomen vanished. She could somehow sense that he was still alive, and she gave a silent thanks for that.

He had told her that werewolves could heal much faster than humans, and that they were much harder to kill. Despite his words, she found herself doubting if he could really survive his wound.

There had been so much blood. And she knew a wound to the gut would quickly fester. How much could he really come back from? She was filled with worry.

They stumbled through the woods. Jonas had a tight hold on her, though he had backed the knife away from her throat. She was glad for that, as she found herself stumbling in his grip.

They soon reached a path where yet another man stood gripping a group of horses in the dark, holding a lantern. She wondered where he had rallied all these men; none of them looked familiar from the castle.

He ordered her onto a horse and tied her hands in front of her to the saddle. The rest of the men mounted up, and Jonas grabbed the reins of her horse, pulling it behind him.

She struggled to keep her balance, gripping the saddle as best she was able with her bound hands.

After about twenty minutes, she was starting to feel the effects of the mate bond creeping up due to the distance between them. She broke into a sweat, fighting back nausea. Soon her body began to shudder with discomfort.

“Stop!” she cried out.

Jonas grunted in front of her, otherwise ignoring her words.

She moaned in pain, doubled over from the nausea and dizziness that had overcome her. Her head felt like it was splitting in two, and she could barely see straight. She tried again.

“I’m going to be sick!” she shouted.

Jonas looked over his shoulder, sighing in frustration, but slowing the horses. Keyara slumped to the side, emptying her stomach onto the dirt road below.

He scowled at her in disgust as she retched again but dismounted and cut her free from her bonds. She slumped to the ground, breathing raggedly.

She could faintly sense Ash regaining consciousness, and the pain of his wound returned to her, though fainter than it had been before.

She could barely feel relief that he was indeed healing, as wracked with pain as she was. She groaned and gripped her stomach, the edges of her vision growing dark.

“What’s wrong with her?” asked one of the men nervously.

“The hell if I know,” said Jonas angrily, “But we don’t have time for this. Get her back on the horse.”

They tied her wrists in front of her and slung her unceremoniously over the horse like a sack of grain, her head and feet hanging over the sides.

The position made her head pound even harder, and she groaned.

“Shut up,” said Jonas as they started moving again.

The movement of the horse made the nausea worse, and she vomited again until there was nothing but bitter bile.

“Boss, I think she’s dying,” repeated the man from before. Her moans of pain were beginning to spook the horse she was slung over, and it started to fight being led, sidestepping nervously.

Jonas let out a cry of frustration. This clearly wasn’t going the way he had planned.

He stopped again, pulling her off the horse and dragging her off the path. Close to passing out, she could barely tell what was happening. The voices floated around her like a dream.

“We need to get her back before the sun comes up,” one said.

“It will take us until the end of the day tomorrow at this rate,” said another. “We will be too conspicuous dragging her along like this.”

“Damn it to hell!” shouted Jonas. “All that really matters is that she’s dead. I wanted to present her to my father to gain his favor, but the most important thing is to eliminate her.”

He seemed to consider it for a moment. She slumped to one side, her face pressed into the dirt.

“It seems nature may be taking care of that for us,” he said with dark humor. “John, stab her anyway. Make it look like she was attacked on the road.”

She tried to protest, but nothing came out. Suddenly there was blinding pain, and everything slipped away into the darkness.

ASH

He did not know how long it had been when he finally regained his senses. The pain in his stomach was still there.

He hissed as he squirmed, feeling the edges of his wound stretch. It was no longer bleeding, so the healing process had begun.

He reached out to sense Keyara. He was hit with a wave of intense nausea. He knew she was far out of the range of tolerance for the mate bond.

He closed his eyes, pushing her pain out of his mind as much as he was able. It lessened, becoming dull and out of focus.

He had to get free of his bonds and go after her. His arms had become numb from the position he was bound in. He wiggled his fingers, trying to regain feeling. He shifted just his hands, feeling his fingers become sharp claws.

Shifting only a small portion of the body required intense concentration, but he was unable to shift fully being tied to the tree as he was.

He began to cut at the ropes with his claws, fumbling, and cursing at the time slipping quickly away. Finally he was free.

Her suffering was becoming hard for him to ignore, and he was desperate to get to her. With a snarl he ran away from the lake, shifting as he moved, his clothes shredding around him.

Suddenly he was running on four paws. He began to follow her scent, running as fast as he could, the trees flying by in the darkness.

Before long, he could begin to pick up her scent as more than just a trail; it began to fill the air, and he could feel she was close. He knew it would not be long before he reached her.

Suddenly he yelped in pain, skidding to a halt. He knew this was more than the effects of the mate bond. He felt like he had been stabbed again, but he knew he was only sensing it from Key.

~NOOOOO!~ he cried in his mind. What had they done!? He was so close!

He shook off the pain and closed the rest of the distance between them, panic rising in his chest. Suddenly she was there.

He briefly took in her bleeding body, slumped over and unresponsive. He spun toward the men, who were in various stages of remounting the horses, suddenly frozen in their actions at the appearance of the enormous wolf.

He snarled, his lips curling over his teeth, stalking toward Lord Jonas, who backed away in fear.

Suddenly Ash was in the air, his teeth sinking into the throat of his enemy. He tore at the flesh and spat out a mouthful of muscle and blood.

The death of their leader seemed to spur the other men into motion. The few that had managed to mount their horses tried to ride away, the others scattering on foot.

Ash killed them one by one, a flash of white in the night, too fast for the eyes of the men to follow.

The whole fight had taken just a couple of minutes. He left the bodies of the men where they were, intent on his mate. He rushed to her side, pushing his nose into her throat searching for a pulse.

He huffed in relief when he sensed it. His panic was too great to shift back into his human form yet, so he assessed the damage through the eyes of his wolf.

There was a deep stab wound to her chest, and he could hear her labored breathing as her lungs filled with blood.

~“Keyara!”~ he linked desperately. “~Keyara, can you hear me?”~

She stirred slightly, letting out a moan of pain.

~“Don’t move, love, you’re injured.”~

He nuzzled her, licking her wound to try to ease her pain.

~“Ash,”~ he heard weakly in reply. “~It hurts~.”

~“I know, baby, I know~.” Dammit, he didn’t know how to help her; his beta was the healer.

~“Luca!”~ he desperately linked to his beta. “~Luca, please tell me you can hear me!”~

~“Alpha? What do you need from me?” ~Luca responded immediately.

Ash knew his beta could hear the panic in his voice.

~“It’s Keyara—she’s hurt. She’s been stabbed. There’s no time to explain, but I think I’m losing her. I can hear her lungs filling with blood. Help me! What do I do?”~

~“Are you at the settlement?” ~Luca asked in a monotone voice, in full military mode.

~“No, we’re about a mile away, I would guess. Maybe two.”~

~“You can’t move her that far, not if her lungs are punctured. You’ll need the medical kit,” ~came the reply. “~Do you have time to retrieve it?”~

Ash howled in despair. He could make it there quickly as a wolf, but he would have to shift to carry back the kit and as a human he would be too slow.

~“No. No, there’s no time,”~ he replied, defeat in his voice.

~“There’s only one option, Alpha,”~ Luca said gravely.~ “You have to change her.”~