Chapter 4 #2
She screamed with anguish as Rowan shifted into his wolf and faced his challenger.
Each crack and reformation of bone was fresh agony.
She held her hands to her jaw as she experienced Rowan’s jaw elongate, and the wolf teeth take over from his human ones.
She was blinded by her tears as she tried to pull herself onto one of the cabin’s chairs.
With her hands pressed against her chest, she knew how much Rowan’s fury spiked through their connection.
Axel had orchestrated this perfectly. Get her out of the way so she couldn’t interfere, then force Rowan into a leadership challenge when he was distracted and desperate.
Through the bond, Rowan took a devastating hit to the ribs.
The pain lanced through her own body, making her gasp and double over.
Rowan clenched his fist, and she felt it connect with Axel’s torso.
Her mate’s determination, his refusal to yield even as Axel pressed his advantage, was as if it were her own.
Rowan took a deep breath, and Summer flinched with pain as she too experienced the broken ribs. She only hoped they were cracked and wouldn’t puncture a lung.
“Come on,” she whispered, gripping the chair arms until her knuckles whitened. “You’re stronger than he is. Smarter. Don’t let him get in your head.”
But Rowan was allowing Axel to get into his head. Through their bond, Summer felt his distraction, his constant awareness of her danger even as he fought for his life. Every moment he spent worrying about her was a moment Axel would exploit.
Another blow, this one to Rowan’s shoulder, and Summer cried out as pain shot down her arm, leaving her arm, useless and boneless.
She could feel Rowan’s muscles straining, his breathing labored as the fight dragged on.
Axel was bigger, heavier, and he was fighting dirty, using Rowan’s concern for her as a weapon.
Stop thinking about me, she projected through the bond, hoping he could feel her thoughts as clearly as she felt his pain. Focus on the fight. I’m okay. Win this.
But Rowan’s response was a wave of fierce protectiveness. It made her stagger. He would never stop thinking about her, never stop putting her safety above his own. It was who he was, Alpha to his core, and Axel knew exactly how to use it against him.
Summer tried the door again, throwing her shoulder against it with desperate strength. The wood was solid, the lock modern and secure. She was trapped here while her mate fought for his life, fought for their future, fought for the right to lead the pack who had become her family.
Her safety wasn’t the only weapon Axel was using.
His claws found their mark, raking across Rowan’s chest with enough force to draw blood and weaken him further.
The pain was sharp, immediate, but underneath, she knew there was another danger.
He was growing exhausted, and she knew his thoughts.
This shouldn’t be happening. I’ve beaten Axel before.
He’s not stronger than me. What the fuck is happening?
Summer’s anguish echoed his physical pain. Her entreaties reached him across the distance: Don’t give up. Please don’t give up.
But even as she telegraphed her pleas, she felt Rowan’s strength fading; his movements were becoming slower, less precise.
Axel was wearing him down, using Rowan’s protective instincts against him.
Each time Rowan thought of Summer trapped and helpless, it made him reckless, allowing openings that Axel exploited without mercy.
Summer held her hand to her chest, her fingers caressing where Axel had raked his claws across her mate’s pectoral muscles.
She closed her eyes, hoping she could send a healing balm to him.
But it was useless. The Le Voile magic was failing her, even as she sensed the toxin Axel had smeared over his claws.
Axel could never be trusted to fight fair.
The next blow nearly sent her mate to his knees. Axel’s fist connected with his jaw, and Summer tasted Rowan’s blood on her own tongue as her vision blurred alongside his. Their balance wavered as both struggled to stay upright. The metallic tang filled her mouth as well as his.
Get up, Summer projected desperately through their bond. Please, Rowan, get up.
Driven by pure stubbornness and a refusal to surrender, she sensed Rowan rise to his feet.
But the effort cost him. The toxin in his body was infiltrating his blood even as his spirit remained unbroken.
He moved with what little strength he could muster despite the poison and his injuries, but Axel’s attacks were calculated, vicious, and wore him down with each exchange.
His love for her burned in his chest. Every thought of her made him fight harder and more desperately. Summer tried to tell him she was fine even though she knew it was a lie.
Another devastating blow, this one to his kidney, and both mates screamed in agony. Summer felt herself falling as her knees hit the ground with a thud. Blood filled her mouth. She must have bitten her tongue as she fell.
No, no, no, Summer’s frantic thoughts stretched out to him. Fight back. You have to fight back.
But she knew Rowan was done—his body had reached its limit. The poison had taken control. His will to fight remained—he would never stop fighting for his mate. Resignation settled over him as he accepted the truth: he’d lost the formal challenge. He would not lead the pack.
He’d lost everything: his position, his future, his chance to protect Summer from whatever threats were gathering in the darkness around New Orleans.
Trapped in the cabin, Summer sobbed, her body shaking with phantom pain and grief as she experienced Rowan’s devastation.
By trapping her, Axel had not simply kept her from interfering, but he’d ensured she felt every moment of his defeat.
He wanted her to experience Rowan’s humiliation as intimately as she’d shared his love.
Then, suddenly, the mate bond hushed.
Not reduced or muffled, but completely and utterly mute. The constant low-level awareness of Rowan’s presence, the subtle sharing of emotions and sensations that had become as natural as breathing, simply… stopped. Snuffed out—ripped away. Leaving only a vacuum in its wake.
Summer collapsed to the floor, her hands pressed against her chest where a yawning chasm had opened.
The silence was deafening, more terrifying than any of the pain from his fight with Axel.
She’d grown so accustomed to feeling Rowan’s emotions beneath her own, his steady presence like a warm flame in her consciousness.
Now there was nothing. A void where her mate’s soul should be.
“Rowan?” she whispered, though she knew he couldn’t hear her. “Rowan, please…”
But the bond remained quiet, and Summer understood with cold certainty what the absence meant. Mate bonds didn’t just fade or weaken. They only went silent for one reason.
She was sure her mate was dead.
The sound from her throat was barely human. Her keening wail of grief and loss echoed through the empty cabin like the cry of a wounded animal. She’d felt his pain, his exhaustion, his love right up until the moment when everything went dark.
Axel had killed him. The challenge had turned deadly, and Rowan was gone.
Summer curled into herself on the cabin floor, her body shaking with sobs as the full weight of her loss crashed over her. Rowan had died protecting her, fighting for her, loving her with every fiber of his being.
And she hadn’t even been there to hold his hand as he slipped away.
The bayou nighttime sounds pressed in around the cabin. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled—long and mournful, as if the wilderness was mourning with her.
Summer closed her eyes and let the grief consume her, the mate bond’s silence more devastating than any physical wound. She touched her fingertips to the scar from the claiming bite. It was cold, and she knew she’d lost everything.
Her mate was dead, and she was completely and utterly alone.