Chapter 27
ELLIE
Karik's lips curled back in a snarl. His eyes flicked to me, then back to Daska, and something cruel and satisfied settled into his expression. He barked something short and sharp, and the warriors around us shifted, not away, but in. Closing the space. Forming a ring.
"What's happening?" I whispered, though I already knew. My hands were shaking. "Daska—"
He didn't look at me. His gaze was locked on Karik.
"Daska." I grabbed his arm, tried to pull him back, but it was like trying to move stone. "Don't. Please don't—"
He turned and looked down at me. The bond flared between us, warm and steady and certain, and I felt the shape of his resolve like a weight settling into my chest. He was going to do this. He was going to fight three wolves, one of them Karik, and he was going to do it for me.
He's going to die.
The thought hit me so hard I couldn't breathe. My knees tried to buckle. I grabbed at his tunic, his shoulder, anything to keep him here, to stop this, but he caught my wrist gently and pulled my hand to his chest. Over his heart.
It beat steady and slow beneath my palm as he bent down and pressed his forehead to mine. Just for a moment. Just long enough for me to feel the warmth of his skin, the faint rasp of his breath, the way his fingers tightened around my wrist like he was anchoring himself to me. Then he let go.
"No—" I lunged forward, but someone caught me from behind. Dev’s arms locked around my waist, and I twisted hard, trying to break free. "Let me go—let me go—"
"Ellie, stop." Megan's voice, sharp and close. Her hand on my shoulder. "You can't."
"He's going to die!" My voice broke on the words, ragged and desperate. "They're going to kill him—"
"Then you need to watch." Megan's grip tightened. "You need to see what he's willing to do for you, because he’s going to do it anyway and he needs to focus. Ellie!"
I didn't want to see. I didn't want to watch him get torn apart because of me, because I was human and couldn't defend myself and needed someone else to bleed for me. But Dev's arms didn't loosen, and Megan was right, and the warriors kept closing in until there was nowhere left to run.
Daska stepped into the centre of the ring.
He was still human. He'd removed his tunic, even though I knew he’d shift to fight.
I looked at him, remembering only the night before, before I’d told him about me.
Remembering the way he’d held me, the way my lips had moved over the hard planes of his chest and lower.
The way he’d called out my name at the end.
I wanted to scream at him to stop, to run, to do anything but stand there and wait for them to come at him.
Karik shifted first.
The transformation was fast and brutal, bones cracking, fur rippling across skin, claws tearing through the earth as he dropped to all fours. He was bigger than I remembered, all muscle and teeth and cold rage.
Two more wolves stepped into the ring beside him, their eyes locked on Daska like he was prey.
My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. The bond thrummed between us, tight and sharp and wrong, like a string pulled too taut. I could feel his heartbeat in my chest, steady and strong, and I didn't know if that made it better or worse.
Don't die. Please don't die.
Daska shifted.
The sound of it was different, deeper, heavier, the crack of bone and the scrape of claws louder than the wolves'.
His body expanded, thickened, fur the colour of dark earth spreading across his shoulders and arms as he dropped forward onto four massive paws.
He was enormous, bigger than Karik, bigger than the other wolves but not invincible. Not against three of them.
The wolves circled him slowly, testing, and I couldn't breathe. My ribs felt too tight, my chest too small, and the bond was screaming at me to move, to do something, to get between them and him and make them stop.
Dev's arms tightened around me. "Don't."
I wasn't going to listen. I was going to rip free and throw myself into that ring and—
The first wolf lunged.
Fast. Too fast. It came in low, snapping at Daska's flank, and he twisted to meet it, but the second wolf was already there, teeth sinking into his shoulder. He roared and I felt it echo through the bond like a punch to the gut.
Sharp. Hot. Burning.
I gasped, my hand flying to my shoulder, and the pain was there, not mine, but his, bleeding through the bond until I couldn't tell where he ended and I began. My knees buckled, and Dev caught me, his voice sharp in my ear.
"Ellie, breathe..."
I couldn't. The bond wouldn't let me. Every bite, every slash, every impact—I felt it. The wolves were coordinated, vicious, coming at him from different angles, and Daska couldn't land a solid hit. He was too slow, too big, and they were tearing him apart piece by piece.
Blood. There was so much blood.
It sprayed across the dirt, dark and wet, and I tasted copper in my mouth even though I wasn't bleeding. His blood. His pain. The bond wouldn't let me escape it.
Daska caught one wolf by the throat and threw it hard enough that I heard bones crack. It yelped and scrambled away, limping, but Karik was already there, claws raking down Daska's side. Deep. Too deep. I felt the tear of muscle, the white-hot flare of agony, and my vision went grey at the edges.
"Ellie!" Megan's voice cut through the haze. "Stay with us!"
I couldn't. The bond was dragging me down into his pain, into the desperate animal focus of the fight, and I was drowning in it. Every breath he took rattled in my chest. Every impact jarred through my bones.
The third wolf lunged for his throat, and Daska reared up, catching it mid-leap with one massive paw. The force of the blow sent the wolf tumbling, but it left him exposed. Karik went for his belly, teeth sinking in, and Daska's roar turned into something broken.
"He can't..." My voice broke. "He can't win this."
"He can." Megan's voice was tight, strained. "Ellie, he can. Just watch."
I didn't want to watch. I wanted to close my eyes and block it all out, but the bond wouldn't let me. It pulled me in, forced me to feel every impact, every bite, every moment of his pain like it was my own.
Daska twisted, faster than something his size should have been able to move, and his jaws closed around the wolf at his leg. The crunch of bone echoed across the clearing, and the wolf shrieked. For a moment, I let myself hope.
Then Karik struck.
He went for Daska's throat, fast and vicious, and Daska barely twisted away in time. Claws raked across his side instead, deep and tearing, and I felt it like fire across my ribs. I doubled over, gasping, and Megan's hands were on my arms, her voice urgent and scared.
"Ellie, you have to breathe."
I couldn't. The pain was everywhere, sharp and burning and wrong, and the bond was pulling me under, dragging me down into the violence with him. I could feel his exhaustion, the weight of blood loss, the way his legs were starting to shake.
He was slowing.
He's losing.
The thought was ice water in my veins. He was bigger, stronger, but they were faster, smarter, working together like they'd trained for this.
And they had. Karik had planned this. Had brought wolves who knew how to take down larger prey, who knew exactly where to bite, where to claw, how to bleed him out slowly.
The third wolf, the one he'd thrown, was back on its feet. Circling. Waiting for an opening.
"Do something!" I twisted in Dev's grip, trying to reach Rivik. "Stop this! He's your brother!"
Rivik’s face was white, his eyes amber as he fought his own shift, as he fought the urge to intervene.
Karik shifted back just for a moment. Just long enough to look at me across the blood soaked grass. His face was bloodied, his eyes cold and satisfied, and he smiled.
"Watch him die for you, human."
Then he shifted again and lunged for Daska.
The remaining other wolf hit him from the other side simultaneously while he was focused on Karik.
I felt his body buckle under the combined weight, felt the impact jar through every bone as they brought him down hard.
His shoulder slammed into the dirt and pain exploded through the bond so sharp I screamed.
The sound tore out of me before I could stop it, raw and animal, and I felt Dev's arms lock tighter around my waist as I thrashed. All I knew was that Daska was down and they were on him.
Two wolves. Teeth and claws. Tearing.
Karik's jaws closed around Daska's throat.
The bond went white-hot. Not pain this time but terror, pure and primal, the kind that came from knowing you were about to die.
I felt Daska's heartbeat stutter, felt his lungs strain for air that wouldn't come, and the world tilted sideways.
I heard myself screaming but couldn't make it stop.
My throat was raw, my voice breaking, and Dev's arms were iron bands around my waist as I fought to get to him.
"Daska!" His name ripped out of me. "DASKA!"
He was still fighting. I could feel it through the bond—the desperate surge of adrenaline, the bear's rage pushing through the pain. He twisted, trying to dislodge Karik, but the wolf's jaws only tightened, trying to get enough purchase to tear his throat out.
He's going to die.
The bond flickered.
Just for a second. Just long enough for the warmth to drain away, leaving nothing but cold, empty silence.
I stopped breathing.
The world narrowed to a single point. Daska in the centre of the ring, blood soaking the ground beneath him barely invisible under the wolves.
No.
The bond was gone. I couldn't feel him. Couldn't feel anything but the hollow, aching void where he should have been, and I knew, I knew he was dead, or dying, or so close to it that the bond had already started to break.
"Daska!"
I didn't know if I screamed it or sobbed it or just thought it, but the sound tore out of me, raw and desperate, and Dev's grip loosened just enough for me to lurch forward.