Chapter 7
Nyx
My mate is fading in my arms. She’s looking up at me and smiling with a dazed expression. Her eyelids droop, as if she barely has the energy to keep them open—let alone focused.
I can’t let her fall asleep.
The last shifter I saw who’d stirred awake after we pulled off his shackles… had fallen back asleep, and nothing I did would wake him up again.
I ran out of this maze of a laboratory, moving as fast as I can without jostling my poor mate in my arms—she has been through enough already and still has visible injuries and the skin around her wrists is red and raw from the constant exposure to low grade silver.
I can smell old bruises and antiseptic all over. The fuck have they done to her?
But right now I have to focus—I have to get her out of here. The industrial complex that houses the laboratory is on the edge of a city. There is nothing but an empty lot and an abandoned gas station bordering the nearby forest. The same forest several shifter packs call home.
The humans were too close. The smell of them is everywhere. I have got to get her out of here.
Holding my soulmate tight, I run. Noticeably faster than any human, my feet eat up the yards as the lights from the human city blur around me. I clutch my little mate to me as I run to the edge of the forest, maneuvering us both into neutral territory.
Even once we have left the stench of humans miles away, it still doesn’t feel safe. My mate is staring at me all dreamy-eyed. Her little hands are clutching the collar of my shirt, lightly pulling.
I thought I would be overjoyed to have my mate reaching for me in my arms. But watching her has dread pooling in the pit of my stomach.
I don’t know this woman… but my gut is telling me that something is off.
My heart pounds harder, panic races through my veins as I watch Willow’s eyes grow heavy.
“Hey,” I pat her cheeks, trying to snap her out of it. “None of that; you can’t fall asleep yet, angel.”
Not now. Not when I’ve just found her. I can’t lose her now that she is finally safe. But Willow doesn’t show any sign that she even hears me.
Her eyelids droop helplessly, as if no power in the world could hold them back.
She’s slipping away.
I have to do something. My mate has been poisoned by her extended exposure to silver. I need to wake up her wolf so she can heal.
“I have to do something to bring your wolf back.” I say the words out loud, knowing Willow won’t be able to respond.
She can hate me for this all she wants… as long as she lives. I can take her hating me for the rest of our lives as long as it means she survives today to hate me tomorrow.
I lean in, capturing her soft lips with mine.