Chapter 7
Seven
Blake
Mate.
Mate.
Mate.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
His touch is kind soft gentle, unlike anything I’ve felt in years and years and years…
Letting out a low whine, I lean into his hand, his sweet scent surrounding me and pulling my mind further from bloodlust and rage.
Still, his fingers shake as they brush across my fur. He’s scared. Of the wolf. Of me. Of what I’ve become. But he welcomes me anyway and allows me to rest my head against his stomach.
Noise intrudes from every angle and pain dances along my sides, but I only push closer to my pretty mate, ignoring everything but the scent of mine.
A tiny voice in the back of my mind screams that I’m forgetting something, ignoring something, overlooking something important, but I don’t care.
There’s nothing but now. Nothing but this. Nothing but him.
I press closer closer closer and he stumbles a half step backward. Something behind him makes a fear noise, and then words, fast and frantic.
My mate replies, the sound of his voice washing over me like a soothing melody. “I don’t know, Raquel. As best I can tell—”
He yelps. In pain.
I pull back, focus on the person standing behind him whose fingers are wrapped around my mate’s shoulders—hurting him.
Baring my teeth, I growl. Mine.
My mate shifts to the side, blocking my view of this new enemy. He makes a soft shushing noise and says something about friends, then reaches out and touches my nose again as he continues to make soothing sounds.
The sharp edge of my anger dulls as I relax into his touch.
A familiar crackle echoes through the air, the sound tensing my muscles instinctively.
The hated voice—one of many—sounds out from above. “Don’t forget, if you want to keep your mate, mongrel, you have to kill the human.”
Kill the human? What human?
My mate is shifter, but… the other? I lift my head to stare at the one behind him, raising my nose and taking a deep sniff.
Yes. Human. That one.
My mate goes rigid, his face twisting, heartbeat speeding up, and scent souring with fear.
“No,” he says, voice slightly shaky even as his gaze is steady on my face.
No? I tilt my head to one side, then the other, trying to understand. He does not want to be kept? He wants to leave?
Or… he does not want me to kill the human?
He does not understand.
It must be done.
Obedience has been shocked and beaten into me. There is no other choice.
Must be done.
Must kill the human.
I stand and take a step to the side, but he follows, keeping his body between me and the human. I nip at his feet, trying to get him to move without actually hurting him, but he stays steady, refusing to let me past, refusing to let me complete the task given.
I want to growl. I want to snarl. I want to scream.
For once I can see a future past this moment, this fight, this night.
But if I do not kill the human…
The sound of the gate lock pulls my attention away, then the click of gears shifting into motion.
They’re coming.
They’re coming.
No. No. NO.
I haven’t had enough time to kill the human.
That means they’ll take him away… Hurt him. Collar him. Cage him.
No. I won’t let them touch him. They’ll have to kill me first.
I spin around, positioning my body between the gate and my newfound mate. They will not lay a single finger on him.
Not as long as I draw breath.