Chapter 10
Revyn
Sienna disappears over the cliff’s edge, taking Alistair with her as they tumble into the silver glow of moonlight.
Her eyes flash gold as she sinks her teeth into his foreleg, and a wave of pride fills my chest at seeing my girl fight back.
Alistair had no right calling her out in front of all those shifters—and to be honest, I don’t know why the hells she even told him the truth about her heat cycles. It’s not like he needs to know.
He’s never going to have the chance to fuck her.
I barrel toward the ledge and hear the crack of bone before I see it, Sienna’s yelp of pain setting off alarms in my head.
She’ll heal—with time. Being half-wolf means that her genes aren’t as pure, and her healing process is slowed as a result, or so I assume.
I’ve never asked a healer, and Sienna has never wanted to know.
Suddenly, it feels like the most important detail in the world.
Like the key to keeping her safe lies in knowing every single thing about how her body functions—why she doesn’t have a heat cycle, why her speed is outmatched despite her size, why her gifts, like a shifter’s innate healing, don’t always work like they should.
I’ve questioned it once or twice, sure, but didn’t put much thought into it beyond that.
Why didn’t I?
We’ve been in life-or-death situations before, and she’s always come out okay, no matter how many bumps and bruises she takes.
I’m the one with the scars—she’s the one who heals like a newborn, her skin as soft and tender as a peach.
It just takes a few days for her to heal, whereas I’ll heal within hours, if not minutes.
I jump over the edge in hot pursuit, just in time to witness Sienna shift back into a human as her true mate breaks her fall.
What a fucking bastard.
I snarl as I land a few feet away, determined to get her the fuck away from him.
My ears ring and I blindly burrow into the snow, reaching for the woman I can no longer live without.
I retract my claws and dig, the snow melting and refreezing on my fur, stalling my progress, making my body heavier, denser, slowing my movements, filling my lungs, making it impossible to get to her, let alone breathe—
Coming up for air hurts.
Scenting Sienna’s blood on the snow hurts worse.
Crimson blooms across the glittering white ground, and I catch Alistair’s frustration as he curses to himself over and over again.
Kneeling in front of Sienna’s limp body, he presses both of his palms against her side, staunching a wound as best he can with his fingers.
“Cmon,” he growls, his gaze steady on her wound. “Why the fuck isn’t it closing?”
It’s dangerous to shift in front of the enemy, but I do it anyway.
Alistair doesn’t pay me a single thought, doesn’t even look my way as I walk over and kneel opposite him.
“She heals slowly,” I murmur, scanning her body for injuries.
The rib she broke by the bonfire has bruised her skin, but the gash on her other side is what worries me.
There are a few scrapes along her feet, but nothing major.
The only other injuries are from the entrance trials, and those are covered in bandages “We need to clean and dress her wound.” I glance in the direction of the academy, but its glow is muted through the trees. “How far to the dorms?”
“Far,” Alistair mutters, his brow pinched. “What do you mean, she heals slowly? How slowly?”
“We need to dress her wound,” I repeat, irritation making me sweat despite how goddamn cold it is. “I’ll take her. Let go.”
“No,” he snaps, exhaling harshly. “I’ll heal her, just—” He glares at me. “Turn around.”
Like hell, I’m leaving him alone with her. “She’s injured because of you!” I knock his hands away from her ribs. “Get the fuck off her!”
“I will heal her.” His eyes flash gold—a fucking nightmarish resemblance to Sienna’s when she’s angry—and he growls deep in his chest. “Make sure no one sees her. No one,” he repeats firmly.
Without waiting another second, he lowers his body to the snow and levels his face with her wound.
Blood pours in slow bursts, timed with her heartbeat, and Alistair takes a deep breath before pushing the skin together with his fingers and kissing it.
His tongue peeks between his lips a moment later, and a sound catches in his throat as his eyes slide closed.
I want to throw the fuck up, but as her wound closes before my eyes, I can’t look away. It stitches back together with a soft glow of light, and my heart breaks yet again.
The bastard can heal her, and I can’t.
Healing is a rare gift, but true mates are said to share each other’s pain.
The divot between Sienna’s eyebrows eases, and when Alistair finally stops making out with her waist, his cheeks are flushed the same pretty pink as hers.
He wipes the blood from his lips and inspects his work, testing her skin with his fingertips.
“How did you know to do that?” I ask, resentful that he has the ability but grateful at the same time.
He doesn’t answer me and reaches for her broken rib on the other side. When he pushes against it, he sucks in a pained breath.
Sienna doesn’t move, blissfully unconscious.
While he molds his palm to her side, I clench my fists.
“How did you know how to do that?” I ask again, gritting my teeth as his hand begins to glow a pale shade of amber.
It takes longer for Sienna’s rib to heal without Alistair’s magic goddamn saliva—something I hope I never have to witness again—but when he sits back, the side of his chest is bruised instead of hers. It heals damn near instantly.
“My mother is a healer,” he explains, “or I wouldn’t have known.”
“Your mother is a healer,” I scoff, crossing my arms over my chest. “Great. Your bloodline’s perfect.”
A smirk touches Alistair’s lips. “Jealous?”
I ignore his jab and lift Sienna into my arms, cradling her against my chest and turning to leave. Fucking asshole. I don’t care that he healed her—he needs to get the fuck away from my mate.
“Wait,” he calls out, stomping through the snow behind me. “I’m coming with you.”
My irritation quickly morphs into anger. “Back up, Dire.” Wolves howl in the distance, someone no doubt claiming first place in tonight’s race. “Your pack’s waiting for you.”
“They’re not my—” Alistair sighs, matching my pace with ease as we walk down the jagged mountain pass, the three of us stark naked. I curl Sienna’s body away from his. He already got enough of an eyeful at the bonfire.
“They’re not your pack, and she’s not your mate,” I finish for him, scowling. “Why are you even here? Go the fuck away.” We don’t need him, and we never will.
Even if he healed her. Fuck.
For a long moment, Alistair is silent. I don’t think he’s going to answer me, and then he takes a deep breath. “Why are you?” Our eyes meet over Sienna’s head, neither of us averting our gaze.
“She can be my reason. She can’t be yours.”
He scoffs. “Why not? Because she’s yours?”
“Yes.” I look him dead in the eyes and stop in my tracks.
Sienna isn’t in danger anymore, and although I don’t want to waste any time getting her inside, this bastard needs to understand something.
“She’s mine. I don’t care what bond you think you have with her.
It ends here. Hell, it never even began.
This—” I nod at Sienna’s mended ribs. “—never fucking happened. She hit her head, lost some of her memory, and I carried her to bed. You won your race, and we all go back to hating each other in time for sunrise.”
“Except I didn’t win.” Fire rages in the depths of his eyes. “If I go back, I’ll be in last place. Quitters don’t place, so you two won’t qualify.”
“Sounds like a you problem.”
“It’s a we problem,” he snaps, staring at Sienna again. “When heat season starts—”
Oh, no fucking way.
“You are not touching her—”
“She will go into heat. It doesn’t matter that she’s never had one before. Things are different when you’re in a pack, and this student body behaves like one giant, fucked-up family. It’s brutal and unforgiving and doesn’t tolerate weakness.” He clenches and unclenches his fists.
If he touches her again, I’m ripping his hands off his goddamn body.
“Then I’ll handle her heat,” I vow, feeling an unquenchable need for Sienna in the marrow of my bones. It goes beyond desiring her body; I want every part of her, including her first heat, if it comes. I’ve had all her other firsts; this one will be mine, too.
Alistair runs a hand through his hair and pulls at the blonde ends. “You don’t understand.” His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. “I’m her—”
“Don’t you fucking say it.”
To his credit, he keeps his mouth shut. We jog down a steep slope and make it to the ground before he speaks again. The bonfire is still raging high into the sky, its smoke forming a cloud in the distance. “I can’t bed alone during her heat.”
“You’re not touching her.”
“I don’t want to fuck her!” Stepping in front of me, he halts our progress as we come to a stop. “Mates can’t be separated during a heat or they’re vulnerable. If I’m alone, I’ll be targeted.”
“I doubt anyone would kill a Dire wolf.”
A vein in his neck pulses. “No, but they’ll mate with one.”
My blood runs cold.
True mates, even unbonded ones, are extremely aware of each other’s emotional and physical well-being.
Besides the obvious issue of someone sexually assaulting Alistair while he’s weakened, there’s also the problem of Sienna not only knowing what’s happening to him, but potentially feeling every pounding heartbeat as her own.
Whether he enjoys it or not, she’ll know.
Even if she and Alistair never complete their bond, that betrayal will break her heart.
I don’t care if Alistair is single for the rest of his life—nor do I care about shattering his fucking heart when I inevitably claim Sienna as my mate—but I will not put her through unnecessary suffering just so that I enjoy her heat hormones for myself.
If Alistair needs to be near her so that she doesn’t have to experience his dick game through some telepathic fated-mate bullshit, then fine. He can be near her.
But it doesn’t have to be pleasant for him.
“Then you better pray that my mate doesn’t go into heat, Dire wolf.” I show him my teeth. “Because if she does, I’ll fuck her raw and force you to watch.”