Chapter 19 Zinnia
Zinnia
Irealized too late what he’d done, though I wasn’t certain I could have stopped it anyway.
I was too caught up in the healing that began, all of a sudden, throughout his body.
The marks that had given that odd texture to his skin began to smooth out, like he was being reshaped by some enormous hand.
The wounds that hadn’t healed from my earth magic closed up as I watched, and when they began to heal over the compound fractures, I panicked.
I couldn’t reach his legs, and still keep the magic going.
“Boys! Straighten his legs, his arms! He’s healing too fast!”
Leroy, used to taking directions in the garden, obeyed immediately.
Bo snapped into action a split second later and went to work on the other side, both of them stone-faced as they maneuvered Julian’s bones back into alignment.
I knew I could heal him again if I needed to, but that would mean re-breaking the bones, and the pain would be agonizing.
If he lived. He had to live.
Everything happened at once, too fast to process.
The healing, the power moving through me like I had become an extension of the mountain, and the loss.
I felt—I even saw—a shadowy gray cloud of power rise from Julian’s chest at the same moment the boys were moving, and knew he’d made a sacrifice that was more than equal to mine.
Tears raced down my cheeks as I grieved.
My wolf had given up her power long ago to keep me alive. She’d given up the last thread of connection to make room for the deeper earth magic.
His wolf had done the same now, but to give the human side of my mate back to me. To honor the vow he’d made, though I was sure he’d never imagined the cost of those words, spoken in a moment of passion.
“Look.” Julian’s voice was stronger now. I blinked away tears and saw where he was looking. Two pale shadows circled the moon, flickers of watery light, like pale moths hovering around a flame. And then, a bolt of light, shot back down to earth. But it didn’t land on me or Julian.
“Sergeant,” Leroy shouted. “What’s happening?” He pointed to his friend, who was coated in silvery light.
“He’s my Heir,” Julian rasped. “Bo. You are called by the moon Herself to take on the role of Alpha for the Meridion pack. Do you accept this responsibility?”
“I–I can’t,” Bo stammered, his expression horrified. “I ain’t ready. You said it yourself.”
“I was wrong. The moon doesn’t make mistakes, my son. You are ready. You’re strong and good, and the moon calls you. Answer Her.”
Bo’s eyes widened at the word son. “I… I…” He swallowed, then squared his shoulders. “I do! I am Alpha!”
The change was instant. He went from being a naked boy to being a massive wolf, larger than before. He threw his head back and howled, the sound vibrating with power. As the energy surrounded him, the moonlight poured into him, his dark fur drinking it up. Storing it deep inside.
“Alpha,” I whispered, smiling through my tears.
The power that filled me now was nothing like the moon’s, and a part of me ached with longing.
My eyes fell on Julian, who had lapsed back into unconsciousness, though I could feel his pulse, feel the iron in his veins as it thrummed.
He’d lost too much blood, but he had time to replenish it.
Time to get stronger and heal. I pressed my hands even more firmly on his chest and let the power flow through me, my eyes on the boys, who were both almost staggering with shock.
“He’s my Alpha,” Leroy whispered to me, then repeated to Bo, “You’re my Alpha. I can feel it inside.”
Bo whimpered, then howled again, the tones mournful now.
“Nah, Bo! It’s a good thing. It’s how it oughta be.
I can’t think of anyone I’d rather follow, and that’s the honest truth.
My best friend, the Alpha?” Leroy scrambled across the narrow ledge of stone to kneel at his friend’s feet.
“I pledge myself to you, Alpha.” His head was bowed, so he couldn’t see the odd, endearing confusion that filled the new Alpha’s eyes.
But he giggled when the wolf started licking him on his ears and face.
“C’mon, Bo, you gotta act like an Alpha now.
No more messin’ around.” They were on the edge of roughhousing on a steep mountainside, and all four of us were in danger of falling off the cliff.
I cleared my throat as loud as I could. “Boys? Julian and I could use some help getting back up the mountain and to the cabin. Do you think—” I wasn’t even able to finish my request before Bo had shifted back and was nodding to Julian.
“I’ll carry you, Al—ah, Sergeant, I mean. Leroy, can you get Miss Zinnia?”
Leroy agreed, and before I could stop him, he’d lifted me off the stone.
My heart skipped one beat, then two. My lungs wheezed, the air too much to hold with the earth, the source of my power, so far away.
I tried to speak, to tell them to put me down, but the world was pinwheeling into darkness and sucking me down into a vacuum of silence.
I fell into it, clinging to the hope—the belief—that the boys would figure it out.