30. Gabriella #2
But someone beats me there.
Monster.
BANG.
Rowan jerks.
No.
His momentum carries him forward anyway.
“ROWAN!”
He doesn't stop. My mate fucking roars. Monster’s claws flash.
Just once.
They tear across Ethan’s face. Again. Across his throat.
Flesh opens.
Blood erupts.
Ethan’s expression goes slack with shock as his head separates from his body.
It hits the ground first.
His body follows.
For half a heartbeat, I stare.
Ethan.
Dead.
The nightmare I spent years running from is lying at my feet.
I should feel free. I should feel relief.
Instead—Rowan sways.
My happiness lasts less than a second.
“Rowan?”
Monster collapses.
“No.”
His transformation begins before he hits the ground.
Fur recedes.
Bones shift.
The enormous Wolf disappears.
And Rowan lies naked in the blood-soaked dirt.
Motionless.
“No.”
I drop beside him.
“ROWAN!”
There’s a hole in his chest. Right over his heart. Blood pumps sluggishly from the wound.
Wrong.
Too dark.
The flesh around it is already turning an ugly gray-black.
My stomach drops.
“Oh my God.”
I touch the skin beside the wound.
Cold.
Wrong.
“It’s poisoned.”
My voice breaks.
“He poisoned the bullets!”
Rowan’s body should be healing. I know how fast Shifters heal. But the wound is spreading. Black veins crawl outward beneath his skin.
“No. No, no, no.”
I press both hands against his chest. Blood immediately coats them.
“Rowan.”
His golden eyes flutter.
“Honey...”
“I’m here.”
His hand twitches. I grab it.
“I'm right here.”
His fingers barely close around mine.
“I—I love you.”
Blood bubbles at the corner of his mouth.
“No.”
I wipe it away frantically.
“No, you don't get to do that.”
His eyes struggle to focus.
“Gabby—”
“You don't get to say goodbye!”
A sob tears through me.
“We just found each other, you asshole!”
His mouth almost moves.
Almost smiles.
“Sounds... like... my Honey Girl.”
“Rowan.”
More blood spills from his lips. His fingers go slack.
“No.”
His eyes close.
The matebond—
Oh God.
The matebond dims.
“ROWAN!”
Something inside me tears apart. I throw my head back.
And I wail.
Not cry.
Not scream.
Wail.
The sound that comes out of me isn't entirely human.
And the forest answers. Wind explodes through the trees. Leaves spiral upward. Heat erupts beneath my skin.
I barely register Wreck approaching.
Justin lands somewhere nearby.
I barely hear Gia’s voice. Then I see her.
A few dozen feet away, beside an ATV. Matteo is in her arms.
Alive.
My baby is alive.
Joy explodes inside me. But it collides with the unbearable emptiness where Rowan should be.
I look down at my mate. At the man who chose my son before he ever asked for one of his own.
The male who offered to suffer through my heat rather than take away my choice.
The man who told me he loved me.
My Rowan.
My Alpha.
My mate.
Dead?
No.
The answer comes from inside me.
Not thought.
Voice.
No.
My other.
Not yet. NO.
Heat detonates through my body. My back arches.
I scream.
Something tears free.
“Get back!”
I don't know if I say it or something else does. But Wreck and Justin listen.
That alone should tell me something.
My skin ripples.
Then it burns. But it doesn't hurt.
It feels… familiar.
Fire races over me.
My arms stretch. My body changes. And where skin once existed—feathers emerge.
Not ordinary feathers.
Fire.
Gold.
Crimson.
Orange.
White-hot at the edges.
Flames coat enormous wings as they burst outward from my body. Power unlike anything I have ever known pours through me.
My feet leave the ground.
I rise.
Higher.
Higher.
My wings beat once.
The force bends the trees.
Again.
Flames spiral around me without burning the forest.
And suddenly—I understand.
Not everything.
Not yet.
But enough.
I have spent my whole life hiding from this creature. Fearing her. Thinking she was the thing that made me wrong.
Ethan called her a freak. The Wake wanted to control her.
But she was never wrong. She was never broken.
She was waiting.
Waiting for me to stop being afraid.
I look down.
Rowan.
My mate.
My heart.
A sound builds inside my chest.
Not a scream.
A song.
I open my beak. And I sing.
The sound is ancient. Sacred. It rolls across the mountain, and the forest itself seems to bend toward it.
Leaves tremble. Branches bow. The air shimmers with heat.
Everything living goes still. Listening.
I lower myself over Rowan.
My mate looks so small from this body.
So fragile.
Impossible.
Rowan Cross is not fragile. And he cannot be gone. I refuse to accept it.
I lower my head. Grief fills me.
Love.
Rage.
Hope.
All of it becomes one thing.
A tear forms. Crystalline. Burning with golden light. It falls from my glowing amber eye. Onto Rowan’s chest.
Another follows.
Then another.
The moment they strike the poisoned wound—hiss.
Steam rises. The black veins stop spreading.
My heart stutters.
Again.
I cry harder. Golden tears splash against his skin.
The poison burns away.
The gray flesh turns pink.
Then red.
Then healthy.
The hole begins closing.
Muscle knitting.
Flesh repairing.
Bone reforming beneath it.
“What is she?” Wreck asks.
His voice sounds stunned. For once in his life, I think the Bear is speechless.
Justin answers. One word. But the Dragon says it with such awe that even through everything happening, I hear him.
“Phoenix.”
Phoenix.
The word enters me.
And my other nature—no.
Not other.
Me.
A part of me answers. She practically sings.
Yes.
Phoenix.
I finally have a name for what I am.
For what Ethan feared.
For what the Wake wanted.
But none of that matters right now.
Because beneath me—thump.
I freeze.
Thump.
Rowan’s heart is beating. Our matebond explodes back to life. Firelight floods through me.
ROWAN.
His chest rises.
He coughs.
His eyes open.
Golden.
Alive.
My beautiful Wolf is fucking alive.
“Gabby?”
His voice is rough.
Like gravel.
But it is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard.
I land beside him. Flames ripple over my feathers.
His eyes widen. He stares up at me.
For one second, I wonder if he'll be afraid. Instead, his battered face splits into a grin.
“Fuck.”
A laugh tries to break through my Phoenix throat. His hand lifts weakly toward my flaming feathers.
“Gabby?”
I lower my head toward him. His fingers brush against the fire.
It doesn't burn him.
Of course it doesn't.
“You saved me.”
His golden eyes shine. Then my ridiculous, impossible, nearly dead mate looks at the giant flaming bird standing over him and manages to give me that crooked grin I love.
“Wow.”
His fingers slide carefully through my fiery feathers.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Honey Girl.”
And that? That is so Rowan.
Not What are you?
Not What the fuck is wrong with you?
Not Freak.
Just beautiful.
My Phoenix cries out. The sound rolls across the mountain.
Because Matteo is alive. My mate is alive. And Ethan is dead.
For the first time in my entire life, I am not running from what I am.
I am Gabriella Santos.
Mother.
Mate.
Omega.
And Phoenix.
And God help anyone who ever comes for my family again.