Twenty-Three
The sounds of screaming and howling rolled over Rylee as though through a dense fog, muffling the noise. She’d never heard Niko’s wolf howl, but deep inside, she recognized it. The grief pouring out of him clutched her soul in a grip so tight she couldn’t think past it. She needed to let him know she was okay.
Other than the initial blast of pain from the crash, her body was blessedly numb. She tried to open her eyes, but her lids were too heavy. Never in her life had she been so tired. Niko’s voice came at her again. Stronger. Louder. Rather than screaming his anguish, he called her name. Demanding she wake up.
She was awake, damn it. Couldn’t he see that? She opened her mouth to reassure him she was fine—that she just needed sleep—but nothing came out.
“Open your eyes for me, Rylee,” she heard the plea in his frantic words, and she tried. She really did, but her body refused to answer.
“We need to call paramedics.” Another voice, equally deep and just as desperate, called out.
“She won’t make it. I have to change her.” A vague idea of the mate’s bite—of the wolf’s claim—came into her mind but then drifted away as she slipped deeper into that space where nothing mattered but the rest the darkness promised.
Hands grabbed at her, yanking her forward. She couldn’t muster the energy or even the will to keep her head from lolling to the side. A sharp pain tore through her mind with the motion. She wanted to tell him to stop. That it hurt to move even an inch, but Niko pulled her close. She knew it was him. His scent was all over the hard body crushing her to him.
When she opened her mouth, a garbled moan came out, but words would not form. He had to let her sleep.
“Don’t die on me, Rylee. Today is today. You have to stay until at least tomorrow. You fucking promised.”
Gentle fingers brushed her hair from her neck, then hot breath bathed her skin. She gasped at the sudden, sharp, and unrelenting pressure on her neck. Her skin gave way in a burning ache she should pull away from, but oddly enough, she wanted to burrow closer. Pain blossomed from the spot, and molten heat infused her body. It coaxed her deeper into her slumber. The timbre of Niko’s voice faded. An odd thump, pause, thump thump pulsed in her chest like a faltering drum. On some level, she recognized her own heartbeat and the fact it wasn’t working as it should, but she couldn’t bring herself to be concerned. Her muscles relaxed with her exhale until the encroaching darkness swallowed her whole.
***
“Jaxon’s on his way,” Luca said. “We have to get her up to the road.”
When Luca crouched in front of him, it was all Niko could do to keep from gnashing his teeth, warning him away from his mate.
“She needs you in control right now,” his brother barked at him. “Get her the fuck up to the road, or I’ll do it for you.”
He looked down at Rylee’s face. Her plump lips were bluer than pink. Her breaths were shallow and irregular. He was losing her. Her body wasn’t responding to his bite.
He opened his mouth to say… What? That she was dying? Anyone with eyeballs could see that.
“Now,” Luca screamed in his face. “If her wolf emerges, Jaxon will have to force the shift. She’s too weak to do it on her own.”
Jesus. The pain that came with that would bring a grown man to his knees, but doing it with a broken body would be torture. The worst part of it was, he didn’t regret it. Call him a bastard, but he’d do it again if it meant Rylee lived. She could hate him when she was better, but at least she’d have a chance at survival. That was all that mattered.
He didn’t put her down as he staggered to his feet. His knees shook, not from exhaustion, but with the bone-deep terror still riding him so hard he couldn’t see.
Sticky blood coated the entire right side of her face. He didn’t let his gaze linger too long on the deep gash that still oozed on her temple or the awkward angle of her leg. And he sure as hell didn’t focus his attention on the hyperextended way her back had been wrapped around the fucking tree that had kept her from plummeting another hundred feet down the rocky ravine.
He was almost halfway up the incline when he heard his Alpha’s voice coming from above. “Fucking hell. Get her to me, now,” he ordered.
Careful not to jostle Rylee any more than he had to, he climbed the rest of the way with Luca at his back, steadying him with sure hands when he might have otherwise stumbled. The second he reached the top, he went to his knees again. The last thing he wanted to do was release his mate, but she couldn’t shift in leathers.
His hands flew on autopilot as he pulled her jacket off and tossed it to the side. His heart stuttered, and for a second, he couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe. What should have been a light pink T-shirt was plastered to her body in crimson red. The sharp point of bone stuck out from her left rib cage. Her shallow breaths rattled in her throat instead of making it all the way to her lungs.
He caught his brother’s horrified gaze. The pity shining in the depths of his eyes said one thing. She’s not going to make it.
But Luca was wrong. He didn’t know how strong she was. How stubborn. How fucking perfect. Niko refused to believe she wouldn’t survive.
With renewed determination, he pulled and yanked at her black leather pants, ignoring the sickening crack of bone as he did. They’d heal, just like the rest of her. At least she wasn’t conscious to feel the pain he inflicted. He didn’t hesitate until she was naked before him.
“Shift, Niko,” Jaxon ordered. “She’s going to be scared, her wolf will recognize yours.”
The Alpha barely spared a glance for Luca as he pulled his clothes off. “You make sure she doesn’t fall off the cliff if she panics.”
In the next instant, Jaxon was gone, and his hulking wolf was prowling next to Rylee.
The air thickened, and the fine hairs covering his body stood on end. He tore at his clothes. As soon as he was free of his jeans, he relinquished power to his beast. The transformation was fast—brutal—too wicked to be his own.
He didn’t know what the Alpha did to force a shift, but whatever power was unleashed onto Rylee slammed through him, as well. Next to him, Luca grunted and doubled over. His face contorted with the muzzle of his wolf, but a few moments later, he wrested control and straightened, placing himself between Rylee and the ravine’s drop off.
At his feet, Rylee’s body twisted and jerked. A sound no one could describe as human tore from her lips. Every muscle in her body contracted, lifting her slight form off the ground in a spasm so hard that Niko growled, needing to take away the pain twisting her face and making her unseeing eyes bulge.
Jaxon prowled close, his gaze never leaving Rylee. When her body sagged on the ground, still in her human form, he came closer, snarling at her quivering body.
The air thickened again, infuriating Niko’s wolf. The only thing keeping him from lunging at the male and challenging him right then was the fact that Rylee needed him to control the beast. Her life hung in the balance, and he wouldn’t let her down.