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Tess jumped up as six beefed-up men flooded the room. With one look at Sammy’s body, the men released a series of howls, growls and moans, sounding like a mix of animals.

Rory said to her, “These are our people. Stay down behind me or you put Cole in danger.”

Those were the only words that could have stopped her from going to Gray Wolf, who was still on his side, panting. He could heal in wolf form, right?

Right behind the men, an unnaturally huge eagle came gliding through the tunnel. Gold eyes flashed with wrath.

Energy sparked where Brantley still held his hands up as if warding off an invisible threat.

Rory said, “What kind of power is that miserable piece of shit wielding?”

“Are you talking about Brantley? What’s he doing?” Tess asked, now squatting behind Rory.

“He’s producing a telekinetic field of power. Magic.”

When the eagle landed and its powerful claws touched the ground, the majestic bird was as tall as Tess in her stocking feet.

Energy swirled around the giant bird.

In the next moment, the eagle had changed to a man dressed in a suit, and so smoothly it was as if there had been no actual shift from bird to human body.

Tess could feel the weight of this man’s presence.

Okay, she’d seen it all now. “Cole needs me.”

Rory lifted a bloody hand. “No. That’s the Guardian. Our boss. Don’t move yet.”

“Cole could be dying.”

“You risk killing him for sure if you get in the way when magic is involved.”

Then their guardian needed to get busy doing whatever he planned to do. She could see the stuttering rise and fall of Gray Wolf’s chest getting slower and slower. Blood oozed from too many cuts to count.

Why wasn’t Cole’s animal healing faster?

The Guardian took a look at the dead bear and his badly bleeding wolf, then at Brantley. He said, “I’m sorry we were too late for you, Sammy.”

With that, the Guardian swung a vicious look at Brantley. “Your name is not Brantley. It’s ... ah, Bastien. I knew of you as a child. You have made a grave error by touching one of mine.”

Brantley had never looked frightened the entire time he worked with Tess, ordering people around like her ruled the earth, but he was scared now. “Your wolf killed our wolf. It was a justifiable fight.”

“A Black River abomination is not worthy of a life,” the Guardian said. “You made a careless mistake by setting a bomb for Cole.”

“No, I made a mistake by allowing him ten seconds to suffer before he died. His fault. He walked right into my hands by coming after the wolf pack.”

“So now you’re a minion for the Black River pack?”

“Like hell.” Brantley talked bold, but his fear was showing through. “Here’s the deal. I was only told to take down Cavanaugh.”

“You lie. You may have originally wanted only Cole, but you were also told to take his mate.”

Tess stared at Brantley, sick about all the time she’d spent around him.

Brantley said, “If Cavanaugh lives, then keep him and your other animals out of our business. You don’t want to cross my leader.”

“Oh, but I do,” the Guardian said in an accommodating tone. “Why don’t you call Mother Cadellus here now?” 

When Cole’s boss smiled, hair stood on Tess’s arms because of the threat in those eagle eyes in a human face.

The Guardian said in a taunting tone, “Ah, that’s right. She’s stuck in a cave in another country, but she didn’t give you this level of power to hold a kinetic wall. Who have you been associating with? A Power Baron? What’s his name?”

When Brantley didn’t answer, the Guardian gave a soft nod. “He put a spell on you in case you were caught so you couldn’t expose him. That’s too bad. Your usefulness is dwindling by the second.”

Brantley was clearly running out of options. As he kept his hands up to maintain his invisible shield, he started negotiating. “Look, let’s be reasonable. We have her father. Let me go and I’ll free him.”

“That’s a generous offer on your part.”

Brantley smiled, the slimy bastard.

Tess ground her back teeth, needing to unload all her frustration on him. This worthless excuse for a human, or whatever he was, had terrified her father and bloodied Cole.

Gray Wolf was still bleeding heavily. Tess hoped that meant the Guardian had super powers or believed in Cole’s.

The Guardian told Brantley, “Yes, quite an offer, but my people have killed the jackals you left in charge. Her father is safe. I have a message for you to deliver.”

Tess thanked whoever had created the Guardian for saving her dad.

But was he going to just release that pig? She had a nice prison cell waiting for Brantley.

A subterranean cell.

“What’s your message?” Brantley asked, but the color had flushed from his face.

The Guardian walked forward and shoved a hand right through Brantley’s invisible shield. It cracked and exploded out in clear pieces, which floated in the air.

Brantley stared, open-mouthed.

The Guardian grabbed him by the neck with one hand and lifted him off the floor. Speaking calmly, the Guardian said, “Your Cadell kin will find this as my message.”

When the Guardian squeezed, Brantley’s eyes bulged, his tongue enlarged and protruded as he strangled to death.

Dropping his slack body to the floor, the Guardian crossed the room and went down on one knee next to Cole’s wolf. Without looking away from the wolf, he said, “You may send the woman now, Rory.”

Tess didn’t wait for Rory to speak.

She leaped over him as one of the men guarding the room crossed over to Rory and squatted down, speaking low to him about his injuries.

When she reached Gray Wolf, Tess fell down next to his outstretched legs and stared into the blue eyes this wolf shared with Cole.

She said, “Hey, baby.”

“He doesn’t know you,” the Guardian explained gently, but that just pissed her off.

She pushed up to face the Guardian. “Yes, he does! You don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s the man I plan to marry so don’t go telling me he doesn’t know me.”

All the low talking quieted.

Until now, these men had been casting glances at Gray Wolf, but making no move to go near him. It was like a collective intake of air as everyone swung their attention to the Guardian and waited to hear what he would say.

Or maybe they were waiting to see if he struck her down.

The Guardian studied her in such a bird-like way it was disconcerting. “You would marry Cole even though he is a shifter?”

“Well, duh. I’m saying it with him lying here as a wolf.” She glanced down as Gray Wolf made a pained sound on the next breath. “Do something, dammit. He’s dying.”

“I’m sorry. It was his choice.”

“What?” She looked up to face the Guardian straight on. “No, that’s not his choice. He would want to stay with me. If you’re the all-powerful Guardian, then tell Cole to change back so he can speak to us. He’s not healing as a wolf. He needs medical attention.”

In the silence that followed, Tess took in the other men who were looking away as if uncomfortable.

Twisting around in the other direction, she said, “Rory?”

“What our Guardian is trying to tell you is that Cole has been suffering with the mating curse, like Sammy was, but Cole managed to keep how badly affected he was from most of us until now. I think fighting Sammy snapped the wolf’s connection to Cole’s humanity and accelerated the influence of the curse.”

Rory took a shuddered breath and in a voice thick with emotion, he said, “We’ve lost him.”

“No!” She could have saved him with bonding as his mate. This was worse than the first time she lost him.

It was too much. She couldn’t let him go.

Tess yelled at the Guardian, “You will do something! Fix this!”

He repeated, “I can’t, child. Cole has taken it past the point any of us could intervene, even me. You are the only one who could have saved him. It was up to him to ask you to be his mate, but he was protecting you by not placing the burden on you to save him. All my shifters know that a mating bond must be freely given and accepted.”

Her eyes burned with tears. She pleaded, “He’s not a burden. He’s the one person I need so I can breathe. I can’t lose him.”

Shifting his gaze to Cole, the Guardian said, “I’ve never seen one of mine this far gone who came back to his humanity. It’s unfortunate, but the wolf has definitely taken full control.”

“Fuck all of you,” Tess said. “I am not losing him.”

Another intake of breaths sounded around the room.

She lowered herself to lie down close to Gray Wolf’s head so she could stare into his eyes.

They were definitely not human eyes.

Gray Wolf snarled, but there was no power behind it.

Reaching out, she put her hands on each side of his muzzle and got the wolf’s full attention.

“Listen to me, Gray Wolf. I will not give up Cole. Not to you or anyone else. You will give him back to me. If you do, I will be the best mate you two could ever want. I. Am. Cole’s. Mate. And he is mine. Give him back or ... take me with you.”

Energy hummed in her chest like a turbine on high.

Tingling started up her arms. She held her breath, but the wolf did not change back to human.

She tightened her grip just enough to get the wolf to focus, because his breathing kept growing weaker. She couldn’t use her hands to wipe the tears and sniffled her way through her words.

“Cole Cavanaugh and Gray Wolf, I love you both. I will love you and be your mate for eternity. If you go, my heart goes with you. Do you take me as your mate? Will you be here for me or leave me to face the world alone?”

The tingling intensified.

Gray Wolf shut his eyes.

She couldn’t catch her breath. No.

When the wolf blinked, Cole’s human eyes stared back at her. Those gorgeous blue eyes held the same worried look as the day he’d told her he would never come between her and her father.

Drawing in a deep breath, she said, “How many times do I have to tell you to stop making my decisions for me? I’ll handle my father if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m strong enough to accept your power and, if I’m not, then ... we go together. Now, are you going to accept my offer, or leave me to explain to these scary shifters that I wasn’t good enough to be your mate?”

Gray Wolf’s eyes close again.

Oh, no, that’s not what she wanted her last words to him to be. “Cole, please?”

Energy pulsed through her arms and a bright light glowed over her and Gray Wolf ... who changed into Cole, her beautiful naked man even though he was beat to hell and bleeding profusely.

He gave her a weak smile and said, “I accept you ... as my mate ... forever.”

The room erupted into a blast of cheers. She was laughing and crying.

Then Cole closed his eyes and his chest stopped moving.

She screamed, “No!”