“Fuuuck,” Luca screamed, his voice guttural and mean, as though raging against what had happened would rewind time so this would be nothing more than a nightmare that hadn’t happened. He gripped his hair, pulling on the strands as he stared into the abyss of foliage and nature that, on any other day, would have stolen his breath for the sheer beauty of the scene before him.
Niko couldn’t breathe. His lungs burned, and he tried to force air into them, but it wouldn’t come. “She’s gone,” he choked out more to himself than to Luca. The words ripped a cavernous hole in his soul that wouldn’t mend even if he lived forever. Standing on shaking legs, he threw his head back and howled.
Luca gripped his arm, his fingers digging into his bicep hard enough to bruise. What the hell? Did he think that he’d jump into the gorge and end his misery? And if he did, did he really think that a hand on his arm was going to stop him?
“There,” Luca yelled. Niko followed the direction he was pointing.
For a second, all he saw was unrelenting forest and savage nature, but then, in the midst of it, a discordant patch of black stood out against the brightness of the fall colors. His heart skipped a beat. The terrain was steep and strewn with boulders and fallen trees, but fifty feet from where they stood, Rylee’s slight frame lay.
“I’m going down there,” he said. Luca didn’t try to stop him. Instead, he followed close behind, barking instructions to step with care when all Niko wanted to do was rush to get to her.
“We don’t know what shape she’s in,” Luca said to his back.
Niko knew it wouldn’t be good. No one lay at angles like Rylee was without having sustained severe injuries, but as long as she still breathed, he didn’t care. He’d fix her. His wolf would make her heal.
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.
