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I shoved my pack to the side, letting the change from man to beast take over. Heedless of the danger I was no doubt running into, I sprinted forward, exiting the trees in a matter of seconds. My form continued to grow as I ran, my legs eating up the distance as molten fury flowed through my veins, scorching a trail throughout my body until all I could see, think, and smell was my mate’s blood.
I would fucking kill every last one of them for daring to touch my mate.
When I was twenty feet away, several things happened all at once. Tamra whirled around with a glowing dagger in her hand that I immediately recognized. Her eyes met mine, and I saw absolute hatred and hunger directed fully at me.
I’d heard Pearl’s then Estella’s howl. I’d heard the warning, knew it was a trap, but I didn’t care. I released enough wolves and added them to my pack for the odds to even out. Which freed me to save my mate.
Nothing else mattered except freeing my mate and getting her the hell out of here.
“Rylan,” Pearl screamed while Estella yelled out a warning, but it was too late.
Tamra’s arm swung back; the handle of the dagger gripped in her palm. A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as the blade left her hand. The big wolf shadow disappeared, but I would deal with it later.
I watched in slow motion as the dagger that nearly decapitated my mate somersaulted through the air, aimed right for my heart. My wolf pulled back, but our forward momentum meant that it was too late. There was no way we’d be able to move in time.
A white blur appeared out of nowhere. I opened my mouth to yell, but it jumped in front of the dagger that glowed with a strange white light. At first, I thought it was Estella’s wolf, but I knew that she wouldn’t leave her human half unguarded. If I was her wolf, that was exactly what I would do.
There was only one other white wolf that it could be.
The Moon Spirit had jumped between me and the dagger. I watched as it stabbed the white wolf in its tender underbelly.
“No,” I gasped out, too stunned to react to what I was witnessing.
That moment of disbelief, that moment of hesitation, was how everything went to shit. The dagger didn’t stop; it went straight through the Moon Spirit. My wolf and I put everything into backpedaling, but it was too late.
The dagger was cold as it sliced into my shoulder. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it wasn’t an ice-cold bite, followed by agony so intense I blacked out for a second.
I fell to the ground, and Pearl screamed as she pulled fruitlessly against her binds. Somehow, I shifted back to my human form by the time I hit the dirt. I looked down at my chest, saw the blood coating my torso and the dagger sticking out of my shoulder.
My vision tunneled, my heartbeat pounding loudly in my ears drowning out all of the other noise. I grabbed the handle of the dagger and ripped the blade out of my body. There was no pain, only the warm gush of blood that slushed out of the wound. I could feel my soul leaving my body and I wondered if Pearl had felt like this back at the Gala. A cool detachment calmed my mind as my heart slowed to a beat that was dangerously close to stopping.
I blinked, my eyes seeking out Pearl’s, wanting her to be the last thing I saw before I closed them for the final time. Her hair was floating around her perfect face, her arm glowing with a light so bright it hurt to look at her, but I forced my eyes to remain where they were. I watched in fascination as she screamed, her brown eyes lightening until they glowed bright white too.
Movement beside her drew my attention. I sucked in a breath, watching as Tamra stood next to my mate, a sadistic grin on her face. I tried to yell a warning but knew there was no time. Without thinking, I tossed the dagger in my hand, catching the tip in my palm as it came down. With the last of my strength and breath, I hurled the blade toward my aunt. Spending the final moments on this earth saving my mate.
But a shadow appeared between Tamra and my throw. I thought for sure that the Shadow Wolf had blocked my strike, but I was too weak to keep watching.
I just hoped that my actions had saved Pearl from dying. Something was definitely happening to her, but I knew that she was strong and would be all right.
Darkness closed in around me, feeling like a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. A flash of white seared my retinas through my eyelids, and then I fell into an endless sky full of stars strangely without moon.
Chapter Thirty
Pearl
Everything burned.
