Page 99 of Bonded Through Bite

“But… who?” An image of Patricia flashes through my mind and I gasp. Then I realize I’m seeing something Jim is seeing right now. Patricia. The threat is a snarling Patricia closing in on Jim. Wounding Jim.

:She had a knife. I’m sorry I didn’t fully protect you from the poison.

That’s all he says and then I feel a wall build between us.

I run faster. Faster.

Voices tease at the edge of my hearing.

“You attacked my mate.”

“Little bitch, she⁠—”

The clearing stinks so badly of blood that I have no problem tracking it down even after Jim shuts me out. Stupid, stupid man. I’m going to gut him for that. After I pound into his head that I’m not his mate.

My heart stutters violently when I see a massive bear—covered in blood—rearing in front of Patricia. She’s blurring closer, slashing him, and blurring away again.

“Get away from him,” I scream as I charge her.

There’s priceless shock on her face when my fist lands. Lucky, I got lucky, I realize as soon as she pivots and kicks me across the clearing. Whatever fighting we did before was restrained, almost polite.

This is going to hurt.

I spit out blood and get back on my feet. She’s snarling at me, totally ignoring the bear. I’m ignoring him too despite the frantic pleas he’s sending at me. I’m not going to run. I’m not going to leave him to face Patricia alone.

From the back of my mind, an image of Alyssa’s bloodied body rises and I glance between Jim and Patricia. The foul smell is present here too, but I’m not so sure I read things quite right back then. I thought the smell was from Jim, but maybe… I sniff the air and snarl. The whole clearing is permeated with that smell. I can’t make out who it’s coming from.

“You—”

“Don’t ever and I mean ever again touch any of my men,” I cut Patricia off.

“Your men?” She laughs.

I don’t waste any more breath arguing with her and, instead, charge again. I know I’ve made a mistake the second Patricia’s eyes narrow and the smile drops from her face. The knife slices deep into my stomach and this time Jim is not there in time to knock me out of the way. He tries, though. The bloody bear crashes over me and presses me to the ground, forcing the air out of my lungs.

I try to wriggle free to get some air, but he refuses to move and that leaves him vulnerable to Patricia, who doesn’t hesitate to cut into him. I smell the blood and feel him flinch with every slash.

“Get off me,” I manage to whisper. Jim!

He doesn’t reply, only keeps me pressed to the ground. My heart pounds so hard it’s making me dizzy, or maybe it’s the lack of oxygen. For a second, my mind takes a detour wondering how I can be a vampire with a heartbeat and why do I need to breathe so bad, but then Patricia’s voice pulls me out of it.

“I’m going to kill you, you fucking furball. And then I’m going to cut that little vamp to pieces.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” I manage to snarl back at her.

Jim shudders over me but still refuses to move.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Rafael

The sight that greets me when I reach the clearing a few steps behind Santiago curdles my blood. A huge bear is lying in the middle of the clearing and Patricia is attacking it furiously. Samantha is nowhere to be seen, but I smell her blood.

“Patricia, stop!” Santiago shouts. She doesn’t even blink and I rush closer. At that, she whips her head around.

“Stay, both of you,” she says and the compulsion freezes me in my place. I can’t even turn my head to see if San is faring any better. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about your new plaything?” she snarls at me. For the moment, she has abandoned the bear and her fury is fully focused on me.

“I—”