Page 78 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

Even the poisoned air begins to clear, but one thing remains that sets panic rolling through my spine as the magic in my hands curls inward and pools in my chest.

Our eyes meet, and recognition flashes in his awed gaze. His human form finally takes over, and that’s when I hear him whisper my name in disbelief through the mind link.

He’s worse for wear in human form, his shirt drenched in blood, and he rolls over onto his side.

“Damian!” I yell out as I’m ripped from the depths of this new power and sprung into the present moment, my legs moving of their own accord to carry me forward.

I run faster when his head lolls back, his eyes drifting closed, and panic erupts inside me like an earthquake.

I’m too late!

I’m too damn late!

I land on my knees and skid the few feet between us, sliding one hand behind Damian’s head as the other cradles his cheek.

“Damian! No! Stay with me, please!” I cry out urgently, just as the silence around us fills with movement, murmurs, and a group of onlookers gathering around us.

Wolves and witches come forward to witness Damian taking his final breaths, and my heart lurches, my chest tightening from watching the man in my arms, incapable of breathing.

His eyes can’t even stay open long enough to see me.

“Please, Damian…” I beg, my hand sliding to his chest where his shirt is soaked with oozing warmth still gushing out in splatters from underneath the torn fabric. Squeezing my tear-stricken eyes shut, I press my forehead to his, the silence nearly deafening save for the gentle wisp of the ground as my mere presence undoes the dark magic that corrupted the earth.

I don’t care to watch as the ground is restored and life is breathed back into the greenery. All I care about is Damian, wheezing languidly, painfully, struggling to breathe.

The mate bond barely stirs between us, and something critical in my heart breaks.

Ten years without him means nothing if I lose him now.

And I’m losing him.

Every second that ticks by is another strangled breath from his lips, and I can’t bear it. He’d given me the strength to fight the darkness inside me. His love for me. My love for him.

I can’t lose that.

Someone places a hand on my shoulder, but I don’t even care who it is, shaking it off vigorously and then snarling against the touch.

“Leave me alone!” I growl, my inner wolf ready to come out and use these newfound powers if anyone dares to tear me away from the man I love.

When they let go, a sob escapes my chest, and I can’t even find the strength to lift my eyes to Damian’s face, his body too limp in my arms, too weak, too wrong.

“Please, Damian! Please! I love you, too, dammit! I love you!”

Someone speaks, but I’m not listening, only hearing my own cries as I’m about to lose the father of my child, the love of my life.

“Poppy!” the voice yells out louder this time, and I faintly recognize Ingrid’s voice.

“He’s healing! You’re healing him!”

That’s when I look up to find white-gold wisps of magic pouring from my hand and into his chest wound.

A gasp escapes my lips, but I’m not fearful of what I’m able to do, sending healing magic into the heart of the man I love, willing him to survive.

His fingers twitch, his eyeballs moving from side to side behind his eyelids, and hope blooms in my chest.

Something inside me shifts, and I’m no longer afraid or hesitant to be what I was always meant to be.

Not just a powerful witch, but the luna of Valley Walker—Damian’s fated mate.