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The thought intensifies the pain rolling through me. I wish I could speak. I wish I could do anything other than just cry through the pain.
“Don’t think about it. You haven’t turned into one of those half-beast creatures. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to be a pack. Now, let’s set up. We need to get close to the water. That should be the only thing we place our backs to.” Adam disappears from view, and Chase lowers me to the sand.
“Eliana, can you hear me?” Chase asks, pulling me into his lap. He presses his fingers to my pulse point on my neck, counting in silence. I realize I can hear him in my thoughts too. I didn’t think he was bitten by one of the Sunset Pointe packmates but he was.
“He shouldn’t have been.” Ravi’s voice hums in my mind, and I do my best to shove it away. I don’t want anything to do with him in this moment. “Don’t be stubborn, princess. I know you’re in pain. I will help you if you let me. I said I wouldn’t help the pups. I’m here for you.”
I ignore his words and rest my cheek against Chase’s chest. I close my eyes, trying to concentrate on it. If I can think about something else, anything else, it might help with the pain.
“Do you remember what we did when we first met?” Chase asks, rubbing his warm palm over my arm, smoothing away my trembles the best he can.
The others move around the beach, but I can’t see them. I can’t open my eyes anymore. I don’t have the strength. I can’t even move my head to respond silently to Chase.
“You don’t have to respond to me physically. I can hear your voice in my head now. It’s as if a door has been open between us. I guess that’s what happens when an alpha bites you.” Chase uses telepathy to communicate with me.
“Did he say an alpha? Sean bit him?” Ravi tries to sneak back into my thoughts. Once again, I shove his voice away.
“I want you to listen to my voice, Eliana. Feel the connection we share. I want you to inhale and exhale with me. On my count. Inhale. One. Two. Three. Exhale. One. Two. Three.” Chase breathes with his counting, encouraging me to join him.
I do, sucking in a long breath only to blow it out.
“Now, I want you to try to open your eyes. I want you to look at me. Focus on me.” Chase touches his fingers to my eyelids, smoothing my pinched brow.
It takes everything in me to do as he asks, and I flutter my eyes open, gazing into the beautiful depths of his dark eyes. He offers me a smile and leans in, nuzzling his nose to mine. He’s close enough to kiss me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he just takes up my view of the world, so he’s the only thing I can see.
“Tell them to move, my love. My pack is nearing you. Please, you can’t fight them. You have to run.” Kellan’s voice snaps through me, and I startle at the desperation cascading through me, his emotions feeling as if they’re my own.
I don’t get a chance to do anything. Chase tenses, lifting me back up into his arms.
“You fucker! You’re a traitor!” Davian shouts, his words ringing through the air. “You said we had a minute. Your pack is here.”
Confusion rushes through me. I think he is talking to Kellan.
“Those pups better prove themselves worthy, princess. That’s not Twilight Cove. It’s Crystalrock. They don’t know about their traitor. They think you still belong to them because of Eleanor.” Ravi’s words flood my mind, but I can’t push them away this time.
A wolf snarls and charges in our direction.
My head spins, and I feel as if I’m going to be sick.
I hang limply in Chase’s arms, watching as Evander and Davian go after the wolf.
Another wave of agony blurs my vision.
Another wolf barrels from the tree line.
This is it. This is the fight we’ve been waiting for.
Chapter twenty-four
Eliana
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“OPENYOURMINDtome, Eliana. Let me give you my strength.” Kellan growls in my mind, yet he doesn’t show himself. “I’m coming.”
As if I can’t resist him, my body relaxes and the edges of my vision clear. The pain doesn’t subside but it feels as if I manage to disconnect enough to focus on something else. A wolf screeches, and I spot Tristan jabbing his makeshift spear into its side.
Blood stains the sand, yet the wolf doesn’t give up. It snaps its teeth, locking its jaws onto Tristan’s spear. Evander takes advantage of the situation and stabs the wolf again, dropping it to the sand.
