AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tears suddenly spilled down her cheeks, and my heart hurt for Donn as he faced her betrayal.
“What was I supposed to do? I’m trying to save our pack!” she cried, shoving his arms away. “None of you understand what she’s truly like. What she can do to you all. We had to cooperate, but I couldn’t get any of you to listen without the magic.”
I felt Zeke’s eyes burning into me and met his conflicted gaze briefly before he turned to his parents.
“Did you spell me too?” he asked, his voice unsteady. “What exactly did you do, Mom?”
She refused to look at him, her head dropping down in defeat. “I’m sorry. I had to; you weren’t listening.”
“When?” he grated, his hands shaking.
“The morning you left for the human realm,” she admitted, looking up at him and raising an imploring hand, but he stepped back from her reach. “I crushed a gem in your kitchen when you made me tea that morning.”
“You turned me against Cordelia,” he said in shocked realisation. “You’re the reason I doubted her.”
“Zeke, baby, I…”
Mina was cut off with a gasp as Donn’s hand wrapped around her throat and forced her to face him again, his eyes glowing amber as his wolf pushed to the surface.
“Donn! We have to kneel,” she panted, grabbing his wrist. “I’m sorry, I truly am, but at least if we live we can protect what’s left of our pack.”
He released a shuddering sigh, devastation on his face as he looked into his mate’s eyes. “My Mina never came back to me, did she? She would never have done this.”
“Of course I did, don’t you feel the bond? I’m right here,” she breathed, one hand reaching forward to tangle in his shirt.
He shook his head sadly. “I won’t kneel, Mina, I won’t give in like this.”
Tears rolled down her face. “You’re choosing this fight over me?”
“I’m choosing my sons, our children,” he said thickly. “And if you were still the woman I mated, you would too.”
Emotion welled in my chest as they stared at each other and he released his hold on her, pushing her gently away from him.
She began to sob, reaching for him. “No, I…”
“Enough of this nonsense,” interrupted a bored voice, and I inwardly cried out as the Queen summoned a spear of wood from the nearest trees with a flick of her fingers and sent it flying through Mina’s back.
She jerked with the impact, the spear protruding through the front of her chest with a spray of blood that coated Donn’s startled face. He leapt forwards to catch her as she crumpled, looking panicked as she slumped into his embrace, the spear aimed directly through her heart and leaving no doubt that it was a fatal blow.
“No,” he whispered, frantically pushing the hair back from her face as she lay limp in his arms.
His tear-streaked face looked up in the next moment, a sudden sense of calm falling over him as he looked first to Zeke, who was frozen in place, watching in horror. Donn gave him a soft smile before looking to Liam, who paused his desperate attempts to break free of the icy cage around him to meet his father’s accepting gaze.
“Dad,” Liam choked out, gripping a frozen bar in despair as Donn gave him a small nod of understanding.
There was no hope left, no way to revive Mina, and therefore no saving Donn. It was what mates accepted and promised each other when they formed a full bond, and the moment Mina’s body gave up was clear when, as if a candle had been blown out with a sudden gust of wind, Donn fell lifeless to the ground beside his mate.
Liam roared as his father fell, the pain flowing between us in the bond making silent tears stream down my cheeks.
“I will kill you, witch,” he spat at the Queen, who only watched him with dry amusement. “I swear on every star in the sky. We will end you.”
She chuckled a little, stepping forward and raising a hand to cast her power once more, but a strong voice called out from the north side of the clearing.
“Mother!”
Relief flooded through me on hearing my sister’s voice, even as I feared for her safety. If my mother had to use much more of her power, she would be left with no choice but to free her hold on me.
“Briar?” the Queen asked, surprise and confusion laced through her voice.
