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The healer stopped moving as her head shot to the right. But she did not stumble, which was a bit concerning. Lexi backed away, still hopping around with her fists at her chest like a boxer waiting for the bell.
The healer wiped at her lips, which were painted like a clown’s. Blood smeared her fingers, and she smiled up at Lexi.
The grin was menacing. She looked the opposite of a person who was meant to take care of others, someone who literally sacrificed their own body to give a fighting chance to strangers. Her teeth were coated in a rusty red stain, and that was when she charged.
Lexi planted her feet firmly on the ground, but the healer was stronger than she had anticipated. Her head gored into Lexi’s stomach, knocking the wind out of the future queen and causing her body to instinctively bend forward in response. She curled over the back of the healer, which allowed her opponent to take her to the ground with her.
Suddenly, Lexi was facing the sky. She was desperately trying to breathe as her lungs were being compressed between the thighs of the healer, who wasted no time in straddling Lexi and hurling punches.
“That’s how it’s going to be then, isn’t it, half-breed?” the healer growled.
Lexi had managed to raise her forearms in front of her face in time to protect herself from the healer’s blows. She moved quickly like a machine hammering down on Lexi’s arms, a few of the strikes bouncing off her vulnerable face.
Lexi was starting to panic. She knew she wouldn’t be able to win with the woman on top of her like that. She had to tire her out and, somehow, flip her around onto her back. She could either give in to the blows or step away for a breather.
“Get out of there, Lexi!” Xander wasn’t playing the respectful king anymore. He was the terrified mate.
The healer was starting to slow in her robotic-like punches, which gave Lexi the moment she had been waiting for. Lexi used her strong legs to wrap around her opponent’s waist and successfully did as she anticipated: flipped her over onto her back.
Lexi took the time to pin the healer to the ground, giving her a light punch to the same left side of her jaw on which she had initially landed a punch. But she, too, was exhausted from defending herself, so she rose, and hopped backward to catch her breath.
“You go, half-breed!”
“Our new queen, yeah!”
There were mixed messages from the pack, but Lexi wasn’t focused on it. She was bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to get her breath back so she could narrow in on the kill. The healer had a lot more strength and energy than Lexi had imagined, so she had to find a way to make up for it … and quickly.
“Look out!” Harper yelled, and Lexi took heed of the warning.
When she lifted her head from staring at the emerald pasture, the healer was coming for her again. Except she was ready with her fist outstretched, firing backward for a long-anticipated pummeling.
Lexi was able to duck away from the blow, but the next two to three, she did not see coming.
She’d underestimated the cleverness of the healer, who used the threat of a punch as bait. While Lexi ducked from the blow, the healer quickly leapt up into the air, landing a swift kick into the back of the head of a defenseless Lexi.
She had never been knocked around like that before. It was like an earthquake had taken place, but it was isolated inside her head. She fell to the ground on all fours, terribly shaken, when the healer came around to the front of her face with a knee cocked back like the trigger of a gun.
Caught in time for a few moments, Lexi thought that she was going to die. She could fire herself backward again, but she would land on her back, and then she would certainly be done for. Or she could take the hit and bounce back.
But there was no time. The healer was too quick, so what she saw in a flash, as fast as lightning, was a life with Xander, the cherished one that had yet to happen. She wanted that more than she wanted breath in her lungs.
The foot connected with Lexi’s chin, sending Lexi flying onto her back, just the way she had anticipated. Her body made a thudding sound as she hit the soil, and then the world began to disappear. Her vision narrowed like a tunnel, and she felt the inclination to giggle with insanity.
That was it. That was how it would end.
THIRTY
XANDER
Xander watched with great horror and love as his beloved took on, with the utmost courage and strength, the person who had been threatening her life. His wolf demanded he help her, but he stood strong. It was admirable and downright sexy, but he couldn’t waste any of his energy lusting after his future queen. He had to use all of his alpha and king powers to push energy and tenacity into her through their mating bond.
It had been essential that the mating mark be done before the fight, if only for that very reason. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Lexi was capable … quite the opposite, actually … but he didn’t trust the healer as far as he could throw her.
After all, she had deceived him by becoming the head healer at the palace clinic. In the past, it had behooved him not to get to know the staff under his employment. That was mostly Stephen’s job. But he wouldn’t let anything like that skim by him ever again.
But that would all be in vain if anything at all happened to Lexi. They were mated, and thus, one form in the essence of their souls, expressing themselves through two separate bodies in the world around them. To shifters, though, she may as well have been one of his limbs. If one were removed, he would never be the same again.
He stood at the front of the circle, watching as Lexi dodged and landed a few hard strikes on the healer. But the healer was fast and driven by vengeance, which gave her a bit more of an upper hand than either of them could have anticipated.
