AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The need for her, the fated bond, was becoming more intense. My mate looked gorgeous and irresistible, even with how tired and hurt she was. She tried to hide her pain, but she couldn’t mask the tension around her mouth and the strain of her muscles. Not from me.
I couldn’t wait to be alone with her. Pampering her, loving her, and being one with her was something we desperately needed right now. My wolf was all in favor of that plan.
Reaching my arm over the center console, I cupped my hand around her neck and stroked the soft skin just visible there. She gave a slight shiver, goosebumps appearing on her flesh. My head filled with a victorious roar at her instant reaction to my touch.
“Little wolf, why don’t I drive?” I said. “You’ve been going on steam for a while now. I’m worried you’re pushing yourself too hard.”
Her ever-present eye-roll, coupled with a look of complete disdain, was the response I got after suggesting doing something for her. It’d take forever for her to allow me to take care of her the way we both needed me to.
“Right, because your shoulder is doing so well over there, hotshot,” she scoffed. “If you want to make yourself useful, get the witch pills out of the bag.” She nodded in the direction of the bag she’d stashed in the car.
Witch pills? What were witch pills? Confused but intrigued, I reached for the bag and got out the pills.
Tori glanced at the haul in front of me. “The big capsules, Ridge.”
They were huge and looked like horse tranquilizers. The pills looked like they’d been filled by hand, not by a factory.
“What exactly are witch pills?”
She glanced at me from the corner of her eye. “They’re pills made by witches. Obviously.” The line was delivered with another ubiquitous eye-roll and a sarcastic laugh. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
Even in the current situation, it was good to hear my mate’s snark.
“When hunters first began to go after shifters, they worked with witches. The witches granted them extra powers to make them more powerful, on par with the shifters they were chasing. But those powers didn’t include shifter healing. The pills were created to heal wounds quickly. They will heal anything from a paper cut to a potentially lethal bullet wound. As long as you’re still breathing, the pills should be able to heal you.”
“Are you sure they are safe to take?” I knew Tori would never put me in danger—not on purpose, anyway. But this could be a poison, or if witches were involved, a hex.
“I swear, Ridge, they’re safe. Those will heal the wounds from the silver faster than we naturally can.”
Tori was so earnest, I had no reason not to believe her.
I decided to try them first. I was the alpha, and it was my responsibility to protect everyone. I wasn’t willing to let anyone else be the guinea pig, especially not my mate.
We didn’t have any water, so I had to dry-swallow the large pill. It wasn’t easy to get down, but as soon as I did, a tingling started in my arm, then a soft burn emanated from the wound. The pain vanished almost immediately, and a massive itch plagued the injury site as my skin started to knit back together. It now looked exactly how a regular, non-silver wound healed.
Clawson and Audrey gasped as my wound vanished. Within a minute, I could move my arm and rotate my shoulder quickly, pain-free. Everything about me livened up. I wasn’t as exhausted as I’d felt just moments before, and my body was healed, my shoulder back to normal.
“That’s insane,” Audrey said, her voice hushed.
“That’s why hunters aren’t frightened to take on shifters and vampires,” Tori said. “They have these little magic pills that fix them up. No need for medics or hospitals, and they’re back to being battle-ready immediately.”
I wanted to mumble that the pills weren’t so little, but that wasn’t important.
“Jesus. How are we supposed to compete with that?” Clawson asked.
Everybody knew that was a rhetorical question. We silently contemplated what we were up against. Tori had explained some of the hunters’ history to me already, but it was another ballgame for the others. Even with my heads-up from Tori, I still struggled to wrap my head around it all.
In the silence of the packed vehicle, I waited another minute to make sure nothing bad came from taking the pill. I was relieved when everything remained the same. As fast as my shifter abilities allowed, I grabbed a pill and fed it to my mate. If we could get her stab wound healed as quickly as mine, that would be at least one major weight off my shoulders. Watching her in pain, even though she thought she was hiding it from me, was worse than any of my injuries combined.
As I watched her closely, her face gradually relaxed as the pain subsided.
“How are you feeling, baby?”
Tori stretched in her seat and moved from side to side. She gave me the biggest, toothiest smile. “I’m good. As good as new.”
It wasn’t easy to check on Audrey and Clawson from the front seat, but they both assured me they were uninjured. I worried that Diana or Zander could choke on the pill while unconscious, so we decided to check them once they woke. If they needed a pill, then they could have it.
Kyle was passed out between Clawson and Audrey, his head lolling on her shoulder. Tori’s information that the hunters had been spelled to be a fighting match against shifters meant I wanted him to stay unconscious until we returned to Blackwood Creek. I wondered how often we’d have to dose him to make that work. Only time would tell.
