Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 644

Chapter 644

KILLIAN

I didn't see the exact mechanism — she was fast and the dagger that she'd had on her, the specific one that was always on her, was relevant, and the outcome was the werewitch was no longer holding her and there was a person on the ground.

She went for Hale.

Directly. Without preamble. With the specific intention of someone who'd decided what she was doing and was doing it.

She got close.

Hale teleported.

Not far — ten feet, the specific short-range displacement of someone who wasn't running but was removing himself from the immediate contact threat while remaining in the operational space. He looked at Ivory with the expression of someone who'd expected this and had accounted for it.

"This is taking longer than planned," he said.

"Everything takes longer than planned when it involves this pack," someone near him said.

"True," Hale said.

Ivory's eyes went to Kael.

Who was shifting.

The partial shift — the specific thing I'd seen once, during the full moon incident in the clinic when the attack had been sent through the root. The shift that wasn't controlled, that was the curse's version rather than the wolf's version, the specific horror of the thing that had been in him for three years making a claim on his body.

"No," Ivory said. "You can't. The integration—Kael, the integration, hold on—"

"KAEL," Jordan said, from somewhere in the field. "Kael, stay with me, you have to stay with me—"

Kael snarled.

He turned and looked at Jordan and there was something in the look that was not recognition

"Kael," Jordan said, steadying, keeping his voice at the specific level — not scared, Jordan had learned years ago that scared was the wrong register for this, that the register that reached Kael's wolf was the steady one, the one that existed below the panic. "Kael. I am Jordan. I am Jordan and you know me and you know where you are. Stay here."

A swipe.

Kael's hand, partially shifted, at Jordan.

Jordan got the shield — Aria's shield, which had found Jordan in the specific way that a Luna's moon shield reached for the pack member who needed it — and took the impact.

The shield held.

"He's losing it," Elite said, from my right.

"I know," I said.

"The root activation is escalating," Elite said. "With Hale actively working it—"

"I know," I said.

"Aria," I said, through the link, at a level that I hoped was reaching her. "Are you up."

A beat.

*Getting there,* she said.

*We need the shield on Kael,* I said. *He's partially shifted and not in control.*

*I know,* she said. *I can feel it.*

"EVERYONE IN THE CAR."

Ivory's voice.

At the volume that cut through everything else.

Everyone looked.

Nina had the car upright.

I did not fully understand how Nina had gotten the car upright. She was a restored wolf with full pack-enhanced strength and presumably this was the explanation but the specific mechanics of how she'd managed it in the middle of a field engagement while also shooting things was something I was going to ask about later.

The car was upright.

"NOW," Ivory said.

We moved.

The field was still active — enemies still present, the engagement not fully resolved. This wasn't a clean exit. This was the specific kind of exit where you moved while things were still happening and dealt with the continued happening while moving.

Jordan grabbed Kael.

Kael was resisting — the part of him that was currently in control was not the part that had the ability to identify Jordan as Jordan, and the resistance was significant. Jordan held on with the specific grip of someone who'd been doing this for years, who'd held Kael through the worst of the curse, who knew exactly how to be present to someone who didn't currently know you were there.

"IN THE CAR," Jordan said.

We got Kael in the car.

Everyone else piled in with the specific organized chaos of people who'd decided a destination and were committed to reaching it regardless of what was between them and the car door.

Ivory was in the driver's seat.

The engine was running.

I registered this as remarkable and then set the remarkable aside because the car was moving and Kael was in my arms and in Jordan's arms and was making sounds that communicated severe distress.

"Ivory," Aria said, from somewhere in the back. "Aria, find the red pill. Red. In my bag. Bottom left section. Find it and infuse it with your blood and get it into Kael's mouth."

"The red one," Aria said.

"Red. Bottom left. Go."

Aria was already in the bag.

The bag had spilled — during the car flip, everything had gone everywhere, the compounds scattered across the interior surfaces. Aria was collecting what she could reach, looking for red, her hands moving with the focused urgency of someone who'd received specific instructions and was executing them.

"Found it," she said.

"Cut your hand," Ivory said. "The blood activates the compound's moon-child interaction. It needs your blood specifically."

"How much—"

"Enough to coat it," Ivory said. "Don't think about it, do it."

A sound that communicated Aria had done it.

"In his mouth," Ivory said. "He might resist. Don't let him."

Jordan and I held Kael.

He resisted.

The partial-shift had given him strength that was not fully Kael's strength and was not fully the wolf's strength and was the specific compound worst version of both, and the resistance was significant and he was not going to open his mouth because the thing currently occupying the driver's seat of his consciousness was not interested in cooperation.

"Kael," Jordan said. At the level. The steady below-panic level. "Kael. You need this. This is going to help. This is Aria's blood and it is going to help, open your mouth."

Aria put it in.

The swallowing was reflexive — even in the state he was in, the body's basic reflexes were present, and the pill went down.

In the back of my mind, Khris — Kael's wolf, visible in the link in the specific way the Alpha's wolf was always visible — was not the integration version. The warm, learning-to-be-one-thing version. This was a different channel, older, the version that had existed for three years when the curse was fully active.

*Kill them,* Khris was saying, in the link. Not to anyone specifically. The specific broadcast of something that was not in control of itself. *Kill them. No one left. Kill all of them.*

*Khris,* Silver said, through the bond, through the link, at a level that was — I felt it even from here, the specific quality of the Luna's wolf making contact with the Alpha's wolf at a level that was below the verbal.

*Khris. We're here. You're here. Come back.*

The car was moving through trees.

Ivory had left the road.

I looked up — the windshield was showing forest, the specific density of trees that communicated we were well off any established path, and Ivory was driving through it with the quality of someone who'd decided the direction and was committing to it regardless of what the terrain had to say about it.

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