Rejected Mate and Following Fate novel Chapter 97

Colton comes at me, lifting his claws in the air for a final blow and as the sun glints on the red stained mess of his sharp talons I look at his face one last time. His human form, the face of the boy who devastates my soul with just a look and even now, it melts all my defenses away. I've missed this face, even if his mind is not behind it.

That tanned perfection of a handsome male, the straight dark slash of eyebrows over unfamiliar soulless eyes. His squared jawline, his subtle etch of dimples, even though he's not smiling but scowling instead. Even like this, about to deliver a last blow, I can't hate him. My heart belongs to him and fills with the fresh ache of finally seeing him as his own face once again, after so many days, and I start to softly cry. Resigned to a goodbye and glad that it will be this sight I leave the world with.

Colton makes his move, no hesitation in his purpose, and I squeeze my eyes shit tight as I tense and prepare for the piercing pain of a delivered blow. I hold tight, my breath paused and my insides pulsating, but it doesn't come. A whoosh, a snarl, and then a voice rings true as something sweeps over my cheek with gentle furriness. A familiar presence sweeping away my loneliest moment.

Over my dead body, you asshole!

I yank my eyes open as a yelp sounds out and heat and warmth covers my head and arms with fresh new blood. It's not mine, it belongs to a wolf overshadowing me and putting themselves right in Colton's way to take his full rage. He's embedding his claws in the side and shoulder of my protector, ripping sideways to worsen the injury and they slump back almost on top of me, pushing me back with a hind leg to keep me safe. It's only then I realize I recognize the scent, even when tinged with the heavy stench of metallic blood.

From the back most wolves are hard to distinguish apart, and as this one bleeds out all over me, their life fluid dampening my clothes as much as my own, I know who it is. They hold off the bearing down of a second attack from my enraged aggressor and turn slightly while their amber eyes lock on mine in an almost smug flicker.

You think I wouldn't keep my promise, huh? My life fades before yours does, Luna.

I'm rendered silent in shock, knowing her return means she couldn't pull Sierra with her but wouldn't leave me to fight alone. She came back, she came to protect me.

Carmen turns away again as quickly, seeing her chance as Colton retracts to go for her again with extra vigor. Irritated that his slashing her to almost shreds hasn't fully taken her down from her protective stance as my shield. Carmen reacts, swift as a knife and launches herself at his throat. Putting her all into the fight, even though she's still trying to heal from the first impaling wounds she counteracted for me. With blood flying through the air, the deafening noise of body thudding to body, ripping and crying out, they entangle in a terrifying movement of fierce. Colton insta-transforms into wolf once more, annoyed that as human he isn't easily winning, snarling at a new opponent and black fur flies with increased aggression.

"Carmen, no.... He'll kill you!" I scream out after her, finding my voice even if all else fails me and I try to get up to offer her some aid. My emotions are all over the place, my heart thudding painfully and even though I should be focusing on my own body and how close I am to death, my mind and soul are with my sister. I struggle into a sitting position on my ass and arms and put all I have in me to sit up and attempt to muster any kind of energy. She's being mauled to pieces, under the fast and horrifying skill of my Mate and I can't bear it.

He ragdolls Carmen around like a bloody scrap and yet she holds on and defies the possibility of what I'm seeing here. It's like she's possessed with an unwavering need to not give up, no matter what he does to her. She stays persistent and despite her cries, her whines, and the way he's breaking her body one bone at a time, her eyes never lose that shining light of devotion to her cause. She's buying me time, she's sacrificing herself to give me precious seconds more, just in case. She's counting on fate taking over.

Colton picks up the limp and torn body as my sob catches me in my throat and chokes me with the heartache of seeing her so broken. My hurt trembling all over my body that this girl, who's come to mean so much in such a short time, is giving everything to see me safe.

I can see Carmen is fighting to heal and stay strong but he's not giving her time and she's not superhuman. Wolves need a moment to recover before new wounds are formed, or they can die, just as I'm doing now.

He wraps one hand around her throat with callous precision, pulling her nose to his so he can look her dead in the face while she hangs in the air as a torn mess. His second hand is still against her chest, his claws digging deep around her heart in her rib cage and she's clinging to his wrist to hold off the moment of jerking it from her body. Fighting him until the end and I completely break into hysteria. Eyes blinded by my tears and body shaking with the sheer force of my emotion.

"Colton, please...NOOOOO!! I beg you. Not her, please, stop..... don't hurt her........ Carmen, you're my sister. Don't give up. I need you too." I cry it so venomously it rasps and splices my throat with burning agony.

A mighty boom shudders through the air like a blast from a bomb and reverberates in every pore of my body like a sonic eruption. I'm thrown down as a wave of energy shudders through the lands and seems to cut through every soul standing. It's a whoosh of air, a travelling movement of visual disruption while pain and noise pulls my breath out from me and darkens the sky for a moment. Physically it seems to rip through every single living nerve within this forest and shakes senses like being splashed all over with icy cold water. A virtual slap across the face.

I blink as light starts to return with the sky opening back up to reveal the sun, wondering if this is what death is. If in that moment of despair, I finally crossed over from the living side and only I witnessed the extreme happening of our environment.

I gasp with the release of heaviness on my chest and spine, screw my eyes shut as the light painfully blinds me with sudden increased clarity and clutch at my stomach in an attempt to make this end faster. I thought death would take away the hurt but maybe I'm still passing through and my body hasn't fully cut the strands of my essence from the living world.

I stay paused waiting... waiting.... The pain of what that was fading as I slip out of consciousness slowly and I know I can't hold on any longer. I've lost so much blood and whatever that was, it's pushed me to want to sleep now, to let go and find my peace in the silence of the darkness. Maybe this is all how it's supposed to be and maybe I'll finally see my parents one more time. I know Colton and Sierra will follow close after me, so I'm not scared. Colton and I will be together on the other side, where spells can't keep him from me anymore.

I'm only glad that he isn't going to be the one to give me the final blow and end us. It's not going to go that way .... My body is opting out first. I sigh with the knowledge it won't be long before he comes to me and I get to wrap myself around all that I have missed.

"Lorey?..... Lorey, baby?" a panicked familiar voice tugs at my hearing but I can't open my eyes, the heaviness pulling me down so smoothly. Yet a warm smooth touch splays across my face, trying to keep me in the light as I'm tugged up and yet can't respond. "Baby why aren't you turning? ... Lorey...fuck.... I got you... I got you, baby. Hold on." His voice is a dream, it has to be, or maybe this is his confusion and suddenly finding himself following me to the underworld where magic can't touch him anymore. I don't understand how he can be on the other side before me, waiting, helping. Aren't I meant to die before my bonded family do?

I'm confused, my muddled mind losing its grip on reality as I clutch so desperately to keep some sense of awareness, but that's Colton's voice...I know that voice, but I can't see him and the warmth of his touch it can't be real. Because he's a wolf and he's the one killing me.

A tingling sensation starts at my arm, another on my throat and spreads to my chest as it feels like my body is pulled up into a strong cradling embrace and a weight is hauled from me. Against all my expectations, my eyes flutter open as darkness starts to recede and a pair of amber eyes in a familiar face are only inches from mine, reflecting a blue glow that brings my sight down to where it's coming from. My brain so cloudy that I stare numbly, with no sense of recognition for a second.

Human hands... blue healing glow on my arm and my upper chest and the armor, its laying beside me, dented and curled and slashed and yet I can't get my bearings at all. I don't know what's happening anymore.

"Colton?" I whisper in dazed confusion, knowing this is a dream. So weak, it sounds like the softest pitter patter of rain on the forest floor. Gazing up into the familiar face of the person I have wanted most all this time.

"I'm right here..... you're going to be okay, just stay still. Let me do this for a minute." It's his voice, my mate's husky, perfect, and beautiful voice, and my strength is coming back to me. The pain receding and my fogginess pushing back to clear my sight and my mind.

The first thing I see around his lowered head is the lack of mist around us, the brighter day minus the smog. With perfect clarity, the face of the person I have pined for most hovering over me, concern and despair etched into that cute boy face and those incomparable features. His voice trembling witht he sheer intensity of his pain at finding me this way.

"I don't what happened or why we're out here...I ...I.... baby, I'm so confused. Who hurt you? Why didn't I stop it?" He pulls me to his throat to cradle my face against him, his words strangled and it's clear he has no idea, still keeping one hand around my body and half hugs me. Never breaking the way his healing magic is pushing through my body and spreading to every inch of me as he restores everything to what it should be and yet more. His power revives my energy, renews my blood in ways Sierra never had a chance and brings back every ounce of my gifts to within my grasp. Every second brings me to reality and further away from a step into the underworld.