Page 73 of Alpha Bond

I feel myself start to shift, becoming human as I rise to my feet. Rack’s wolf is barely crawling now, the left side of his face a pulverized mess. He slumps onto the floor and stops moving, but still, she beats him, screaming obscenities until her voice grows hoarse.

I step up beside her, ignoring the spots that are still flitting before my eyes. “Sierra.” I slide my arms around her. “Sierra, it’s done.”

“No!” she shouts, bringing the pipe down on the unmoving body again and again. “No. No. No!” The only movement from the wolf comes from the impact of her blows.

I slide my hands down her arms until they reach her wrists, and I gently stop her. “He’s gone.”

She slumps back against me, her body shuddering. “He’s gone,” she sobs.

“Yes, my love. You did it. You got him. He can’t hurt you now. He can’t hurt anyone.”

“I got him,” she repeats. “He can’t hurt me.”

I take the length of metal from her and let it drop to the ground with a clang. She raises her hands and covers her face with them, still sobbing, her body wracked with it. I turn her to face me and slide my arms around her, pulling her against my chest and letting her weep against me.

“It’s okay,” I murmur, but my voice seems to come from a distance. So does the diminishing noise of fighting around us.

We’ve pushed them back.

I heave a deep breath, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to fill my lungs. When I glance down, my arm is coated in a sleeve of blood. I can feel more of it gushing from my throat.

‘Shit,’I think just as my knees begin to sag. And then I drop.

Chapter 29

Sierra

“He’s strong, Sierra. He’s going to be just fine.”

Although the doctor has already told me this a dozen times, I won’t believe it until I see it for myself. I won’t leave my place beside the bed until he opens his eyes and tells me he’s okay. I clasp both my hands around one of his. I’ve been holding it since they brought him back to our bedroom and settled him in to heal.

Our bedroom.

When he’d collapsed in my arms, I’d screamed for help, then sat on the floor holding him until Callum had arrived with a team of men within minutes. He’d been so pale. Blood-spattered. And most of it was his. They’d carried him to Doctor Bea, which is when she’d started telling me he’d make it through.

She says it again now. “Don’t fret, honey. Our kind can come back from injuries like this.”

I know she’s right, but when I’d seen his torn throat and the damage to his back and shoulder, I’d openly gagged.

So much blood.

Doctor Bea rests her hand on my shoulder as I hunch over him, silently praying. “Why don’t you get some rest, Sierra? You’ve been through so much.”

“No,” I say firmly. “I want to be here when he wakes up.”

Please wake up.

“Then lay in bed beside him. He’ll be glad for it later. Having his mate next to him.”

I don’t reply to that because I don’t know if he will. I look up at her. “He doesn’t want me.”

Her eyes soften. “Oh, honey. Why would you think that?” Her fingers tighten as she squeezes me.

I look down at him. So pale and still. “He thinks I made him break his vow.” I swallow hard.

“His vow of celibacy? Sierra, I think he made that choice himself when he decided to take you as his mate.”

I shake my head. “He made a vow to his mother never to take a woman by force. Never to be like the males who hurt her.”