Page 35 of Forsaking His Mate

Shit.

I try again, but what we did in the woods took a lot of my strength. I can sense a small tingle of my magic lingering and I try to focus on it. I’m weakening, but with the last of my strength, I push it out from my center.

I think it’s not going to work, but then it erupts from my body like a wave of power, shoving Abel back as ifhe’s been hit by a truck. He stumbles and sprawls onto the floor. I don’t stop to see if he’s okay. I run.

Slamming through the front door of the cabin, I sprint across the grass toward the main house. The lights are on and I can see Hester moving around in the kitchen.

My chest heaves, my lungs burning as if acid has been poured into them. What the hell is wrong with Abel? Even when he rejected me, I never felt such rage from him. He wanted to kill me. He would have done it if I hadn’t used my magic.

My legs are shaky as I run, but I keep going, knowing if I stop, I’ll not get back up. I scent him before I hear him coming after me. I can sense the rage coming down the bond and my fear is through the roof.

Something snags my foot and I go down heavily. My knees scrape through the dirt, my palms too as he drags me toward him. I scream even as I kick out, trying to stop him. I scream over and over, fighting for my life as he climbs on top of me.

“Abel, stop!” I scream. “This isn’t you!”

He grabs my face, his grip bruising. I reach down the bond, trying to soothe him, trying to calm him. I consider using magic to stop him somehow, but instinct tells me the bond is the only way to calm him.

His grip loosens a little. “I’m your mate. You don’t want to hurt me.” I repeat this over and over.

At first he doesn’t seem to listen. Then he slows, his head tilting to the side. The anger within him starts to subside. “That’s it,” I say. “Get off me.”

He tilts his head and to my astonishment climbs off me. I push more calming thoughts down the bond.

“What’s going on?” Hester yells from behind us,standing there with Apryle and Roux. They must have heard my screams.

Abel bares his teeth, snarling and growling before he launches at the girls. Hester speaks rapidly under her breath and flicks her hand out. As soon as she does, Abel drops bonelessly to the ground, his eyes rolling back in his head.

“Are you alright?” Roux asks, coming to help me off the ground. I’m covered in dirt and I’m aware I’m naked, but I don’t care about that.

My mate tried to end me and I want to know why.

“He just lost it. He tried to kill me.” I straighten, my hand going to my bruised throat.

“You had sex,” Hester says. She can no doubt smell our mixed scents and see the mark on my neck from where he bit me. “The mating bond?”

“It’s there, but all I’m getting from him is intense rage.”

I ignore how shaky I feel, focusing on Abel’s downed body. He hasn’t stirred.

Hester purses her lips and I feel she knows what is happening, but doesn’t want to tell me. “Hester, he’s my mate. If there’s something going on, I need to know.”

She blows out a breath. “He has moon sickness.”

“Moon what?”

The three of them exchange glances, but I’ve never heard of it. “There is a condition among some wolves that… changes them. It usually happens during the full moon, but I guess your mating bond snapping into place must have triggered it. It heightens the more animalistic tendencies wolf shifters have—namely anger.” She glances down at him. “Help me get him in the garage. We need to secure him before he comes around.”

He’s heavy, and it’s going to be a struggle to carryhim there, so each of us grabs a limb. Once we get the door open and Hester flicks the light on, I can see a table in the middle of the room, bolted to the floor, with thick cuffs hanging from each corner. I glance at Hester.

What the hell is this?

We lift him onto the table and Hester orders us to secure his wrists and ankles. Reluctantly, I fasten the cuff around his wrist before stepping back. He hasn’t woken yet and I can sense nothing through the bond.

“Start explaining,” I say to Hester.

“It’s not my place.”

“I just nearly lost my life at the hands of my mate.”

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