Page 91 of Rejecting his Mate

“Stop, Halle.Please, stop. You’re going to kill yourself.”

The moment he touches me, everything quiets. My power recedes, and I suck huge breaths as I feel it returning to the back of my mind.

All I can focus on is Cade’s face in front of me. “You’re bleeding.” It is an obvious thing to state, but it is the first thing that comes to my head.

“So are you.”

I reach up, touching beneath my nose. My fingers come away bloody, but my cheeks also feel wet. There is blood coming from my eyes.

Terror punches through me. I don’t know much about being part witch, but I figure bleeding from the eyes isn’t a good sign, no matter what you are.

“What happened?” he asks.

“She broke through her binding,” Hester says, helping Tessa to her feet. She has blood on her face too. All the tau wolves do.

I did that. I hurt people who are trying to help me. It doesn’t matter that I don’t mean to. An ugly feeling slithers through me. Is this why my aunt bound me? Because I am too dangerous to be out here alone?

“I could have killed us…” I gasp out the words as I cling to Cade. He is the only thing keeping me from losing my shit right now.

“You saved us.”

I narrow my eyes, uncertain of what that means. People are bleeding because of what I did, even if I didn’t know what I was doing. “I didn’t do anything,” I say, hating how much my voice wobbles.

“Uh, yeah, you did.” I follow Sawyer’s line of sight and see the hunters all lying in the middle of the road, out for the count.

“I suggest we get the fuck out of here before they come around,” Jackson says.

“You wanna leave without putting these assholes down?” Cade’s words shock me. I don’t want to turn him into an animal willing to kill to protect me.

“No,” I say.

“You want to leave them to come after us?”

“I don’t care about them. I care about you and what that would do to you.”

“When it comes to protecting you, I don’t give a shit about anyone else. I’ll kill a hundred hunters. I'd kill a thousand if it keeps you safe.”

My pulse flutters wildly at his words, my wolf liking what he’s saying. We want a protective mate, but Cade is not our mate.

Even as I think it, I know it's not true. Cade feels like ours. And I feel like his.

Abel, who has walked over to the hunters, bends down and presses his fingers to the neck of one of the downed wolves. He moves to another and does the same, and then another. “They’re dead.”

My body jolts at that statement. I killed them. Whatever I did, it ended their lives. Bile climbs at my throat, even though I know it was either us or them.

“Oh, shit.” My tongue feels thick, and my mouth dry as I stare at all the bodies lining the road.

Hester urges me to my feet. “Forget about them. We need to leave. More will come. The Order won’t rest until you're found. We’ll head to the sanctuary. We’ll be safe there. You have a vehicle, I assume.” Sawyer nods. “Then follow us.”

Numbness spreads through me as Sawyer gets an arm under his brother and helps him toward the truck. Wyatt grabs me, dragging me with them.

“What about the witnesses?” Tessa says.

“They’ll clean up.” Hester gestures in the direction of the trucks.

An awareness trickles through me, and I twist to look back at the carnage I caused. The back door of the car bringing up the rear opens, and a man with a shock of white hair climbs out. He glances around at all the bodies, but it is not him who draws my attention.

Dalton.

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