Page 92 of Rejecting his Mate

He gets out of the other side of the vehicle, and I feel his presence weakly through our mating bond. It is so faint, hardly there, but I feel him brush through my mind, and what I get from him is horror and disgust. That’s fine—it's what I feel about him too.

Sawyer pushes me into the back of the truck before we speed out of there. I try to glance behind to see what Dalton and the white-haired man are doing, but I lose sight of them quickly.

Turning forward, I sag into the seat. My body feels spent and shaky, my mind is in turmoil. Everything feels overwhelming. Memories are still flooding back into my brain, making it hard to discern what is present and past.

I watch Sawyer as he rips open Cade’s shirt to get a look at the gunshot wound in his shoulder, and I try to cling to something before I drown. There is a lot of blood, making it hard to see the damage.

“Now would be a good time for you to do some of that healing stuff,” Sawyer says, a hopeful tone in his voice.

I reach inside me, trying to find the magic again, but it is like wading through molasses. I can see it pulsing and shining brightly within my mind, but I am too exhausted to reach it. “I think I overdid it back there. I can sense the magic, but I can’t use it.”

“We’ll just do it the old-fashioned way, then.”

I close my eyes, trying to stop the flood of memories that are still infusing my mind. I wanted to know who and what I am, but not like this. It is sensory overload, and I lean forward in my seat, fisting my hands over my ears.

A hand slips into mine. Cade’s. “You okay?”

“No,” I admit. Only he would ask if I’m okay while bleeding all over the car.

“Those fuckers deserved to die, Halle.”

He thinks I’m torn about what I did to the hunters. There will be time to digest that later, but that’s not what’s eating at me. “Whatever I did back there, when I broke the binding, it broke everything.”

“What do you mean?”

The truck jostles me as Wyatt darts around a big van to keep pace with the other car.

“When my magic flowed, it released my memories. That’s all I’m seeing. An endless showreel of my past.”

Cade and Sawyer exchange glances. “I don’t want to trust these women,” Cade says, “but Hester seems to know about these things. When we get to the sanctuary, maybe she can help slow down whatever is happening.”

“Still not too late to run,” I say with a lopsided smile.

Despite his injury, he pulls me against the opposite side, tucking me against him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Chapter 22

Tessa

The car is quiet as Abel directs us along the highway, heading for home. I wasn’t sure what to expect when Halle came to me in my visions, and even less sure when I managed to communicate with her. I got the impression of a scared young wolf, uncertain of who she is and what she is capable of.

But what happened back there, the way those members of the Order died, had nothing to do with the rest of us. It was all Halle.

“She’s strong,” I say, shifting my gaze in Hester’s direction.

She is the strongest of us and the one who set up the sanctuary for tau wolves and other wolves who fall prey to hunters. She is the one who will understand what happened back there.

Hester doesn’t look at me, keeping her gaze locked on the side window.

“Did you sense that much power in her when you first touched her?” I press.

Abel glances at the rearview mirror before shifting his gaze to me. I don’t need the luxury of our mating bond to know what is going through his head. What happened back there was not normal.

“I didn’t,” I continue when she doesn’t answer. “Her powers were bound, and then suddenly they weren’t. What happened?”

Apryle is watching the conversation intently, wanting answers too.

Finally, Hester looks at me, though I can’t read the expression on her face. “We needed her strength.”

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