Page 58 of Sold Bullied Mate

I have to.

By the time I pounce on him, he’s already back on his feet, and the impact sends us both sprawling to the ground again. We roll and buck, snapping, my jaw just an inch from his neck. He twists around, knocking me off balance and getting me on my back, and I manage to dodge his open mouth just in time, protecting my neck.

It’s hard to breathe, my sides aching from the impact, my front left leg still dripping blood onto the ground, unusable, the pain excruciating when I try to put any weight on it.

Kira screams again, and this time, I can’t stop myself—I turn to look. She’s standing next to what looks like some sort of exhaust pipe atop the building, but she can’t hold on to it. Her shirt is pulled up over her face, and the flames are licking at her feet.

I’m no fireman, but I know the look of a collapsing building when I see one. And if that building goes down, it’s going to swallow Kira up in the blaze.

Jerrod is older than I, more experienced. But he’s not fighting to save his mate.

Rallying all the power I have left in my body, I push back against him. Thinking about all the time I’ve already lost with Kira, and all the time I intend to get back. When this is over, I’mtelling everyone in the pack that I’ve found our luna. I’m going to make this all up to her a million times, again and again.

At the exact moment I throw Jerrod off of me, there’s a low rumble, vibrations through the earth. Jerrod is distracted, glancing up, and I take it as an opportunity to pounce on him. We tumble to the dirt again, and this time I get my teeth around his neck.

He twists, forcing pressure onto my left leg, and I let out a cry of pain at the shock of it, releasing him. We hit the ground together, my head bouncing off the dirt just in time to see a massive engine veering into the lot, sirens blaring, a cloud of dust following in its wake.

A fire truck.

The doors on the truck open, and guys come stumbling out. Through the smoke and the cloud of dirt, I can make out a familiar head of gray hair, a slight old woman swinging out from the front seat. A moment later, a purple Jeep trails after the engine.

I know that Jeep, and I know the woman hopping out of the driver’s seat, calling Kira’s name.

Jerrod stumbles back, but I turn and catch him just in time, snapping my jaw around his leg in the same way he did to me, feeling the force of it snap through his tendons, crack the slight, delicate bones. I keep clamping down, ignoring the bright, metallic taste of his blood in my mouth. He yelps, paws clawing against the ground for purchase he doesn’t get, his leg jerking as he tries to get away from me.

“Dorian!”

It’s Kira, her voice a cry of fear, and I turn to see her on the edge of the building, which is tilting, a loud, creaking groanan indication that some important support is about to go. The men from the truck are trying to set up one of those trampolines to catch her, but it’s taking too long.

Jerrod whimpers in pain, still trying to kick away from me. With this hold on him, I could fully break his leg, continue the attack, get to his neck. But that will take time, I don’t have.

I only have a second to decide, and I do—letting him go, turning, running in her direction instead. I make it to the edge of the building just as the final support cracks.

In my wolf form, I can’t speak, can’t tell her what I want her to do, but it must be obvious, because Kira is already in the middle of doing it, backing up, running, leaping from the edge of the building.

For a moment, she’s suspended in midair, the sun bright behind her head, creating a silhouette, and I know that if I make it through, this is a moment I will never forget.

Chapter 36 - Kira

When I was a kid, I always used to have dreams that I was falling. They’d take different forms—sometimes, my family’s car would go off the side of a bridge. Sometimes I’d just wake up in the sky, and my body would start to plummet immediately.

But never did I dream ofthis—my body flying through the air, Dorian crouched down below, favoring one of his paws, ready to catch me. For the first time in a long time, I wish I was lighter. I wish I was a smaller woman, who wouldn’t land quite so hard on him.

The moment we make contact, he tumbles to the ground, rolling and absorbing the impact of the fall. The sound that comes out of him is harrowing, like all the air has left his lungs, and a moment later, he’s crying out.

“What?” I push up off of him, watching as he breathes. I’ve seen him in his wolf form—seen many of them shifted from a distance—but never up close like this before. He’smassive, easily four times my size, maybe more. If we stood, my head might only come up to his shoulder. It makes a shiver run through my body to feel the soft scrape of his fur against my knees.

Dorian lets out a huff of air from his nose, and it blows hot against my skin. I scoot closer to him, and he settles his head in my lap, panting.

“I’m sorry,” I say, though I’m not sure exactly what it is that I’m sorry for. Leaning forward, I bury my face in his fur and breathe deeply. “I love you, Dorian. I want you to be in my life. This was—I should have trusted you.”

I’m crying in earnest now, and he lets out another low, animistic sound, rolling his head off of me and moving to hisother side in the dirt. I place my hands on his side, feeling the ribs shifting under the skin. Did I kill him? By landing on him, did I murder him?

“His Amanzite,” someone breathes, and I look over my shoulder to see Emin there, crouching down. When he turns to look at me, his eyes are serious, but not panicked.

“Fuck Kira, you look like shit, are you—”

“I’m fine.” The hand I have settled on Dorian is shaking. “What about him, can you help him? What’s wrong?”

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