Page 76 of Pack: Posy 3

Matthew growled to see his mate thrown around, but she shook her head at him.

"I love you, cupcake! Don't listen to him! Don't leave us!"

"Cutie?" Wyatt gasped, as if he too just realized I was there, even though I'd been standing right in front of him. "We wanted to stop him, but we couldn't move."

He stumbled over to me, too, dragging Ariel with him, and Tristan frowned as he trailed along to make sure his mate didn't get hurt.

Wyatt's arms went around my waist, and the two of them squeezed me, but not too tight.

"Why did he say those mean things?" Ash whispered. "It hurt my heart so bad."

"I don't know." I stroked his curls and kissed his cheek. "It hurt my heart, too."

Wyatt whined and buried his face in the side of my neck.

"I love you, Posy," he murmured in my ear. "To hell with Cole. He can have the pack if that's what he wants. We only want you."

"Uh, luna? Alphas?" I looked over my shoulder at Maria, who was tangled up in both of my mates' arms almost as much as I was. "Ariel and I know what happened. Alpha Cole isn't responsible for his actions right now."

"There was a ... miscommunication, I guess you could say," I heard Ariel's voice, but couldn't see her because she was behind Ash, clinging to Wyatt's hand. "He touched Luna Quake before we removed the parasite, and it spawned into him. It would have felt like a small sting, so he probably thought it was an insect bite."

"Why didn't the idiot wait until you'd cleared the victim?!" Poppy thundered. "Talk about a candidate for the Darwin Awards!"

"Easy, love." Leo laid his hands on her shoulders. "None of us are familiar with magic or how to work with witches, okay? It was a mistake. I doubt he did it on purpose."

"Itwasa mistake," Ariel explained. "On our half, too. As soon as we knew how we were going to solve the problem, we should have told him the steps we needed to take. Instead, when the family asked him to put the luna out of her misery, he carried on as he normally would."

"Okay. So, Cole's being controlled by a parasite?" Mason asked. "And he controlled Ash and Wyatt to make them go along with him?"

"In the simplest terms, yes," Maria said. "We'll tell you every little detail of what happened at Cold Moon, but let's get the parasite out of Alpha Cole first. Before it can do any more damage."

"For that, we need a plan." Mason nodded and rubbed his hands together. "Fortunately, I have one."

18: Too Much

Posy

Mason's plan went without a hitch. The witches called Cole outside, saying there was an emergency in the pack. As soon as he stepped off the porch, Mason locked him down with all the moon and alpha power he could pull from both Earthshine and Five Fangs. In the moment that Cole was frozen, Ariel and Maria released Ash and Wyatt from the shielding spell, and the two of them pushed out their own moon and alpha power from their packs.

And Mason was right - the three of them together were able to hold Cole so the witches could go to work.

Removing the parasite was disgusting to watch, but took less than a minute. Ariel drew the red-black leech out from Cole's nostril, Maria caught it in a glass jar that she sealed up quickly, and Poppy purified Cole and the area.

As soon as they called out that everything was good, Mason released Cole, who dropped to his knees, pitched over onto his side, and didn't move. Right away, Mason knelt next to him and checked his pulse.

"COLE!" I screamed.

Racing over, I fell next to his still body. Tears poured down my face as I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Wake up!" I yelled.

He still didn't move, and my heart stalled.

"No, no, no! Don't you dare!" I screamed and shook him harder.

When he didn't respond, my lungs stopped and the world began to fade around the edges. Dimly, I was aware of arms gathering me against a big body that smelled of campfire.

"Breathe. In and out." A hand grabbed mine and pressed it to a hard chest. "Follow me. In. Now out. Come on, little flower, you can do it."

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