Page 41 of Captive Mate
Chapter 15
Taken
It wasn’t long before I knew they were there. They must have parked farther out and walked in, which was why they’d taken a little longer — but they were there. I could feel their life forces approaching when I extended my senses, reaching out through the forest’s rich green to find the smudges of alpha-red and regular old werewolf-orange.
Nate reached across our carefully arranged spell components, holding one hand palm-up and the other palm-down. I matched him, and we joined hands, going into that space under the mundane world where the energies flowed, visible to those with the talent and training to see them.
The book’s incantation only required one vocalization, so I let Nate take the lead on that, concentrating on echoing his meaning with my own power.
The spell built between us. It layered, and folded, and started to thrum with magic. We could hold it for a bit, but then it’d need to go somewhere — which meant Matthew and his pack had to lead our attackers into the trap quickly.
Shouts broke out. I had to force my hands not to tighten around Nate’s. We needed calm. Focus.
It was hard when I knew Parker was right there, coming for me.
Harder when I knew the Armitages were outnumbered, and that Nate and I had to get this right.
Howls rose over the shouts; they were shifting.
“Ian says now,” Nate gasped.
“I didn’t hear —”
“Through the bond! Now!”
Fuck, I was an idiot. I threw all my strength into the spell, concentrated on Nate’s power, and triggered it at the same moment he did.
Our combined strength flowed through the spell and hit the salt circle like a grenade, lighting it up as brightly as a magical floodlight.
More shouts and howls, this time filled with rage and frustration. We’d caught them, it sounded like. And I could feel them now, a couple of dozen weres, battering against the circle’s boundary and trying to force their way out.
They didn’t stand a chance. Our spell was fucking solid.
I opened my eyes, a smile blooming across my face — and at the edge of the clearing, ten feet behind Nate, stood Parker.
My heart went crazy, fluttering like a trapped hummingbird, and my smile froze in a rictus. Parker was grinning, his teeth bared and elongated, his claws out.
And he ran straight for us.
I didn’t have a choice; I broke the connection to Nate and leapt to my feet, lashing out with a burst of power that nearly drained my reserves, but that should have taken Parker down and left him writhing and foaming at the mouth.
My magical attack parted around him like river water around a boulder, flowing over him to either side and dissipating into the ether.
“Nate, run,” I choked out, and I dodged around our circle, trying to get between him and Parker.
Nate looked over his shoulder and his mouth dropped open; he flailed to the side, but Parker was on us.
Without taking his gaze from me, Parker swiped out with one arm and raked his claws down Nate’s back. Nate screamed and fell to the ground, blood drenching his tattered shirt.
I charged in, throwing more magic at Parker that bounced off of him uselessly. “Got you, fucking bitch,” Parker growled, and then he had me.
A howl rang in the distance — Ian, probably, feeling his mate’s terror and pain.
Claws pierced my sides as Parker heaved me over his shoulder. The clearing spun in a dizzy blur: the guttering candles, trees around us, dirt and pebbles, Nate’s prone body covered in blood. My mouth opened in a silent, breathless scream of rage and guilt. Parker wantedme, and Nate wasn’t anything to Parker except unlucky enough to be near me. Parker couldn’t be allowed to kill anyone else, ruin any more lives, especially not because of me. I hopelessly reached for Nate, projecting as much pure strength as I could at him, praying it’d help keep him alive. I hadn’t seen how deep the wounds were. He could bleed out in minutes.
Parker pinned me over his shoulder, even though I thrashed and kicked and shouted, and then he ran, at full alpha-werewolf speed, the trees flashing by and the branches whipping across my face. I kicked, and he dug his claws in deeper. A scream burst out of my raw throat.
My magic wasn’t affecting him, and he was carrying me away, and it was the end for me. He’d escape with me while all the others were dealing with the Kimballs. Ian might think I’d been the one to attack Nate. But they wouldn’t come after me even if Nate told them the truth.
