Page 43 of Fat Sold Mate
I back away, fumbling for another smoke bundle, but they're gone—dropped in my panic or left inside the cabin. The wolf advances, muzzle pulled back in what almost resembles a grin, yellow eyes glittering with malevolent intelligence.
“Hey!” Sera shouts, hurling a rock that bounces harmlessly off the creature's flank. It doesn't even turn, focused entirely on me with single-minded determination.
My back hits a tree. Nowhere left to run.
The grimoire digs into my side where I'd tucked it into my waistband. In desperation, I grab it, flipping to the simplest protection spell—the one I've failed to cast a hundred times before.
“Shield of intent, barrier of will,” I chant, the words spilling from memory as the corrupted wolf coils to spring—then, a string of syllables in Latin I barely understand myself.
I expect nothing. Expect to die with useless words on my lips and regret in my heart.
Instead, the air between us thickens, shimmers, and solidifies. The wolf leaps and rebounds off an invisible barrier with a yelp of surprise and pain.
The spell worked.
For the first time in my life, my magic worked.
There's no time to process this miracle. The barrier is already fading, my untrained ability unable to sustain it. The corrupted wolf shakes itself, clearly confused but no less determined. It circles, testing the weakening shield with experimental lunges.
“Ruby!” Sera appears at my side, breathless and wide-eyed. “Did you just—”
“It won't last,” I gasp, feeling the magic slipping through my fingers like water. “We need to move. Now.”
We break for the trees just as the barrier collapses completely. The wolf howls in triumph, resuming its pursuit. I risk a glance back toward the clearing where James is still fighting, his rust-colored fur now stained with darker patches that might be blood.
“This way!” Sera pulls me down a barely visible game trail, surprisingly nimble despite her healing injuries. “There's a ravine ahead—we can lose it there.”
We crash through underbrush, branches whipping at our faces as the corrupted wolf gains ground behind us. The ground slopes sharply downward, revealing a narrow gully carved by some ancient stream. Without hesitation, Sera slides down the embankment, pulling me after her.
“Stay low,” she hisses, crouching in the shadow of a fallen log. “It might pass over us.”
Heavy footfalls pound above, accompanied by harsh breathing. I hold perfectly still, afraid even the sound of my racing heart might give us away. Through the bond, I feel James's pain, his determination, his desperate worry for me that overrides his own danger.
The corrupted wolf paces the edge of the ravine, sniffing audibly. One wrong move, one sound, and it will find us. I clutch my grimoire to my chest, the leather warm beneath my fingers as if responding to the magic I somehow managed to summon minutes before.
A howl splits the night—not from above us, but from back at the cabin. A summoning call.
The wolf hesitates, clearly torn between its pursuit and the command. After what feels like eternity, it turns away, loping back toward the clearing.
“That's not good,” Sera whispers, her face pale in the moonlight that filters through the trees. “That's a gathering call.”
“James,” I breathe, already scrambling up the embankment. “He's still back there.”
Sera grabs my arm. “Wait! We need a plan. We can't just—”
“He's outnumbered,” I say, yanking free. “And he's my mate.” The word slips out before I can stop it, unexpected and raw.
Understanding flashes across Sera's face. She nods once, then reaches into her pocket to withdraw a small leather pouch—the one we found among her grandmother's things.
“I mixed this while you were setting traps,” she says, her voice suddenly calm with a conviction that raises alarm bells in my mind. “It's wolfsbane and mountain ash, with some other things. It's… well, it’s poison. A lot of poison.”
“What does it do?” I ask, perhaps the stupidest question that has ever left my lips, but I need to know, need her to say it out loud.
“Burns wolves from the inside out,” she says simply. “I can set fire to it, get in the middle of them.”
Horror washes through me. “Sera, no—”
“We need to go,” she interrupts, already moving up the slope. “Your mate needs us.”
