Page 8 of Never Tamed
But my voice breaks at the end. Because she’s not okay. And this—this is my fault.
Plaster crunches under my foot. If I hadn’t fought the bond so hard, if I hadn’t shoved her away every time she got too close…
If I’d told her what she meant to me thefirsttime I felt it instead of burying it beneath duty and fear and the ashes of a dead promise to Catarina, then maybe Ren wouldn’t be dying in my arms.
I pushed her away when I should’veprotectedher.
I cling to her like a lifetime.Please, please, I’m sorry. Please, let it not be too late.
Whether the Moon Goddess hears me or not is another matter. But this time I’m not running. There’s no more denial.
I’m going to embrace this mate bond for the gift it is and rip this world apart before I let anyone take her from me. It’s a gift I do not fucking deserve.
She came into my life like a fire I tried to smother. But a wildfire can’t be tamed. It doesn’t die. Itdevours. And now that I’ve let her in, now that the bond is sealed between us, I’ll carry her through hell if I have to.
I will not lose her.
Not tonight. Not ever.
Standing straighter, I lock my knees.Mathis?
I’m closing in. His scent is thin but the trail is there. They’ve got him someplace here. A pause, and thenRen?
I clutch her tighter and will the heat from my skin to seep into her. Her scent makes my wolf snarl low, feral with panic. I need to move.
Something makes me glance back—just once—toward where I last saw Dax crumpled beneath the pillar.
My breath catches. He’s gone.
The blood’s still there, smeared across cracked stone, but his body isn’t. No dragging trail. Just… vanished.
“What the hell is happening?” I whisper.
He shouldn’t be able to move. Not after that. Not with almost being crushed by the weight of the pillar. I—
BOOM.
The deafening sound rips through the church with an explosion that rattles glass and shakes the already loose rafters. The cracked foundation moans in protest, the floor beneath us trembling like the whole damn church might come down around us.
My heart hammers.
I stagger, tightening my hold on Ren instinctively as I glance toward the large doors leading to the nave. Smoke curls under the archway. Stone splits in the corners. Somewhere above, a chunk of the ceiling crashes to the ground with a thunderous crack.
Coughing, I grunt, “What the fuck was that?”
Chapter 3
Mathis
Iam too far away from the rest of them—Dax, Torin, Ren.
Peeling off and leaving them to face Andras’s men alone makes me feel like shit. But Noble is here somewhere. Close.
I’ll be quick.
The church is wrecked, unsalvageable. Andras and his ambush demolished it from the inside and tried to take us with it.
A feral smile pries my lips apart. He took my omegas, the women in my pack. He stole from us and tried to kill us.
