Wolf Decided by Tessa Cole

AUDREY

I sent asmuch love and strength through the mating bond as I could, determined to anchor Knox in his body so his wolf wouldn’t take over and go feral. Then I grabbed a handful of gauze from the med pack ready to get to work because there was no way I was going to just sit there and cry when I could do something to help.

Nova tore open Bishop’s shirt and my pulse lurched, my breath stalling in my throat and cold dread flash-freezing around my heart.

There was so much blood. It coated his chest and side and pooled on the road around his body while more red and black veins covered his chest in a thick web.

“Fuck,” Cyrus snarled his power rolling over me, making me tremble but thankfully not forcing me to do anything because I didn’t have time to grovel.

I was going to save my mate… or rather, my soon-to-be mate.

I mentally shoved at Cyrus’s power and pressed my handful of gauze against Bishop’s side, trying to staunch the blood from eight deep gashes, but my hands weren’t big enough to cover them all.

“Knox,” Nova said, jerking her chin toward me, and he dropped Bishop’s hand and took over with his much larger hands.

“What the fuck is that?” Cyrus dropped to his knees beside Nova and was about to reach into the med pack when Bishop gasped a sharp breath, his only warning, before screaming and convulsing.

I shoved my hands under his head as it slammed down on the road, sending agony racing through my fingers before Cyrus took over from me.

“If the streaks were all red and a fraction of the size, I’d say it’s karoose venom,” Nova said, popping off the stoppers on the med pack’s two elixirs then pouring both of them into Bishop’s mouth the second he stopped convulsing. “We need Whil.”

“Right here,” the summer fae called out as she hurried around the corner from the side street, looking like the perfect fairy tale image of a fae from Fairy.

She, like all fae, was stunning and ageless, and her perpetual golden glow shone brightly in the dim light, even with a streetlight nearby, giving her an ethereal, magical presence.

“Have you seen anything like this?” Nova asked as Cyrus handed me more gauze and together we applied pressure to the wounds on Bishop’s chest.

“Not since the last of the gods were awake.” Whil placed her hands on Bishop’s forehead and closed her eyes. “It’s karoose venom imbued with a god or goddess’s power. The healing elixirs will help but not enough to cure him. He needs to be fully submerged in the healing pool so I can pull it out of him.”

“We need to get him to the Residence,” Cyrus said as Nova ripped off a piece of tape and handed it to him. “Before we draw a crowd.”

He, Nova, and Whil all glanced at Knox then went back to taping fresh gauze to Bishop’s wounds.

“My wolf is under control,” Knox growled even as the turmoil churning through our bond grew stronger. “Bishop needs us.”

“Keep it that way,” Cyrus replied as he picked up Bishop and raced up the road.

Knox swept me into his arms and followed while Nova stripped, shifted, and raced ahead.

We passed through the open gate to the Residence and ran around the outside of the building until we reached a small, partially sheltered patio in front of a set of French doors that looked a lot like the ones to my suite.

Someone had set out a mattress just like when I’d woken up after Sterling had tricked me into hurting myself, and Cyrus set Bishop on it while Knox, still holding me as if I were the only thing keeping him in his body, sagged to the ground beside him.

“Tell me he at least killed whoever attacked him,” Cyrus snapped as Nova rushed out my suite doors wearing a different colored dress than the one she’d left with Whil and carrying her doctor’s bag.

She dropped beside Bishop and pulled out a stitching kit as Whil hurried to join her with gauze and saline.

“He got away,” I stated, my voice steadier than I would have expected given how Cyrus made me nervous. He was a powerful alpha and he’d made his position about me clear. He didn’t like me, thought I didn’t know my place, and I’d been trying for the last few days to stay small and invisible and not do anything that would upset him.

And now, I didn’t care.

Now that wildness inside me whispered to fight for my mate. Fight and win.

“Fuck,” he snarled. “Tell me everything.” His power roared over me stealing my breath, squeezing my insides, and drawing a whimper even as my wildness demanded I stay strong.

Knox growled low in his throat, the sound more wolf than human even though he was still fully in his human form.

“Fuck,” Cyrus barked again and his power vanished, making me shudder with the sudden loss. He raked his hands through his hair pulling strands from the braid that kept his longer hair on top away from his face and shaved sides.

“The man wore thick clothes with a hood so I couldn’t see his face or any distinguishing marks,” I said before Cyrus could lose control of his power again and because I needed him to send out watchmen and hunters to catch whoever had attacked us.

And while the thought of catching the assailant pissed off the wildness inside me that really wanted him dead, keeping him alive meant we might get answers, like why he’d want to poison me instead of just kill me or where he’d gotten the poison.

“He ran down an alley when it looked like Bishop was going to win their fight, then Bishop collapsed,” I added. “He was hurt, but not so bad that he couldn’t have shifted out most of his injuries.”

Cyrus’s eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips, pausing for a moment, hopefully ordering the pack to find whoever it was.

“Okay,” he growled a second later, more of his power rippling over me as if he couldn’t fully contain it. “The pool is six days away, five if we push it. I’m assuming,” he said turning to Whil, “that because you said we need to get him in it, he can last that long.”

“But not much longer,” Whil said.

“Nova, you and Lucius are in charge. We can’t afford to take a whole team, so Deacon is coming with us.” He glanced at the moons creeping closer and closer to the western horizon. “Dawn is in a couple of hours. Will that give you enough time to get ready?” he asked, turning his attention back to Whil and making that strange wildness — that, now that I thought about it had to be coming from Knox — rise in anger. It didn’t matter that she needed to come. It mattered that Cyrus wasn’t asking me as well and I sure as hell was going.

“I only need to pack,” I replied as if he’d asked me instead of just Whil.

Cyrus’s attention snapped to me, his eyes narrowed, and his power rose, a great wave on the verge of crashing over me and forcing me to submit. “You’re not going.”

The wildness surged from the depths of my soul, and I met his gaze, directly challenging him. “Yes. I am.”

“No.” His tenuous control snapped and his power slammed into me, stealing my breath and demanding I look away, bow down, and submit.

Which was not happening.

My mates needed me, Bishop because he was dying and Knox because he was barely keeping his wolf from going feral. Cyrus could throw everything he had at me, but I wouldn’t give in.

I wouldn’t even give in so I could find another way to go, which was what I usually did. Step back, submit, and shut my mouth. That was what I always did and it had kept me alive.

But now there wasn’t another way. Not going with them would kill me. Maybe not right away, but if I lost them, I’d wither away to nothing. On top of that, it wasn’t safe to follow them from a distance. With their heightened senses, Cyrus would know I was following them and going beyond the town’s limits by myself was too dangerous.

Of course, standing my ground now meant Cyrus could punish me and lock me up, and I’d be trapped in Stonehaven unable to protect my soul’s mates.

No. I wouldn’t let that happen.

My pulse thu-thudded, hard and fast, and I fought to breathe against the pressure.

“I’m going,” I insisted as another wave of Cyrus’s power slammed into me.

My body started to bow, submitting to his will, as my soul screamed in fear and fury.

“No,” I gritted out, straightening my back with another thu-thud, making Cyrus’s eyes widen and his power flare stronger.

“Back the fuck off,” Knox snapped, his own power adding to the crushing mix.

“It’s too dangerous,” Cyrus snarled back.

The devastating force I’d felt outside the death god’s temple when Cyrus had made Knox submit crackled in the air and seized my muscles.

“I’m. Going.”

My pulse roared, pounding hard, surging strength to my limbs, and I heaved to my feet, squared my shoulders, and glared into Cyrus’s now shocked expression.

“Mine,” I snarled at him, my voice sounding strange and gravelly. “I won’t leave my mates when they need me and you can’t make me.”