An Alpha and a witch, one cruel, one kind. Who will win and who will lose in this mateship? Will they come out of it hand-in-hand or part ways when the truth is revealed?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Barking. Howling.
A large bull-headed creature barreling toward me with a violent hunger in its silver, pupil-less eyes.
Alrik lunging forward and shoving me aside.
The minotaur diving and plunging its horn into his leg.
A splatter of blood decorating the dirt.
It all happened far too quickly.
One moment I was ripping the head off a deafening banshee, and the next, my fingers were dripping in Alrik's blood.
"Ty che, suka, o'khuel blya!" I snapped at him furiously, but he was in so much pain that he didn't pay any heed to my yelling. His chest was rising and falling rapidly as he lay on his side, panting harshly with a whimper escaping every few seconds.
There were rapid footsteps behind me as I tried to add pressure to the wound, and Daxton fell to his knees beside me, "What the fuck happened?"
"The idiot saw a minotaur coming for me and decided to jump in front of it," I growled, running my fingers over the bloody tufts of fur, "Where is that despicable bull?"
"You mean that one?" Daxton gestured to a burnt pile of limbs a few feet away that still had smoke drifting up from it, "I saw what happened and took care of it for you."
I shook my head and stared at the curved horn that was impaled in Alrik's leg, "We need to remove this. A minotaur's horn is poisonous, and if too much of that poison enters his bloodstream, then–"
The sinking feeling in my stomach was enough to send bile up my throat.
"Leon can help him," Daxton said, picking up Alrik's leg carefully to examine it, "We need to move him back to the camp fast."
"I can take him."
Yerik appeared behind us and reached for Alrik with caution, picking him up slowly to not jostle his wounded leg too much. As he straightened and stood to his full height, he pressed his lips against my temple in a comforting gesture, "Ya ponesu yemu. On budey v poryadke. Dover'tes' mne."
I raked a hand through my hair, trying to remain collected, "Let's go. He doesn't have much time."
***
"What the fuck?"
Yerik placed Alrik on the bed of grass gently as Leon hurried over and threw his crutches aside to study the minotaur's horn embedded in Alrik's fur.
He was still conscious from what I could tell, but his eyes were squeezed shut and tightened periodically as if the pain overwhelmed him in waves. My chest felt like a thousand bricks were piled on top of me as I watched him suffer silently.
"What can you do to help him?" Yerik asked the dragon warrior, voicing my thoughts for me.
"I can remove this, but he has lost a ton of blood," Leon said, trying to pry the horn out with his gloved hands, "Dragon blood will cancel out the poison, but he will need his mate here to help his wolf heal."
