Awakening (2 book series)
Awakening – Following Fate Chapter 83

My ears and eyes are tuned into the others around me, watching out for them intent on safeguarding. Anytime I spot one of the pack losing the advantage I extend my energy and save them for a moment, shielding them and pushing them to a clearing alone. Giving them space to regroup, heal their wounds, and fly back to fight. Our numbers are an advantage and as I lose sight of Meadow and her group, we are surrounded by feral forms, intent on taking us down.

Carmen rolls into me from behind, almost wiping my legs out from under me because I was so focused on the ahead that it startles me and realize how stupid I was for that's second. She yanks me down, hauling my body under her brutally as a large tree; trunk, roots, foliage and all, flies past my head from the rear. It misses me by mere inches and I blanche and gawp in the direction of one very large, very angry, black alpha, ripping out another to take down the human in his sights. It seems he spotted me giving my wolves an advantage and I riled his fury to become his target.

Colton.

I gasp in the mind link and am met with that wall of silent closed door to our mate link, even still. My heart thudding through my ribcage and I can't formulate the thoughts about how I feel. Throwing trees? Really..... he's throwing f*****g trees?!?! Do you think he finally sussed that out after we got the truck home safely? A*****e!

Carmen snaps, her temper flaring and her glare aimed at him with deathly intent. She pushes me down as another flies over head, but with a wrist flick, I send it spiraling sideways away from the group of feuding animals behind me. It seems he also doesn't care about mangling the ones fighting on his side, so consumed with the need to destroy us.

Sierra leaps over us and goes straight for the throat of an approaching wolf, appearing so suddenly from behind me that I didn't even know she was still close. She takes it down with her in a bite, collido9ng body to body with a massive thud, and rolls around, grappling with it fiercely so that I almost cry out in terror. I yank them apart with my energy directed between them as precisely as I can and throw it back, so sure this time the returning grey is Radar. I can't be sure without his telltale scar over his normally white eye because the black is shielding it like this, and his fur is so matted and unkempt from forest dwelling that it covers what might be on his face. I can't believe Radar would fight Sierra in this way, try to hurt her, but then Colton just threw half a forest at me. It's like Colton senses something is up with us staying put and fighting our ground, and as I pull myself to my feet to take him face on, he stops and turns and looks towards the mountain where Leyanne and Meadow headed. A glimpse at me again as if watching for a response, or reassuring his suspicion, and an almost smile like snarl. He turns, howling into the air, signaling his pack and takes off after them. He goes off in hot pursuit and I react instinctively.

No! Shit.... He's going after the witch. I have to stop him. Colton will kill whoever gets in his way.

I abandon my post, pull myself away from carmen and high tail it after him, replaceing my feet and fire once more and making good ground in his wake. Carmen and Sierra follow, hot on my heels as I leap a fallen log into a clearing and realize my mistake right away. that I fell for his trap like a complete idiot.

He's waiting for me over the first mound, and as I fly through the sky, I'm caught with a clawed swipe that thrusts my momentum downward and I'm powerless to avoid it. His nails piercing my thigh in excruciating agony as I'm dragged out of the air, and into a violent roll as he drags me through the undergrowth with the weight of my body crashing against his. My delicate human frame against hot hard wolf, his fur smothering me and claws flailing around to get a proper hold on me. I'm too small like this and he misses me completely with those long bulky arms.

I'm winded with the fall, and we roll apart as we collide with forest floor and rake through bushes and debris. The intense burning puncture wound of my leg causes me to stifle a cry as it's opened further on impact and I try to jump up to face him before he regains his own posture and comes again. My powers don't fail me, and without getting to turn around in time I manage to sense his lunge and throw him over the top in one easy maneuver.

Colton's huge form is tossed up and over me in a magnificent show of power, my hands throbbing with the effort as my energy expands and blows him into a rolling fall. Thrusting him some thirty feet in front of us so he crashes face first into standing trees and I flinch and shrivel at what I just did to my mate. My two femmes clear the log between us and land nearby to shield me once more by flanking me at both sides. Panting from the chase and I realize how far we came with what just happened. Your leg, you're bleeding

Sierra's words ring in my head, pulling my aching heart from the sight of him, back to my physical pain and I try and ignore the hot warm mess rolling down inside and outside my clothes. The pain making me wince as I try to carry on. We don't have time to stop and deal with it, he won't stay stunned for more than seconds.

Colton isn't down for long and he turns and comes right back at me with the speed of a blink. Angrier than before and I extend my hands to throw him back, pulling everything I have in me to make sure he travels three times as far with my next blow, only ...... nothing happens.

Hands out, energy building inside of me, yet it fails to release and instead feels like it deflates and fizzles away, like a puncture balloon, before it even reaches my wrists. I have to plunge sideways to dodge his furious attack, my two femmes scattering too as Carmen tries to push me away from him with one paw and I roll into the undergrowth.

Carmen pounces on him from behind, but she's no match to his strength, his skill, or his speed, and he catches her by the base of her neck and bodily slams her to the ground, over rock, so a crack vibrates through the air around me and she howls in sheer agony. Sierra latches onto his arm in desperation, aiming to protect Carmen, sinking her teeth in while trying to encompass him in blue glow and I have no idea what she's doing.

Whatever it was, it fails, and Colton throws her off effortlessly. Like tossing away a rag, roaring aggressively so the trees around us shudder and I try to pull myself back together and get back in the fight.

I try to breathe though crushed lungs, breathless and sweating. I try to center my frantic thoughts, figure out what just happened to my powers.

You're other gift..... absorb, deflect.... You can do it. Use the wolf in you, those gifts might be stronger still.

Sierra's words filter in; a moment of hope rising inside of me that she might be right, and I still have ability to take him. I still have that untapped resource in my arsenal as my hybrid side fails me. I recoil as he turns this way, ignoring the blood loss and weeping pain from my leg as he comes right at me once more, still intent on getting me it seems. Knowing that to absorb, I have to take from him by getting close enough to do so. I have to let him get near.