Awakening (2 book series)
Awakening – Following Fate Chapter 86

I can't seem to catch my breath with its appearance, and I splay my hands out to scramble across the dirt as I waiver with disorientation. I try to block out the pulsating boom of stunned hearing as I attempt to pull oxygen from around me. I battle to fill my lungs, choking intensifying and unable to breathe at all while a heavy weight, crushing my ribs and sudden tearing slicing, reverberates through my upper body. It feels like Colton impaled me, but he's still strewn nearby and suffering a similar fate, so it can't be him. Panic floods me, that the inability to inhale is worse than Carmen's head puncturing and I don't know what's happening. I'm aware Colton is writhing mere feet beside me, clutching his ribs too, but my entire focus is on the slow suffocation as I grasp at my chest and claw at my throat to try and gain oxygen. Confused, inner chaos growing, as I open my mouth wide, gulping, but yet get nothing. My eyes water profusely, open wide as I blink in terror, and that's when I see it.

Sierra, at a distance of maybe twenty feet from me, across my field of vision. She's impaled on long sharp claws at the core of her body, right at the point where mine is failing. She's held in midair as she scrambles to fight back limply and unhook herself from a grey male's torturous hold and seems to be whimpering in agony. He stumbles to one knee, shaking his head as though trying to drown out and recover from the now quiet Carmen's aftereffects, but doesn't release Sierra from his grip. Carmen.... It's Sierra!!! I shriek out in the link, moving to make to go to her, but falling down as my lack of air pushes me to instant black vision. I lift my chin weakly, focusing as best I can through the blur, more concerned for her in this moment and silent sob out in relief as a flying wolf hauls her out of the death hold she's in. It drags her backwards, yanking the claws from her lungs as they fall into the undergrowth and almost instantly my own inflate in response. Relief and oxygen swelling inside my body so that it makes me lightheaded and I slump again as my lungs finally work.

Our life bond means her pain when close to death is my pain, and it seems to still link to Colton even if he is under a spell. He stops clutching and gasping in the same way I was, indicating he too has been released and I know that means nothing good for me. I force myself to get up, on shaking limbs, slowly with determination to face him, knowing recovery of us both will be rapid as Sierra heals in the blink of an eye. I hold my ground, fixated on his huge body, as he rolls to his upright position with an easy move and locks black soulless eyes back on me. Without an ounce of hesitation, no delay, he comes at me again, full fury and ready for round two.

He moves like a steam train on rocket fuel. His claws splaying towards my shoulders, tackling me bodily once more even though I try to dodge with a jump. He flings me backwards with the impact, but I roll onto my shoulder blades as I meet dirt and push both my feet into his abdomen as we fall. I thrust him up hard and over the top of me, in a move he taught me, with a little effort and a huge amount of momentum. Letting go as he goes flying further into the woods with a crashing roar.

He spins on the ground as he collides, comes right back like a boomerang, and launches himself at my laid down posture as I move. He misses me by a hair's breadth, crashing onto my vacant spot and tumbling over like a clumsy oaf who's too fueled with fury to control his reflexes. I dodge as he swiftly follows me with a claw swipe, and I manage to push his wrist away at the last second. I have to counteract his jaw coming in to take a bite at my face as he follows through and end up thrusting my head down and sucker punching him in the belly with the flat of my palm. A sudden energy boost giving me oomph and he staggers back with the blow.

"Colton, are you really this stupid?" I spit at his face while he attempts to right his footing and gives me a second to breathe. "If I die, so do you, you utter Moron!" I thrust a knee into his groin with a crunch when he flies back into me, my confidence growing with the use of his own strength on my side, knowing that even in wolf form that's still a sensitive area. There's a grunt as knee bone flattens wolf bone; an instant as his body shudders and crumples a little, and I have to duck when he almost takes my head off for it in howling agony.

His roar of frustration that I wounded him there, that I'm matched in every way, fuels his rage and I pull backwards with a slight limp because of my now bruised kneecap. It was so worth it though, even if it might mean our twins don't get more siblings in the future. I grit my teeth, show my fierce, and using a throw he taught me yet again, by wedging my butt as I swiftly turn in his abdomen, grabbing his upper arm, I throw him right over me in a forward flip. I toss him several feet with the exertion of using what I'm absorbing by touch, then jump to straighten to meet him face on when he recovers his standing. I can feel my energy building again, although it seems my vampire gifts are the ones weakened by my blood loss now, while the wolf and her ability to absorb are still going strong. It makes no sense, but I'm glad a part of me is still in this fight, even if I am stealing my mate's abilities. Colton would tell me to do this, and I know when we break this curse, he'll be thankful that I could use his own alpha power against him. Carmen flashes into sight from the left seemingly she finally shook off the wolf she had been battling and goes straight for Colton's face, side on, taking him down to the left with her and they roll away from my sight under bushes and roughage. I make a move to help her but I'm held still with a sudden gentle touch on my back.

Come... Meadow and Leyanne will be at the mountain by now, we're barley holding on here, we need to get you out of the thick of it. Colton's too strong and you're not going to maintain this energy.

Sierra's voice floors me as she jumps in front of me and tries to trip me over onto her back the way Carmen did earlier, but I stand my ground. I know she means well, and she thinks that now I've proven myself, I should retreat and stay safe. That's not how this works.

"No. No other wolf can match Colton, and I won't let someone die trying... he's mine! I have to keep his focus on me. Carmen won't be able to hold him." He's my mate, my responsibility and he would annihilate any other in the pack without breaking a sweat. Carmen yelps out in a ringing blast as if proving my point, her whimper echoing from nearby and I turn in time to see her being tossed thirty feet in the air, like a ragdoll with no weight to her. She comes down to earth with a bone shattering thud, a slight tremble of the ground beneath my feet, which leaves her panting and whimpering, as internally things crunch and grind as her body starts to insta-heal. Unlike before when Colton's attention always came back at me, this time he turns and heads to her for a second blow, before she's had time to recover. My stomach lurches into my throat, knowing the killing intent across his face and her lack of seconds to get herself up.