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“Do you feel better now?” he said, his brows rising as if Duncan did object, they were going to come to blows. The tension in the air crackled like a lightning storm about to unleash.
Maddocks stepped in between the two men. “We need to keep our voices calm. Nothing can tarnish the ritual. The energy can’t be conflicted.”
Duncan exhaled deeply, stepping back, while Kicks remained as immovable as a mountain.
The tension eased, and Maddocks, the calmest prevailing alpha, nodded toward me.
Kicks faced me once more, and said one last time, with unbreakable confidence, “You’re ready.”
I opened the flask, downing the entirety of it before I could second-guess my actions.
It didn’t take long to kick in. A feeling of being tugged on began slowly, like I was wearing a bodysuit and someone was gripping it, trying to pull it from me. The sensation built, and I dropped to my knees. Kicks knelt with me. I saw Duncan reaching for me.
“No,” Maddocks said, putting himself in between us. “You can’t touch her during the ceremony.”
The tugging rapidly increased until it felt like I was being torn from my body. The rending was akin to what I imagined it would feel like to be filleted and then dipped in a vat of gasoline. An uncontrollable scream ripped from my throat. I didn’t care if it made me look weak. I didn’t care about much other than surviving.
All at once I was staring down at my form, kneeling on the ground below. All around me there was a tornado of buzzing and blurring light, and then it felt as if my chest was hit with a lightning bolt that stole my thoughts, the air, everything. The world around me blackened and then just as suddenly returned.I was seeing through my own eyes again, feeling like I’d been slammed back into my body.
It was shorter than I could’ve hoped for but more painful than I’d feared. No one had to tell me it was over as I lay on the ground, utterly depleted, my body and soul feeling like it had been through a meat grinder.
Duncan peered down at me with concern. “Piper? Are you back? Are you in pain?”
“I’m fine. Just drained,” I replied, my throat raw from the primal scream that had been wrenched from me. My voice was barely above a whisper.
As I attempted to rise, Kicks’ arm was around me, supporting my back. “I’ll get you home,” he said.
“I’ll take her,” Duncan interjected.
Kicks was already lifting me into his arms. “I’ve got her. You tend to your own mate.”
Something about the way he worded that would’ve given me more pause, but I was too emotionally and physically destroyed to care at the moment.
We exited Groza’s backyard, leaving a fuming Duncan and a furious Groza in our wake. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to my cottage and some semblance of safety.
Kicks carried me as if I weighed nothing, his steps sure and even.
“I should try to walk,” I protested feebly.
“I’m taking the long way around. No one will see you,” he said. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” he reassured me as he navigated us back to my house.
Chapter Ten
“Charlie,come on! You’re going to be late for school!” I took another sip of coffee, my mind wandering to where I’d seen Charlie’s red wagon last. Once he was off to school, I’d need to collect logs. Despite telling Kicks yesterday not to bother with the wood, he had still brought a fresh stack. That stack was already gone. At least being a spirit guide for the pack meant having days to myself, no need to take a day off for mundane tasks like wood collecting.
Thumping footsteps reverberated through the cottage, feeling like they were shaking the very walls.
“Charlie! What are you doing up there?”I yelled up at the ceiling.
“What do you mean?” he said from behind me.
I jerked around to find him already sitting at the table.
“What was all that noise? Those loud footsteps?” He was only five; he shouldn’t have been able to make such a sound, or so I thought.
“What noise?” he said, his face a picture of innocence and confusion.
He wasn’t a trickster kind of kid, and his face was scrunched up, as if he couldn’t figure out what I was talking about.
