Mated Girl (Wolf Girl #4)(32)

Sage pointed to an open spot where the small girl with mousy brown hair waved us over. I remembered her from the one time we met, but somehow she looked even smaller now, younger too. She wore some kind of feathered headdress and bone-carved necklace, but she looked like a kid trying to play chief.
This was her? The great healer?
My head snapped to Walsh: “The second we hit the ground, I need you to find Dr. Pearson … if he’s still alive. If not, any of the city wolf surgeons will do.”
Walsh nodded, and then the dragon’s talons hit the earth.
It was like time had stopped or slowed down; the next few moments felt so long. I felt out of my body trying to understand what to do and how I could help Demi. Luka assisted me in carrying her to the ground, but that just made Demi lose more blood, and I wasn’t even sure she was still alive at this point.
No pulse … why can’t I feel a pulse?
So much blood.
Astra, all of maybe seventeen, walked over to Demi and her eyes flashed a glowing blue.
“Heal her please. I beg of you.” I looked up at the girl, my fingers still plugging holes in my lifeless wife as tears lined my eyes, and I nearly lost my shit in front of all these people. My heart felt like it was going to explode in my chest, like someone had reached in and squeezed it so hard it might pop like a balloon at any moment.
Astra looked over at me with such strength and confidence then, I wondered if I had underestimated her.
With a simple nod, she fell to her knees and clasped her hands in prayer.
“Father, we need a miracle. Use me, make me your vessel of light and healing.” The girl raised her clasped hands to the sky.
Demi said that the Paladins were super spiritual, but I hadn’t experienced it firsthand. I didn’t mind. I wasn’t here to judge, and if it saved my wife I would pray to the fucking Father every night for the rest of my life.
A scream rang out from behind me, raising the hairs on my arms and I spun. Demi’s mom stood directly behind me, face stricken as she stared down at her unconscious daughter. A small baby boy with dark hair and blue eyes was in her arms, and my heart shattered. I swallowed down a sob as I reached for my son with my free hand. A crowd of people had started to gather around, and Eugene was pushing them back, but I didn’t care about any of that. Nothing mattered to me in that moment except holding this beautiful boy that Demi and I made. Demi’s mom reached out and deposited Creek in my arms before she fell into a puddle of tears, her husband pulling her into a tight hug.
Her grief killed me, but all my pain washed away the moment I looked down at my son. His round, wide eyes looked up at me with an innocence that I clung to and hoped he would always have. Knowing that Demi carried him and birthed him all on her own out in the wild, it made me love and respect her ten times more than I had before she left for her alpha trial. Demi was the strongest woman I knew. I’d seen the fire and strength of an alpha that first day I’d met her at Delphi. To be honest, it scared me sometimes, because I wasn’t sure in what world two alphas could co-exist, but now I knew. This world. If anyone could come back from death, it was her. We would remake the world together with our son. Born of both tribes and cultures. A symbol of our love and unification. I could smell his wolf inside of him, still young but strong, and I was grateful for that.
Holding his tiny body to my chest, I turned back around just in time to see a blue mist fall from the sky, coating Astra like a magical rain.
The crowd gasped in awe, but all I could do was hope. Hope that this young girl was powerful enough to save the love of my life.
Reaching out, I grabbed Demi’s cold, limp hand, and tucked Creek up against my chest between his mother and me.
“He needs you. I need you,” I begged her, as if she had a choice, as if my words could somehow bring her back from wherever her spirit had wandered. The blue sparkle raining down on Astra became so bright then that I had to close my eyes and shield Creek’s face with my chest.
As I held my wife’s hand, our newborn son cradled between us, I prayed to every god imaginable that she would heal and wake up so that we could be a family again, because no woman compared to her.
“Get back!” Astra shouted, but her voice was not her own. It was deep, barely human, and full of power. The force of that power slapped against me, as if trying to push me back. I jerked Creek away, yanking my fingers out of Demi’s abdomen, and rolled onto my side just as the blue mist exploded out of Astra’s body. It rose up slightly into the air and then shot down into Demi with the force of a million tiny bullets.
Holy shifter.
Demi’s body seized and jerked wildly as the blue light pelted into her like hail dropping from the sky. Astra arched her back, letting loose with a wail of pain and I frowned. Was this normal? I should have asked more about the healing with Walsh. I should have asked more about the Paladins. I’d been so dismissive of them, and Demi never talked about them, probably for fear of upsetting me. I was going to do better after this, take an interest in her people.
Our people.
I would care for them as if they were my own, as she had clearly done for the city wolves in my absence.
Astra’s wail grew in intensity and I backed up, getting to my feet and handing Creek off to Sage.
Something wasn’t right. This didn’t feel normal. Why was the healer in pain?
“Are you okay?” I asked Astra, looking from her to Demi with a frown.
Demi had stopped convulsing, and I shook my head in disbelief when my gaze narrowed to her shredded and bleeding stomach—or what had been her torn open and bleeding stomach. Now it was … healed. Five metal shell casings littered the floor underneath her ribcage as if they’d been magically pushed out.