Mated Girl (Wolf Girl #4)(44)

Sawyer and Walsh followed closely at my side as we ventured farther in. The trees were still in the path I remembered when we’d left, a wide, diagonal, five-foot row that led right to the cabin. They hadn’t moved, maybe because I’d shown myself worthy. Whatever the cause, I was grateful. Slipping through the path at a hurried pace, we all stopped when a twig snapped just behind us. Sawyer was bringing up the rear, so when I turned I was the first to see the giant bear a mere two feet from my mate.
“No!” I snapped, walking right up to the bear and slipping off my cuffs quickly. Now that I had dealt with him twice, I had less fear of him. “They are just here for protection, and will be gone soon. Don’t harm them.” I pushed the compulsion power into my words and the bear took a step backward.
‘Whoa,’ Sawyer said through our bond.
“Go on!” I screamed at the bear. We didn’t have time for this.
The bear gave me a long look before he turned, sniffed the ground, and then took off running as I put the cuffs back on.
I spun back around to see Walsh and Sawyer watching me with shocked expressions, while Sage just looked amused.
“I miss the cabin. Come on!” Sage said, and ran with Creek down the rest of the path, limping. The boys shook out of their stupors and followed her. The moment the trees opened up onto the log cabin where I’d spent the last year of my life, I had to swallow down a sob. This cabin had saved my life, my sanity. I had my son here. This was home in a way that was hard to explain.
“Is that it?” Sawyer’s voice held a reverence to it. I’d told him all about the cabin. He knew this place was special to me.
I nodded.
He looked impressed. “It’s cute.”
That brought a smile to my lips, as Sage and I ran giggling to the meadow that held our former home. The tubers she’d been cutting when I’d told her I knew how to get us out of here still lay shriveled on the ground in the same spot.
Slipping into the hut, I looked around and couldn’t help but smile at the familiarity. The clay pots, the rabbit fur pelts, Creek’s bassinet, everything was so heartbreakingly recognizable.
“You girls lived out here all alone, hunting and fishing and having a baby?” Walsh sounded shocked. Maybe he thought we’d had running water or solar like the Paladin village.
Sage nodded, pointing to the adjoining room I’d built. “I delivered Creek right in there.”
Sawyer moved past us, stepping into the room, and dropped to his knees to press his open tattooed palms onto the flat ground.
“I wish … I could have been there.” His voice was growly.
Sage set Creek on my bed and then started to rummage around, arranging the pots how we liked them and cleaning up like it was any old day.
Sawyer suddenly stood, striding over to me, and pulled my face to his with his giant hands. “I can’t let anything happen to you or Creek … and I find myself wondering if you can take on the queen yourself.”
I frowned. I’d been expecting a pep talk. He didn’t believe in me. “You don’t think I can?”
Sawyer shook his head. “It’s not about that, it’s about the what ifs. What if she’s more powerful than you? You said she fed from your wolf. What if she brings twenty vampires? What if they kill us and take Creek?”
Shit. Now he was just scaring me.
I swallowed hard. “I … I have powers—”
“So does she now! She’s feasted on your wolf like the bloodsucker she is and now she can do what you can do … and maybe more.”
Fuck. He was right.
“What do we do? It’s too late to retreat or—”
Sawyer pulled my lips close to his, hovering just over them. “Do you trust me?”
“Always.” I didn’t even hesitate.
“Take off your cuffs,” he directed, and I frowned.
Reaching up, I took off my cuffs, ever aware that Sage and Walsh were watching us like hawks. He still held my face in his hands, and the second the cuffs slipped from my wrists, I felt a tug at my power. Fear spiked through me as Sawyer’s eyes flashed yellow, and he leaned forward, inhaling.
What the…?
Blue mist, much like that day we first kissed, leaked from my mouth as Sawyer pulled my power into him. It was like he was a vacuum and I was helpless not to be sucked up into his force.
I was so confused about what was happening until it hit me like a ton of bricks. Sawyer was feeding off my essence so that he could help take on the queen. With the two of us sharing this power, we would definitely stand a chance.
I opened myself to him then, as a rush of blue mist lit up his face and his veins glowed with it.
“That’s enough!” Sage yelled. “You might weaken her!”
Sawyer broke away, gasping as he looked at his hands as if he didn’t recognize them. “Holy shit, I feel it.”
“Cuffs on?” Sage, ever the mother figure, rushed to hand them to me.
I shook my head. “Let her come right to me.”
It was time to end this war, this hunt, this queen. I wasn’t going to live the rest of my life being chased across the Magic Lands by this bitch who was hellbent on stealing my power.

 
With a final kiss goodbye, Sawyer and I left Creek with Walsh and Sage, and then we went to stand just at the edge of the meadow where it touched the trees. Sawyer reached out and took my hand into his and squeezed. We were preparing to take down the queen of the freaking vampires.
“I miss your Instagram posts,” Sawyer mused, “your pictures, your silly custom shirts. We have to do this so that things can go back to normal.” He gave me a side look and all I saw in it was adoration. “What do you miss?”