68. Veyka

At first, all I felt was the sharp contrast of cold and warmth. I fell backward into the snow, my cloak bunching up behind me and leaving my shoulder exposed. Even the wool of Arran's green tunic—the one I was still wearing daily—was no match for the penetrating cold. Above me, pinning me to the ground, was warmth. Thick fur as white as the snow beneath me. Arran.

He was vibrating. I was vibrating.

That was not in either of our powers…

I tried to move him off of me—

The entire world spun. I pressed my eyes closed, and could have sworn I saw the void there. But my fingers did not tingle, and the ember of power inside of me did not brighten.

The wolf above me bunched his muscles, pressing down tighter against me. Bracing against an attack. Why wasn't he the one attacking?

What was happening?

My head flooded with a growl, blocking out all other thoughts. My chest vibrated with it. That was the vibration I felt.

Arran's wolf stood over me, protecting me. I did not need to be protected. I reached for my knife—

Fuuccckkkkk.

Pain roared through my skull. My hand fell away into the snow, useless.

Breathe, I ordered myself. Arran will keep you safe.

I had not survived decades of torture by being unable to function while in pain. Pain made the world sharper, enemies clearer.

Slowly, I lifted my hand again. The pain was still there, but not as sharp. I lifted my fingers to the base of my skull and began to feel around, finding the culprit almost immediately.

I'd struck my head on a rock.

I tried to reach farther back, to see if there was any blood. No, no blood, there couldn't be. I wore the scabbard. But it still fucking hurt.

Arran must know.He must have been able to feel it through the bond. If not the precise injury, at least that I was incapacitated.

My mind was clearing, bit by agonizing bit.

Arran stood above me, defending me. From what?

The snow and his thick white fur muffled the sound, but I could hear Lyrena yelling. Why was she yelling so fucking loud? My head throbbed.

A sharp bark joined Lyrena's cries. Not Arran's howl—another shifter?

Barkke, I realized. I laughed. I started convulsing with laughter in the snow, while my mate and companions fought off… something deadly.

I must have hit my head harder than I'd initially thought.

I took another long breath.

In, out. In, out.

I reached for my dagger with my hand while my mind speared for my mate. I am fine. Let me fight.

My answer was a growl and an unshifting white body.

I shoved him aside. He moved begrudgingly.

He planted himself in front of me as I sat up, rather than over my prone body. Only then did I see what he'd been snarling at.

A solabear.

It made the skoupuma seem meek. Easily ten feet tall, with claws that matched Arran's fangs for ferocity. I understood Lyrena's yelling—she'd been drawing it away from me and Arran. Now, she swung for the beast with her mighty sword, deftly using her goldstone armor to deflect when the bear swiped for her. At her side, a massive dark brown hound snarled, exposing an already bloody maw. Barkke's animal form. I'd make fun of him for it later, when my head was not spinning dangerously.

The solabear shook its arm, dislodging Barrke's jaws and sending him sprawling across the snow. Lyrena screamed and charged, but she slid in the snow and the solabear deflected easily. It was not interested in her—it turned back towards me and Arran.

Arran was not fully recovered from his enchanted sleep in Avalon, he'd just pushed himself to the limit dueling the Black Knight. It was up to me—

I fell back on my ass in the snow.

Stay down!Arran snarled into my swirling consciousness.

I wanted to argue with him, but I couldn't get the words out, through my lips or my mind. I could not even get the solabear into focus. It blurred with the landscape, at once white and then brownish gray as it melded into the tree line behind it.

No, that wasn't my mind playing tricks. Its fur reflected the area around it.

That's how it had gotten so close. It had blended right into the snowy mountainside.

It did not matter how it had gotten here. It was close, too close. Arran was bracing himself, muscles tensing. I forced my legs underneath me, forced my body to obey.

Arran leapt for the solabear, going straight for its throat. But the huge ursine was not afraid of Arran's wolf. One massive swipe of its paw and—

"Arran!" The scream tore from my throat.

My mate hit the snow hard, his huge form nearly disappearing into the drift. I was on my feet now, dagger in hand. I'd kill the thing myself.

It was too fast. I was unsteady on my feet. I tried to duck out of the way of that massive paw, but I couldn't make my body move fast enough. I hit the snow a few feet from Arran. He was on his feet, struggling to get out of deep drift.

But the solabear was made for this terrain. Its massive paws did not sink into the drifts like we did. I braced myself, dagger ready. Arran and I were all that stood between the succubus and Annwyn. I would not leave my subjects to suffer. I would not die without a fight.

The pain in my head was nothing as its jaw closed around my leg.

I heard Arran's scream—felt it through the bond, reverberating through my body. He was not in his beast form anymore. Those were his hands, grabbing for me. But I was slipping away through the snow and ice… not slipping… dragging…

The solabear wasn't ripping me limb from limb. It was dragging me away.

I tried to rise up. I could drive my dagger into its face, that would make it release me. Then I could go into the void. The world spun around me… not the void… I would not be able to control it…

My arms flailed around me, trying to find purchase. But there was nothing—just barren snow that slipped through my frozen fingers. I clenched the muscles in my abdomen, determined to pull myself up.

I screamed as I did it—the pain in my leg, in my head, the will to live—

Something heavy hit my side, knocking me back down. The edge of the forest, we were nearly there. Where was it taking me… what was that… animals. Eyes. Creatures… monsters… something was waiting, lurking.

Suddenly all the air was knocked from my lungs. Arran was on top of me. The solabear roared, the air filled with the scent of blood.

Not mine.

Not Arran's.

I tried to suck in a breath of relief, but then the world fell away. No more snow at my back, no more blue sky overhead. A whisper of spice and earth, and then nothing at all.