Chapter Thirteen

Her body pressed warmly to my own, chasing away the cool night breeze.

Never in all my wildest dreams, not even in my deepest fantasies, could I have ever thought it would feel like this. So complete. The world faded away at last.

I hadn't marked her, much to my wolf's dislike.

As right as it all had felt in the moment. Even now, with her sleeping soundly in my arms, I couldn't shake the doubts that we both had felt.

Perhaps I would have marked her if the doubts had only been from me. I could have gotten over my uncertainty about the bond between us. Especially with how right she felt in my arms. But as I felt those same doubts and uncertainty for our future through her end of the bond, I knew that I couldn't do that to her.

To mark her would be to mark her for life. No other man would be able to touch her. She would be bound to me for all eternity and have no other choice so long as we both lived.

‘As it should be,'my wolf grumbled.

‘And if she were to become unhappy? If she were to want to leave us?'I questioned him. ‘Would you want her to live such a miserable life?'

I could feel the conflict in my wolf as he drifted to the back of my mind. As my mind quieted, my thumb traced over Sasha's shoulder, her head nestled just beneath my chin on my chest.

The sounds of crickets sang in the night, and an owl could be heard in the distance on his hunt. It was all a perfect cocktail to drift me away to sleep, a smile twisting my lips upward without much effort.

I wasn't certain how long I had been in that perfect slumbering state. My eyes still closed even as my mind felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere I had fallen asleep to.

The sounds were gone. The crickets silenced and the owl's call long gone.

Coldness swept over my body and my wolf growled, the sound rumbling my chest before I even opened my eyes.

"Ayden… AYDEN!" Sasha's scream finalized the chill over my body as my eyes finally flew open.

A dark horse silhouette hovered over us, the sound of water dripping onto the ground confusing my senses before realization overtook me.

"Kelpie!" I screamed, my hands reaching out to pull Sasha behind me, only to discover her not within reach. "It's a Kelpie."

I looked around frantically for her, my eyes finding her wrapped in a binding of water, her body struggling against the magical hold.

"Sasha!"

The sounds of movement came from camp, Baer and Aurora alerted by my yelling as they rushed in our direction. But I knew I couldn't wait for them.

I leaped to my feet and rushed at the creature, my eyes never leaving Sasha's. The beast reared up onto his hind legs, his front hooves aimed for my chest as I came within his reach.

I barely had time to dodge the direct hit, the sharp watery hooves knocking into my shoulder and throwing my arm out of its socket. I hissed from my pain, looking back at the animal just as it turned and ran towards the river's edge.

The babbling water's voices grew louder than before. The sound was less calming now and more of a scream of terror, or perhaps a battle cry.

I pushed myself off of the ground and to my feet, my arm dangling uselessly to my side as I ran after Sasha and the creature. I called out to her, as I reached for her with my good hand. I could see her struggling against the kelpie's hold, her arms pushing against the watery binds.

Then I saw defeat in her eyes as the horse-like monster dove into the water, taking her with it beneath the surface.

"No!" I screamed, my feet pounding on the ground as I ran faster toward the edge of the water. Rocks cut into my bare feet, somehow sharpened when I had been so sure they were rounded river rocks before. "Sasha! You are not a damsel! Fight!"

I screamed at the water as I fought against the element to enter the river.

Baer and Aurora appeared in the clearing, the other alpha king's attention on the surroundings as he and his mate cautiously came closer.

"Where is Sasha?" Aurora cried out to me.

A wave knocked me back, my body unbalanced with my arm not in place. I looked back at the other two, my eyes locked with Baer.

"Baer! I need your help!" I called out, ignoring my mate's cousin as I turned to the other man.

"What is it?" he asked, coming closer to me as his eyes took in my limp arm and realization dawned on him. "Shit."

"Pop it back in for me. We don't have time to explain, don't even count just fucking do it!" I said to him as I grabbed a stem from the river's edge and bit down on it. It wasn't much, but it would be enough to keep me from biting off my own tongue.

Baer didn't hesitate, his hands grasping my arm and shoulder and quickly twisting, then shoving it back into the socket. I let out a scream of pain, my chest huffing with heavy breaths, and I pushed that pain away from my mind and turned back to the river's edge.

Aurora still cried out for an answer to her question. Demanding to know where her cousin was. My only answer to her was my fight against the river, made much easier with two working arms.

"No," Aurora gasped. From the corner of my eye, I saw her movement in an attempt to rush to the water's edge, stopped only by Baer. He looked at the power it was taking me to move forward.

"Rory, stop. Smell. This isn't natural waves." He told her as I found myself deeper in the river.

"Where is Sasha?" Aurora cried out again, barely listening to her mate.

"Don't worry, Aurora," I called back, finding the edge of the riverbed as the waves attempted to push me back. "I'll get her."

I dove beneath the waves, the water's current fighting against me, and I swam into the depths of the mythical waters.

I couldn't be certain if this was the River Lethe or not. I had never heard any tales of a kelpie living beneath its surface. What I knew for certain was that these waters were not acting on the kelpie's authority. There was more magic at play than the creature itself. Something was helping it in its clear mission to take Sasha.

I searched the waters for a sign of her, the waves and currents twisting my body in the water as a means to confuse my senses.

‘We don't need those senses to find her,'my wolf growled the reminder in my mind.

Even if I hadn't marked her, the bond had still been strengthened. Even before tonight, I had been able to always find her without my eyes, like a sixth sense programed to only her. Now, I needed that sense even more.

I closed my eyes and searched for the tether that belonged to her. I could feel the kelpie's tether first, darkness around it as something stronger than myself held the reins of the creature. I could tell without even trying that if I attempted to touch the kelpie's cord, it would do more harm than good to myself and the creature.

Sasha's tether glowed near the kelpies then, my mind locking onto her warmth through the bond as I grabbed her tether. I couldn't pull her. Held against her own will, it would only harm her to attempt to control her like this. A lesson my father had learned when his gift first awakened and therefore he taught me. So that I might never harm a creature by pulling against their will or control.

Instead, I combined the power of my gift with the bond, sending a message to my mate in a way that we should only be able to do once marked by one another.

"Sasha, fight! Don't give up! You have to fight!"

I opened my eyes to see her deep in the water. Her eyes widened with fear as her hand finally broke free of the kelpie's binding and reached out towards me.

"Fight!"I yelled through the tethered bond. "Be the warrior I know you are!"

The current pushed against me once more, my hold on the tether faltering and its glow disappearing from my gaze. I panicked for a moment, believing that she was gone. My wolf's howls of rage echoing in my mind as my lungs began to burn for air.

The rage only paused as a new sense of magic rippled through the waves, and my eyes found the floating strands of hazelnut just before a second strong ripple of magic knocked away whatever magic had been pushing me back.