by Noelle Marie
He refused to put any weight on the paw of the injured leg, hopping awkwardly on his other one. At least until the auburn-colored wolf dug his teeth into that limb as well.
Katherine sucked a breath of air in through her teeth as she watched him go down. He was able to pick himself back up – barely – but he was clearly in a lot of pain, his mobility limited as he snarled and snapped his jaws angrily, his ears flat against his skull.
That, of course, was when Gerard chose to act. He stalked forward slowly, almost like he was teasing Markus, before fast as lightning, he attacked. He jumped on him, digging his claws and teeth into his back as he forced him to the ground. Markus was valiant in his efforts to fight back, trying to buck him off, but he was already injured, and Gerard was just too strong.
Gerard stood over him, slobber dripping from his sharp teeth as he bared them at Markus in a sick parody of a grin.
Tears blurred Katherine’s vision as she watched, frozen in her horror. When she realized Markus was about to die right in front of her as she sat helplessly less than fifteen feet away, she desperately tried to use the tree she was leaning on to stand.
As useless as she currently was, surely she could do something.
As soon as she put weight on her legs, however, and tried to take a faltering step forward on them, she felt a wet gush between her thighs before the wobbly things gave out on her. Pain shot up Katherine’s right hand when she used it to help break her fall. She looked up from where she lay, sprawled across the snowy ground, just in time to watch Gerard take aim at Markus’s jugular.
Please God, no!
Like a warrior angel sent down to answer her prayers, a big, black blur suddenly flew in from the trees, colliding harshly with Gerard and knocking him clean off of Markus.
The blur was actually a wolf – a wolf with a recognizable dark coat, and familiar blue eyes.
Bastian.
Disbelief. And then euphoria.
“B-Bastian!” Katherine choked, unable to stop herself from addressing him.
He twisted his head her way immediately, and after the longest two weeks of her life, her eyes finally connected with his. She was overwhelmed by the emotion she saw there, brimming beneath the surface of his irises. Relief, fear, anger, love. They were all pouring out at her through his eyes.
Katherine could relate. Particularly to the relief. Bastian was there. He was safe – at least for now. And better still, he looked relatively unharmed.
The relief didn’t last long, though. It was overcome by a wave of trepidation that washed over her like a tsunami as out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gerard get back on his feet. As he recovered from Bastian’s brutal shove, his subordinates gathered around him.
Thankfully, aid arrived for Bastian a moment later in the form of two more wolves springing forth from the dark of the trees. Katherine recognized them immediately: Sophie and Caleb. She was thrilled to see that, like Bastian, they appeared to be in fairly good shape – although Caleb had a nasty looking laceration on his side, his tawny fur slick with blood.
Neither trio of wolves waited for the other to be ready before hurdling into action. Sophie took on the gray wolf while Caleb engaged the auburn-haired one. No one held back, teeth and claws ripping into tender flesh whenever opportunity arose.
Katherine watched as Sophie clamped her jaw down around the gray wolf’s ankle, and he released an agonizing howl. Caleb was having a harder time with the ginger wolf, but Markus, injured as he was, managed to get up to help him.
Meanwhile, in the eye of the chaos, Gerard and Bastian circled each other, taking the time to size each other up before making any sudden movements.
Not wanting to distract Bastian – or any of her pack mates, for that matter – Katherine didn’t call out to him again. She pushed herself back up into a sitting position, ignoring the sensation of more blood trickling down her legs. Her stomach churned, and she felt woozy as she glanced down at the blossoming red stain in the snow beneath her.
She tore her eyes away from it, concentrating instead on the battle waging in front of her.
She looked up just in time to see Bastian leap at Gerard. Gerard copied the action, and the two huge wolves clashed in mid-air. Their teeth were bared as they violently snapped their powerful jaws at each other, trying to dig their teeth into the other wherever they could. Their claws were out, too, and they brutally slashed them at each other, trying to inflict as much hurt as possible.
Katherine watched the frenzied fight with her heart stuck in her throat. The jackhammering organ sunk to the bottom of her stomach, however, when Gerard suddenly managed to slice his claws into the thin skin of Bastian’s snout, and Bastian was forced to take two staggering steps backward, jerking his head back and forth as he tried to shake off the blow.
Katherine’s heart was beginning to calm – Bastian seemed more annoyed by the injury than anything – when Gerard shocked everyone by unexpectedly transforming into his human form at the center of the “battlefield”, for lack of better term.
Even the other wolves engaged in their own skirmishes around him paused in their confusion.
Gerard reveled in the attention. “You must be Bastian,” he drawled, addressing Bastian with a lude sort of grin.
Bastian, understandably confused by Gerard’s decision to shift into his weaker form in the middle of a fight, held back from mindlessly attacking him, undoubtedly suspicious that it was some sort of trap.
“I had wondered about the man who looked after pretty, little Katherine before she came to be in my care.”
Katherine snorted at the word “care”. Almost as if he’d heard her, Gerard’s eyes shifted her way. Katherine stiffened under their scrutiny.
Thankfully, a furious snarl had Gerard redirecting his gaze back at Bastian.
“I was curious what sort of man had the patience to deal with her near-constant defiance,” he continued.
Katherine felt sick when his grin widened, and she knew what was about to come out of his mouth before he even re-opened it. “Don’t worry, I beat that rebellious streak right out of her for you.”
Bastian’s growling increased in intensity.
“Then I stuck her like a pig,” Gerard spat. “She squealed like one, too.” Then lowering his voice, like he was telling Bastian some sort of dirty secret, he added, “I think she liked it.”
Bastian’s growling had transformed into an all-out roar by then, and Katherine felt her nausea increase. She didn’t understand why Gerard was trying to goad Bastian into attacking him when he was in his weaker form, but she knew that whatever he had planned, it couldn’t be good.
“That’s not true, Bastian!” Katherine yelled from where she sat in the snow. “Don’t listen to him! He’s just trying to mess with your head.”
But Katherine could tell Bastian was well past the point of being able to hear her, so caught up was he in his overpowering rage. His eyes were pitch black.
“Let me see the man behind the wolf,” Gerard continued to taunt. “Wouldn’t it be so much more satisfying to beat me with your fists?”
And suddenly, Katherine knew exactly what Gerard was doing. The man could shift on a dime, after all, his human and wolf were so intertwined. He could even perform a partial shift. She remembered vividly the way his nails had elongated into claws when he had slashed at Lukas for damaging his “property”. The way they’d done the same thing when he’d ripped out the throat of the man who had tried to help himself to Katherine.
A jolt of terror shot down her spine and became all-encompassing as Katherine realized that was exactly what Gerard had intended for Bastian.
“Bastian, no!” she shouted.
But it was already too late. Where a monstrous black wolf once stood, human Bastian appeared. Dirt clung to his sculpted chest, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. Wisps of his hair hung into his face, over dark, wild eyes.
Gerard didn’t seem intimidated in the least. Why would he be? He was ta
ller, stronger, crazier than Bastian ever could be.
His eyes glided back over to Katherine. “Good thing he’s handsome,” he teased, “because he’s not too bright.”
“Don’t look at her!” Bastian snarled, his voice booming across the clearing.
Gerard smirked, taking a step in Bastian’s direction. “Why ever not?” he asked, voice dripping in derision. “After all, I want to see the light leave her eyes as she watches you die for your stupidity.”
Then Gerard rushed him.
Katherine didn’t know if he was moving so fast that he was just a blur, or if her vision was beginning to waver. Either way, Gerard was upon Bastian in seconds. His extended claws glinted in the scarce morning light as he pulled his disfigured hand back behind his head, ready to strike.
Katherine wanted to scream, but the sound got stuck somewhere on its way out, and she was slowly suffocating on her own fear.
But Gerard’s deadly blow never landed.
For a moment, Katherine had trouble believing what she was seeing. Maybe she’d fainted from blood loss, and it was all just a strange dream.
Gerard’s claws didn’t connect with Bastian’s flesh, because Bastian had lashed out with his own partially transformed hand, wrapping his own claws around Gerard’s throat, and sinking his own sharp talons deep into the man’s neck.
Blood was already leaking from the puncture wounds.
Gerard only had time to release a sort of shocked, garbled noise, before with one savage yank, Bastian ripped his throat out.
Everyone watched in disbelief as the man’s knees gave out from under him, and he collapsed.
Gerard was dead before he hit the ground.
Katherine stared at his still form, lying in the snow. He’d fallen face-down, and she was grateful she didn’t have to see what was undoubtedly a gaping, gory injury. As the violent act replayed itself over in her mind, Katherine vaguely recalled Markus’s words about Bastian’s wolf being in control since she was taken nearly two weeks ago. She wondered if that was what had allowed him to partially shift.
As she watched Gerard’s two battered sidekicks surrender at the downfall of their leader, it occurred to her that she should be happy. Gerard was dead. And even more thrilling, her reunion with Bastian was nigh.
But quite suddenly, Katherine felt like she was feeling everything through a filter. She was there, but she wasn’t. It was as if Bastian’s victory – the knowledge that he would be okay – triggered the bone-deep exhaustion she’d been quietly battling for days to surface. She was completely spent. Numb. Even as her surroundings began to grow hazy.
She was oblivious to the crimson-stained snow beneath her steadfastly growing darker.
Feeling the familiar warmth of Bastian’s gaze on her, Katherine turned towards him. His worried eyes – the same striking blue that he unknowingly shared with his daughter – were the last things she saw before the blackness slowing infringing upon the edges of her vision finally pulled her all the way under.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Katherine swayed in a dark sea of unconsciousness, only occasionally coming up for air.
There were glimpses of distorted awareness.
Bastian hugging her limp body to his chest, wailing – screaming his displeasure to the unfeeling, unyielding forest.
Warm kisses pressed to her cold lips, as gentle hands smoothed back her hair.
Her body wasn’t under any command of her own. Consciousness would come and go, but even when awareness tugged at her and she was able to break the surface of oblivion, she could only pick up on vague impressions of moments.
A tense conversation:
“She’s stable, but her blood pressure is still extremely low. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
“What happened?”
“It’s called postpartum hemorrhaging. It’s rare, but can happen for a variety of reasons. In this case, it looks like Katherine’s placenta didn’t totally separate from her uterine wall, making it impossible for the uterus to contract all the way. Because it couldn’t contract, the blood vessels inside of the organ continued to bleed after she gave birth. Luckily, when you brought her to me, I massaged her belly and was able to force the piece of placenta out and stop the excess bleeding.”
“So she’ll be okay?”
A pause.
“It’s impossible to say for sure. The blood loss is concerning. It’s what triggered the other issues – low blood pressure and a racing pulse – and in turn, caused her to faint.”
“Give her mine.”
Another pause.
“Your what?”
“My blood.”
A sigh. “I don’t have the equipment to perform a procedure like that. Besides, who knows if your blood types are even compatible?”
“Well, do something!” Labored breathing. “That’s your job, isn’t it? To make her better.”
“I’m afraid that the only person who can make Katherine better... is Katherine. Until her blood supply replenishes itself...”
Then she was pulled back under.
Declarations of love whispered in her ear, as Bastian begged, beseeched her to stay with him:
“Please don’t leave me, sweetheart.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you. Why don’t you open those pretty eyes of yours so I can properly plead for forgiveness?”
“I love you so much. You’re so strong; the strongest person I know. I could never live without you.”
“I need you, Katherine. Wake up. Please.”
Then more blackness.
As much as Bastian’s pleas pulled at her heart strings, whatever part of Katherine that oversaw her healing remained unmoved and insisted on keeping her immersed in the thick fog of unconsciousness while her battered body recovered.
It wasn’t until an undeterminable amount of time later that true cognizance beckoned her.
As it flooded her body, Katherine knew almost immediately that this time was different. She was actually there, not just some removed, barely-sentient being, numbly eavesdropping on a scene of what seemed like someone else’s life.
Her feelings were not only alive and well, buzzing beneath her skin, they were somehow amplified.
Her entire body ached. Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and her pelvis and the space between her legs were especially sore. Somehow, she managed to crack open her eyes despite the fact that it felt like weights were attached to the lids.
Speaking of weights... there was a solid one lying on her stomach.
Glancing down, Katherine took in the slumped form of Bastian. He was sleeping, his head resting on her belly. Katherine was nearly overcome by the rush of affection that enveloped her as she drank in the sight of him. His face was relaxed, a stark difference from the last time she’d seen it, expression contorted with worry and the remnants of rage still present in his eyes.
Even in sleep, though, Katherine could tell he wasn’t completely at ease. There was a little wrinkle of worry etched on his brow, and she couldn’t resist the urge to gently flatten it with her thumb.
Her fingers danced across his face as she refamiliarized herself with the stubborn angle of his jaw and the slope of his regal nose. She buried them in his thick mop of dark hair.
She didn’t ever want to stop touching him – or even looking at him.
Eventually, though, she managed to pry her eyes away from his face to glance around the familiar room she’d awakened in. It was the bedroom she shared with Bastian in Haven Falls, and everything was exactly as she remembered it.
Except, of course, for the intricate cradle Bastian had made specifically for the baby laying in shambles on the hardwood floor.
The baby. Maggie.
A jolt of realization shot through Katherine, followed swiftly by fear.
“Bastian,” she croaked, her voice hoarse from lack of use. Pushing herself up into a sitting position, she used her good hand to give his shoulder a little shake. “Bastian, wake up.”
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Bastian’s eyes fluttered open, his blue orbs glazed over in confusion before they suddenly cleared; “Katherine,” he whispered, shock evident in his voice. And then louder and absolutely saturated in relief: “Katherine!”
He pulled her to him, burying his head into the crook of her neck. He pressed a kiss to the hollow of her throat and dug his nose into the little dips of her collar like he wanted to live there.
And she would gladly let him, but first... “The baby, Bastian. Maggie. Where is she?”
“Sophie has her,” he answered after taking a moment to breathe in her scent. “She’s so beautiful, sweetheart,” he added, nearly choking on the words. “Just perfect. You did so good. I’m so sorry I missed it.”
The relief was instant, and tension drained from Katherine’s shoulders. She did feel a little guilt at Bastian’s answer, though. The well-being of Sophie, and her other pack mates, had totally slipped her mind in the overpowering presence of her worry for Maggie.
“How is Sophie?” she asked quietly. “Markus? Zane? And Caleb, of course? Are they okay?”
“They’re just fine,” he assured, “Markus’s wrists are broken, and Caleb has a gash on his side that needed stitches, but they’ll both be okay.” He snorted. “Honestly, I think they’re both too smitten with the baby to even really notice their injuries.”
Katherine’s throat threatened to balloon shut in the sudden fondness she felt for her pack mates. “Will you get her?” she asked in a small, tinny voice. “The baby?”
Face still buried in the juncture of her neck and shoulder, Bastian nodded. “Of course,” he agreed, but Katherine could tell it took a lot of effort for him to rip himself away from her. He cupped her cheeks with both hands. “I’ll be back in a second. Just...stay here, okay?”
Katherine was tempted to ask him where he thought she could possibly go, but realized that the last time someone had left her alone to her own devices, well...
She nodded her compliance.
Bastian stood, reaching the door in two giant strides. He was gone for less than a minute before returning, with Maggie nestled in his arms.