Page 60 of Rejected Alpha Mate

Hunter shifts mid-jump, taking down two. Sean rolls, dodging another. Dominic’s wolf lunges at an incoming attacker, slamming it into a tree, but careful not to kill. The clearing explodes into chaos once more.

I move to leap forward, until a flash of movement catches my eye.

It’s Tobias’s face, torn and fighting, human for the first time since he appeared. He clutches his head, teeth gritted in agony.

“Get out of here, Donna!” he snarls, voice thick with desperation, not malice. “Run!”

Donna’s breath catches while she holds her magic with the others. “Tobias—”

“Go!”

“No!” Donna shouts back at him, magic blazing through her hands like molten gold. Tears blur her eyes as she throws another burst of light directly at Morganna.

The black shield finally shatters, cracks webbing across it like broken glass.

Morganna’s expression twists. “Little girl—” her warning is cut off when darkness lashes outward from her palm like a whip.

I see it before Donna does.

“No! Donna!” I bellow, leaping and shoving her aside, and that’s when the lash strikes my chest.

Agony detonates through me, ripping a cry from my throat. The world spins, the ground slamming into my back as the darkness burns through muscle, bone, and my breath.

I can’t move.

I can’t breathe.

Donna screams my name, her voice raw and panicked, her magic flaring uncontrollably in the sky above me.

My vision fractures as I turn my eyes toward her, and her face blurs in and out. There’s a golden glow around her hands, tears streaking her cheeks, her voice breaking as she drops to her knees beside me.

“Nicholas! Nicholas, stay with me! Please!”

I try to speak, but nothing comes out. The darkness sinks deeper, venomous and cold, slipping through my bones, through my veins. My fingers twitch uselessly, reaching for her but not quite making it. Failing.

The last thing I hear before the world fades is Morganna’s laugh, and Donna’s terrified sob.

Chapter 21 - Donna

Nicholas falls, and my whole world, my entire existence, collapses with him.

It happened so fast, and yet, time drags on like it’s wading through mud.

One second, Nicholas was in front of me, shoving me out of the way with a roar that tore through the clearing.

Next, the lash of darkness hit him square in the chest, and a sound ripped out of him, raw and strangled.

Then his body folded, and he dropped to his knees. He crumpled before he hit the earth with a sickening thud that ripped the air right out of my lungs.

For a heartbeat, I don’t move, I don’t breathe.

I can’t.

My world narrows to the sight of his fingers twitching helplessly in the dirt…then falling still.

“Nicholas!” I finally cry out, releasing myself from the magic I’d combined with my fellow witches, and dropping to my knees beside Nicholas.

No.