Aislinn pushed Jenna away from her. Even after seeing the woman turned into a sobbing child, she couldn’t bring herself to comfort her. Aislinn grabbed Jenna by the arm and made her look at Maon. “Make him stop,” Aislinn ordered in a desperate voice. “Make him stop now Jenna. Brennus said to make it stop.”
At first Jenna’s face was confused and defiant. But at the mention of Brennus’ name she turned and went to Maon. Cullen’s eyes rolled back in his head and Aislinn felt the pain and defiance quiet. “No,” she whispered shaking her head in disbelief.
Jenna grabbed Maon by the arm and pulled him away from Cullen. “It’s done Maon. Make them stop,” she said. But all the confidence had drained out of her.
Maon growled at her. Weak bitch. We’re winning and you’re giving up now?
“Just make it stop Maon,” she pleaded.
Maon grabbed Jenna by the hair. I’ve had enough of your incompetence. First we’re going to finish this fight. Then I’m going to take you back to the manor and we’ll decide how I’m going to deal with you. He threw Jenna to the ground and headed for Aislinn. If Jenna wasn’t able to deal with the bitch he would.
Aislinn knelt over Cullen with tears in her eyes. “This isn’t happening,” she said. Her head was throbbing. She could barely think. “I’m dreaming. This isn’t real,” she sobbed as she held him in her arms rocking back and forth. “Cullen please. You can’t do this.” But she couldn’t feel him at all.
As Maon came up behind Aislinn Malik stepped in his way. Malik was still speaking quietly and there was determined look on his face.
Maon laughed. It was guttural and menacing coming from the dire lycan’s chest. Out of my way little man. I may need you yet. Don’t make me kill you.
Malik almost faltered as the words rushed through his head. But he fought to keep his concentration. Jacob stepped up behind Maon and with looks of fear on their faces the two men knelt and touched their hands to the ground. One in front and one behind Maon.
The lycan looked at them in amused confusion for a moment. Do you think bowing before me will earn you something?
Then the ground beneath Maon’s feet opened up and he fell. The sounds of his screaming were cut off as the ground closed up again as if nothing had happened. He was gone.
Jenna stared wide eyed at the druids. Then she realized that there were three of them standing around her. She shook her head. “No,” she said desperately to the men she had been torturing the for day before. “I’ll stop it. I can fix it. I swear.” Jenna howled into the night and the confused Tairneach began to stand down. The druids remained encircling Jenna. She was afraid to move.
Malik and Jacob turned to Aislinn. “He’s still here Aislinn.”
She turned on them. “What? In spirit? I need him here,” she cried and she pressed her hand to his chest. She felt the circle surge again and suddenly Cullen gasped for air.
Malik put his hand on her shoulder as she stared down at Cullen in shock. “I told you. His soul had not yet moved on.”
Then Malik pulled a vial from his pocket, uncorked it and poured the liquid into Cullen’s mouth. He choked on some, but swallowed most of it. Aislinn helped him to sit up. He was staring around in confusion and trying to catch his breath. Aislinn buried her head against his chest. She couldn’t stop the tears. Cullen put his arms around her and looked at Malik. The fight seemed to be ending. But he had obviously missed part of it.
***
Celia watched as the wounded were carried in on at a time. “Maybe he’s just unconscious,” she kept saying. Rissa watched her. There were a couple times that Celia tried to get out when the door was left unattended. But Rissa intercepted her and reminded her why she was inside.
Keith came in the front door carrying Sarah. She had been too badly hurt to completely regain consciousness. But she would survive. Celia came up to them and looked down at her friend with fear in her eye. “She’ll be okay Cel. But move we’ve got a lot more coming in.”
“Have you seen Mack,” she asked softly.
“Yeah, he’s coming.” Keith walked passed Celia with Sarah and headed for the elevator in the back of the main room. He wasn’t about to use the stairs tonight.
Celia turned around after Keith walked by and almost started crying. Mack was helping Drake to limp into the room. Celia rushed over to them and grabbed Mack around the neck hugging and kissing him.
“Hey,” Drake yelled when Celia nearly pulled them over. “Save it for after I get put down,” he growled.
Celia reluctantly let them go, following them over to the couch where Mack helped Drake to sit down. Then he called some omegas over to take Drake the rest of the way upstairs.
When he looked back to Celia she had tears in her eyes. “Our bond is broken,” she said unhappily. She didn’t even want to imagine what had happened that had been bad enough to break their connection.
Mack took her hand and pulled it to his lips. “We never completed it in the first place. We’ll put it back. And we’ll do it right this time,” he said.
She smiled at him through the tears and grabbed hold of him again.
“Careful,” he said wincing as she hit some soft spots. “I’m still tender.”
***
Jenna and the rest of the Tairneach were rounded up. Cadifor decided that the Pack Council would have to be informed and then they would decide what to do with Jenna and the rest of the Tairenach. He wasn’t sure if the pack would be disbanded and the territory redistributed or not. The Council would have to discuss it.
By the time the druids had finished assessing the wounded and mostly dead lycans the body count had been reduced to five. As much as they hated to lose anyone, five was a great deal more acceptable than what it could have been. The Tairneach hadn’t been so lucky. The dires who had been killed had been ripped apart. There was no salvaging that kind of death. There were limits to what could be healed in a body.
Cullen spent most of the rest of the evening thanking people for helping them and making sure everyone who needed anything had it. Aislinn refused to leave his side no matter how many times he had suggested she go upstairs and get some sleep. The most she had done was summon an omega to bring her some clothes to put on and to take her jewelry up to their bedroom. Cullen watched her carefully remove the diamond covered chains. He had to admit that no matter how beautiful she was with them on she was more beautiful just standing there naked.
“I heard that,” she said softly and looked at him over her shoulder. He smiled at her.
Keith walked up to them and watched them stare at each other a moment then he started laughing. “So are you two ever going to get mated? I mean this is getting ridiculous.”
Cullen kicked at Keith’s bad leg for the comment. Keith dodged the attack gracefully. “I’m just saying that I need to know what to tell all these guests in the morning when they start asking what’s going on.” He was grinning widely.
Cullen shook his head. “We need recovery time.”
“Again,” Keith added and Cullen kicked at him again.
“We have five deaths and a bunch of injured people. Tell them all we reconvene in a month’s time. That should give us all a chance to regroup.”
Keith shrugged. “Are you sure you want to drag this out for an entire month?”
“Yeah, it should have been planned that way anyhow. We rushed things for any number of reasons. All of those seem to have been dealt with. Though at this point I’m not counting on anything,” he growled. Aislinn smiled at him in agreement. “Just tell them all that everyone who is here is welcome back in a month.”
Keith nodded and took off to spread the information and Cullen went back to dealing with the rest of the people he needed to personally see to that evening. It was nearly morning by the time they managed to go up to bed. Aislinn followed Cullen into the shower and then into their bed. They were so exhausted that they were asleep instantaneous.