**Gaia's POV**

I wake at the bottom of the cliff.

Pain radiates through my left leg. But I'm alive. Impossibly, miraculously alive.

Astrein's massive golden wolf form cradles me. He used his body as a cushion, took the full impact to protect me. Golden blood—the mark of an Alpha wolf—pools on the grass beneath us.

'Astrein?' I reach through our bond.

Nothing. He's unconscious, breathing shallow.

I shift carefully. My leg is broken badly, but Selene is ...