Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 11

Where guides had a pull, sentinels had a push. Where guides could persuade and coax, sentinels could demand. Whether male, female or otherwise, sentinels were naturally taller, stronger, broader than their guide and null counterparts. The intensity of their gaze combined with their strapping figures led to a phenomenon called "push".

Even nulls could tell when a sentinel was being pushy, though they could do very little about it. Attempts to study the phenomenon all went around in circles because simply being in the room with a pushy sentinel sent people running to do their bidding. Sources conflicted on whether it was an effect of simply being in tune with their highly empathetic counterparts or a deep primal response to the biggest and strongest in the tribe.

Fate, however, knew the truth. Push was the opposite of pull. Push was Newton's Third Law in motion. Push was the wrong term. It was not a motion on its own, it was simply the follow through.

Push brought two sentinels screaming and roaring for dominance into her mind, and she couldn't escape.

Her mental shielding was already drained as her dampeners were already wearing off. When she'd encountered the sentinel he was already responding to the guide-pull, already trying to answer the call that she didn't want to put out.

If only she had escaped, been able to put some distance between herself and the intrusion of his mind on hers. If only he hadn't been so damned strong. Alphas were the pushiest of sentinels, no matter what their senses scored their ability to answer guide-pull was well beyond the norm.

If she could have gotten back home and shotgunned a double dose of dampeners. To hell with the consequences. Death would be better than this.

The sentinels were fighting, but while they fought they were trying to establish a bond and she just couldn't fight two alphas at once. Their minds tried to merge with hers without any rhyme or reason, fighting for a foothold where they had no business, no right to be!

Sentinels couldn't feel what they were doing, didn't know what memories they were triggering when they answered the guide. All they knew is that they felt a click of compatibility and that was it for them. But she felt everything, knew everything. She felt Breton's rage like a thousand red-hot knives in her skull. This new alpha's fear for her wasn't comforting, it was like chewing glass. It was a hundred migraines at once, it was watching her life come crumbling down on the big screen at Times Square, it was a pain so intense that she could not even feel her own body.

Was she even still alive?

--------------------

"Shit!" a colorful string of curses followed as Jack took in his guide's state. He had heard of the dangers of alpha's fighting around a guide, but the scenario was so rare, he hadn't really believed it could happen to him.

He wasn't going to give her up though. To back down without killing his competitor would leave her mind open to the advances of that bastard Breton. But if he couldn't get her to respond to him, she'd overload on the input and die from the stress.

Already he could see it was too much. Her large eyes were shaking in her skull, as though she was trying to keep a fly in her sight. Her breath was erratic and her nose was leaking blood. If he couldn't call her out, she was done for.

Without hesitation he plopped on the ground and pulled her bodily into his lap, pressing chest to chest. He ripped off his hat and then one glove with his teeth and pulled her hat from her head, slipping his hand under her scarf to lightly grip the back of her neck just beneath the base of her skull. This was the best grounding he could give in the middle of the woods. It would have to do. Pulling on everything he had in him, he lowered his voice and drew on his Push.

"Guide," he commanded, "Focus on me. I am here to protect you."

He gripped tighter as he felt her pulse jump beneath his hand, "Guide. Read me. I am here to protect you."

This part was harder. He had to let down his barriers and invite her into his mind. Most sentinels couldn't do it naturally until they bonded and had practice. This wasn't just allowing a surface read, something guides did naturally. This was begging her to enter his mind the way that only bonded couples could.

It had to work. He couldn't watch her die when he'd only just found her.

Taking a deep breath he pressed her imperceptibly closer, "Read me. Know my thoughts. I will not bring you pain."

--------------------------

If the world's greatest minds all asked Fate what emotions felt like for a guide, she'd say that instead of being just in her head or her heart, she felt with her whole body. Everything had its own pressure and it could be more painful than a cut or burn if it was intense enough. The feeling of the two sentinels warring over her felt as though she was being crushed in a tiny box filled with needles. She couldn't see, she couldn't breathe, she couldn-

Guide.

The box suddenly seemed a little bigger.

Focus on me.

The needles became a little blunter.

I am here to protect you.

Distantly she could make sense of her body. Her head was cold, but the rest was warm. The words were coming from somewhere far away. If she could just get out of this box, she could follow-

Guide.

There it was! If she just followed the light, she could make it back in one piece.

Read Me.

Read? She didn't like reading. It was invasive and left her own barriers wide open.

Know my thoughts!

She didn't want to. She didn't even know her own damn thoughts. She didn't want to be inside an unfamiliar prison.

I will not bring you pain.

The light was shining brightly now. She could see everything in her mind's eye. She could feel everything and it didn't hurt to look at it at all. It was warm, soft, like slipping into a bath or petting Beau. Following it couldn't be all that bad.