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There was something warm and wet in my arms. A body. Too light, too heavy. Confusion swirled.
I looked down to see that I was holding her now. Holding Addy against my chest. Her leg was a tattered mess. Feet away from us lay a wolf—stranger, not one of ours—dead. My knife still lodged in his shoulder. His maw a bloody visage my mind was determined to skitter over. And there was a hole the size of both of my fists put together in his side.
I bared my teeth at the sight. Good. It was done.
“Addy,” I whispered through a ragged throat, ignoring the tears which splashed down onto her unmoving face. Her eyes were shut and she looked as sweet as she had the other night in Mace’s arms. Oh Gods, Mace was gone, too. But Addy couldn’t leave. The world wasn’t ready to move on without her. “You can wake up now, Addy. We need you. Please. Wake up!”
“Get them inside!” Carbon was screaming from the clubhouse door, a shotgun over his shoulder. Mongrel appeared, drawing his weapons. “Boys, fan out. There will be more in the woods.”
Grimm emerged, ashen-faced and bare-chested, his muscles rippling as he dropped his jeans. He shifted into a nightmare beast in a fluid move which stole my breath. Bounding across the courtyard in the blink of an eye, the fierce battle-scarred wolf bent his snout to Mace’s lifeless body then howled his rage to the Blood Moon.
Next, he pinned me with an amber-eyed glare and approached, hackles raised. His warm breath fanned across my face as he nuzzled my shoulder once in comfort. When he pulled back, I fell into his age-old stare. The magnificent beast seemed to be waiting on something.
I raised a limp hand to his forehead. Coarse fur brushed my bloodied palm.
With a blood-thirsty snarl, he took off for the trees. Grimm was on the hunt.
Benji bent before me and gently took Addy from my arms. Her face was so pale. As she was picked up, her eyes flew open and she groaned as her wounds were jostled. There was too much blood. Her pupils were blown out as she reached for me.
I wanted to go with her but my legs wouldn’t obey my orders, I just sat there on the blood-covered ground, my hands red and shaking.
“Come on, kitten.” Silver scooped me up under my arms and cradled me to his chest. “You did good. Real good, little alpha. Nothing more you can do now.”
“Louise?” I looked round the yard but all I saw were the dead strangers and Mace. Poor, sweet Mace. His wolf’s body, a bloody ruin on the ground. “Where’s Louise?”
“Inside,” Silver whispered as he trotted with me into the building. “Carbon carried her to the infirmary.”
“And Mongrel?” I croaked.
I felt like everything was happening all too fast and all too slow.
“Mongrel and Grimm are hunting down any remaining Bone Crushers with Bullet and the others. Benji will be joining them in a tick,” he murmured.
As we made our way down the corridors, Soul Reapers were streaming in the other direction, grim-faced and loaded for bear. Some were already stripping off and shifting, while others stalked out fully clothed with their guns drawn.
“I thought we were safe here.” Hot tears slipped down my cheeks as Silver set me carefully down and wrapped a blanket round my shoulders. “I thought we were free.”
“We did too, sweetheart. We thought they’d wait, build their forces and strike at once. Didn’t expect a sneak and grab. Mace—Mace did the best—” Silver’s wolf rattled in his chest and I laid a hand to silence it. “Those sons of bitches ain’t done. The Bone Crushers want you back? Bad enough to attack on our home turf?” His snarl was fierce as he steered me toward the far end of the building. “We’ll fucking slay them the next time they try. Tear their worthless throats out.”
“Need to get out there,” I heard myself say, my fingers clawing at his skin as I tried to struggle free out of the blanket burrito he’d wrapped me up in. “Should be out there, defending my people.”
“You did, baby. I saw you and you were lethal as fuck. Took twenty years off my life doing it. But you charged right in there like the Goddess herself.”
Awestruck, Silver smiled down at me, even as his hands clutched me all the more fiercely to his chest. Not letting me move an inch as his face straightened out and a dark cloud rolled over his soul. His voice became a low, feral growl.
“But you’re human, Sasha. And they are not.”
He was looking straight at me—eyes shining silver—like his words were supposed to mean something. They only made me angrier. More determined to work my way out of this infernal blanket.
I knew it was shifters who attacked us, for fuckssake. I put a knife in one of them.
Silver stopped walking for a moment and pressed our foreheads together, breathing in my scent. “You gotta let us wolves handle this one, okay?”
“Like fuck I do,” I growled.
“Little alpha,” he muttered, only this time it sounded more like a curse.
I scowled right back at him. Silver shook his head in exasperation and got moving, pushing through a door. Antiseptic stung my nose and fresh screams erupted, derailing my indignation.
