Page 45 of Bold Mercy

“They shot us,” I whispered, and I was back. I was horrified, devastated, and terrified. What the fuck had I done?

I shoved my bloody blade into its sheath and dropped to my knees beside the alpha. The doctor was already working over him, and warriors surrounded him. Eli cradled Jared’s destroyed head in his lap, and when he looked up at me, his eyes were too wide, too horrified.

Whoever had shot Jared had shot him with silver.

They’d targeted him specifically.

“Ben,” I said to the doctor. “Fix him.”

“He needs to shift, Kait,” he said, as all the pack who were able gathered around us. He leaned close to me and hissed, “He will die if he does not shift. Hell, he may die if he does shift, but if he’s to have a chance, he has to shift now.”

“Wyatt,” Eli yelled, and in the next second, Wyatt stood at his side.

“Tell me what you need.”

“Get Adam Thorne. Force him to come with you. He can save Jared.”

I was horrified. “What? No! You can’t bring the Stone Moon alpha to Shadowfield. He won’t save any of us. He will kill the alpha and take you all as his wolves. Don’t be fucking stupid, Eli.”

But the doctor agreed with Eli. “He’s Jared’s only chance. The alpha can pull Jared’s wolf and force his shift. He will die, Kait.”

“And Adam Thorne will make him die faster.” I took Jared from his beta, cradling his head on my legs. “I will call his wolf.”

For a second, there was only silence.

Then, “The fuck you will,” Eli growled. “Only an alpha can bring another alpha’s wolf, and you are…” He hesitated, leaned closer, then pushed his nose against my throat.

I didn’t try to stop him. He smelled his alpha on me. Jared’s mark would be clear to any wolf who tried to catch my scent. But there was something else, as well. I didn’t keep up the walls that might have hidden me—walls that came as naturally as breathing. I didn’t hide from him, and he caught my alpha scent.

“Alpha,” he breathed. “No wonder Jared has been so fucked up lately.” He stood. “Move them back,” he told his men. He glanced at me. “Do you mind if they know?”

I thought about it for a few seconds. “No,” I said, then raised my voice. “But somebody get my mother.”

“I’m here,” she said, and two wolves parted to let her pass. There was something in her eyes. She’d seen me talking to invisible people before, and she thought I was a little crazy. She wouldn’t believe I was an alpha until she saw it.

Jared had freed my wolf. He’d yanked her out and let her run, and heal, and be. And I was about to return the favor, even if I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. And maybe I couldn’t have done it, alpha or not, before I’d joined with him. Now, though…

I leaned forward and touched my lips to his cheek, his forehead, and finally, his lips. He was still as death, and I was grateful he was unconscious. Had he been awake, he would have been in agony as the silver rushed through him. If he’d been anyone but an alpha, he would have likely already been dead.

“Save our alpha,” someone begged, her voice high and thin. They’d all been traumatized this day, and it was unlikely things would get better for them.

“Shhh,” someone admonished.

She fell into silence and no one else made a sound. I could feel their bated breath, their disbelief, their hopeful doubt. I also felt their resentment, though it was fading. They were slowly forgetting that I had been sired by the most hated of all wolves—a traitor. They were forgetting that I was an outsider, a person who’d belonged to an enemy pack. If I saved their alpha, they would surely forgive me anything.

“Jared,” I whispered, and I closed my eyes and plunged inside him, deeper and deeper until finally, I touched his wolf. And just that suddenly, I knew what to do. I felt what to do.

I grabbed his captive wolf, and I brought it snarling and snapping into the world. I felt his power, while I was there. I was overwhelmed by it, scorched by it, and scarred by it. But I was also…proud. He was mine. My alpha.

And when I came back, I saw something incredible. Something unbelievable.

I hadn’t just brought Jared’s wolf. I’d brought all their wolves.