Page 53 of Bad Medicine

I yanked his heart throughmuscle and bone and cartilage and with a howl of victory, I shifted. I stoodand held the heart high with the dead alpha beneath me, and Adam’s wolves felldown in submission.

“Alpha,” they cried. “Alpha, weare yours.”

I stared across their bodies atJared, and I held out the grisly offering to him. “You are their alpha,” I toldhim. “Take them, Jared. Combine the packs. Now it is as it was always meant tobe. One pack, one alpha.”

“You are their alpha,” hemurmured, coming to stand almost against me.

“No,” I said. “No, I am not. Iam simply a woman who killed an evil man.” And before he could say anotherword, I turned to the Stone Moon wolves. “You are now Gray Shadow,” I said, myvoice clear. “You belong to this man. I do not claim you.”

Then as they looked at eachother in confusion, I dropped the heart at Jared’s feet. “Do it,” I said.

And he did. Because they wouldneed the show, the formality, the familiarity of custom, he bore me to theground, opened his mouth over my flesh, and bit down gently. Then he kissed mylips, murmuring against them, “I claim you, Kait Silver.”

“As I claim you,” I whispered.Then louder, my voice ringing through the suddenly silent night, I said, “Iconcede. The wolves are yours, Alpha.”

It was the right thing to do.

He stood, held out his hand topull me to my feet, and with his arm around me, he turned to his wolves. “Iclaim the Stone Moon wolves,” he told them.

And I doubted there was a wolfthere or back in Stonebridge who wouldn’t believe that Jared would be a betterleader than Adam had ever thought about being.

It was done.

ChapterTwenty-Five

I had every intention ofleaving him there with his wolves and going to find Zach, but when I strode throughthe near darkness of the woods, Zach was there, waiting for me.

Eli and Joe stood beside him.Zach was injured, but he was alive.

“Thank you for saving him,” Itold Eli.

“I didn’t save him,” he said.“I didn’t have to. When I found him, he’d killed the two wolves who held himand was coming to find you. He saved himself.”

I was shaking with reaction tothe huge thing that had happened—I’d done what I’d always meant to do, finally.Adam was dead. I wasn’t sure yet how I felt. Savage, cold, yes, but caught inthe grip of a strange grief, sadness, pain…for me? For what I’d become? ForAdam? I didn’t know.

Maybe it was just the end ofsomething that I’d lived with for so long that I didn’t really know how toprocess it. I didn’t know how to feel or what to feel, so I felt everything.

Zach lifted a bloody hand andwrapped it around my arm, then pulled me into his embrace. “I know how youfeel,” he whispered. “I recognize the look in your eyes. I was there, once,too. You’ll be okay, Kait.”

I only shook my head. “I don’tknow what I am,” I said, curling up against the heat of his body. My voice wasbroken and agonized, because that was what was in my heart.

“You’re magnificent,” hemurmured.

“I’m a killer.”

“Yeah,” he said, frowning downat me. “What else would you be when faced with the monsters in your life? Youwill lie down and die for no one. Whatever you are, own it, Kait. And know it’sokay.” He peered into my eyes. “You’d tell me the same fucking thing.”

“I’ll take her,” Jared said,suddenly at my back.

Zach nodded and handed me offto the alpha. “Come on, Joe,” he said. “Let’s help with clean up.”

“That good with you, Boss?” Joeasked me.

“Joe.” I gripped his big arm.“You okay?”

“Most fun I’ve had in a longtime,” he said, giving me a wink. “You need me?”

“Always,” I said. “But rightnow, I’m good. You and Pepper go help Zach.”