Page 106 of Silver Claw

“You’re looking damn good for someone who just came back from the grave,” Anika Draper said, sitting on the bed beside me.

I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. “It’s been over a week. I’m just being lazy. Who let you in?”

“Lucy, of course,” she said, tugging the sheets away from my face. “She’s a good kid.”

I sat up, shoving my hair out of my face, peering blearily at the glass of water sitting on my bedside table. “I’m hungry,” I realized. “That’ll make Lucy happy.”

“And your mama. You’re going to have to get up and get back to your life, kitten. Everyone who loves you is stuck in limbo waiting to see if you’re going to be okay.”

“I’m going to be okay,” I said, then told her something—for some reason—that I had yet to tell anyone. “I shapeshifted into Voss.”

She nodded. “That’ll fuck with you.”

“Yeah. Not only did I become a nightmare for a little while, seeing what he was, what he’d done, those who’d suffered because of him, I…” But I couldn’t finish.

She knew. “You’re grieving for the Iron Fang alpha.”

Immediately, tears overflowed. “Fuck me,” I whispered. “I am.”

She patted my sheet-covered leg. “Sweetheart, it was like you grew up with him. For a minute, you understood him. You knew everything about him. You saw what he lived through. Youknewhim. You could have been him, his sister, his mother. And a little tiny piece of you was going to love him. Of course you’re grieving him. It’ll pass when you get your head straight again.Give it a minute.”

How odd that I was confiding in the woman who’d kicked my ass and taken my magic.

But she’d also saved Rick’s life.

She’d gone to the clinic and despite the fact that she believed abusing her power was wrong, she’d siphoned Gavin’s bad magic out of Rick, the same way she’d sucked mine out of me.

She’d saved him.

Because Gavin would absolutely have killed him.

Voss had honestly believed he’d killed Rick, though I didn’t think he’d meant to. He hadn’t known why Rick had died, but he felt his connection break, felt the magic leave the detective. He couldn’t have known that Anika Draper had pulled it out of him and saved his life. And Voss had wanted to see me suffer by telling me that Rick was dead.

He’d known the wolves would be alerted, and they wouldn’t let him leave. If he made it past me, they were going to kill him anyway. So he’d literally been fighting to the death. Not because he thought he would survive the night, but because he hadn’t wanted me to, either.

In the end, he’d died, and his pack would have a new alpha. His beta, Callen Chesley, would take over, though someone in his pack might challenge him for that role. I didn’t care. I never wanted to see or hear about the Iron Fang pack again.

“Thank you, Anika,” I told her. “If you ever need me, all you have to do is call.”

We were more than even. I owed her. And if she ever needed me, I’d be there.

She stood. “I came to say goodbye, Kait. It’s time for me to head home. I have my own city to smack around and my own crew to torment.”

I wasn’t in a hurry to see her go. “Your crew,” I said. “The ones you brought when you first came to Silverwood to attack me.”

She nodded. “They’re back home keeping the peace. Waiting for me. I didn’t need them to stay here.”

“You have a home base,” I asked, “and just travel around the country siphoning out people’s magic?”

She shrugged, then grinned. “I’m a siphoner, after all. I start feeling the itch, and I have to go scratch it.” She hesitated, then her stare dropped to my chest. “Can I see the scars my blade left?”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Think of me as a doctor checking a healing wound, if that helps,” she said. “I just want to see.”

“Okay,” I said. “They’ve healed into barely visible lines.” I lowered the sheet, then pulled down the neck of the huge T-shirt I’d slept in—Jared’s shirt—to let her see the scars. “I’m still reasonably sure I’m going to end up with your blade.”

“You’ll retrieve your own blade,” she said absently, her stare on the faint lines, “and leave mine the hell alone.” Then without asking, she leaned forward, and as she peered at the scars, she traced them with her fingertips.