Page 38 of Silver Claw

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the buzzing thickness, strings of blood decorating the air as I tried to come back to myself. I saw my mother, unshifted, and Remy, Zach, Rick, and Sam, and the Gray Shadow wolves.

They all stood watching me, silent, unmoving.

Waiting.

Jared would come to me first.

My alpha.

He stood on a hill of dead enemy wolves, and I felt his rage. I’d felt it all along, powering me on even when I thought I might have faltered.

And I felt his love. Jared’s faith in me was…immense. He had enough belief in me to let me fight my fight.

Oh, his terror was there, too, in his stormy blue eyes.

I started toward him, but my legs collapsed beneath me, and I fell. I heard my mother cry out. She wouldn’t come to me, though. Not yet.

Jared would.

Even as my wolf, I was having trouble healing. As my woman, I would have died. No one could have brought me back from the damage Voss had caused. I couldn’t lose my shift and let Jared wrap me in his arms and comfort me with his familiar warmth, as much as I wanted to.

So he shifted to his wolf and lay beside me, right there in the street, and curled his big body around me. But there was death in his eyes, and he didn’t have to tell me that he’d be going after the Iron Fang alpha. It was his right.

Voss had attacked his pack, his village, and his mate.

He hadn’t killed him instead of letting him go because Voss had already been nearly beaten to death by me. We both believed he’d go back home, his tail between his legs. And Jared wouldn’t leave me to go after the wolf, because I needed him more than he needed to take out Voss. He could have sent some of his wolves after the alpha, but he wouldn’t do that. Not only did they need to tend those who’d fallen, but they’d been through enough of a fight.

And if Voss stayed, he was mine or Jared’s to kill.

I pressed my devastated body against my alpha’s, a long, thin whine escaping my poor wolf’s mouth as he licked my face, cleaning it of blood and gore and pain.

Then my mother and my pack came, and I was surrounded by everything I’d ever needed. And slowly, I began to heal.

But I caught sight of Nicole. Watching, waiting.

Someday, I wouldn’t come back from the damage, and she’d be there to take me to the angels, where I would fight again.

Apparently, that was what I was made for.

And now I had no doubt—and neither would anyone else—that I could do it fine, even without my magic.

Chapter Sixteen

“The blade knocked the magic right out of him,” I said as my mother braided my hair. “He’s not as powerful as Anika believed. Not with his magic, anyway.”

“He came here to sneak-attack a peaceful wolf village when he caught the alpha gone.” She shook her head. “What kind of cowardly garbage does that?”

“He’s not getting anything by twisting the rules like he’s doing,” I told her. “The council will put him away.”

She snorted. “The council doesn’t care about us, Kaity. They only care about control and power.” She hesitated and her gaze met mine in the mirror. “Speaking of the council…”

“Nothing yet.” I honestly didn’t know why the council hadn’t contacted me. They would know that I’d lost my magic to a siphoner.

She put a small band around the end of my braid. “I have no doubt they’ll call you in soon.” She tugged it gently, but I could see anger in her eyes. She looked exhausted, as well. Probably she was tired of worrying about me. “Real alphas don’t sneak into a pack and start fighting—and killing—the pack they want to take over. They fight the alpha, one-on-one.”

“The way he did me,” I murmured.

The fight had left me…tired. Though I’d had two days to heal, I was still depleted. The daywalker bite on my shoulder ached constantly, and my energy was flagging. I didn’t feel like a wolf. I felt like a human who had some major vitamin deficiencies.