Page 8 of Silver Claw

But it was only a scream.

I had one more thing that was made of magic, and without even thinking about it, I tried to shapeshift into the woman who had annihilated my power. I’d sworn I would never shift into another person after I’d shifted into Jared’s traitorous beta. I’d quickly discovered shifting into another person was worse than anything I could have imagined.

I couldn’t shapeshift. My shapeshifter didn’t come.

She must have killed it, as well as my magic. Even seizing and dying and agonized, she’d taken my shapeshifter.

Terrified beyond any terror I’d ever felt because what if she took my wolf?Couldshe take my wolf?

I had to kill her. Somehow, I had to end her life and take back those parts of me. I had to extinguish the danger of her.

But I staggered a few feet away, taking my blade with me.

Anika Draper had gotten what she came for, and somehow, though she had to be close to death, she stumbled away. I didn’t go after her.

I couldn’t.

I was too hurt, and I was too empty. But before I gave in to my need to lie down and either die or heal, I had to make sure I could shift. I had to make sure my wolf was still with me. I couldn’t survive another hobbling.

Though it was debatable as to whether I’d survive anyway.

I shifted. Ishifted.I pointed my nose at the sky and howled, a long, mournful wail that I knew my alpha would feel.

A stranger had extinguished nearly everything inside me. My wolf’s legs crumbled and I hit the ground, spent.

Once again, I was just a woman, and I was just a wolf.

Chapter Three

I woke up once when Jared arrived, when he threw himself to the ground and pulled me to him, his voice as full of despair as I’d ever heard it.

“Kait, Kait,” he whispered.

My pack gathered around, and then, when I felt that they were safe, I went deep inside where the pain was more bearable and the emptiness wasn’t so vast.

I had to heal. And to heal, I had to fall over the cliff into dark, deep water and float somewhere else until I was better.

They’d understand if I went away from them for a while.

I closed my eyes, and I went.

When I finally dragged myself out of the comfort of my sleep, not that it was sleep, really, I found that it was nearly dusk and I’d missed a whole day of sunshine. I’d missed an entire day of meals, as well, and my stomach was about ready to eat itself.

I burst into tears once, hard and fast and agonized, because I felt the absence of magic inside me. Then I shoved the heels of my hands against my eyes, and still, it took me a minute to realize I had an IV line in my arm.

I wasn’t home.

Disoriented, I sat up and looked around me, noting the waning evening light at the bottom of window blinds that hadn’t been completely pulled. I was in the Shadowfield clinic.

Shaky as a newborn foal, I pulled the line from my arm and swung my legs over the side of the bed. It was suddenly urgent that I saw people. I felt like I’d been left behind somehow, like everyone was out in the world and I’d been missing…everything.

I wore a hospital gown and it wasn’t even tied in the back, so I held it together while I looked around the small space forsomething to wear. And as I stood there, the curtain was yanked back and Belinda, Dr. Ben Hayes’ nurse, hurried to my side.

“Oh, dear,” she cried. “Oh, my goodness! Ben,” she called, as I stood there staring at her with an eyebrow cocked, equally happy to see her and amused at her fluster. “Dr. Hayes!”

He rushed into the room, frowning heavily, but his face lit up when he saw me. “Kait,” he said, only a little less exuberant than Belinda. “Get back into that bed, child.”

“I’m not tired,” I said. “I have to get dressed. I’m starving and missing my people.”