Page 86 of Silver Claw

I would have died before I’d shifted, because that taboo was too ingrained in me. A wolf didn’t shift where the humans could see. A supernatural didn’t flaunt her power in front of the humans.

It wasn’t just about me or my fear of discovery. It was about things that neither the supernaturals nor the humans were ready for. It was about the hell that would come for us when the humans discovered we existed, and the people who would die. The war that would begin.

Hell was for the demons, and I wasn’t doing anything to bring it to the rest of us. Not if I had a choice.

I was angry, though. I wasn’t immortal. If I was going to protect the city, the humans, and the most vulnerable of the nonhumans, I needed tools. Not just my wolf or my shapeshifter. They kept me from dying during my battles, sure, and they would help me heal.

But when I couldn’t shift and fight or shift and heal, because there were humans and a city full of cameras, then I was less. I just was.

And Gavin Voss was putting us all at risk by sending in wolves to shift where anyone could see.

I kept my mouth shut about my injuries and drove Zach to Shadowfield to see Doc Hayes. Zach couldn’t shift and heal, butthe doctor and time would fix him up. And I would shift and run through the woods. I would heal.

But damn, I missed my magic, and I missed my blade.

And I realized I was still grieving the loss of them both. Funnily enough, I missed my blade more than my magic.

“Go on in,” I told Zach after I parked. “I’m going to run a bit.”

He pushed his door open, a quiet groan escaping before he turned back to look at me. “How bad are you?”

I made a shooing motion. “I’m fine. I just want to shift and heal up before I get ready for work.”

He frowned, but finally, he got out of the car and walked toward the community building that housed the wolves’ clinic. But I could see him lifting his phone to his ear as he walked, and I sighed.

Most likely he was calling Jared.

I left the car, finally, dragging my left foot as I limped toward the woods. No one was watching. I could limp if I needed to.

I remembered walking through those very woods on the hunt for an exsoloup back when I didn’t know the pack. When I didn’t really know Jared. They’d treated me like garbage then.

Now, though…

“Kait, Kait!”

A hiss of pain floated from between my clenched teeth when I turned to see who was calling me and why they were delaying me from my shift.

First, I saw only a lone wolf, her long hair loose and flying in the wind as she raced toward me, and then I saw the others. A dozen of them, then maybe a dozen more.

I frowned, swaying a little as my body fought to stay upright now that the adrenaline had left me, and watched them come.

The wolf who’d called out to me, a dark-haired girl named Sonya, reached me first.

“What do you need?” I asked. “Did something happen?” Fear seized my heart and I grabbed her arm. “Is Voss here?”

I couldn’t possibly fight him right now. I needed half an hour. Just thirty minutes and I’d go at him as my wolf, my teeth and claws ready to—

“No, no, Kait,” the girl said gently, just as the others reached us. They milled around, some of them reaching out to touch my arm, one of them frowning as she pressed her fingers against my ribs, half of which felt caved in.

And then, some of them began to shift to their wolves. “We’re going to run with you,” Sonya said. “We’re going to protect you while you heal.” Her lips trembled as she watched me. “Run and heal, Alpha. We’ll be with you.”

There were murmured agreements all around, and smiles, and then, one after the other, they burst into their shifts.

Iburst into tears.

It was probably the sweetest thing I’d ever experienced.

They’d accepted me as their alpha. Oh, they’d never choose me over Jared, but that was the way it should have been. My pack would never have chosen Jared over me.