Page 80 of Wolf's Gambit

“I’m not a puzzle,” I snapped at him. “I’m not a fucking experiment, you crazy asshole.”

Mal touched my arm, and when Cannon growled, he snatched his hand back. “What’s happening?” he asked, looking between the three of us.

“Cannon, leave.”

I stared open-mouthed at Royce. Was I hearing properly? Cannon huffed out a sigh but stayed exactly where he was.

“Cannon, leave. I won’t ask again.”

Holy shit. The beta just gave his alpha an order.

Cannon looked at me and my arm. “Fuck.” He turned and walked away. I watched in amazement as he crossed the room, the door shutting firmly behind him.

Royce held up his hand as Mal reached for me. Doc halted, and when Royce cocked his head, listening for Luna knows what because I couldn’t hear anything except my blood dripping onto the floor, then he gave a sharp nod to Doc.

“Now.”

Mal grabbed my arm, and I flinched in pain. “This is going to hurt, Kezia,” he warned me.

“Does it feel different?” Royce asked as he watched me. “From the leg wound?”

I shook my head, and then I was nodding as the shock of the last few moments wore off. “Yes, yes, it…” I hissed in pain. “It’s burning.”

“The metal is reacting to the blood,” Mal murmured. “Knife?” Royce handed him a switchblade wordlessly. “Brace yourself,” Mal whispered.

I screamed as the knife cut into me. Royce was already running across the room when the door opened. He threw himself at it, forcefully pushing the door shut against whoever was on the other side. With a grunt, he shoved it closed and then quickly turned a large lock. He jumped back when the door was thumped from the other side.

Royce walked backward, his attention on the door. “Why aren’t you getting it out?”

Why? Because Mal, like me, had been absorbed in what was going on with Royce.

“Your flesh is scorched,” Mal explained to me. “It’s literally burning you,” he said with fascination. “A delayed reaction, it looks like. Fascinating.”

“It is literally burning me, like you said, so can you stop being fascinated?” I asked him through gritted teeth. “Can you fix it?”

“Of course, sorry. This is gonna sting, girlie.”

Sting? It didn’t sting. It was agony. Gut-wrenching, pure agony.

My scream erupted, and I heard Royce asking me to keep it down. I think I told him to go do something physically anatomically impossible to himself in reply. Mal tried to soothe me, and I clenched my teeth. But the pain. I’d never felt anything like it. Or I had and didn’t remember it.

The rhythmic thumping against the door finally penetrated as my sobs lessened. My body was curled up in a ball as Mal held my arm up and bent away from me.

“I got it all,” he told me quietly.

“Good, I can’t thank you properly,” I told him as I hiccupped through tears. “Not yet, that fucking hurt.”

“You did well,” he said, patting my shoulder. “Let him in.”

“Get back,” Royce warned.

Their voices were distant as the pain still radiated through my body. I hiccupped again. I didn’t care what I looked like, knowing the floor was wet with my tears and blood. I sniffled, curling into a tighter ball, holding my arm protectively close to my body.

I felt Cannon as he lowered behind me.

“I hate you.”

“I know,” he said softly, running his hand over my tangled hair. His touch was so different from Mal’s. He pulled me into him, curling around me and spooning me. He gently lifted my arm, ignoring my hiss of pain as he pulled me closer. “Why didn’t you shift?”

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