Page 21 of Wolf's Endgame

The woman moaned low on the ground, and we could hear her death rattle. “She will not survive this.”

The child would want the male freed. He moved back when we opened the bars with our magic. “There is not much time.” We could sense them coming. “Shift and run.”

We shifted to the wolfskin. The male did not shift, and we saw the silver band on his wrist. Fluidly we shifted back to the human form, pulling the band free from his arm, ignoring the tearing burn on our flesh.

“It does not bind you?” he asked in wonder.

“Shift.”

We took the wolfskin one more time. The old one shifted to his wolf, and with a nudge to the she on the floor, he looked up at us. We shook our head. The scent of death was already seeping from her. The male hesitated once more, but our low growl made him move.

We ran. There were ones who would chase us, but we fought them, shielding the old one.

The old one was weak, but his Goddess aided his escape as we ran. Soon we saw the packlands of the alpha. We did not trust the alpha; he used his Will on us, but the child asked this of us.

For the child, we would save him.

CHAPTER 6

Cannon

The clamor of raised voices jolted me from my slumber, though it took my groggy mind longer than I would’ve liked to register that the angry exchanges had been echoing around me for longer than I realized.

It hurt to move, but still, my stubbornness caused my teeth to grind as I fought the screaming pain that had been a constant presence in my body since the night I was stabbed.

Stabbed by a traitor on the command of the woman I was falling in love with.

“For fuck’s sake, Mal, I told you, you open him up again and he’ll die. I thought you were a fucking doctor!”

Royce. I recognized my beta’s furious tone as I lay there trying to see who he was talking to. He must be pissed. He only curses like this when he’s pissed. Not like him to be pissed at the Doc. They must not have had much success with the last surgery.

It hurt to lie like this. Which pissed me off. Tev stabbed me in the back. Literally. But he left the silver knife in, and as the silver worked its way into my system, it hit my brain stem and basically fucked me up. The magic of Luna fought it, my shifter nature fighting to heal me, but silver didn’t give a fuck if I was an alpha or had alpha power. It killed shifters and I was a shifter.

I wonder if it was worth it for her? It was a recurring thought that circled within me whenever I was awake. That Kezia hated me this much, it didn’t sit right with me. But I knew what Tev told me, and I had been conscious long enough for Royce to tell me that the pack had received a condolence card from the Anterrio Pack with Kezia’s name on it.

My mate. My murderer. It tasted bitter on my tongue, and my heart still refused to believe it.

I did not doubt that I was dying. Doc had done everything he could, and although I could hear my beta arguing against any more surgery, I knew Doc would never give up. I appreciated it. I did.

But I was done.

I knew it. Doc knew it, and I knew he did because he wouldn’t look at me anymore when he spoke.

The sign of someone unwilling to lie to a dying man’s face. I respected that.

Royce had not accepted it, but although he knew when enough was enough, he was still willing to put his faith in his Goddess and the magic within us to heal me.

“Nikan?” I asked when their argument trailed off.

The sound of silence filled the room. At least it stopped them arguing, but it also meant my brother was still in more denial than Royce. Denial was being kind. Nikan refused to acknowledge any of us. Myself the most. He spent his days and nights skirting the Anterrio Pack intent on grabbing Kezia and…I don’t know what he planned to do when he caught her.

Kill her?

Drag her back here and let her see what she had done? I didn’t want to see her.

I wanted nothing to do with her. For the little time I had left, I wanted to forget her.

If only she would stop haunting my every waking thought, I could die in peace.

---