Page 38 of Wolf's Endgame

“Cannon! No!” Nikan shouted just as I wrapped my bare hands around the silver collar and pulled against the locking mechanism of the collar.

The pain was excruciating. I tried to keep the agony contained—I didn’t want to encourage our enemies to move faster. Strong hands wrapped around my wrists as Nikan crouched over me, adding his strength to mine, and the two of us pulled. Curls of smoke rose from the palms of my hands, and just when I thought it would never work, the collar snapped in half.

Kris danced backward, careening into his mate as he tried to regain his strength. Nikan was already grabbing my damaged hands, mumbling so fast I couldn’t hear him over the roaring in my ears.

“Fuck, that hurts.” Gritting my teeth, I let my brother help me out of my shirt. Kicking off my pants, I shifted to my wolf, a yelp of pain escaping as my damaged paws hit the packed dirt. Shifting once more, I knew I had no more time. The footsteps had slowed on their approach.

Give the clothes to Kris. We protect them at all costs.

“I’ll shift too?”

No. Stay as you are. You protect them until they are stronger. I called for my beta. Hearing his answering call, I charged down the tunnel.

When we made it out of the tunnels, Kris was almost half-recovered, and seeing my pack weary but intact, I ordered the retreat. We had what I came for. There was no reason to overstay our welcome.

We met Doc halfway down the mountain. He was on a dirt bike, and one of the younger males of the pack was on another. The young one shifted to his wolf as soon as he saw Cass and Kris. Nikan took over his bike, and Cass climbed on behind him, with Kris taking up position behind Doc.

We raced down the mountain. There was no sound of pursuit, but just because I didn’t hear it, didn’t mean it wasn’t coming.

Back on packlands, I waited until every shifter who had gone with me had passed me, returning to the shelter of their home.

My beta brought up the rear, along with three others of my pack. He gave me an angry scowl, and I knew I would be getting yelled at later. But I got what I wanted from Anterrio—Kris was safe and that was all that mattered. I’d need him soon to help find his sister.

My hands were still troubling me, but they were better than they had been. I rubbed the ointment that the shaman had made me into them while ignoring Doc’s scowl at my use of the shaman’s salve. We were in my study—Nikan, Royce, Doc and myself—waiting for the shaman to join us.

“You really hate this salve,” I mocked, enjoying Doc’s flush of annoyance.

“I’ve given you hundreds of medicines and remedies, and you’ve never used them once. He gives you a watery thin lotion, and you use it religiously twice a day.”

“Your lotions don’t soothe the burn of silver; the shaman’s does.”

“The shift isn’t helping?” Royce asked me curiously.

“It does, but the ache, it’s deep… It’s hard to describe.”

The sound of knocking on the study door made me turn my attention to our visitor. When Kris walked through the door with the shaman, I smiled widely on seeing him.

“Two days in a row you’re up,” I noted. “Better?”

Kris inclined his head to the others, letting out a slow exhale when he met my eyes. “I can’t explain it, I feel…”

“Weary,” the shaman told us all. “It aches down to your bones and feels like it will never stop burning.”

I saw Doc frown, and he caught me looking. “You got a lotion for that?” I asked him.

“The salve will work,” the shaman told me. “Shift at least three times per day too. Find someone who can rub the salve in your wolf form. It will help.”

“My wife’s been doing that for him,” Royce told him. “Your mate aiding you?” he asked Kris.

“She’d have to be talking to me first,” he muttered, sitting beside Nikan on the couch.

“Our next steps are not your decision,” I reminded him. “This is my pack, and it is my choice how we proceed.”

Kris was already nodding. “I know, I told her. But she thinks I can overrule you. She just wants us to rescue her twin.” He didn’t meet my gaze this time, looking past me to the window.

“I’ll believe he needs saving either when he’s in a silver collar like his sister was or when my mate returns and declares his innocence.” I had more chance of the moon falling from the sky than my mate returning to me anytime soon.

“Shaman?” Kris asked his old friend.

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